Sanchez 1 Luis Sanchez Professor Ditch English 115 3 December 2013 Defining Beauty: A Catastrophic Idea After reading

Beauty and its Dystopia I agree with Natalie Santoyo when she states that beauty creates a dystopia because beauty is a subjective topic and it relies solely on peoples opinion, however, seeing that beauty is subjective, there will always be people trying to define beauty and impose that idea unto others. Beauty is about what one finds interesting, it is more than just looks it is something that one must feel and enjoy, it is the one thing that captures one soul, not just the eyes. Beauty is a topic that has brought a lot of controversy in society causing dystopia to aesthetic ideas because there are people who wish to have total control over what can be considered as beauty. In modern society people are subjected to many influences on what one should look like, especially now that it is a lot easier to market a look due to our social networks and media. Society is very self-conscious and prone to a lot of insecurities, due to these insecurities some people tend to conform to the opinions of what others defined beauty to be rather than our own ideas of beauty. Having only one definition of beauty is disastrous to society because it limits originality and it takes away ones ability to define beauty for themselves, and that is not what beauty is. Beauty is about what the individual believes it is. Although defining beauty is malignant to society there have always been attempts to define it. Generation after generation we see new attempts at defining beauty. Beauty is often changed through time and it creates controversial views of beauty, this due because beauty is often viewed distortedly (Santoyo, 46). During certain time periods there is a general idea of

Sanchez 2 what can be considered beautiful, and we see this through trends. Whats hot and whats in has overwhelmed society and has caused many people to question whether they are beautiful or not. Opinions and individualism are thrown away when it comes to beauty because society is concerned too much about other peoples opinions of themselves that people neglect the beauty in themselves and sometimes others. The distorted view of beauty leads society to question themselves and others if they are beautiful. It causes stress to society. Over time beauty has changed, and it causes many peoples idea of what is acceptable to change. In the 1920s the women of the United States were on a transitional phase where the way people view women was changing. A new idea of beauty was being developed by the women themselves. Women changed their appearances and defied what society called beautiful and acceptable for women. These courageous women were called Flappers and they had short hair, wore skirts, and had jobs. These women defied social norms of beauty and saw themselves as who they wanted to be, and thats what beauty is, being able to see oneself the way one wants to and showed it to the world. Through time we see that there are positive outcomes of trying to defy the established opinions on beauty, however, there are times when people attempt to define beauty that have terrible outcomes. In the 1940s Adolf Hitler had a vision of a superior race the Aryan race. Hitler defined beautiful people as white Germans with blonde hair and blue eyes and of nonJewish relations. This was one of the reasons things lead to a Holocaust. This was one mans definition of beauty and he saw the Jews as a people that contaminated his beautiful people which lead to his Final Solution. Society has a distorted view on beauty because society is enslaved by thoughts and ideas of others that people fail to recognize their own views. Society

Sanchez 3 has been exposed into believing that there is a definitive form of beauty that is created by a select few and that one has to abide by what they say in order to be considered as beautiful. The vision of beauty becomes more distorted when society places certain expectations based on gender. Defining beauty does not damage societys view on others solely because of its objective stand point, it also causes damage because it is gender based and divides society into two groups that are clearly misrepresented. According to most standard beliefs a man and a woman must look a certain way to be considered beautiful. For men the ideal look is to be tall, short hair, a clean shaven face, and a six pack; as for a woman she has to have red cheeks, red lips, a curvy body, and a slim waist. These standards have been incorporated into social norms of many cultures. One may argue that it is a part of Darwin natural selection when one looks for these features, yes that may be true to some extent, ideally one does find beauty in those one feels would be the optimal mate, however, if that were the case how would that make anyone any different than any animal on this planet? People have a conscious mind and it is the mind which allows one to perceive beauty, not some prenatal instinct. Beauty is something more than just plain looks. No physical feature will guarantee a person their beauty. Beauty is subjective and therefore is only as good as one allows it to be. Beauty is about something that is ever lasting, it can be defined by character or it can defined by the little things someone does, there is no definite definition of beauty it is what one makes of it. It does not wither with age because when something is beautiful it will always be beautiful. As one ages their idea of what beauty is can change, but that does not mean that the people that that person used to call beautiful are not beautiful anymore. Everyone is different and so everyones definition of beauty is different, no one person will have the exact same definition for beauty. One should be able to say, that in order to see beauty, one must look past social norms and avoid

Sanchez 4 of all forms of conformity and just appreciate everything and see things through their own eyes. One defines beauty for themselves and there must not be influenced by what anyone else considers beauty to be, and thats the beauty of beauty.

Sanchez 5 WORK CITED Santoyo, Natalie. Beauty and Its Dystopia. Wings: Distinguished Student Essays. 20th ed. Plymouth: Hayden-McNiel, 2013. 46-49. Print.