My Take on Beauty



How do you define beauty? Is it that exquisite mansion, that delicious cuisine; that dolled up, curvaceous, sexy and mysterious lady or that tall man with muscular abs and great biceps? Is your definition of beauty influenced by fashion magazines, your environment, the media, your personal standards, your culture, your friends or your mum?

The fact that “gorgeous” people get preferential treatment while the “not so beautiful” people are viewed as unintelligent and imperfect is a sad fact of life. That notwithstanding, I must say that the definition of beauty is subjective. A friend of mine once introduced me to a lady he described as the most beautiful woman he ever dated. 

I was expecting to see a sexy and sophisticated lady with glossy skin; perfect figure and a soothing voice. But the lady, physically, turned out to be what our society would describe as repulsive, objectionable or ugly. I asked my friend what exactly he found lovely in this woman.

For him, beauty has nothing to do with a person's physical attributes or features. He defined a beautiful person as; “someone who makes him smile, who is passionate and goal driven, someone respectful, humble; classy; intriguing and a good Christian.”  His definition of beauty made me realise that indeed; beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

For me, beauty is when a baby is born. Beauty is when it rains, when flowers bloom and grasses on the hills are green. Beauty is when I wake up at the same time every morning without an alarm clock. Beauty is a toddler taking her first steps. Beauty is when I see a Young man wooing a young lady and an old man laughing with his old wife. Beauty is a great work of art, an inspirational music, birds chipping, lovers mating, little children singing. Beauty is a parent sacrificing everything for his family. 

Life is beautiful and we are all beautiful people. 




Comments

  1. This is beauty too.

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  2. This is a lovely write up Nk.........

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  3. Well waiting for reply to my question in your previous post, I beg your pardon to disagree with you that beauty is altogether subjective. If it is subjective, then how can we know it, and how can we communicate beauty to each other? Remember, beauty is in different categories and gradation. However, beauty, good and truth are connected: The beautiful=the good=the true.

    Therefore, to say that beauty is subjective is like saying that truth is subjective. The problem is some of us get blinded by the lower grades of beauty...!

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  4. Yes yes yes... Iam beautiful, this is beautiful!

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  5. Juddy, I'm still of the opinion that beauty is Subjective. What is beautiful to me may not be beautiful to you. It is basically an emotional response and can be influenced by a lot of factors.

    Truth on the other hand is always Objective as its existence cannot be influenced by emotions.

    Your Beauty = Good = True theory is not always applicable because not every Beautiful thing or person is Good or True.

    From my little knowledge of Philosophy, I know some scholars are of the opinion that beauty is Objective or both Objective and Subjective. However, this is not a Philosophy class.. : )

    whether you believe it or not, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and that is what my blog is about..cheers!!

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  6. Nikky, in DAT case, ur beautiful! Lovely write up...

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  7. If beauty has to do with individuals or items of art or a view, then I am inclined to believe that beauty is relative as these can indeed change with time (hence not absolute). However, if beauty were to be considered in its purest form as that attribute of an object, that is to say, what indeed was being referred to when an individual or an object was considered as beautiful then my dears (+Nikky O and +Juddy) beauty is indeed absolute...qed

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  8. I'm with Troublemaker on this one as I think he/she captured the lines of thought of both Juddy and Nikky.

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  9. Nikky, I love this article and indeed beauty is in the eye of the beholder simple!

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  10. Beauty means many things to any people so it depends on how you see it. For me, I have this lady that I will want to marry she is very ugly (I am sorry describing her this way :) but my lady's character 'na prefect'! She is humble, neat, prayerful and can cook. What else do I need? But my friend's said I am mad wanting to marry her for those reasons. According to them, she will scare my children with her looks LOl! Anyway, I know what I want and will go for it because all that glitter is not gold.

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  11. Nikky, wetin? Which kind picture be this? Please, look for a pretty lady and upload for us here oh! You can even use your picture please lol! @ Abiola, I hope that your lady no look like this picture here?

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  12. Hmmmm! Nikky, how can something that is not true or good be beautiful? Plz give example! Even if we're to subscribe to your subjective theory, you can only accept something as beautiful because it appears good and true to you.

    If beauty is only in the eyes of the beholder (beer-holder), that means a beauty not perceived or acknowledge by anybody does not exist. In other words, the beholder becomes the determinant or creator of beauty.

    This is a dangerous awakening! That would imply that we only live or appreciate ourselves according to other people's standards or acknowledgment.

    'Beauty' is a metaphysical phenomenon connected to 'Being qua being'. Each person is beautiful to the extent that he/she is good and true! If it is not true, it is not beautiful; if it is not good, it is not beautiful. And it if is beautiful, it must be good and true!

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  13. @ Juddy,
    According to Google, what is 'Good' should posses desirable qualities. It must be commendable,useful, promotes success and gives happiness, excellent, kind, benevolent, and opposed to evil.

    This means that every beautiful thing created by God is good. so, I disagree with your theory of 'Beautiful thing or person is Good or True'.

    In my opinion, we do not evaluate beauty very well before concluding that any object or human is actually beautiful. We should more time to analyze whether the person has all the qualities stated above and even more before drawing our conclusion. Often, human beings are attracted more to the physical beauty (ALL THAT GLITTER IS NOT GOLD)

    Also, 'Truth' is a fact or reality that you stated why the object is beautiful. It should not compared with the term beauty.

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  14. Thanks Mr Mba, but it appears you read my comment in a horry...! First, you made a direct quote which does not exist in any of my comments. Plz check properly and show me where I said, 'Beautiful thing or person is good or true'. This is your personal interpretation, which indicates you did not properly digest my assertions.

    Secondly, your google definition lends support to my assertion. Therefore, your premises are the same with mine. If we have the same premises, authomatically our conclusions must be same. And you actually proved me right and agreed to what I said though in different terms.

    So note that I did not collapse the terms, beauty, good and truth! They remain distinguishable but not separable. I am not saying that, for example, a 'beautiful-looking' lady is ipso facto a good lady or a saint, but that that beautiful look is itself good and must be true. For example if you see a lady and you acclaim her to be beautiful only to discover that she was wearing a mask, then it's not true and you can't continue to ascribe such beauty to her...

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  15. @Helen, I like your comment but not all black oh! After all oyibo say devil na blackman and they told us Jesu na white man:) What can you say about that?

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  16. @ Obinna: I agree with Helen, Black is beautiful. Forget Oyibo Politics..

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