"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

I just happened to be browsing the internet for blogs that are related to my blog so I could include them in my blog roll and I came across a blog that was perfect for my topic this week: Is there a true meaning of beauty?

NO! In my opinion, there is not a true meaning of beauty. You can't tell me that you have never been with your friends and and pointed out a girl/guy and said "Man, isn't he/she cute?!" and then one of your friends responded with "Eh, he/she is okay. I think so and so is much cuter." There is one saying that I have always lived by and that I always will: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" (paraphrase of a statement by Plato). To me, this is the best way to explain my entire blog. Every one perceives beauty differently and that IS completely normal. It's exactly same thing as having a different taste in clothes, a different favorite food, or a different favorite movie than your friends. 

The article that I was reading was analyzing the movie "Shallow Hal". She talked about how she thinks it is great that they are trying to get the message out that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" but at the same time they are portraying that beauty is someone who is thin, tall, and blonde. Through out the movie, he sees an over weight woman as a beyond "beautiful" woman and is instantly attracted to her. He doesn't see until the end of the movie that she isn't the tall, beautiful woman that he fell for in the first place, but he still ends up being with her. I agree with her that the movie is trying to get a good point across, but at the same time why did the "beautiful" woman have to be tall, thin, and blonde? Why couldn't she have been considered beautiful not thin, not blonde and not tall? I do believe that people find certain things attractive, and certain things unattractive but by no means should we stop liking a person just because other people have perceptions that something is beauty and something isn't. We should be more interested in inner beauty because you don't look young forever and if you are just with someone just for their looks, you are in deep water my friend.

The message that I want everyone to take from this is don't base who you like or who you don't like by what you think "beauty" is supposed to look like. Most importantly, don't base anything on what you think your friends will find attractive and acceptable because as long as you're happy, nothing else should  matter; always put yourself first.

Katie.

"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." -1 Peter 3:4

"Imperfection is Beauty" -Marilyn Monroe

The violence beauty can cause isn't always an obvious problem. The media is in our lives everyday, so when we see people bending over backwards to look a certain way, most of us won't think more than a minute or two about it and move on with the rest of our day. Unfortunately, this issue is growing bigger and bigger and unless we try to do something to stop it no one will know the true meaning of beauty- if there even is one. (Find out on my blog next week!)

Most people, from what I have seen through my experience, keep a lot of their self confidence problems built up inside of them. In the article "False beauty in advertising and the pressure to look 'good'" by Jo Swinson, really puts it out there that this is becoming a severe issue that needs to be taken care of. Jo Swinson did a study that reveals how swayed people get from the media and shows us that this is a growing problem not only in America, but in the UK as well. Children and adults were told to review pictures of people and dolls with "perfect" bodies and dolls that had a healthy figure to see their reactions. The results showed that the pressures in adults and children increased severely and the children (girls between the ages five and seven) who viewed thin dolls versus the children who viewed healthier looking dolls, said that they wanted to be smaller and look like Barbie. The media has a lot to do with this, "From children's toys to TV programs, images of the idealized body have permeated every level of our visual culture." -Jo Swinson. What caught my attention the most were the results of the children from the study she conducted. I knew that the results would definitely lean towards people having pressures about being "perfect" but I was shocked to hear about children from the ages five to seven already have confidence issues. 

In conclusion, no one is perfect, so therefore, anyone that is human can relate to this article. Jo Swinson is very explicit about how we need to start paying attention to what makes ourselves feel good, and what we are happy with and to stop letting the media tell us what beauty is and what it isn't.There is a wonderful clip from CNN posted on the page of Jo Swinson's article that sums up all what she was trying to get across to us in her article. Please take the time to watch it:
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2011/07/28/exp.nr.emme.julia.roberts.ad.ban.cnn

Katie. 

"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." -1 Peter 3:4

Belleza

To my wonderful bloggers:

You may be curious about the reason why I am starting a blog. I am taking an English course at Texas A&M University and one of the class assignments was to create a blog on our class themes of Rhetoric and Violence. I have never done a blog before, but so far it seems really interesting and a good way share your opinions and write about how you feel about certain topics that interest you. I am excited to see where this takes me so let's get started!

Throughout the rest of my blog, if you couldn't already tell by my title, I will be talking about different views of what beauty really is and the extremes people will go to make sure that they meet those "standards"- as I like to call, impossible and unattainable standards. Some things that I will be discussing are media influences, how models can portray beauty but at the same time violence, other blogs about beauty that can create violence,  consequences to the human body itself, and much more which will require you to read more on my blog to find out!

This topic may seem like something a girl would talk about; something very cliché. I would like to say that without a doubt this is something very important to me. If you are not happy with yourself, it's difficult to be happy with anything around you. Through this blog I want to get a specific point across: Every person is  unique and stunning in their own way. That's what is so amazing about being you! Why would you want to try to be something or somebody you're not when you have your own person to be?

Now I know you can't wait to read my next blog but unfortunately I can't post that right now. But what I can do is give you a preview of what I will be blogging about next! For next week: The Perception of Beauty- is it really worth it?

Katie.

"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." -1 Peter 3:4