Personal appearance and physical beauty are becoming increasingly important in our societies -illustrate & explain

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Personal appearance and physical beauty are becoming increasingly important in our societies -illustrate & explain

Abstract

Personal appearance and physical beauty are becoming increasingly important in our societies and, as a consequence, enter into the realm of medicine and health care. Adequate and just health care policies call for an understanding of this trend. The core question to be addressed concerns the very idea of beauty. In the following, a conceptual clarification is given in terms of beauty’s meaning, value and function (i.e. beauty that is used instrumentally, and beauty that is attained). Furthermore, some relevant distinctions are drawn between physical and artistic beauty, and physical beauty in a human sense. The core idea for this is formed by a Kantian notion of the beauty concept. It is argued that beauty judgments should be understood as relative to persons and their contexts. Physical beauty should be taken seriously when it is understood in this deeper sense of being related to the shaping of a person’s identity. The paper is mainly based on primary data and also secondary sources of information, like books, journals, newspapers and research reports. Relevant literature has also been collected through Internet browsing. In my project I talked about the relevant ethical issue of this topic.

Introduction

From the early of the human history human always show interest on the beauty. The phrase refers to the outward beauty of a person. Of course, we must realize that a person can be beautiful on the inside. Such a person is often referred to as a ‘lovely’ person. However, when we refer to something beautiful we are usually referring to that something’s outward appearance. What the phrase tries to emphasize is that the outward appearance of a person counts for nothing, but it is what lies beneath the skin, the actual person him/herself is what really matters. I believe the underlying message of this saying is completely true It presumes, first of all, that everyone accepts the standard definition of beauty, i.e., a person whose physical appearance would be appealing to a majority of people. That majority would first have to agree on a definition of beauty. It also negates the concept that beauty comes from within! True beauty goes much deeper than skin. It’s difficult to interpret because I don’t know that either gender would view themselves in the same light as someone of the opposite sex would. But, the essence is that, if you perceive that a person’s features are arranged in a way that is pleasing to you, take it for what it is a pleasant looking face. By my research I want to find out that.

· What is the people thinking about the Beauty of skin

· What is the thought about our young generation about this topic

· Having which quality will you call a person beautiful?

· Which type of person people choose about their life partner?

Beauty means

The term ‘beauty’ is used in multiple contexts. <href=”#_ftn1″ name=”_ftnref1″ title=””>[1]These can be divided into ‘inner beauty’, describing a goodness of personality, and ‘outer beauty’, concerned with aestheticappearance. On the surface disfigurement affects outer beauty, but it has been found that changes in appearance can cause anxiety, depression, grief, and a lowered self- esteem. These strongly affect a person’s disposition. Thus, defects in outer beauty can indirectly alter inner beauty.From ancient times outer beauty was revered as it was believed to be representative of inner beauty; Francis Bacon summarizes that “virtue is nothing but inward beauty; beauty nothing but outward virtue.<href=”#_ftn2″ name=”_ftnref2″ title=””>[2]“However, perceptions of what constitutes beauty have evolved. The ‘Venus of Willendorf’ is a Paleolithic sculpture discovered in 1908 believed to represent the ideal woman of that age. The blank face suggests she is an “anonymous sexual object… it is her physical body and what it represents that is important.

The Importance of the beauty

Emphasis is placed specifically on the face as a symbol of personal identity. Sennett states that the face is both “the mirror, and the mask, of the self.” The mirror either ‘reflects’ or ‘distorts’, whilst the mask is what “an agent wishes to present to an audience.” In short, “our faces are us.” Thus, facial disfigurement can be particularly distressing. Darwinian theory states that<href=”#_ftn3″ name=”_ftnref3″ title=””>[3] “human sexual attraction is fully explained as a means of obtaining a mate that will result in offspring with a mating advantage because of physical attractiveness alone.” However, it has been found that average looking faces are, in fact, deemed more attractive.Langlois and Roggman produced composite images using 32faces.They made three male and three female composite faces, pairing these 6 images with the set of photos used to create them. Subjects rated only 4 out of the 96 real female faces and only 3 of the 96 real male faces more attractive than the composites. The authors couldn’t satisfactorily explain “the attractiveness of averaged faces”. They concluded that “a face is perceived as attractive when its facial gestalt is close to the average or mean of a population of faces.”

