Why Beauty Matters (Widescreen) [1/6]

I thought that this documentary was really eye opening describing that in victorian times "beauty was a value as important as truth or goodness" and that the "soul purpose of art, music was beauty" and that how beauty in society reflects how we percieve things and how all our archiecture is ugly and cold, with no love or appreciation gone into it and how that anything with just a utility use is not meant to last, and how architecture of great beauty has last thousands of years.

How all our art now is meant to disturb or shock (Tracy Emin's Bed) and that by loosing beauty in our culture we are loosing the meaning of life. How copies of mimicks of somehing can never match up (such as the Michalangelo Statue) because copies lack creativity and deep down we all know when something is cheapend it looses its preciousnes.

That beauty is all around us it "amplifies our joys, finds consolidaion for our sorrows" that "sacred and beauty" stand side by side, that "beauty is the sign of another and higher order. Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind you will be able to nourish true vurtue and become the son of god." It all sounds a little far fetched and religious but this documentary really touched me and really made sense, as wordsworth said "getting and spending we way to waste our powers."

"Today the human hunger for beauty is satisfied by the much-maligned fashion magazines which as glorious art for the masses." From What is Beauty.

Does beauty come from within?

Quotes from What is Beauty:

"Products, treatments, miracle-workers: this is the stuff of beauty. And beauty is the stuff of life." I found this quote quite ironic because is beauty is the stuff of life and cosmetics where the stuff of beauty then if there were no cosmetics anymore we wouldnt cease to exist. I feel that this is a very narrow minded view of someone who's always been adnorned with luxuries; its true that products can make you feel good because there's a image attached with all of them and by buying and using them you feel that for a second you can touch the image of immortality portrayed by the adverts.

Is religion the answer? "for years the church has raied against the deciet and vanity of fashion" "it goes without saying that it is a gift from on high" "the eye is the part of the human body where the soul shines through, perhaps this is why eye make-up is the only kind of cosmetic mentioned in the bible." Is beauty a spiritual thing, a gift of the divine on earth from god and fashion is the man made mimic. There are different fashions all over the world, but a beautiful face is a beautiful face everywhere.

"Most media images you see today have nothing to do with beauty, they're more about attitude" it all seems to be whats attracting attention than whats actually beautiful and I dont know why we all blindlessly follow this, making ourselves feel inadequate. It all seems like a massive circus, constantly moving on to peer and gaze in orr at the next attraction, wooed by colours and lights, a show. We would never compare ourselves with circus performers, just sit back and appriciate the show, so why does fashion have such a hold over us and our ideals...???

Goddess Beauty

Quotes from The Face of Fashion p172:

I found it ironic that ancient goddess images were so far removed from todays society and the goddesses Venus (Roman mythology) and Afroditie (greek mythology)were celebrated for everything femine, such as love, beauty, springtime, flowers, fertility and sexual love. With "the western ideal of physical beauty derived, in part from Greek art," fashions shallow view seems to be "they should consider the same forms frightful in frocks" as fashion was meant for "figures of phantasy to fit those who have distorted their forms."

Fashion and Starvation

From The Face of Fashion by J. Craik

I really liked these quotes because they gave a different light to deformation of the body in "a kind of self-loathing that exaggerates the percieved deformity of ones objective body shape" by anorexia's and bulimics. As we all seem to see a slight exaggeration or deformity of the body shape as attractive has this affected us so much that its now socially embedded into our minds where we can no longer accept the true or natural but are so used to seeing the deformities we dont know whats real anymore.

"the anorexic avoids the shameful world of eating, while simultaneously achieving personal power and a sense of moral superiority through the emaciated body" all this just seems ridiculous when likened with the starving children in Africa, its almost like a sick joke, you just think how selfish we are.

The Ugliness of Fashion

Quotes from Fashion and Eroticism:

I really liked the morbid quality of these quotes and how the idea of fashion and beauty seems to like a sick joke "postmodern fashion has gone further, taunting death with its nihilistic visions, flaunting its loss of moral restraint, its contempt for hypocritical bourgeois ideals and forcing a confrontation with inner fears." its almost as if hell is rising up and taking over because of our lack of morals and corrupt society.

"a hallucination of a world without ageing, death and decay no longer simply a part of organic life, are thrown up at the women as a special punishment of fate" it seems too close to the story of adam and eve , where they lived in a perfect world and didnt appreciate it so were cast out to age and wallow in there own destruction.

"further and further removed from the real body that is rejected for its banality, its lumpen and inevitable decay" - reating how nothing natural seems to be good enough anymore as were all aspiring to the unachievable to the immortal!

"An extreme fascination with the erotic potential of the controlled figure has become combined with an erotic vision that speaks of threat and domination." "they tempt the onlooker who usually has no means of possesing such riches, with their promise to power and cruelty." I love these 2 quotes relating fashion as a means of control, dominance and power, the ulimate temptation of sin!!!

