What is beauty? Do you ever stand around naked thinking, maybe I need a new body? An upgrade, maybe something a slightly different shade and shape?
If you are like me you do, occasionally wondering what is beauty? Who decides that I am not the perfect specimen and that Brad Pitt is? I partly think my resistance to going to the gym and changing my body style is the resistance to this culture prescription of what a guy should look like. That and the strands of laziness that have woven themselves into my being over the past, well, forever.
Denis Dutton has an interesting view on beauty (see video), linking it to evolution and putting beauty at the very core of human nature. I am not sure I completely agree with him but I like the pictures and it has made me think at least.
As a person who's self worth has nothing to do with what he looks like and everything to do with what is inside the strive for perfection bemuses me. I just don't understand the whole urge to make yourself different to who you are, especially superficially. Plastic surgery does not change your age and make-up does not stop you from being a bitch. It may fool a few drunk people for a couple of hours but what about the morning after?
Since moving to the Gold Coast the question of beauty has stirred it's ugly head a few times. You cannot have a society based around the beach without the question of body image rising to the surface. After all it seems most Gold Coastians spend their entire life in as little clothing as possible (not that I am complaining most of the time). Maybe that is why the word I most commonly hear to describe the Gold Coast is "fake". If you try and project an image that isn't true then, when people see through the mask, they loose respect, take back the most valuable of human gifts, trust.
Perhaps that is what true beauty is, the confidence to be who you are meant to be whatever people may think of you. Well, it is the lesson I am taking and one of the core pillars of my new paradigm, the New Mark Strategy (NMS).
“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it” Confucius.
End. M
2 comments:
Some people (including myself) enjoy exercise! Just because I like to keep fit and look after my body does not mean I am superficial or fake (as you should know). Physical exercise is good for your mental health and looking after your body indicates a certain level of self respect. No, it doesn't change/hide who you are on the inside but I've never set out to do that, I assume I am not the only one... :-) See you on the 'fake' gold coast on Sunday!
I agree with you Sal, if you read it again I only mentioned the Gym with reference to myself (with the proviso that I don't go mainly because I am lazy), in the fake bit I only mention make-up and plastic surgery. Physical exercise is definitely good for you. The excessive obsession with the "perfect body" is not. Still I'm sorry if I've offended, consider me told. :-).
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