I did my survey on various level of people in our society. But to know the young generation people mind I choose North South University’s Students and also different types of people like housewife, service holder and others. It makes easy for me because they come from different kind of back ground. I gathered a great amount of data regarding beauty is skin deep. This helped me to reach my destination.

Depiction and Psychoanalysis of the Primary research I conducted!

I surveyed on 25 male and 35 female regarding my topic.

Description:

In this pie chart we see that blue Color Show the female number and red color show the male number .

Analysis:

by this chart we see that there are 35 female and 25 male.

Description :

This pie chart show that there out of 60 survey the number of student are 39 which Indicated by Blue. Then Number of house wife is 10 which indicated by red color. Number of service holder is 7 which indicated by green. And other people number are 5 indicated by violent.

Analysis:

I surveyed on different types of people such as student, service holder , house wife and other profession people.

1. What do you think about Beauty?

Description :

Here Blue part show that how many person give preference to skin beauty , red part show how many person give preference to Inner beauty and green part show that how many people think that Beauty means both Skin and Inner Beauty.

Analysis :

By this chart we find out that 27 % people believe that skin beauty is the first preference for the beauty. Other side 24% people think that inner beauty is more important than skin beauty. But majority 49% people think that both skin and inner beauty need to be real beauty.

2. Do you support that ‘A beautiful person always has a beautiful mind?

Description:

In this chart red part show how many people do not support about this and blue part show how many person support this question.

Analysis:

54 percent people don’t believe that if a person is beautiful then his/her mind is not well too. Other 46 percent people believe that if a person is beautiful then his/her mind is also beautiful.

3. Which type of person do you want as your life partner?

Description:

In this pie chart-Red part represents how many people support “Not beautiful but having strong personality and big mind ” ,which is 55%. And other 20 % support that they want beautiful person as their life partner . 25% people want that both characteristic.

Analysis :

By this chart we found that more than half of the people want handsome and strong personality people .It is also true that a large number of people like only beautiful person. And some other people want both of this characteristic.

4. Do you think” Inner beauty is more important than skin beauty”?

Description:

In this pie chart blue part show yes and red part show who are not agree with this question.

Analysis :

A large number of people do not believe that inner beauty is more important but 65% people do not agree with them. They believe that inner beauty is much more important.

5. Having which quality will you call a person beautiful?

Analysis :

30 % people think big mind or positive mind makes a person beautiful and other 15 % people think skin color makes people beautiful. Another 15 goes with good height. And maximum people 40% think great personality make a person more beautiful.

6. Do you think in beauty contests skin beauty gets more importance?

Analysis :

65 % people think it means maximum people believe that skin color is very importen for the beauty contest.

7. What do you want to make yourself?

Analysis :

Maximum people want to be a good people in their life although some other people give importance to look beautiful .In my survey I found that 56 % people want to be a good person on their life rest of people want to beautiful in their life.

8. Do you think a good looking person gets more importance in society?

Analysis :

It is true that in our society good looking people get some more importence rather then other people. In our survey we see that 63% people agree with us and other 37 % people is not agree with us.

9. You think talent gets less importance than beauty?

Analysis:

In this critical question 45% people are not agree with us. But rest of people are agree that many time we avoid talent because for beauty. So as far as I’m concerned Beauty and Brain do can go in a single car to success if it’s the inner beauty. When talking about external beauty it depends on the person, sometimes he/she may be intelligent sometimes not. And one more thing being intelligent means he/she has got a beautiful brain.

10. Do you think “in talent shows good looking persons get more advantages”?

Analysis :

For the good face people get more attraction in most of the place in talent show we found out that 59 % people are agree with my question and rest of other are not agree with us.

