seeing beauty

There's a kind of beauty that's obvious to everyone, like the beauty of a rose or the sunrise. I think it's a rare thing, because it manages to be appealing to most of us. It manages to shine through anything blurring our vision: race, culture, background, mood swings. It's plain to see, usually belonging to the most common and simple things.

I saw a documentary in Discovery channel that says we are drawn to symmetry. The more symmetrical the face, the more beautiful it is for most of us, so maybe that's the key. Then they did an interesting experiment where they took a bunch of unique faces and combined them into one composite image. The resulting image looked better than the other faces. So the more common the face, the more beautiful it is. They call it the "averageness-effect".

There's another type of beauty that can only be seen through the eyes of a select few. Members of the Padaung tribe from Myanmar find long necks attractive. Women wear neck rings that push their shoulders down and stretch their neck. In China, bound feet were considered erotic. Some tribes in Africa put on lip plates and in Mauritania, women are forced to be fat, both are a mark of beauty and status.



I don't understand how these can be beautiful. But I guess beauty is also a matter of perspective, and our perspectives can always change. I've been fat my whole life and I always saw my body as ugly. Then, while I was researching for this article, I came across the Adipositivity Project - "a visual display of fat physicality. The sort that's normally unseen." and it's amazing, the photos are gorgeous!

Finally, I think the most elusive beauty is the one that people grow into. Some people go through hardships and come out of it wiser and stronger than ever, and that makes them beautiful to everyone they meet. Or it could be that as we get to know someone more, they gradually become the loveliest people we know.

I was watching Avatar yesterday and (SPOILERS!) there was a scene in the end where the girl alien meets the human form of the guy she loves. They look at each other and they just didn't care that they were so different. I loved that moment. They're seeing it, the beauty in each of us that not everyone will catch a glimpse of.

Be that as it may, beauty will always be there.

Sources:
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111742/neckstretching.htm
http://www.funtasticus.com/2008/10/30/african-beauty-lip-plates
http://adipositivity.my-expressions.com
http://7uncle.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/cinderella-was-born-as-yeh-hsien/