What is Beauty? / Opinion

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. ~ Confucius
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde

We don’t dispute the beauty of nature. We put up with ugliness of modern art. But as for personal appearance, the criteria are unclear.

In the past there was one belle for a county, and people travelled far to see her. The thought that prettiness belonged to the young was generally accepted. And few bothered about maintaining it far beyond their middle age. People didn’t think they were obliged to be beautiful. What a difference it is now!

Nowadays “beauty authorities”, such as Hollywood and glossy magazines define beauty for us. They convince us that we must be beautiful 24/7. They mock celebrities for stepping our makeup-free, or wearing a plain pair of jeans but not designer clothes. Our role models have become 20-something starlets and fashion models whose photographs actually are always airbrushed.

That’s why plastic surgeons are often asked to do Angelina Jolie’s lips, Jennifer Lopez’s hips, Michelle Pfeiffer’s cheekbones, forgetting that plastic surgery has, first of all, reconstructional purposes.

Seeing that people overuse this method resulting in ‘fish lips’, ‘surprised look’, and ‘pillow face’ we understand that this is the case when beauty doesn’t save the world but drives it crazy.

Americans are absolute world leaders in using cosmetic surgery. Doing it so often, for them it’s as easy as to buy a pair of shoes. Oh you go? I’m with you. And it’s not a stretch. Since 2005 surgeons report that more people are getting plastic surgery with a companion – a friend, a sibling, or a spouse. Some clinics even advertise “surgery points” modeled...

Продолжение читайте в журнале English4U №11 (ноябрь 2011) на который можно подписаться или купить здесь.