Secondary data analysis

What our society think about this

Over the ages philosophers and poets, amongst them Aristotle, Plato and Keats, have associated beauty with virtue. In modern society we like to think that we have discarded this simplistic notion; however, there is much evidence that it still prevails. This paper aims to examine the evolution of attitudes to beauty, the psychosocial problems for people with disfigurements and how they can be solved.

Social psychology tells us that beauty in fact is not only skin deep. That is that beautiful people actually are nicer and friendlier. The argument goes as follows. Hopefully, we can all agree that we subconsciously assign positive characteristics such as intelligence and friendliness to beautiful people. Studies confirm this assumption. We then treat these people nicer than we treat others. Studies confirm this as well. The improvable hypothesis is that beautiful people are beautiful on the inside as well. As a result of having been beautiful and therefore kindly treated children they develop a positive self-image and treat others as they have learned others treat them. This continues into adulthood creating beautiful people that are friendlier and nicer than less beautiful people. Thus beautiful looking people become truly beautiful people by way of a self-fulfilling prophecy.<href=”#_ftn4″ name=”_ftnref4″ title=””>[4] Our experience with beautiful people being nice fuels are expectation by way of a psychological phenomenon known as association that similar looking (and therefore also beautiful) people will also be nice. We in turn treat them nicer and they treat us nicely in return further developing their own good character. We find evidence of this belief in popular songs “you must have been a beautiful baby, you must have been a wonderful child you must have been a beautiful baby cause baby look at you now”.

Influences on Self-Schematics

If self-perception is so important,<href=”#_ftn5″ name=”_ftnref5″ title=””>[5] what influences self-perception? Culturally dependent beauty ideals are hugely influenced by the mass media with their unrealistic and ‘inescapable’ images.

Are the media simply reflecting public preferences, or do they exploit the beauty ideal?Becker ET. Al studied rates of eating disorders in the Nadroga province of Fiji amongst adolescent girls.

Before 1995, in this area, there was a lack of television and the “prevailing ‘pressure to be slim’.Was distinctly absent.” However, after three years of exposure to television 74% of the sample population felt “too big or fat”, in contrast to previously held “Fijian traditional aesthetic ideals” of “preference for a robust body habitus.”

The media creates exaggerated views of ‘ideal self’ and impractical ‘ought self’ characteristics. As media exposure increases, <href=”#_ftn6″ name=”_ftnref6″ title=””>[6]celebrities are placed under more pressure to act as exemplars of beauty. Both media and celebrities perpetrate the cycle, with the media wanting ‘beautiful’ images traded by celebrities for favorable exposure. This has had significant effect- for example, fashion models have got just under 16% thinner than 25 years Ago. In addition to pushing celebrities to ‘look good’, “most magazines airbrush photos and use expensive computer technology to correct blemishes and hide figure flaws” so that “the figures portrayed by the media are rarely real.” Celebrity icons today, whether through the fault of the media or themselves, could be said to represent unhealthy ideals. Media images of unrealistic celebrity icons subvert what is thought of as beautiful. Suddenly, average looks are no longer good enough; people are constantly seeking to change themselves .<href=”#_ftn7″ name=”_ftnref7″ title=””>[7]This is one of the reasons why Changing Faces ‘Face Equality’ campaign is so important- it is an effort to show the population what is realistic and normal. Research commissioned by Changing Faces found that 9 out of 10 people had negative attitudes towards people with disfigurements, despite saying that they did not. Undoubtedly, the media have had a massive effect on the population. Changing Faces is tackling this in two ways. Firstly, as part of the ‘Face Equality’ campaign,<href=”#_ftn8″ name=”_ftnref8″ title=””>[8] the charity is displaying posters across London’s tube stations to help alter underlying subconscious prejudice in the population. Secondly, it offers journalists guidelines on how to report the experiences of people with disfigurements, as all too often they are associated with negative language. This code of practice should help to prevent development of subconscious prejudices.

