Beauty and the Body

Through out the ages of mankind and across the diverse and varied forms of culture the image of perfection shape shifts through extremes of the many spectrums surrounding the human body. Since the earliest of cultures images of man and woman have been sketched, carved, described and created over and over. A thousand differing concepts to which we should aspire, often concepts that are either immensely difficult to achieve or in some cases impossible. From the larger than life fertility dolls of ancient civilisations to the stick thin models of modern catwalks, the feminine yet powerful beauties of the renaissance to the rugged muscled men of today’s action films.
This strange obsession with image is something that has haunted humanity for a long time and will undoubtedly haunt it further changing with the trends, sometimes several times within relatively short periods of time. For some this focus on looks dominates our lives and for all of us it plays at least some part. Far be it from me to question those minds that create and shape these images, from the artists who portray them to those that follow them. However the ugly other side to this view for beauty is the effect it has on us and our perspectives of those that will no or cannot keep up with the ever-changing visions of right. Too not follow is sacrilege and is responded to with bullying and disgust from outside and from the inside. Often the strains of reaching for the concepts of beauty lead to self-doubt and hate. And what is there that might stop? Over hopeful is the view that we might topple those agents that push pictures of perfection into our lives, though chance that we might dissuade them from one sole image or from the extremes they might reach to. Simpler though is part of the solution as it lies in a simple choice that must be made by all of us. To judge a little less. It is near unfeasible that we could stop judging others as we do moment from moment, partly because some of our judgements occur without our knowledge, however it is possible to judge and question ourselves. To make an acceptance of others, and of ourselves, by accepting that a different way is not a wrong or necessarily a worse way.
The more we come to realise that one image is not the perfect image and that more over it may be an impossible dream, the more we will find happiness in ourselves and others. If we were blind would we care so much that someone’s nose was out of place? Or that a feature was missing? If we were deaf would a peculiarity of voice concern us? Is it not the person that is important? We are incredible, complicated creatures and those things that make us amazing are not our features. Some might argue should we not strive to be healthy in our lives and in this argument there may lie truths and wise words, but the photo-shopped image of the “perfect” people in the glossy pages of magazines and the ever multiplying advertisements that surround us are not always healthy. We live in a world were so much is taken at face value stopping us from looking beneath the surface even just a little. So guided are we by vanity that we all follow rituals in a desperate attempt to fit in somewhere. It does not matter whom your friends are, or what someone might say, nor does the images we see so often hold truth. What matters is who you are and what you are like. Fat, thin, tall or short the many aspects of the physical image, these should not be the prime concerns of our lives. The body in all its forms is beautiful. Everyone has an aspect of beauty within him or her. We must grow to appreciate each other as each other.
Perhaps with a view to a better view of everyone, a focus on personality over physical person the images artists and others carve will become not images of body but of abstract concepts of better humanity.