Victorian views on Fashion and Beauty - did they know more than we do?

From Fashion & Erotisim:
I found this group of quotes particularly interesting because they almost seemed to have more direction, common sense and reasoning than anything relating to fashion today.
Particularly how from "the voluptuous mid-victorian woman, the statuesque gibson-girl type an the slender poiret flapper" is it true that women were progressing toward a natural ideal or were they simply better mimicking youth with cosmetics and the more girlish figure. Whatevers true there was a definite decrease between female beauty and maternity. Maybe simulating childlike looks is a way of distancing yourself as far as possible from accepting age and responsibility...

Then women with cosmetics, immitating youth were percieved as relating to "actresses or certain kinds of women" and cosmetics were "ligitimate for married women, but never young girls" which gives the impression that cosmetics werent completly accepted but by likening them to actresses they became an indulgement for women and eventually a nessesity. It was thought that "false and artificial beauty could destroy them"
It was also thought that "the unnatural can never be beautiful" and "deformity has through long custom become to us beauty" (which ironically is true of all cultures - a search for the unusual but as natural as possible obviously seems something your just born with and to be manufactured by man causes uglyness, deformity and damage because maybe it doesnt corrispond with the fine order of things possibly the Fibonacci code) because a deformity in nature is called evolution.

I think the Victorians got it right when they said "a narrow waist between tasty hips and a proud bosom was always admired, but even a splendid form was often transformed according to the fantasies of fashion" and that a long slender waist seemed to make women more fragile, and maybe because of natural instincts men are drawn to this to the need to protect, this could also make women statuesque like, relating them to a piece of art or Venus.

Is it infact that women change themselves into sex objects "the surveyor of women in herself is male; the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object - and most particularly an object of vision a sight" as we have always had the need to be attractive to our peers and the opposite sex.

Is it that "fashion change occurs in large part because novelty arouses sexual curiosity and causes the individual to be seen more clearly again" just as we all thrive on something new and colourful I dont think that this was initially intended for fashion, but for travel and seasons and the world around us.

20's fashion was a pivital point of where female dress became "chic and casual, very young and semi-masculine and certainly not feminine and beautiful" our need for something new and exciting has always been both a hinderance and advantage. Women now seemed to lack a certain amount of sex appeal with fashion getting younger.

Bulimia and the Western self

From The Face of Fashion:

I found this quote particularly interesting as it describes how "bulimia emerges as a characteristic modern personality" describing how our need for control to the extent that it damages us, representing our restriction on image in society) then uncontrollable food-binges (describing our unstable spending on things we dont need) and then the requirement to sober up and get back in control for the ritual to take place all over again. By doing this are women trying to get some mastery over there bodies by controlling their intake, therfore demonstrating male qualities of detachement and self-mastery? - why do women suffer like this to try and become something their not and were never meant to be...???

Should we aspire to be beautiful?

From What is Beauty:

These coupe of quotes did make me think that maybe making the best of yourself is what everyone should aspire to and if that meaning using makeup or if you dont like something, getting it fixed, then why not?

Makeup as body armour, "a chance to connect with people while still protecting yourself." This makes it sound like life is a battlefield for women, which is probably is for most, always batteling against nature, weight and competition from women all around us everyday. Maybe if we didnt have things like cosmetics to help us look our best and also act as a shield, and mascuine clothing to enpower ourselves then maybe we'd all fall to pieces...

I also liked the ideas addressed about were supposibly broadening the definition for beauty such as "ugly beauty" and how "beauty takes its cue from fashion and fashion's new direction is pared down" I really do think that this is a load of rubbish, as it almost seems like a cruel way to make people feel worse about themselves, I do believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and to call someone an ugly beauty is just sick, and almost seems like another means of socially grouping people. Also to say that beauty takes it cue from fashion is ridicules, for fashion to ever take credit for beauty... beauty was here even before fasion existed!

I found it quite amusing how something so simple as a beauty spot could turn into a fad in the victorian era and have all kinds of different meanings. I thought it was a bit unfair if my chance you had a beauty spot on your nose you would then be labeled as "shameless"

Our Culture Body Obsession

From What is Beauty:
I really liked this selection of quotes as they strike on a few really bizare issues that I've never really thought about before, such as;

The idea of anorexia when you stop having periods and are unable to produce a child, is this natures way of protecting the body which for an anorexic is so frail that any loss or blood or distress would kill you, or is it that by loosing what makes you a women, your femine curves, you regress back into a child therefore loosing your ability to have children...???