Conclusion

Beauty is only skin deep is a saying that means that a person’s physical appearance does not determine who the individual is. The expression is commonly used as a reminder that a person may look attractive, but she may not have attractive inner qualities. It is also used to say that a person may not be the prettiest to the eyes, but she may be very attractive because of her personality. The saying exposes a tendency for individuals to judge one another primarily by their physical appearance. Doing this often leads to disappointment and surprise, as one person may judge another and be completely wrong. For example, a man may encounter a stunning woman in a bar, and he may draw a number of conclusions about the type of person she is. Upon getting to know her, however, he may find that her negative characteristics are so dominant that they overshadow her physical appeal.

Beauty is only skin deep can also be used to the opposite extreme. There may be situations where a person’s physical beauty is altered by aging, disfigurement, or other circumstances. Yet her positive inner qualities may remain the same. There may also be instances where a person may have never been physically appealing, but upon getting to know her it is discovered that her inner qualities are more attractive than her physical appearance.

Bibliography

1. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-beauty-is-only-skin-deep-mean.htm Accessed: October12, 2012.

2. http://www.springerlink.com/content/htwgku64q685pkaw/ Accessed: October12, 2012.

3. John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Line 49 (first published 1820).

4. b Francis Bacon, The Works of Sir Francis Bacon, Vol. 9. Boston: Taggard and Thompson; 1884S

5. Thornhill R and Gangestad SW, Facial Attractiveness, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1999; Vol. 3 (12), pages 452-460. Accessed: October12, 2012.

6. Berschied E and Gangestad S, The social psychological implications of facial physical attractiveness, Clinics in Plastic Surgery, 1982; Vol. 9 (3), pages 289-296. Retrieved on: October21, 2012.

7. Higgins ET, Self-discrepancy: a theory relating self and affect, Psychological Review, 1987; Vol. 94 (3), pages 319-340.

8. Markus H, Self-schemata and processing information about the self, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977; Vol. 35 (2), pages 63-78. Markus H, Self-schemata and processing information about the self, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977; Vol. 35 (2), pages 63-78.

9. Changing Faces, The Face Equality Campaign- The Evidence. [Online]. Changing Faces, The Squire Centre, 33-37 University Street, London, WC1E 6JN, UK. Accessed: October 21, 2012.

10. http://admin.changingfaces.org.uk/downloads/FE%20Campaign,%20Public%20Attitudes%20survey.pdf


<href=”#_ftnref1″ name=”_ftn1″ title=””>[1]John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Line 49 (first published 1820)

<href=”#_ftnref2″ name=”_ftn2″ title=””>[2]b Francis Bacon, The Works of Sir Francis Bacon, Vol. 9. Boston: Taggard and Thompson; 1884S

<href=”#_ftnref3″ name=”_ftn3″ title=””>[3]Thornhill R and Gangestad SW, Facial Attractiveness, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1999; Vol. 3 (12), pages 452-460. Accessed: October12, 2012.

<href=”#_ftnref4″ name=”_ftn4″ title=””>[4]Berschied E and Gangestad S, The social psychological implications of facial physical attractiveness, Clinics in Plastic Surgery, 1982; Vol. 9 (3), pages 289-296. Retrieved on: October 21, 2012.

<href=”#_ftnref5″ name=”_ftn5″ title=””>[5] Higgins ET, Self-discrepancy: a theory relating self and affect, Psychological Review, 1987; Vol. 94 (3), pages 319-340.

<href=”#_ftnref6″ name=”_ftn6″ title=””>[6] Markus H, Self-schemata and processing information about the self, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977; Vol. 35 (2), pages 63-78. Markus H, Self-schemata and processing information about the self, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977; Vol. 35 (2), pages 63-78.

<href=”#_ftnref7″ name=”_ftn7″ title=””>[7] Changing Faces, The Face Equality Campaign- The Evidence. [Online]. Changing Faces, The Squire Centre, 33-37 University Street, London, WC1E 6JN, UK. Accessed: October 21, 2012

<href=”#_ftnref8″ name=”_ftn8″ title=””>[8]http://admin.changingfaces.org.uk/downloads/FE%20Campaign,%20Public%20Attitudes%20survey.pdf