by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: February 02, 2009

The perception of what constitutes beauty varies from culture to culture and from individual to individual. Sometimes this is hard to believe when examining the predominant images of beauty which saturate the Western media, but it is clear that what is regarded as beautiful changes across time and space. There is not simply one uniform conception of beauty.

The ideal of 'beauty' in the Western world, however, seems to consist of being thin, well-toned, well-groomed, with clear skin, nice teeth, and fashionable clothes. Such images have become so ingrained in Western culture that both men and women, but particularly women, end up feeling insecure about their own looks and about their own external beauty. This negativity ends up undermining individuals' self-confidence and self-belief, which are attributes that often attract other people.

What individuals find attractive about other people is not just based on how they have styled their hair or the clothes they are wearing; they may be attracted to their outgoing nature, good sense of humour and personality. Looking at the uniform ideal of beauty propagated in magazines, films and on television, it is sometimes difficult to remember this. Yet, most people are still able to attract mates despite failing to live up to the unrealistic expectations of beauty that the media feeds them with. Surely, then, somebody finds them attractive despite, or maybe even because of, their so-called imperfections.

In other cultures, less-exposed to the images of beauty shown in the West, different kinds of beauty are appreciated. There are societies in which larger women are very much valued for their size, rather than being derided and expected to conform to a slimmer ideal. Many cultures have their own rituals, involving piercing, tattooing, paints and other visual decorations which enhance what is perceived as beautiful in those societies. Although individuals in these societies may be perceived as reaching he height of beauty in their own countries, they may be regarded differently by those in the West, and vice versa.

Globalisation, however, is having a detrimental impact on the diversity of perceived beauty, as the Western ideal filters into other cultures which have been long-exposed to Western images. Thus, there are cases in India
where women are prepared to apply dangerous chemicals to their face in order to obtain a lighter complexion in the belief that lighter tones are more attractive than darker ones. Paradoxically, there are many people in the West who seem to have an obsession with achieving the 'perfect' tan.

Surely, the appreciation of beauty should involve the acceptance of diversity, which is surely the whole premise of the statement 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Everybody perceives beauty differently and sees beauty in things which other people may not see, whilst uniformity just promotes blandness which does little to enhance the cultural appreciation of beauty.

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