The true meaning of beauty

by JANET BONILLA

Staff Writer

 

What is the true meaning of beauty?  Based on dictionary.com, beauty is a beautiful person, especially a woman. However, beauty means something different to everyone: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”  The meaning of beauty is influenced by a person’s surroundings, society, media, peers, culture, and past experiences.

 

For many reasons women tend to struggle with the idea of beauty.  The media happens to be one of the major reasons for this struggle.  Through various types of advertisement, it has been made apparent that it is expected for a woman to hide who and what she really is. The media has set a great amount of  pressure on women and the idea of what they need to look like. When people think about beauty, they tend to think about the physical visual appearance of a person. The media and society tend to teach about beauty using visual examples like body image. We all know what beauty is but do we understand what it means?  Beauty affects every single person’s life, yet it is filled with a tremendous amount of mystery for most.  What gratifies an individual to be called beautiful? Why are some individuals seen as beautiful while others are sought to be ugly?  Are beautiful people born or made?  Is beauty essentially an appearance or a feeling?

 

Beauty is a process, journey, and adventure that we experience.  The more life experience you gain, the more answers you find. Your personal interpretation of beauty may still continue to develop as you gain more life experience.

 

Beauty is not only pleasure to the senses; beauty is being pleasant on the inside which transfers to the outside.  One example of this:  have you ever met someone who looked physically attractive at first and then once you got to know them better, they turned out to be cold hearted and insecure on the inside, then you suddenly saw this person in a whole new light, not seeing the beauty only the ugliness. Why does this happen? First of all, every person living on earth has flaws whether they are visible to the eye or not. People who are insecure and negative on the inside will make people look at them in a negative way and notice their flaws more.

 

Beauty is accepting and embracing one’s unique interior and exterior qualities.  It is human nature for people wanting to belong and to fit in into a crowd.  People who are different have a hard time feeling like they belong.  Unique qualities are most beautiful, however, and most people are self-conscious about being unique when they should not be.  The most beautiful flower is the one that is rare. A flower does not compare itself to the flower next to it. It just blooms. This concept is one of my biggest struggles in several people’s aspects of life growing up.  Most feel very different from their peers, because of their physical appearance, personality, and the way that they think.  The more you embrace your unique qualities, the more you feel beautiful. “Beauty shouldn’t be about changing yourself to achieve an ideal or be more socially acceptable. Real beauty, the interesting, truly pleasing kind, is about honoring the beauty within you and without you. It’s about knowing that someone else’s definition of pretty has no hold over you.” ― Golda Poretsky