What does beauty mean to you?

Like many of you, I've always been drawn to beautiful women and have admired -- and envied -- handsome men for their attractiveness. I've always pondered over this question: what was it that was so compelling about the beauty of others, beit facial and physical attractiveness?


Of course, physical attractiveness is not the only part of being human and that there's a whole LOT of other aspects to our personalities besides our physical selves -- this thread is not about the other aspects of our selves... significant, though they certainly are. This thread is specifically about physical beauty -- or the lack of it -- and why people are so compelled, so drawn to physical beauty.


So what is it about physical beauty that is so compelling to so many people in so many cultures?


A short overview of the standard POV of beauty:

en.wikipedia.org...


Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there are common aspects of beauty that draws people -- in any culture -- towards beauty, to delight in beauty, to be compelled by beauty in human form. What is it that's so compelling about beauty in human form that widely populates magazines, TVs, movies and the Internet, where pornagraphy is one of the biggest, if not the biggest data loading on the Internet.


So what is it about human physical beauty that is so compelling? Even babies are drawn to people with beautiful faces than ones whose beauty is not so compelling. Why is that? I've approached a baby who smiled with my smiling, yet, when I drew on lipstick around my mouth, drew on black bags under my eyes and approached the same baby minutes later smiling like I did before, the baby freaked and immediately started to bawl.


Here's another one that gets closer to what I'm talking about:

en.wikipedia.org...


And this one is a good one examining the aversion of people who have radically-different features in their physical appearances:

en.wikipedia.org...


So what does beauty mean to you?


I find that I am moved by any kind of beauty -- the beauty in snowflakes, in nature, in animals, in humans, in the cosmos, in the geometries of the Universe, in beautiful music, in the skies with natural clouds and deep-blue skies, in sunsets, in moments of connection with other people and connection with my own Higher Self and so on. So beauty has many meanings for me.


Yet, I still find myself being compelled and drawn to people who have exceptionally beautiful faces and bodies and I wonder why that is the case, 'cause I know from my experience that one cannot judge by one's jacket at all, as there are SO many people who are otherwise extremely talented in many ways, other than their physical appearances that may be a bit below the common standards of what is considered "beautiful" by many people, cross-culturally.


I've been intimate with women who were "hot", yet their personalities... ugh, I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole after getting to know them. The most-memorable woman for me was a cute, earthy and petite brunette who was not "hot", but, boy, was she a pleasure to be around with! Intellectually-stimulating, physically-stimulating, emotionally-stimulating and just plain enjoyable to be around with. Even though we are not together, we still love and respect each other dearly.


So what is it that you find in beautiful people that is so compelling?


If you find any useful articles or urls that can shed some light on this question, feel free to share, as well as your own perspectives on what people's beauty means to you.


[edit on 21-10-2009 by Historical-Mozart]

Take away the ego, the inability to ever be serious, the general lack of respect or acceptance for men that aren't typically dumb and predictable, the fascination with generic male attention, the utter incompetence in regards to genuine communication, and my personal favorite - the need to have your cake and eat it too... and what you have, is a characteristic that most adequately can be described as true beauty.

Beauty, physical(sexiness) are different things which cannot be combined.

Most women and others try to treat them as the same thing, which they are not.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, uniqueness personality compatability friendship emotion.

Sexiness, often confused for beauty and many people get hurt feelings out of this is more physical, and how you represent your sexuality.

Someone can be beautiful, but not sexy.
Someone can be sexy, but disgusting but have a disgusting and repelling personality, not like minded, disrespectful and overall bad to be around.
And someone can be sexy, and beautiful.

Nobody can be perfect, but a good balance is always preferred.


And to you women here, don't feel pressured to live up to the media's representation of beautiful (They usually purposely mix beauty with physical attraction, to make you feel bad and buy their crap) most men who don't run on mainstream media and school age society want someone with a balance, and who is true to themselves. If you're running around trying to be like all the people on TV, or dressing certain ways you're selling yourself, and most men don't like that.

Beauty-Be yourself, find someone who likes you for you, and you like for who they are.
Sexuality-How you present yourself, and physical traits, it matters but if you're looking for a relationship with just this alone, it won't get you squat.(for both men and women)

Even sexiness can be in the eyes of the beholder, and this is a complete turn off, when someone is insulted for what they behold as beautiful or sexy, and is told that what they behold should be through to the eyes of the insulter (Example people with mixed beliefs of the opposite sex that tells you to see ____ and _____ as sexy or beauty when they have absolutely no idea, usually it's from ignorance).

reply to post by BlubberyConspiracy


While I agree with your viewpoint that we should stive to be ourselves and not get caught up in consumerism, I think it's missing the point of the OP. The OP doesn't seem to be concerned here with the other traits that make a person attractive. He is simply focusing on physical attraction.

