I enjoyed this essay very much and found it to be persuasive.
I have two comments.
I thought of the Golden Ratio when you mentioned the attraction of things found in nature.
I thought as well that as I've aged I've found more mature women more beautiful. Perhaps it's because I'm no longer looking for a child bearing mate and so when I see a woman (like my wife of 38 years) who carries her maturity and her beauty in one inseparable piece, I find that more beautiful than a twenty something year old. It's an interesting question, and I wonder if that shift is typical. I also wonder if women shift their ideals of a beautiful man as they grow older.
interesting observation. I think there's something to that. There comes a point where a mature man becomes more interested in inner Beauty than external physical beauty, knowing that the latter is fleeting.
Good questions about whether the same is true for women... I suspect it changes for them too.
What a fantastic essay. Thank you for sharing these thoughts. Beauty is indeed something that uplifts, and something we need to recapture in our lives in this modern world. People behave differently depending on the beauty in the environment. Beauty calls us to a higher plane of existence.
One thought on beauty definitions being oppressive for women. As a woman, I will say that for me personally, it is not a definition of beauty or a culturally informed beauty ideal that is oppressive. In ancient cultures, if you were a working class woman in the fields, your skin was dry and cracked and darkened, you wouldn't dream of a world where you compete in a beauty contest on Instagram. Beauty (capital B) was a luxury of kings and queens. (I like how you referred to capital B Beautiful and lowercase b beautiful.) We working class women are not barred from any measure of beauty (lowercase b), but our beauty is a pale image of the radiance that is possible---something that leads us to stretch our vision beyond ourselves.
Glad you enjoyed it! Yea, I think class/lifestyle contributes to beauty (and perhaps Beauty) in more ways than we realise. A life spent doing hard labour outside doesn't lend itself to the long-term maintenance of the physical markers of beauty.
Such a great essay and happy to have you writing again!
Your defence of beauty is a strong one. I agree there is something intrinsic.
I’m wonder whether there is something about building things in tower/triangle shapes that makes our eyes track up that may even have biological origins
If you haven’t read it already, I think you will like David Deutsch’s defence of objective beauty - he gives a whole chapter to it in “the beginning of infinity” - I’m sure Brett Hall has done a podcast on it too.
It's possible. There's something about an inverted triangle that feels unnatural. In nature the point/narrow end is always at the top, e.g., trees, mountains, so maybe it's just familiarity?
Thanks for the recommendation - you've mentioned Deutsch a couple of times, and I don't think I've heard of him before. I'll check him out!
I think so much of what makes the pursuit of beauty so problematic and why it has such a negative effect on young women, is that as a society we are pursuing beauty while neglecting Beauty. We try to fit the external ideals, which do shift and change and are defined by others. At the same time, we ignore that vital concept of inner beauty, of goodness and kindness.
I enjoyed this essay very much and found it to be persuasive.
I have two comments.
I thought of the Golden Ratio when you mentioned the attraction of things found in nature.
I thought as well that as I've aged I've found more mature women more beautiful. Perhaps it's because I'm no longer looking for a child bearing mate and so when I see a woman (like my wife of 38 years) who carries her maturity and her beauty in one inseparable piece, I find that more beautiful than a twenty something year old. It's an interesting question, and I wonder if that shift is typical. I also wonder if women shift their ideals of a beautiful man as they grow older.
Thank you!
interesting observation. I think there's something to that. There comes a point where a mature man becomes more interested in inner Beauty than external physical beauty, knowing that the latter is fleeting.
Good questions about whether the same is true for women... I suspect it changes for them too.
What a fantastic essay. Thank you for sharing these thoughts. Beauty is indeed something that uplifts, and something we need to recapture in our lives in this modern world. People behave differently depending on the beauty in the environment. Beauty calls us to a higher plane of existence.
One thought on beauty definitions being oppressive for women. As a woman, I will say that for me personally, it is not a definition of beauty or a culturally informed beauty ideal that is oppressive. In ancient cultures, if you were a working class woman in the fields, your skin was dry and cracked and darkened, you wouldn't dream of a world where you compete in a beauty contest on Instagram. Beauty (capital B) was a luxury of kings and queens. (I like how you referred to capital B Beautiful and lowercase b beautiful.) We working class women are not barred from any measure of beauty (lowercase b), but our beauty is a pale image of the radiance that is possible---something that leads us to stretch our vision beyond ourselves.
Glad you enjoyed it! Yea, I think class/lifestyle contributes to beauty (and perhaps Beauty) in more ways than we realise. A life spent doing hard labour outside doesn't lend itself to the long-term maintenance of the physical markers of beauty.
Superbly written. And, for all it’s worth, I couldn’t agree more.
Thank you!
Such a great essay and happy to have you writing again!
Your defence of beauty is a strong one. I agree there is something intrinsic.
I’m wonder whether there is something about building things in tower/triangle shapes that makes our eyes track up that may even have biological origins
If you haven’t read it already, I think you will like David Deutsch’s defence of objective beauty - he gives a whole chapter to it in “the beginning of infinity” - I’m sure Brett Hall has done a podcast on it too.
Great!
Thank you! It's good to be back.
It's possible. There's something about an inverted triangle that feels unnatural. In nature the point/narrow end is always at the top, e.g., trees, mountains, so maybe it's just familiarity?
Thanks for the recommendation - you've mentioned Deutsch a couple of times, and I don't think I've heard of him before. I'll check him out!
I think so much of what makes the pursuit of beauty so problematic and why it has such a negative effect on young women, is that as a society we are pursuing beauty while neglecting Beauty. We try to fit the external ideals, which do shift and change and are defined by others. At the same time, we ignore that vital concept of inner beauty, of goodness and kindness.
Yes - when someone becomes obsessed with pursuing beauty it becomes unvirtuous, and thus un-Beautiful. It needs to come from within.