• What is beauty? • What qualities should an item or a person have to be considered beautiful? • Is beauty universal (objective) or subjective (personal)? • Can you measure beauty? If so, what measurements would you have picked for it? • Why some people compare beauty to magic?
The English word “beautiful” is very broad: it may refer to an attractive woman or, somewhat less frequently, an attractive man, but it is also a fundamental concept in aesthetics, used of artworks of every sort. We speak of landscapes and flowers and sunsets as beautiful, and even more abstract items such as ideas or mathematical proofs, and also of spiritual qualities, often in religious contexts and opposed to carnal beauty (think of the beauty of the Virgin Mary).
Beauty is a characteristic that provides an experience of pleasure or satisfaction.
Despite that fact, the beauty as a refined concept is very new. Seldom had the ancient people time to enjoy nature or music, or gaze at the sunset. Their ideas of beauty was very practical and simple, with the only exception of specific arts devoted to appeasing gods. From its beginning the concept of beauty had a very definite religious sense.
Ancient people considered beautiful those women, who were fertile, healthy and could successfully bear children Venus of Willendorf – a 30 000 year old woman statue, which is an example of the oolitic beauty concept.
Some cultures considered some peculiar features of human to be most attractive and beautiful. So, in Ancient Egypt it was considered special to give the newborn women the head wrapping that altered the shape of their skull.
In Thailand Phillippines long neck was considered to be a sign of beauty. Women wore special rings, in some cases gold ones, that stretched their necks.
Corset, that became popular in Victorian era, was a tool to contain the body into a perfect hourglass shape.
In Japan geishas often wore special wooden shoes called “geta”, that were at times up to 20 cm tall. Tall women were considered very attractive. Of course, heels were the part of most cultures at some point
Contrast between white skin and bright red makeup together with black hair also was considered to be very attractive in Japan Similarly though, bright red lips are considered beautiful in all cultures
Ancient (Koine) Greek meaning of beauty derived from the word “Hour” and meant timely, thus a young woman trying to look older or an old woman trying to look younger would never be considered beautiful.
Rosie the Riveter – one of the concepts of beauty that became popular after WW 2 in States, symbolizing energetic and strong woman
Qs What is a sex symbol? How do people become sex symbols? What sex symbols of the modern era do you know?
Qs Why do people try to be beautiful?
Cognitive bias – is a certain pattern of inaccurate judgment or perceptional distortion that later results in false interpretation of reality
Cognitive bias are considered to be the bugs in our thinking code, that make most humans make similar mistakes in similar circumstances.
Hallo effect – one of the most common cognitive biases. The bright example of this effect is that beautiful (attractive) people are considered kind and intelligent. We trust an attractive person more and easier It is called an attractiveness stereotype
Lookism – is a discrimination of people based on their looks (ostracizing the ugly people). In many countries there existed so called ugly laws – which barred people from appearing in public if their had certain degree of ugliness or had some visible disabilities
Can you draw an example where the beauty can affect your choice over the qualities that really matter?
Qs Do you think the modern concept of beauty is different in various countries?
Esther Honig, 24, decided to send her picture to several model agencies all over the world and ask them to photoshop her image depending on their local idea of beauty.
Original Image
India
Germany
Argentina
Philippines
Ukraine
What do these English expressions mean? • Pretty is as pretty does. • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. • Beauty is only skin deep. • What you see is what you get. What other expressions do you know about beauty? What does vertically challenged mean?
Is it better to be physically attractive or intelligent?
The beauty difference in wages is comparable to the effect of: • 1. 5 years of schooling • 5 years of labor market experience Source: Hamermesh (2011). Beauty Pays
More than a half of hiring managers in UK advised spending as much time and money on ‘making sure candidates look attractive' as on perfecting a résumé.
In elections between equally experienced candidates a very handsome man (5+) enjoys an edge over an ugly (2 -) rival worth 6 -8% of the vote. For the best-looking women, this edge is worth as much as 10 %.
What are the negative sides of being attractive? Can you be too attractive for something?
2012 study by Swedish psychologists Jean. Cristophe Rohner and Anders Rasmussen Showed an interesting fact: While business owners are more eager to give a discount to good looking buyers, they also expect them to be richer and spend more money at their business
Can you be too attractive to succeed in serious career? Are beautiful people more frustrated because of their aging?
Is beauty related to power?
Sexual capital or erotic capital is the social value an individual or group has because of its attractiveness. Sexual capital is as important as cultural capital or intelligence capital and is fully convertible into either with time.
What do you think of beauty contests? Have you taken part in beauty contests in school or after? What are positive and negative sides of the beauty contests?
What do you think about plastic surgery? Do you think it's necessary to have plastic surgery to be successful in beauty business?
Have you heard about Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD)? What do you think about genetic intrusion to make children look like popular stars or more beautiful? What are the positive sides of PGD?
How important is beauty in your daily life? How much time a day do you spend on your beauty? Do you think women worry about their beauty more than men do?
What is a beauty sleep? Is it important? What personality trait is the most important for inner beauty? Is there someone famous that is considered beautiful, that you think is not?
Have you ever noticed anyone ever feeling pressured to be more beautiful? How would the world be different if we never considered beauty? Do you think people with many tattoos can be beautiful?
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