by Rivs Aikman

Created on: July 20, 2010

I've always taken "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" to mean that every person has their own desires, tastes, and idea of beauty.  In some species, larger females chosen more frequently for mating purposes.  In humans, larger females are often bypassed in favor of smaller females.  Within the human species alone, there are multiple variations in what is seen as attractive-as a matter of fact, there are still some cultures that find large women desirable.

Nowhere have I found the idea of beauty being in the eye of the beholder more strongly emphasized than in the story "The Ugly Duckling."  A swan's egg somehow ends up in a duck's nest, and since ducks don't normally have access to waterfowl identification guides, they assume that the hatchling is just an incredibly ugly duckling.  The unfortunate cygnet then spends his childhood being rejected by his duckling peers because he doesn't look like them (I think cygnets are cuter than ducklings, but that's just me).  The cygnet eventually runs away and has a series of misadventures before he reaches adulthood and discovers that he was a swan all along.  If he had grown up with other swans, he never would have felt ugly or ostracized, because as swans go, he was considered quite beautiful by the end of the version of the story told by Hans Christian Andersen. 

Another tale that doesn't quite convey the message of beauty being in the eye of the beholder is "Beauty and the Beast."  Although Beauty comes to love the Beast in his animal form after they have talked and gotten to know each other, in the end, when she declares her love and the spell is broken, he transforms into a handsome prince.  While one could argue that Beauty's love changed how she perceived the Beast, only Robin McKinley's adaptation, "Rose Daughter," addresses the idea of the Beast staying the same while the way that others perceive him changes.

In the end, it would be nice if every single person could find a place where they feel loved and accepted no matter how they look.  Fortunately, the Internet has done a great deal to help people find others like themselves, and many have been able to find love and acceptance in communities that they might not have otherwise been able to find.

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