“With great hotness comes great responsibility,” says the adorably vapid Haley Dunphy on the hit U.S. sitcom Modern Family. Little does the character realise the hidden import of her casual assertion in today’s world.
Artists, scientists and philosophers concur that beauty is an inherently undefinable characteristic, combining the inward and the outward, the subjective and the objective, the evolutionary and the cultural. Indeed, ‘beauty’ is derived from the French word beaute, which means ‘physical attractiveness and goodness’. Right away, there is the suggestion of beauty and virtue as one and the same. Philosopher Francis Bacon theorised that “virtue is nothing but inward beauty; beauty nothing but outward virtue.” This notion is pervasive and finds expression everywhere.
But there are dark trade-offs. An empirically beautiful person might have an easier time getting a job, finding a mate, and being taken seriously, but beauty often inspires people rolling out the proverbial red carpet, robbing you of any incentive to develop inner depth. And let’s not forget the detrimental effect that the concept of beauty has on others who are perceived to lack the quality. The Western mass culture that predominates the world currently inspires anorexic, photoshopped ideals of beauty, instigating malcontent and insecurity in people. This insecurity often leads to detrimental personality changes, further marginalising the physically less-than-ideal individual.
Evolutionary aesthetics posits that the aesthetic preferences of human beings have evolved based on survival needs and are rooted more in biology than culture. The cultural dominance of the definition of beauty in the modern world is but a moment in time in relation to the sweep of socio-biological history. Nineteenth century sculptor Rodin was precocious in his understanding of our modern age: “Constantly I hear: ‘What an ugly age! That woman is plain. That dog is horrible.’ It is neither the age nor the woman nor the dog which is ugly, but your eyes, which do not understand.”
The nicest, most evolved person, who understands the empirical fact that beauty is skin deep, will probably still linger over a more attractive person than a more substantive one, finding excuses to rationalise his or her deep desire for facial symmetry, unblemished skin and lustrous hair.
Renaissance mastermind Leonardo da Vinci looked for scientific precision in art and nature, symmetry being a reflection of beauty. Indeed, the Golden Ratio refers to a mathematical formula for ideal aesthetics and that it remains constant across multiple disciplines of study is a humbling resolution of our inherent struggles over beauty, to this day.
The writer is based in Chennai