And you can't tell me that if you show a collection of portraits to people across cultures that there won't be some form of unity to what they find attractive. Just as he mentioned with the baby scenario, this instinct of ours isn't solely determined by cultural influences.

I've taken an aesthetics course in philosophy, and there certainly isn't a single agreed upon explanation for beauty. I saw "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" mentioned a couple of times in this thread, and many philosophers would disagree with this. Although tastes do vary to a certain degree, many people still believe there is an objective quality to beauty.

As for physical beauty, I don't think it's easy to know all the factors involved. But I do feel that it is best explained in an evolutionary sense. Attractive people embody traits that we notice on an instinctive level that we hope to pass down to our offspring. Of course, social factors come into play and comlicate things, but ultimately I think the major underlying theme is reproduction and evolution.

i once knew a very beautiful girl. She was my neighbor, and we never quite talked. she had amazing eyes and the body of a goddess. i honestly think that when she entered a room everyone just stopped and stared. well that's the effect she had on me anyway.

so one day i decided to finally talk to her. she is as dumb as a rock. it seems like a stereotype that all pretty girls are dumb well this one is shining proof of that. talking to her for 5 minutes killed more brain cells then liquor can ever do.

since then intelligence has been my beauty. if i can find a person that i can have a conversation with that is enjoyable and challenging, shes the one for me.

beauty comes and goes but brains last forever.

beauty ?

Nice round bum .. not too big.. but not too small either .. just right .

Brunnet/ Black hair with Blue / green eyes .

and Boobs like Orihime from Bleach.

Beauty captures, personality keeps.

Attraction is important initially, however the internal aspects of the person will outshine the exterior...you can be with a drop dead georgous person, but if their inside is foul, you will eventually see them as quite ugly over time...you may even wonder if your a freak for not seeing the beauty anymore, or wondering why you seen them as beautiful to begin with.

The internet is leveling the playing field a bit here...your exploring a person's personality before you are exploring their beauty, and so the concept of beauty may change over time, especially when cosmetics become more effective, technology and diet pills advance, etc...

one day, a change in your body look and structure will be simply running a program (be it through matrix style virtual reality, or nanotech actual changes and rearranging)...then the only beauty will be inner beauty...and that is a day I look forward to.

reply to post by Historical-Mozart


Real beauty comes from within and not without. Beautiful people are made from the inside out and not the outside in.

I have seen so-called beauty queens per se that have less than beautiful personalities. However, I have seen what would be regarded as plain, look beautiful for the beautiful soul that is within their nature.

Beauty is what is within us and not what is on the outside. Also, spiritual beauty exceeds the beauty of the body and the mind.

It is what you put out that determines if you are beautiful or not-not what you look like.

I have met and talked with quite a number of what most would call absolutely beautiful women. But not to me. Sure some have been absolutely gorgeous, but to limit it to simply the physical traits. I can not say they were beautiful.

For me it is all about the heart and mind and soul of the person...and in that respect, I have indeed met some truly beautiful women, but not as many as you would think.

Now if you throw love into the mix. as in you do indeed love them and not just an enduring lust, then you can be with some beautiful women. That is if you can give the trust to open yourself for love.

Bring it down to the total package of attractiveness, a beautiful person, and to love and be loved by---I have only known three, maybe four in my lifetime. And only one of which I would have confidently married having never have kissed her...but that is a different story.

Beauty == 1.618!

Google the 'golden ratio', and you'll see a how prevalent it is throughout math, nature, society.

Strange that a notion as abstract as that has a quantifiable number associated with it.

reply to post by Historical-Mozart

Pretty obvious but defines everything...Two words:
Mila Jowovich )


[edit on 21-10-2009 by ZenOnKwalsky]

[edit on 21-10-2009 by ZenOnKwalsky]

reply to post by rachel07


Agree with you, in my younger days I refused to date some men because of the way they looked, talking about receding hair lines, maybe not as trim as they should be, what a big mistake that was, always wonder what I missed, some things come with maturity thank goodness.