Dear Society, What Is Beauty?

We are all more preoccupied with our appearance than we like to confess. But this is not a sign of 'vanity'. Vanity means smugness, excessive pride in one's look. Distress about one’s look is quite common and reasonable because as we know, attractive people have distinct advantages in our society. But how can we conform to the standards of the society? Or should we say, do we really have to follow these standards just to be called beautiful in the eyes of the society?

How do we define beauty in the first place? According to the societal “dictionary”, beauty is the quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality.

Let us first discuss “color”. If we are to compare someone with a glowing white skin and someone that is tan-skinned who do you think is more pleasing in the “senses”? Of course, most of us will say that it is the one with the fairer skin because it is what the society tells us; that if someone is white, he or she is beautiful. What if I tell you that, tan-skinned women are more attractive because they have a very unique skin color for the reason that being tan makes them look good on any clothes because their color will adjust to it. Great? Yes it is!

Let us now go on in the “artistry and truthfulness”. Every one of us is created by the One and Only God and to let you know, He created us with all of His heart and passion. He loves us so much that He made us to look like Him. So why judge a person if we are perfectly created by a beautiful God in His likeness?

Originality. Yes, you read that right. We are created uniquely by God’s own way. We should present ourselves to other people confidently and comfortably, of course, on how we roll our thing on our own special way. As John Stuart Mill said, “All good things which exist are the fruits of originality” so why would we go with the flow of other people if we can be a trend setter? Why would we choose to copy the pop if we could make it ourselves? It is just a matter of confidence, right?

It is not astounding that physical attractiveness is of overwhelming significance to us. But did you know that even very attractive people (as society names it) may not be looking in the mirror out of 'vanity', but out of insecurity? We overlook that there are drawbacks to being attractive: good-looking people are under much greater burden to preserve their looks. Also, research shows that good-looking people don't value from the 'bias for beauty' in terms of self-esteem. They often don't trust praise of their work or talents, believing positive assessments to be prejudiced by their physical appearance.

The society’s standards of beauty only exist in our minds. If we are going to delete it and forget it, we are all going to beautiful – beautiful in the mind, values and appearance. Positive vibes will help us glow, pure heart will make us bloom and confidence will cover all our blemishes like make-up and hair-do do to us. Having this, how will the society define beauty? The answer will be… YOU.