BEAUTY AND THE BEHOLDER’S EYE

So they say beauty lies within the eye of the beholder right…? Which suggests that everything and everyone is beautiful to something or someone. The perception of our own beauty is a different beast altogether, it is marred and contaminated by ideologies. Can you truly look at yourself through your own eyes and ACTUALLY see the extent of your own beauty and self worth? This is almost impossible in most cases as things like insecurities come into play and warp your overall perception. However the true beauty that resides within is reflected on the outside. For example a physically beautiful person is capable of turning monsterish when his/her inner ugliness starts to taint his/her perceived physical beauty, like a poorly authored book camouflaged by a beautiful cover. These are equivocations that have been concocted to lure you in like a spider’s web.

Having said that, physical beauty remains a vital issue within the rules of attraction, since every person has an initial idea of what they are attracted to. Nonetheless this physical pre-perception of beauty may later transform when personality is introduced and the extent of inner beauty starts to unravel. This either diminishes pre-established flaws, making them appear insignificant or vice versa, make them more prominent and unbearable enough to abandon this exchange altogether. So the initial focus on physical beauty should not necessarily be viewed as a negative or shallow concept, as without it the inner beauty that lies within may never be discovered.

Yin and Yang

“Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, (for instance shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation”

It is said that in order to maintain universal balance, good must exist alongside evil. Although the way in which each of these is translated varies depending on the subject. Since each individual is capable or both qualities, it is reasonable to surmise that we all endure an internal battle between personal or societal views of these traits. Whichever the case, we feel balance must always reign for no good deed goes by without an equally bad one.

Taking the definition above into perspective, it seems every situation has several alternative endings. These endings are subjective and usually get translated in various different ways depending on the translator. The idealistic perceptions of good and evil emerge from these alternative paths and become the two main defining categories. However since good and evil is dependent on the ‘criterion of the observation, it becomes quite difficult to elucidate.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC Manhattan 2014

Whilst perusing Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, I stumbled upon this beauty. This sculpture really encapsulates the point I am striving to make. At first glance it seems as though the standing figure is the victor, he has full advantage and his stance emanates power and dominance. However, when you rotate around the sculpture, it becomes clear that the reclining figure equally possesses the same dominance and power. This suggests that despite the initial quality that a person may exhibit, looks can be deceiving…

Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC Manhattan 2014

So who’s definition of good and bad do we live by? Society offers basic guidelines that help to decipher the true nature of good and evil, but it is really up to each individual to translate and select a reality they feel is tolerable. This is an extremely tricky subject, and no one has the right to prescribe what society should perceive to be good or evil, since this compromises the basic fundamentals of free will. In short, it is up to each individual to decide how these traits will be balanced.