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Beauty: Physical or Spiritual?

In the eye or heart of the beholder?

Amin George Forji (amingeorge)

As a schoolboy in my homeland of Cameroon, one of my favorite hobbies, for which I was most remarkable at school, was "The Debate."

My school used the event to get us involved in interactive communication. Contests were traditionally organized between different classes, before a school assembly, and, to say the least, the arguments of the contestants were usually a tough challenge.

One of the toughest times I had was in Nov. 1989, during a debate on beauty. We boys from class six were matched against class seven girls, the topic being: "Who is more beautiful? Men or women?"

As contested as the arguments were, the jury had an equally difficult time in deciding the winner and in the end decided it was a draw. Almost two decades later, I still see people disagreeing on this subject. As in those younger days, the subject is still a taboo in every generation. People agree to disagree and disagree to agree about its true meaning.

Many prefer to comfort themselves and others by saying beauty is relative and in the eye of the beholder. Is this assertion true? What is the true meaning of the term beauty?

Definition of Beauty

Again, the subject of beauty remains one of the most controversial topics in human intercourse, an attribute everyone wants.

Yet, everyone most of the time prefers to leave the word undefined. The aversion is so strong that some now claim that beauty and its related concepts are difficult if not impossible to define. One reason for this may be that, no matter how careful anyone is with his or her definition, it will normally exclude many who might otherwise be termed beautiful.

To better understand the debate, it is imperative to glimpse what dictionaries say about the word.

The Cambridge Online Dictionary defines the term as "having an attractive quality that gives pleasure to those who experience it or think about it." Its Advanced Learners Version describes the term as "the quality of being pleasing, especially to look at, or someone or something that gives great pleasure, especially by being looked at."

A glimpse at the above definitions leaves something to be desired. They have one missing element that has always been a subject of debate -- character, or inner beauty, as it is otherwise called.

The definitions above are all focused on physical looks, which are only one form of beauty. If we were to rely on just these attributes, many would certainly find themselves excluded, who don't have such physical commendations, but do have wonderfully good manners. There is a school of thought that holds that beauty is humility.S

o how significant is the definition of beauty in human intercourse? One reason why people, especially women, want to be termed beautiful, whether or not they actually believe it themselves, is because it gives them a sense of security and enables them to command the respect they feel they deserve.

Beauty vs Ugliness

At the close of our Nov. 1989 debate, one of the girls who opposed us came to me outside in the corridor and asked:"

Apart from the debate, do you really believe that anyone is made ugly?"

My quick answer to her was: "I think if there were no ugly people, there would be no such word as beautiful."

In fact, unlike beauty, it is generally easier for people to agree on a definition of ugliness. Simply put, a person is ugly if he or she is not attractive in physical terms.

A beautiful person looks nice, while an ugly person is not as nice, physically speaking. Still, the concepts tend to go beyond their literal meanings. Beyond looks, things like height, speech, and shape also play a big role in people's conclusion about what makes a person ugly. Women pay particular attention to their body, smile, and skin complexion, attributes they believe make all the difference in the eyes of a man.

Ugly must be differentiated from bad. An ugly person is not a bad person, just someone who is not considered to be very attractive in looks. A bad person on the other hand is anyone capable of doing "bad," and can, in fact, be either beautiful or ugly, depending on what is at stake.

Beauty and ugliness grow together. It easier for a "beautiful" person to become ugly than an "ugly" person to get to be called beautiful.

Anyone can become ugly if they neglect their looks and health. Cosmetics have played a great deal in our understanding of these concepts. Does this therefore mean that these terms are just about how we care for ourselves? Well, that is just one way of looking at the subject.

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posted by Cheryl Levesque @ 5:27 PM