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| Venus Raj Ms. Universe 4th Runner Up |
Oh my, my, my… I’ve just browsed the glamshots of the Miss Universe 2011 contestants, and they were literally jaw-dropping! I was smiling the whole time I was looking at those oh-so-lovely women.
Don’t get me wrong though. When I said that my jaw dropped while I was looking at them, I didn’t mean that I was sexually attracted to them (though I once experienced imagining how lovely my female classmate’s thin lips were while we were discussing a class project, and I was ogling at her, watching her lips as she speak… creepy, eh?). I just love looking at beautiful women – their breathtaking smiles, their wonderful curves, their velvety skin. I simply find pleasure in looking at someone so beautiful, whether she was airbrushed to perfection or photoshopped to flawlessness or just simply au naturale.
As a young girl, I devote hours looking at the ladies from the magazines that my aunt brought home, and those goddess-like women in mags from my cousin in Australia. Two decades had passed and I still spend time surfing the net looking at the latest fashion or makeup while still being mesmerized by the gorgeous models. And just this morning as I stare in admiration at the Miss Universe candidates, a thought struck me once again... Why do they all look so beautiful (when I use beautiful here, I mean physically attractive) despite their countless differences? From the different color of their skin and eyes to the shape of their nose and lips to their chins and cheekbones? And so I researched on beauty, and these are some curious info that I found.
· Beauty is NOT in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is actually all about the face, and in fact, is not nearly as subjective as we've been led to believe. Each individual has got peculiar preferences and tastes but they are based upon one ideal and are only modifications of this. This means that there is a standard from which everyone generates their standards from.
· Beauty is NOT only skin deep. The old adage says that “beauty is just skin deep,” which means that beautiful people are no different from ugly people except for their appearance. This is the second stereotype or aphorism that evolutionary psychology has overturned. It turns out that beautiful people are genuinely different from ugly people, because they are genetically and developmentally healthier.
· The Halo Effect. In society, attractive people tend to be more intelligent, better adjusted, and more popular. This is described as the halo effect - due to the perfection associated with angels. Research shows attractive people also have more occupational success and more dating experience than their unattractive counterparts. One theory behind this halo effect is that it is accurate -- attractive people are indeed more successful.
· The Greeks believed on the three 'ingredients' to beauty: symmetry, proportion, and harmony. This triad of principles infused their life. They were very much attuned to beauty as an object of love and something that was to be imitated and reproduced in their lives, architecture, education and politics. They judged life by this mentality.
· A beautiful face is not determined by the skin, despite the time and energy we devote to skin care. It is what is under the skin, the skeletal structure that makes the difference. It is the various dimensions of proportions and angles and contours and curves that work in harmony to create the concept of beauty.
Beauty therefore is an objective and quantifiable attribute of individuals, like height or weight, both of which were more or less “in the eye of the beholder.”
And I am quite lucky to have some. So were the Miss Universe candidates.
(Eggheads, no need to contradict. I am merely stating the truth within the lie. : ) Seriously, I’ve been gone a long time and I missed my blog sooo much. It was difficult to not be able to write anything despite having so much to talk about. In the past weeks, I have had so many creepers in my head, thoughts waiting to be put into words. And at last, some of them have been freed now.)
