Beauty is a quality of something which is really indefinable, I suppose, but I doubt anyone could deny that it is important. Why is it so important and powerful?
I always find it amazing how I never get tired of hearing Pachelbel’s Canon, how moving and beautiful it is, centuries after it was composed, and how people from all over the world love to hear it.
I also find it amazing to look at ancient Greek sculptures and find myself feeling a little bashful to be looking at such beautiful naked men - and it’s incredible that these sculptures are from thousands of years ago. Even today, their power to move people is unabated.
People sometimes get irrationally possessive and jealous of the beautiful people in their lives, wanting to control and dominate them. (I sometimes wonder if this is why beautiful people are so often so dimwitted - they’ve never had to work very hard for anything in life, have never developed much character.)
What is it about beauty that makes its bearer so powerful and sought-after?
Oh, and please don’t post any hasty answers. All I’d ask is that posters take a little time to think about their responses. 5 days at the least. Thank you so much!
Well, the allure of human beauty is explained in a word, Darwin
Artistic beauty is a different kettle of Kippled Kippers. Why is that important ?
Well, it . . . depends, doesn’t it. Not as important if you live on the dodgy side of Glasgow (or rather one of . . . ) as it seemingly is if you’re a middle-class chick doing the Grand Tour on Daddy’s credit card.
Maybe you’re looking for a more objective explanation, in which case I can’t help.
In regards to beauty being indefinable, that’s not necessarily the case; there’s been a fair amount of research done on the factors that contribute to personal beauty in humans and other animals (e.g., bodily symmetry; hip-to-waist ratio; tail size; et cetera). You might want to check out the book Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty by Nancy Etcoff for a user-friendly introduction to the subject.
I take issue with the casual assertion in the OP that beautiful people are “often so dimwitted.” There’s nothing beyond simple cultural prejudice to prove this is true. In fact, we all may be surrounded by stupid, ugly people, but without good looks to draw your attention in the first place you’d never notice them.
I would admit that beautiful people are often drawn into professions where their looks are more important than their brains; modeling and acting versus rocket science or nuclear physics. But isn’t that only logical? We all tend to wind up in the fields and jobs we are most qualified for; nobody really controls their own genetics. It is entirely possible the differing environments we end up in shape our personalities, but that says nothing about our potential.
As to why beauty is so important. . . .good question. Certainly, our ability to appreciate “beauty” is one quality that seperates us from animals. Beyond that, I’m not sure.
I don’t know - I certainly haven’t seen any research on it, but I do know that certain members of a species of animal are more favored by the opposite sex than other members. When scientists look at that type of phenomena (that selectiveness), they typically assign motivations to those individuals doing the selecting, and almost never does it seem that the motivation is, “oh, she thinks he’s hot!” or “she obviously finds him attractive” - instead, “he’s releasing pheromones”, “he won the competition with the other male” “she seeks to procreate”. :rolleyes: What is interesting is that we, as humans, can sometimes look at those lucky few and recognize immediately what it is which is drawing the attention (the musculature, coat, size, etc.).
Anyway, it would be interesting to talk with some cheetahs and just ASK them.
Another interesting angle to this type of research would be to see if animals choose territory based upon the scenic beauty of a certain locale…
I would actually work this question backwards. You say it’s hard to define beauty, but most, if not all, people appreciate it. I would go the other direction. I would say that there are, at certain times, indescribable reasons we appreciate / are attracted to someone / something. It’s something we are unable to qualify or quantify, so subconsciously we lump it into the concept of ‘beauty’. Beauty becomes our definition for ‘I am attracted to it in a way I cannot qualify / quantify’.
There are parts of our brains that are tickled by art: paintings, sculputre, music, you-name-it. What we call “beautiful,” artistically speaking, is the result of some (very talented) people being able to tickle those spots. It’s not the male-ness of the statues that attract you, it’s the beauty!
It’s not just beauty that makes people “so powerful and sought-after”–it’s any kind of talent or skill. Dennis Franz (NYPD Blue) is not beautiful, he’s a talented actor. He gets paid well for what he does and has a lot of power to influence people. Other folks have a talent for management and get paid well–they just don’t show up in cell-phone commercials.
So I guess my question back at you is: Why do you segregate “beauty” into this special place and ask about it?
The beauty that I see in nature can take my breath away, recharge my positivity and happiness, calm me, inspire me, etc. It is totally selfish and awesomely humbling at the same time.
It is important because I enjoy the powerful effect it has on my emotions, and hence my outlook.
Oh, and a lot of those old Greek statues were based on the “science” of beauty. I think Michaelangelo’s “David” is probably the best/most famous example of this art. The statue was designed with the entire body being in perfect ratio, and the result is a figure of ageless beauty. Funny thing, though, is that the ideals of a beautiful face seem to shift. Even David has only an average-looking face. Hell, with that haircut, if he had clothes on, you probably wouldn’t look twice. Ditto with old paintings of men and women both; some of the supposed divine beauties of the past are quite plain looking by today’s standards (although probably at least partially due to the skill of the painters).
But consider Nefertiti’s bust - yes, the neck is too long to be real, but I think it is undeniable that it is a piece which is beautiful, and if you saw someone who resembled that today, you’d think probably what you are supposed to think: it’s a beautiful, high-class woman with a perfectly lovely face. So with regard to people, while some standards of beauty undoubtedly change (like preference for heavier, robust women during the Renaissance), others apparently do not (like high cheekbones, straight nose, full lips), if a sculpture from many thousands of years ago has lost none of its intended beauty.
Consider a sculpture like Laocoon - there doesn’t seem to be very much scientific about it - if there were, wouldn’t it be possible to recreate such a magnificent sculpture almost exactly? How easy could that really be done? Same principle would apply to the Greek Warriors or Wrestlers, one of those which I find both erotic and exciting but embarrassing, too.
