What is Beauty?

Modern society tends to associate beauty with something that is pleasurable to the human senses, especially sight. Perhaps the most defining aspect of beauty in our culture is physical attractiveness. There is a significant emphasis on one’s physical appearance, and we often look toward the widely accepted meaning of “ideal beauty” in order to judge whether or not a person can be considered “beautiful.”  However, the standard of beauty in our culture today, which we often see in advertisements and fashion magazines, is nearly impossible to attain for many people. For example, when we think of ideal, classic beauty we often look to women with unblemished ivory skin, petite bodies, and dainty facial features. Typically, our culture does not consider full, curvy women to be beautiful. Similarly, we perceive “good-looking” men to be those with well-kept, muscular bodies and chiseled facial features.

In art, beauty seems to be more “in the eye of the beholder.” Beauty in art does not seem to share the same ideal standard as beauty in our culture. Art can be interpreted differently among people and therefore, whether or not it can be considered beautiful depends on an individual’s personal opinion. While many people often gravitate towards artwork that is aesthetically pleasing, I think that what people are often looking for when judging the beauty of a work is originality. Personally, I feel that if an artwork that has something unique about it that sets it apart from others, it becomes more interesting and attractive.

In humans, however, I think beauty is a necessary component. People who are physically attractive and “beautiful” are regarded highly in our culture. They are the individuals everyone in society looks to if they want to attain ideal beauty. Beauty is also a necessary part of humans in that it dictates physical attraction. While physical appearance is not the only factor that determines whether or not two people will be attracted to each other, it seems to be one of the most important. More often than not, if an individual does not find another person to be good-looking, then this lack of “beauty” detracts from the overall attraction between those two people.