Sunday Dinner Topic : Beauty

[Karimi]

Greetings and welcome to tonights (well yesterday night's) dinner topic.

To me there are two types of beauty , true beauty and the traditional(stereotypical) type.
For example traditional beauty is the kind you see in Everquest and on tv.Typically blond hair, big breasts, make up , etc. Traditional , defined by magazines and tv shows to be whats beautiful.

Then you have true beauty which is not stereotypical. Some times people are not blonde , they don't wear makeup, and don't have the typical traits which we judge to be beautiful but it still is beauty.

Jennifer Garner for example i would say is more of true beauty while Pamela Anderson is more of traditional beauty.

What do you guys think ?

[BlackMage]

I agree, but traditional beauty, that doesn't sound right. Lemme think... Floozy Beauty, yeah, I like that. It rhymes too!

[Iiliani Seadream]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Very cliched, but very true, at least for me.
My boyfriend is not what you would consider traditionally handsome, but to me he is gorgeous, because I love him

[Cerrena]

I dislike the term traditional beauty in this context as it makes it sound as if this definition of beauty has a long tradition which it really doesn't. Historically, the definitions of beauty have differed widely. The current blond, unrealistically thin image is really a creation of the 20th century media and advertising industries.

[Karimi]

Thats why i put stereotypical near it , traditional in this time period . What i meant to say was stereotypical.

[Satarus]

Bleached blond hair annoys me, escpecialy when they have dark brown roots standing out like a sore thumb. Also i wish breast implants would just go away. If you think your self worth is based on your bust size, your probably after the type of guys who will treat you as a sex object, and not really care for you as a human.

[Gnomish]

I HATE stereotypical women... i am a stereotypical woman, in the opposite way... I am overweight, i wear glasses, and i am nearly flatchested...

Pharaphrased Historical factoid from my Humanities Professor: One Hundred years ago women that were slightly overweight (had Pearshaped bodies) were considered sexy, as opposed to skinny women.

::Addendum:: I agree with Illiani, my BF isn't a 'traditionally' handsome guy, but in my eyes he's a FREAKING hottie!! ^_^ and i love him! ^_^

[Keiran]

*grin* If only we could turn psychohistory into a matter of mathematics, we could predict what would be considered beauty a hundred years hence. ;)

But to stay on topic, I would agree with Iiliani. Beauty is far more a matter of how you see someone as a person than how they actually look.

[Kat]

How we view people directly in our lives is definitely colored by the emotions we have for them. I'm sure many of us have been close to someone and found him or her very attractive, then had a falling out on bad terms and the new cruelty makes them appear less attractive to you.

Also, what about looking at Johnny Depp or Jessica Alba and finding them attractive? Does this have anything to do with us seeing them as characters and developing an emotion to go with our perception of them? Or are we subconsciously listening to the media that they are attractive. What makes someone we have no real emotional connection to attractive or not?

Science would say a very healthy looking person with good symmetry to their looks equals attractive. Healthy is attractive for the base instinct of producing healthy offspring. Symmetry of the face and or body is considered attractive because it is “pleasing” to the eye. Symmetry does not mean thin, it means in proportion and balanced.

What makes someone attractive or not is very complex.

[Raven00x]

i blame MTV. I'd post more, but kat already said what i would've said.

[Satarus]

100 years ago, tan skin wasn't considered sexy because that signified a commoner. Paler skin was prefered over tan. Today its all about getting that bronze complection (sp?) even though sitting out in the sun and fake-n-bake (tanning saloon) are unhealthy and lead to skin cancer, premature wrinkling, and other damaging effects to the skin.

[Sarius]

Its all about personality and taste.

beuty by looks is shallow but can work out

inner beuty is rare and can also work out

its all about finding someone you like

[Coffee]

/concour Kat.

To put in my own two cp and keep this from being a "Me too" post I will say that a former girlfriend of mine, whom I parted with amicably, does not "fit the mold" so to speak, but most everyone that meets her would agree that there is a certain...something...intangible something, that makes her attractive. Perhaps some inner beauty that shines through to affect perception in person.

And Raven, what the heck are you doing in Lake Woebegone?

[Kat]

In Lake Woebegone all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and the children are above average.

But what makes the men good looking, that's the question. :D

[Ciarin]

I admit that the media affects my standards of what I would consider aesthetically pleasing, but not so much that I can't see something naturally beautiful and accept it as such. In fact, I appreciate natural beauty moreso than fake. Which is why I will never draw Pamela Anderson, (in fact after seeing her in the "Stuff" magazine spread, I was repulsed by her body shape).

