A question about beauty in our society?

During the late medieval through to pre-industrial era through art and stories inner qualities like kindness, goodness, faith, loyalty, etc. where portrayed through physical beauty and good looks. Hence the hero or heroine of a story was said to be handsome or beautiful, more so than normal.





Our present day society is based on foundations from this era and we have brought many of its ideas and ideals with us from then into our modern day. However as with many long held traditions and customs the meaning of can be lost over time, people just going through the motions and not understanding why.





So my question is, can this artistic cheat explain our society鈥檚 current pre-occupation with physical beauty and/or attractiveness? Trying to find the most beautiful but not understanding that that does not guarantee 'inner beauty' as it were?





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If so then what does that say for our society and its views on beauty and attraction? What would be a better way to approach the subject?





Please explain your answers.





I thank you in advance.





(P.S. Please do not discuss evolutionary science, survival of the fittest, etc. that is not the point of the question.)A question about beauty in our society?
Finally someone who thinks! The concept of ';beauty is in the eye of the beholder'; has become irrelevant in our culture since the beholder has been changed because commercialization has warped our conception of what beauty is in an ideal sense and what is reality. The very images we see in advertising for the most part use the most attractive models to role' play for the cameras, but in fact the average population doesn't look like or could even be like the stereotypes forced on us constantly. The physical rather than the ethical attributes of humanity are constantly force-fed us to create an illusion of comfort and well being while trying to convince us that buying any particular product will somehow bring the average person up to the level of the ideal. In the process, feelings and therefore ethical standards are diminished. The end result is the commercial world becomes reality, and the ugliness becomes unnatural. To give you a classic example, not long ago Johnson %26amp; Johnson ran an ad showing a father who had a container of salsa in a living room done totally in white. The phone rings. His wife is on the other end. His child knocks the container to the floor. She is concerned about her clean living room. He says, in a blatent lie, ';Not we're not in the living room, we're not making a mess';. Fortunately the container stayed shut. The disclaimer at the end was, ';Johnson and Johnson, a family company';, Great message for a family company to send. It's OK to lie? Point is, the beholder has been changed so much that the only thing seen is what can be seen and with the advent of instant gratification, the beholder no longer wants to take the time or even knows or cares about what can't be seen let alone what could or should be felt like those of the medeval period when life was reality.A question about beauty in our society?
Looking back at the art works of the older era, the beautiful were quite the rounded voluptuous types or men with large physiques, and chiseled features.


(these images today might not be what most would call beautiful - although i still do).





If i said a beautiful woman came to my door today, she had long black hair and a flowing dress that blew in the breeze.


It wouldn't mean to me that she was (( model status)).





Just that she had looked lovely, or i felt she was lovely.


As in aura / connection / feeling / vibe with the person.





You would really have to take into account what the person hearing this said story would visualize, there own ideas as to the beauty or there own ideas of what this person could look like.





So i think much like the old (Chinese whispers) the story gets exaggerated, people put in there own bits, so instead of a lovely girl came to my door, it would turn out to be the fairest girl in the land.





We have continued to believe this. and this is where we society forgets, Who we are counts more - than what we look like.
We love pretty girl because she has the quality to be fit and healthy. What if we accept ugliness? Our race will degenerate! Ugly women does not deserve a husband.


Every reality is subject to change, decay... But there is nothing bad about the instinct which distinguish between prettiness and ugliness. The instinct is not to be rejected, virtue and reason should be rejected if they are in conflict with the instinct. For exemple, your instinct tells you to go resting; your reason tells you to continue working - or inversely - you should listen to the instinct.


Prettiness is a compounded and constructed state, it's meaningless. Your instinct tells you to love the pretty, don't watch the ugly, so even such command is meaningless (not supported by popular prejudices), you should follow. FOR HAPPINESS!


As conventially regarded, you should not expect a pretty wife if you are ugly. That's very good for the ugly man to be unconfident in approaching girls - this instinct (unconfidence) keeps the human race beautiful.


The pretty is part of the causal continuum of good blood generation.
well i am not a folk-lorist there friend but i think you would find that most fairy tale writers exported their own beautiful meanings (Inner beauty) into the story lines while constructing images which were extra-ordinary.





in present day society not that much has changed except ... well.... the three stooges have a substantial income and cinderella won't eat pumpkins.





i suppose that fairy tellers of old were just bored country folk with nothing better to do after chopping a wood pile or scrubbing the floor.





gosh.....come to think of it....they were beautiful people.





inside and outside.
that is just human nature.....pretty is pretty and ugly is ugly......no not a good way to look at it......just the way it is.......for real, who looks at inner beauty----the outer counts---and if , by chance, you find a person with both then grab ahold tight and be thankful....