Define "Beauty"

What is beauty? What is it that makes something or someone beautiful? What makes one photograph or painting or poem or person or pattern more beautiful than an array of others? The definition of beauty is "a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight." I am however overly aware that the colours and shapes which please my own critical eye are vastly different from those pleasing to my friends and acquaintances. An outfit combination involving a flowered pant and a striped top, for example, would never find its way onto this bod, yet I know a select few who would pair the two and work them fiercely, looking edgy and ultra-hip while doing so. I prefer solids and muted prints. Call me boring?

In writing is it not the same? The well-known poem by Robert Frost, and my personal favourite of all, Nothing Gold can Stay, is a beautiful tribute to the cycle of life and change that certainly is inevitable,

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day

Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

I'm sure many would interpret this poem as being far from beautiful if they were focusing more on the unwanted change and the negativity that can be brought about by it. Or perhaps others may find it too simplistic and undeserving of the recognition gained by a Wordsworth or a Yeats. Is the answer not then truly in the individual perception, attitude and preference?

As a woman I am ever aware of glances and advances made by male passers-by or those in given situations. Just the same, however, I am all too aware of those who don’t give a second look. What is it that warrants a lingering gaze from one and a completely disinterested, steadfast breeze-pass by another? Well personal preference of course! 

So let's deduce and conclude, shall we? A true definition of the term "beautiful" is only accurate if somewhere in it the words "personal preference" are inserted. Without these, the term's definition is inaccurate. Obvious? Of course the very fact that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is an obvious and well known fact.

Why is it then that today we are so concerned with what the media deems as beautiful?  Really, by hanging on the words of the select few who determine what’s hot and what’s not, we’re allowing our own perception of what’s beautiful to be made impertinent to our own lives, Caving to the pressures of the media machine to look a certain way and weigh a certain amount and have a certain hair style and read a certain trilogy and try a certain diet and cleanse a certain way and buy a certain brand and drive a certain car is neglecting what is truly beautiful  about humanity. We are each unique with preferences, voices, shapes and sizes of our own. THAT is beautiful.

 Beauty is a prayer, a song, an exchanged smile, a love gained, a new life, a good deed, a hug, a lingering kiss, a poem, a journey ....

The very issue of feeling pressured to conform and to completely disregard her own judgment is one that haunts Portia throughout the entirety of the novel's action. It is one which undoubtedly plagues all women to some degree or another. Is conforming to attain a goal truly considered success when the end is achieved? 

Please follow the links below to learn more about the Because I am a Girl cause initiated by Plan International:
http://becauseiamagirl.ca/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_AQA1xb4Is&feature=youtu.be
http://plan-international.org/

Follow me on twitter: Jessica Ashley @City_Rhapsody

Happy reading!

Jessica Ashley