The Concept of Beauty

Today I go to library to observe many kinds of research paper. I try to find an inspiration in writing research proposal. While I selecting the topic of my research, I found an interesting research paper. The title is “Japanese Woman’s Beauty as Perceived by Male Authors”. This is one of research paper from my senior in English Literature, Farah Amalia. Because I think it has a unique title, I try to read the paper gradually. My favorite part of this ‘skripsi’ is The Concept of Beauty. It can be seen below:

Only 3 percents of women in Asia including Indonesia says that they are beautiful compared to women in Europe and America who only contribute 2 percents. Surprisingly, 99 percents of Bandung women who are famous for their beauties known as ‘Mojang Priangan’ don’t feel or think that they are beautiful. This is taken from campaign for Real Beauty survey is done by Dove, a well-known soap brand (retrieved from Pambudy, March 21^st 2007). This survey has revealed that these women are not confident about themselves. This happens because of the strong influence from the media since today’s popular icons of beauty are mostly found in music video and commercial TVs. Clearly, it has made a great impact on women’s view about their own beauty. Global market industry has created a standard of beauty through Western influenced. So, the woman tries to be like the figure of Western woman such as being skinny, white, and tall with blond hair.

We have been introduced to goddess of beauty from the ancient time such as Aphrodite in Greek mythology, Venus in Roma mythology and Laksmi in Hindu mythology hat also set the standard of beauty. For them, sparkling eyes were considered beautiful and they applied the heavy metal antimony to make their conjunctiva sparkle.

In the middle ages, European women’s beauties related with their fertility, their reproduction ability. Their beauty really connected with big pelvis and big breast, which is related with their function in reproduction. In early 19^th century, beauty was defined as a round face and big shoulders with pump body. Entering 20^th century, beauty identified with a woman whose back and thigh were big. In 1965, English model, Twiggy, shocked the world with her ‘ultra thin’ body and inspired the looks of 60s. Beside myth of beauty, women’s perception of beauty is greatly influenced by much kind of factors such as culture, status, power, and money.

This writing gives me information about beauty. How about you gals? Do you judge beauty by physical appearance?

Okay, personally I think beauty is relative. It can’t be measured by method or approach. Some people said that woman who has white skin, long hair, and sharp nose is beauty. Some others said that beauty is not just about physical appearance but also about the heart.

Ya, I think an eternal beauty is in your personality. No matter what colour your skin is if you always smile, you looks more beautiful. If you are happy, you also look beautiful. If you do something positive sincerely, your face will be shine and your eyes sparkling. It is called beauty from the heart. I believe that when you do something bad for example drink alcohol and smoking, it would give affect for your body and your beauty. You will have downcast eyes, yellow teeth, and weak lungs. Your beauty will be fade soon.

So, don’t worry about what people said about beauty. Just be yourself, be a nice person,  then you will have your own beauty.  Don’t judge a book by the cover is the best idiom to get on it.