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NOTICE: Please don't vandalize this page by putting your sweetheart's name into it. --> ::''For other uses, see Beauty (disambiguation) . with Morning Glory flowers'' by Lefebvre . The image of the young woman is a classical symbol of human beauty, and a dominant theme in Art .]] Beauty is an innate and Emotional Perception of Life 's affirmative aspects — Vitality , Health , Fertility , Happiness , and Goodness — within objects in the ''perceived world''. In its most profound sense, the beauty engenders a sense of positive reflection on the Meaning of one's own Being within Nature . Beauty involves Cognition of objects as having a balance and Harmony with nature, which elicits in the viewer a sense and experience of Attraction , affection, and Pleasure . An "object of beauty" is anything in the perceived world which reveals a personally meaningful aspect of "natural beauty". The presence of the Self in any human context means that beauty is naturally based on its ''human'' meaning, wherein ''human beauty'' is often the dominant aspect of a greater ''natural beauty.'' The opposite of beauty is ''ugliness'' —ie. the perceived ''lack'' of beauty, which stimulates ''displeasure'' and engenders a deeper ''negative'' perception of the object. Religious and moral teachings often focus on the '' Virtue '' and '' Divinity '' of beauty, to assert natural beauty as an aspect of a '' Spiritual Beauty '' (ergo '' Truth '') and define all self-centered or materialistic pretentions as based in Ignorance . The ancient story of Narcissus for example deals with the distinction between beauty and Vanity . In the modern context, the usage of beauty as means to promote an Ideology or Dogma has been a focus of societal debates which center around issues of Prejudice , Ethics , and Human Rights . The usage of beauty for purposes of Commercialism is a controversial aspect of the " Culture Wars ," wherin Feminism typically claims such usage promotes a dogmatic (ie. " The Beauty Myth ") rather than a virtuous understanding of beauty. BEAUTY AND AESTHETICS Understanding the nature and meaning of beauty is one of the key themes in the philosophical discipline known as Aesthetics . The composer and critic Robert Schumann distinguished between two kinds of beauty, ''natural'' beauty and ''poetic'' beauty: the former being found in the contemplation of nature, the latter in man's conscious, creative intervention into nature. Schumann indicated that in music, or other art, both kinds of beauty appear, but the former is only sensual delight, while the latter begins where the former leaves off. A common theory says that beauty is the Appearance of things and people that are Good . This has many supporting examples. Most people judge Physically Attractive human beings to be good, both physically and on deeper levels. The phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," however, suggests that beauty is wholly subjective. .]] "Beauty as goodness" has many significant counterexamples with no agreed solution. These include such things as a Glacier , or a ruggedly dry Desert Mountain range. Most people find beauty in Nature , despite it sometimes being "red in tooth and Claw " ( Tennyson ). Another type of counterexample are comic or sarcastic works of art, which can be good, but are rarely beautiful. It is well known that people's skills develop and change their sense of beauty. Carpenter s may view an out-of-true Building as ugly, and many Master carpenters can ''see'' out-of-true Angle s as small as half a Degree . Many musicians can likewise hear as dissonant a tone that's high or low by as little as two percent of the distance to the next note. Most people have similar aesthetics about the work or hobbies they've mastered. Beauty as a quantifiable and measurable attribute places upon the trained and educated viewer a great deal of responsibility to tolerate defect. Thus, beauty is in the eye of the beholder only so far as the beholder tolerates defect. It is in deed subjective but in relation to ones intelligence and understanding. THEORIES OF BEAUTY The earliest theory of beauty can be found in the works of ancient Greek Philosophers from the Pre-Socratic period, such as Pythagoras . The extant writings attributed to Pythagoras reveal that the Pythagorean school, if not Pythagoras himself, saw a strong connection between mathematics and beauty. In particular, they noted that objects proportioned according to the Golden Ratio seemed more attractive. Some modern research seems to confirm this, in that people whose facial features are symmetric and proportioned according the golden ratio are consistently ranked as more attractive than those whose faces are not. According to an ancient Indian definition, the beautiful is that which from moment to moment is always new. That is to say, it removes the mind from the world in which things grow old. But considering that the Visual System allows us to see by extracting the stable, rather than changing, features of the environment on a momentary basis, this ancient definition seems hard to support. Different cultures have deified beauty, typically in female forms. Here is a list of the goddesses of beauty in four different mythologies.
