If you type the word ‘beauty’ into google images and have a look what the first few images are, you’ll see that they are all women having their make-up and hair done to make them
If you type the word ‘beauty’ into google images and have a look what the first few images are, you’ll see that they are all women having their make-up and hair done to make them look perfect. ‘Beauty’ derived from the early 14thcentury to mean ‘physical attractiveness’ but also ‘goodness’ and ‘courtesy’ – here are the connotations of beauty to people now in the 21st century.
Beautiful women
So what is a stereotypical beautiful woman – is it the likes of Michelle Keegan, Megan Fox or Angelina Jolie with their make-up and hair perfectly done as men swoon at their feet. Or is it something along the lines of a more natural light hearted girl?
In the media, beautiful women are presented as slim but curvy and busty with no stretch marks, natural looking but covered in make-up, clear skin and perfect straight white teeth. Society has made us women feel as though we need to make an effort and change our appearances in order to please the males, and even so the boys expect us to look good in order to attract them, not just to make us feel good about ourselves. It’s became such a big debate with feminism and what is ‘beautiful’ and what isn’t.
When asking a range of lads what features they think a ‘beautiful woman’ has, the answers have ranged from a good personality, funny, down to earth, confident but not cocky, talking with no slang… to physical features such as nice smile, soft tanned skin, curvy and healthy, dimples, nice eyes (interesting colour), and then some slightly shallow specifics such as a ‘banging bum and blonde hair.’
Conflicting reaction
Many ideas of ‘beauty’ isn’t just the good looks, it’s who the person is – how their eyes light up when their talking about something they love, how they laugh at their own little jokes, their ability to care about others happiness more than their own. Beauty isn’t just a symbol of someone’s physical features, but the media will never portray a less physically attractive woman as a model icon due to the fact that society’s standards of a beautiful woman is mainly their pretty face and slim body, not who they are as a person.
When asking some boys if there are any unattractive features a female could have the answers varied from attributes such as selfish, unhygienic, racist and having no respect for family. These things, however, can be associated with both male and female. Specifics for female include girls that judge, gossip, cling to their friends, smokers, bright orange fake tan, greasy and tatty hair, big boobs, a lot of make-up, and overweight. Okay.
So why is it some girls feel the need to cover themselves in make-up, or wear a lot of fake tan, or even wear push up bra’s to make males attracted to them – when in reality, on the basis of my research, boy’s tend to feel as though girls are more attractive with less make-up and such. It all comes back down to the argument that’s arose very recently all over the social networking sites – no matter what girls do or don’t do, what they wear or don’t wear, how much they weigh: there will always be complaints. This will be a forever ongoing argument and battle against and for feminism.
Beautiful men
Okay, firstly, the word ‘beautiful’ is rarely associated with males – they are described more as handsome, good looking or attractive. But, just as I stated with women, there is a stereotypical good looking and unattractive male.
When asking females what they think a ‘beautiful male’ has, the answers diversed from a good sense of humour, charisma, nice smile, bright eyes, tanned, nice jaw line, presentable, physically fit, caring and thoughtful, good sense of fashion and tall. So let’s focus on the physical features first – men in magazines and the media usually always have one thing in common and that’s they physically fit body.
Boys and their muscles, their abs and six pack, it’s all about how their bodies look because it is said that girls love muscles. So do boys go to the gym to become more attractive to females? Is it in the same sense as girls putting on make-up – to feel and look more attractive?
It’s all personality
Not all males will work on their bodies just to impress girls, they’ll do it to impress themselves, just as some girls like to make themselves look good to feel good. But what’s unattractive about males – being a jerk. Seriously lads, “treat them mean, keep them keen” is not a concept anymore, you want a girl you gotta’ be nice.
You may look the part and keep yourself looking attractive, but with a personality of a brick, no sense of humour or respect – what girl is going to think you’re attractive? That’s right—none. Other off-putting qualities I’ve found have been unhygienic, little ambitions and aspiration, greasy hair, arrogance, no morals, mucky finger nails, unappealing teeth, and a big nose.
The idea of this article came from when I was sat at my desk doing my make-up I thought to myself ‘am I considered beautiful or unattractive from other peoples view?’ then straight after that I thought ‘but what is beauty?’
Beauty for any gender isn’t just about the amazing looks, beauty is a quality in someone or something that gives an intense contentment to the mind.
What do you think? Do you agree? Have your say in the comments section below.
