Beauty – A Social Phenomenon

Beauty is often defined as a subjective quality of things which makes these objects appealing to perceive. These objects could be works of art, landscapes, humans, and nature. Beauty, along with beauty, is also the primary topic of aesthetics, another of the three major branches of philosophy.

The subjective view of beauty is most often associated with the aesthetic sensibility of the person or the culture in question. Others argue that beauty is a mental state arising from certain combinations of bodily traits and mental states which generate pleasing emotional responses. Beauty, though, is not an objective quality inherent in objects. Rather, beauty depends on the judgment of humans. In order to make aesthetic judgments about beauty, we must use both visual and physical senses.

In aesthetics, beauty is usually seen in terms of visual symmetry. Aesthetic symmetry relates an object’s size to its location on the face, including the nose, mouth and eyes; distance between the eyes and nose; width and height of an object; and skin texture or roughness. In this way, symmetry gives an aesthetic feeling to the beholder.

Another important element of beauty is proportion. Proportion refers to the arrangement of parts in a picture or a structure so that they relate to each other and to the whole. For example, in nature, different animals and plants have different proportions of body shape and size, which allow them to thrive and survive. Similarly, art has its own elements and proportions which are considered aesthetics. Aesthetic balance is a necessary component of any work of art, which enables an artist to clearly display his or her idea of beauty through the creation of that work of art.

Visual symmetry and proportion cannot be stated as aesthetically appealing qualities of a picture alone. It is a combination of many other equally important factors, such as colors, form, lines, light, texture, composition, and the like. Therefore, it is important for an artist to incorporate all these elements in order to create an aesthetically pleasing work of art. This is why it is a difficult thing to say what is beauty in general. What may be beauty to one person may be considered vulgar by another. Aesthetic appeal and social media reception can easily be different when taken into account.

We see beautiful things all around us but it is our interpretation of those things that can make them beautiful or not. Aesthetic experiences can also be affected by the surrounding or the person that one sees the beauty. Thus, our brains can make us see differently the attractive faces judgments of others and judge their attractiveness based on our brain’s response. Thus, the definition of beauty can also be influenced by our interpretation of it.