I can usually see the beauty in most things, and most people. I study the world around me, because I draw the world around me, and I see the hidden beauty that gets ignored.

One's character influences my opinion after a while. If I see a hot guy, but it turns out he's a obnoxious jerk, with the mentality of a 10 yr old (a common occurance among infantrymen,lol), then he doesn't look as good as he did before.

Also, if you are with someone who has "flaw" in their appearance, you can usually see past it, if their personality attracts you. and after a while you won't see the "flaws" at all. Reminds me of "Man Without a Face", after a while the boy didn't see his scars, so to speak.

IMO, beauty does not equal attractiveness. And I think attraciveness counts more.

Nowadays, I don't like the pop media's portrayel of people, I think they use airbrushing and photoshop way too much.

[Satarus]

Yeah ciarin, I blame airbrushing and graphical editing tools for our "ideal image" of beauty. I bet nearly every model on the cover of any kind of glamor magazine doesn't actually look that good.

And lets not forget cosmetic surgery (implants, face lifts, ect.)

[Velenka]

The most beautiful girl I know is 5'6, has black curly hair, pale skin, and wears a size 12. She is not photogenic, and a photo will probably only prompt a "cute" or "pretty". When she walks down the street, heads turn. She has an intangible energy that people of both genders notice. You can see it crackle around her and in every movement is this undeniable enjoyment for life. That's beauty to me.

Beauty dictated by the common media has the exact opposite effect. It's been done a billion times on a billion different magazines, adds, commercials, TV shows.. yech, whatever. Seen it before. The problem with that kind of beauty is that it lacks a sense of reality for most people. Real life is just not like that for 99% of the population.

[Vikingprin]

I always have to avoid these conversations irl... I have friends of all shapes and sizes and they are all beautiful to me. I happen to be Norwegian... tall, thin, blonde, etc. And everyone jumps on me if i pipe in, cuz that seems to make my opinion not count.

/rant on
I hate when people assume that since i look like what happens to be considered beautiful right now, that i have no substance to me. I hate when strangers come up to me and ask me if i'm anorexic. Or on speed. Most of all, I hate the disgusted looks that women give me when I walk into a room.
/rant off

I know it sounds like i'm playing the martyr here, or that i'm really stuck up, but i just wanted to point out that the discrimination goes two ways. One of the reasons i like to play EQ is that its the only time i know that people like me for who i am, not what i look like. And i firmly believe that my friends online are beautiful, even though i have no idea what they look like irl.

PS... imo, the most beautiful woman in hollywood right now is liv tyler.

[Takara]

One person’s idea of what is beautiful will differ from the next.

Thankfully!

That's what makes the world go 'round, no?

If everyone found the same kind of person attractive, everyone who didn't look like that would be SOL, and a sad sad world it would be.

Having been overweight most of my life, most of my experiences come from the end of the spectrum wherein most people think because of my appearance I’m slovenly, stupid and slow. It’s frustrating when you’re outgoing, happy and quite smart.

Now, NOT being overweight, I see how incredibly biased and judgmental our world (society and ‘people’ at large) is on people who look somewhat outside the realm of ‘traditional’ beauty... or even just being average.

My feeling is that true beauty can only be seen after you know someone. It’s not appearance. It’s who they are. This isn’t a tangible, like hair color or how tall they are.

Superficial beauty is chemical. It’s what our brain tells us is pleasing to the eye. Maybe it’s blue eyes, plump lips and a firm backside or really perky boobs. That will be different for everyone, and not likely ever definable as a whole to please everyone.

But, regardless of true or superficial beauty, it’s subjective.

[Karimi]

In my opinion everyone has a flaw , better be external than internal i suppose.

[BlackMage]

Money is a major deciding factor for many people. Tanned skin meant you were a commoner, paler skin meant you were a noble. Nobles had servants and such do their bidding, and sat under an umbrella sipping on port and being fed grapes by beautiful women. Peasants were out all day working the fields, they either got sunburned or got a tan. Now, tanned means that people can travel and sit under the sun sipping on smoothies in the bahamas. Pale means you live in your mother's basement playing video games, discussing Star Trek vs Star Wars, and reading books on quantom theory. Sometimes the stereotypes of society really... rrrrrrRRRRRargh ... get to me. Unlike those immigrants stealing our jobs! (Sarcasm)

[Ciarin]

I play atari games, discuss Star trek vs Star wars in my friend's basement, and I've read books on quantum theory.....


Me so unattractive........I'm banished to to the geek continuum.......