Beauty Contest s claim to be able to judge beauty. The ''millihelen'' is sometimes jokingly defined as the scientific unit of human beauty. This derives from the legend of Helen Of Troy as presented in Christopher Marlowe 's '' The Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus '', in which her beauty was said to have launched a thousand ships. The ''millihelen'' is therefore the degree of beauty that can launch one ship. The foundations laid by Greek and Roman artists set the standard for male beauty in western civilization. The ideal Roman is the more masculine form of pure male beauty. He is ideally defined (similarly to today's classic male beauty) as: larger (over 6 feet tall), far more muscular, long-legged, with a full head of thick hair, a high and wide forehead - a sign of intelligence – wide-set eyes, a strong browline, a strong perfect nose and profile, a smaller mouth, and a strong jaw line. This combination of factors would, as it does today, produce an impressive "grand" look of pure handsome masculinity. This ideal was striven for in early Hollywood. Today many actors who do not fit that Classic mold, such as Brad Pitt and Matt Damon , are pushed onto the public by the Hollywood press machine as "beautiful" or "good-looking." Genetic Beauty In the 1990 study by Langlois & Roggmann it was found that an extremely ''average'' face was considered the most attractive by the study group. A composite face (one of both sexes) was generated by combining all of the most common features from a group of photographs. The result was a face devoid of any irregularities, and especially asymetrical features. It was suggested that the features represented may indicate a lack of genetic variation, promoting an indication of a particularly desirable mate. Interestingly, in the same study, combining racial features from ethnic groups in creating a meta-average composite face produced much the same results. There are three basic contributors to genetic beauty: averageness, Symmetry , and Sexual Dimorphism . Averageness is sexually preferable because it potentially reflects stability during Development , Heterozygosity , and functional optimization. Bilateral symmetry is sexually preferable because it potentially reflects the ability to respond reliably to environmental pressures. Sexual dimorphism is sexually preferable because it indicates Sexual Maturity , reproductive potential, and Health . Males tend to prefer a feminized face in females, while females' preference varies depending on the phase of their Menstrual Cycle .Rhodes, G. The Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Beauty. Annual Review of Psychology 57:199-226, (2005). PMID 16318594. Mathematical beauty See Also: Mathematical beauty Even mathematical formulae can be considered beautiful. is commonly considered one of the most beautiful theorems in mathematics (see '' Euler's Identity ''). The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote that " Euclid alone has looked on beauty bare" in an allusion to the austere beauty many people have found in the reasoning in the Geometer Euclid's '' Elements ''. Another connection between mathematics and beauty which played a prominent role in Pythagoras' philosophy was the way in which musical tones can be arranged in mathematical sequences, which repeat at regular intervals called Octave s. The so-called "Golden Mean", represented by the greek letter Phi (φ) and approximately equal to 1.618, has also been considered by many to be beautiful. It is also called the divine ratio and it is frequently found in nature. For example, in a nautilus shell, the ratio between each section is about 1.618. In Ancient Greece and Rome beauty was measured and based on similar principles. See Golden Ratio . EFFECTS OF BEAUTY IN HUMAN SOCIETY A survey conducted by London Guildhall University of 11,000 people showed that (subjectively) good-looking people earn more. Less attractive people earned, on average, 13% less than more attractive people, while the penalty for overweight was around 5%. The term "beautiful people" is used to refer to those who closely follow trends in Fashion , physical appearance, Food , dining, Wine , Automobiles , and Real Estate , often at a considerable financial cost. Such people often mirror in appearance and consumer choices the characteristics and purchases of wealthy Actors and Actresses , Models , or other Celebrities . The term "beautiful people" originally referred to the Musicians , actors and celebrities of the California n " Flower Power " generation of the 1960s . The Beatles reference the original "beautiful people" in their 1967 song "Baby You're a Rich Man" on the Magical Mystery Tour album. With the close of the 1960s, the concept of beautiful people gradually came to encompass Fashionista s and the " Hip " people of New York City , expanding to its modern definition. Beautiful people usually enjoy an image-based and/or financially-based prestige which enhances their aura of success, power, and beauty. REFERENCES
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