Also the idea of women "always worried about their sexual beauty, meaning they have walked a fine line between celebrating and hiding it" I find this quote extremly true, where women are chastised for being too sexual (a slut) or too covered (women in the Muslim culture)...where is the balance???

I also found the quote that "success is found under the gaze of others" really interesting, because we constantly seem to be seeking approval from others by wearing the right clothes, and fitting into a certain social agenda. It seems ironic that the people who do this the best seem to be able to fit in the best and therefore seem to end up with better prospects in life.

There are also a few quotes from Fran Lebowitz (an American author) which I was really quite angry about especially as its a women saying them, such as; "women need money for beauty and largely they get it from men who place a high value on their looks" and "the pursuit of great beauty by the average person is ridiculous" I think shes got a very cruel and sadistic view of the world and if everyone thought the same wouldnt it be a sad place to live in! if she thinks beauty is only skin deep then shes much shallower than the rest of us.

I also loved the idea of why women love babies so much, "in wanting to touch him, people seem to want to get a little piece of goodness" I thought that this was such a lovely quote and its very true, women just cant resist! I also thought it was ironic how we seem to imitate babies and their innocence with blusher etc... as if all we want is to get our innocence back as those were much happier times... the more you know the more corrupt you become.

Beauty Obsession -Venezuela

I thought that this documentary was really eye opening describing that in victorian times "beauty was a value as important as truth or goodness" and that the "soul purpose of art, music was beauty" and that how beauty in society reflects how we percieve things and how all our archiecture is ugly and cold, with no love or appreciation gone into it and how that anything with just a utility use is not meant to last, and how architecture of great beauty has last thousands of years.

How all our art now is meant to disturb or shock (Tracy Emin's Bed) and that by loosing beauty in our culture we are loosing the meaning of life. How copies of mimicks of somehing can never match up (such as the Michalangelo Statue) because copies lack creativity and deep down we all know when something is cheapend it looses its preciousnes.

Beauty Obesssion

Link wouldnt work but documentary is on Youtube as Beauty Obession Venezuala

This is a documentary about the beauty queen pagent in Venezuala: I found this quite a disturbing documentary abou how one man dictated exactly what beauty was and anything he didnt like on a particular girl he just rubbed out. These were some amazingly naturaly beautiful looking girls, but they were all ungoing surgery to look how this man wanted them to, all with the same nose height and look, loosing weight, damaging their bodies and it all just seemed so sinful that these girls who were born beautiful werent good enough and their were probably people all over the world who needed this money spend on them because they actually need surgery... just disgusted me a bit how shallow a spieces we are.

Beauty all over the World

From World Dress: by Frances Kennett
View of beauty seems so different in so many different cultures, but all seem to have a common feature of adornment and disfiguration, whether it be to put massive stone and sticks in your features to streach them out of proportion or to wear a neck brace to make your neck longer. It all seems that we have a common goal for the strange the unusual to aspire to the god like image.

I also found that in almost every other country colour seems to be beauty, but not in ours, ours seems to be to conform... or maybe I've just been brought up and cant see past my own culture, as although other cultures have more colourful dress than ours women are more restricted to what they wear.

Beauty, Fashion and shape

From History of 20th Centuary Fashion: by Elisabeth Ewing Revised by Alice Mackrell

I love the difference in these images, from the 1st speaks about how "the fashionable edwardian lady did not want to follow nature" and how shape was thought to be beauty, for women over the last hundread years, we have been apples, pears, S-shape, hour glass, bell and so on. It seems that men never get this treatment of being shaped and molded to imitate everyday objects... seems really strange

Fashion history shows the most desirable body image of a fashion era is most often achieved by distorting the figure by enlargement or reduction, or by flattening or moving parts into new positions.

Fashion is a shape, a changing shape. That shape is mainly formed and controlled by some device which affects part of the body's natural outline. What is considered beautiful in the eyes of one race may be thought horrific in another. Beauty then is in the eye of the beholder, and for centuries beauty has been shape.

Until about a hundred years ago a small dainty foot was considered essential to make a Chinese woman eligible for marriage. Small feet are a racial characteristic of Chinese women. The desire to make the foot smaller in the name of beauty was strong enough for the Chinese to mutilate female feet for nearly 1000 years

A massive change to womens dress came about during the first world war when they had to dress for practicallity... this gave way to more manly dress and possibly hardened women or made men realise that women were not quite so dainty as they first thought.

It seems ironic that in the victorian era women were damaging there bodies by means of clothing and now our fashion images just seem to be an emaciated form, with this image supposed to represent the current day venus (as titled with the collection)...she just looks ill to me. It seems so ironic when compared with the original Venus.

What makes these models beautiful???

What makes these models beautiful?
the only common attribut they all seem to have is that your instantly drawn to their eyes in the photos... the eyes are said to be the path to the soul, are they also to beauty as well???