What is Beauty?

What is Beauty?

I question myself as I glance through the latest fashion magazines, grossly inserted with colorful, artifical advertisments ranging from Botox treatments to plastic surgery. They all have 1 thing in common; the promise of beauty. So, let as return to the topic at hand; What is Beauty?

Some people think that beauty is skin-deep. This means that they feel beauty is superficial and not important as to how they judge a person. Instead, they see a person for his/her true character. This point of view is thought to be very noble. However, is it reflected in our present society? Do we really take a person for his/her behavior and not looks?

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Simply put, it means that beauty is as one sees it. That means, even if you think that something, for example the Mona Lisa is absolutely perfect, another person may think it is rather plain and lacks depth. It really is a matter of opinion. In our modern society, there is a generally accepted perception of beauty by the public. There are even readily available methods to beautify a not-so-beautiful person, like spas, treatments, plastic surgery, etc. Products like diet patches, diet pills, and face masks are readily available and are thriving even in the current economic crisis. It does not help that the media helps to propagate this mindset by broadcasting shows like "Ms. Universe" or "Extreme Makeover", encouraging us to adopt this warped version of beauty as our own, shunning all other definitions of the word . Furthermore, teenagers idolize stars, blindly devoted to them. They believe that since their idols go for plastic surgeries and beauty treatment, this must be the "correct" type of beauty. Thus, they fall over themselves in achieving it, even forgoing their own morals and principals for the sake of becoming beautiful.

In conclusion, how does this reflect on us as a society? Are we a merely a bunch of apathetic fools, controlled by the media in an iron fist unconsciously in our eagerness to achieve the so-called beauty? Are we able to break free of the media’s perception of beauty or are we forced to go along with the flow, surrendering ourselves to the latest options the beauty industry has to offer? What do you think?