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Is beauty only in the eye of the beholder?

  • 11-04-2018 04:55AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,922 ✭✭✭


    As the title states, is beauty only in the eye of the beholder, or can we say some things are universally beautiful?


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    hmmmmmmmmm.. a deep question to wake up to.

    One example.One of my cats is walking all over me. He is utterly beautifiul in every way

    But if you happen to dislike cats? Same goes for many things

    Off to walk down to the ocean.. lovely to me and many, unless you get seasick ;)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,888 ✭✭✭Atoms for Peace


    It's a qualitative rather than quantitive quaility.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,307 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    It seems humans have a built in appreciation for certain shapes and relationships of objects and colour that we describe as beautiful and it's pretty universal, though on the surface can vary across cultures and time.

    That's the objective beauty(in as much as that might be defined), subjective beauty can vary quite a bit. Both in art and design and nature. Like Graces example of the cat. Objectively cats are beautifully designed for purpose, but if you don't like cats you might not find them attractive subjectively.

    Same very much goes regarding human beauty. There are a few pretty solid commonalities, but personal taste, the eye of the beholder comes into play. Look at the thread of the "most beautiful women in the world". I can't recall any women posted that aren't objectively beautiful, but I can think of a load that I wouldn't find attractive. And I'd not be alone in that. A thread on "most beautiful men in the world" would show the same thing.

    Many worry about Artificial Intelligence. I worry far more about Organic Idiocy.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,161 ✭✭✭frag420


    Its usually in the eye of the beer-holder in my experience....


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    GM228 wrote: »
    As the title states, is beauty only in the eye of the beholder, or can we say some things are universally beautiful?

    I would suggest it is both - in different measures depending on different contexts. You might enjoy this video not just because the subject matter is relevant - but I think the speakers voice alone is both objectively and subjectively beautiful. I could listen to him read the ingredients of packet soup and find it enjoyable.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,235 ✭✭✭✭Cee-Jay-Cee


    As the old saying, beauty is only skin deep but ugliness goes right through to the bone.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,058 ✭✭✭conorhal


    Wibbs wrote: »
    It seems humans have a built in appreciation for certain shapes and relationships of objects and colour that we describe as beautiful and it's pretty universal, though on the surface can vary across cultures and time.

    That's the objective beauty(in as much as that might be defined), subjective beauty can vary quite a bit. Both in art and design and nature. Like Graces example of the cat. Objectively cats are beautifully designed for purpose, but if you don't like cats you might not find them attractive subjectively.

    Same very much goes regarding human beauty. There are a few pretty solid commonalities, but personal taste, the eye of the beholder comes into play. Look at the thread of the "most beautiful women in the world". I can't recall any women posted that aren't objectively beautiful, but I can think of a load that I wouldn't find attractive. And I'd not be alone in that. A thread on "most beautiful men in the world" would show the same thing.

    Indeed, the eye picks up inherent visual cues of genetic health. Studies show that regarless of preferences, a symetrical face is considered universally attractive for example.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,161 ✭✭✭frag420


    As the old saying, beauty is only skin deep but ugliness goes right through to the bone.

    Prob why your Missus rattles when I shag her...:D:D


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 300 ✭✭garbo speaks


    I once dumped a girl because I didn't like the look of her feet.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,364 ✭✭✭✭cantdecide


    Things can change with time and circumstance and once you get to know someone. It's kind of a halo effect, I suppose. I was in a relationship for a long time where I had very little attraction to her in the beginning. I was just kind of going with the flow in the early days, tbh not expecting things to work out. After some time, I ended up wondering what the hell I'd been thinking about before.

    I'm very visual. I couldn't ever be with someone I found unattractive but at the same time, I've been stunned at who I've found myself being attracted to once I got to know them. That's why TInder is just no good to me - my 'standards' become very high for someone the average girl usually is happy to swipe left for.

    I suppose I'm quite surprised when I hear that someone finds me attractive, not that that happens every day - there's lots about myself I'd change but it's happened that some people I'd regard as reasonably sensible people have called me handsome here and there (and I'm pretty sure they meant it).


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,942 ✭✭✭topper75


    What is 'quality' though really?

    *re-affixes carburetor back onto Harley*


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,814 ✭✭✭harry Bailey esq


    As the old saying, beauty is only skin deep but ugliness goes right through to the bone.

    Yer bang on there.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 94,379 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Helen of Troy's face launch'd a thousand ships.

    so using the SI system we can rate beauty in mH, milliHelens


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,194 ✭✭✭foxy farmer


    Helen of Troy's face launch'd a thousand ships.

    so using the SI system we can rate beauty in mH, milliHelens

    I wonder how many of the women listed in the Most Beautiful Women In The World thread have launched even one ship or any vessel for that matter?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,394 ✭✭✭Pac1Man


    Helen of Troy's face launch'd a thousand ships.

    so using the SI system we can rate beauty in mH, milliHelens

    Jaysus. I'd be on the first boat too if she was after me.

    s163.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,364 ✭✭✭✭cantdecide


    Pac1Man wrote: »
    Jaysus. I'd be on the first boat too if she was after me.

    s163.jpg

    I bet you didn't know that she's one of the founding members of Megadeth.

    09fc9c96df1ef25659ddbbe1d8afe6a9.jpg


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,307 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    I wonder how many of the women listed in the Most Beautiful Women In The World thread have launched even one ship or any vessel for that matter?
    None that I know of. Maybe a yacht in Monaco, but that's about it. This woman has launched hundreds of the damn things, but... eh... OK...

    Queen+Launch.jpg
    Helen of Troy's face launch'd a thousand ships.

    so using the SI system we can rate beauty in mH, milliHelens
    And she'd likely look a bit odd today.

    lifebuzz-d0fff07beebf9ac08b65c6752e0c7df4-limit_2000.jpg

    Unibrows were a thing. As was white makeup with red dots painted on the cheeks and chin.

    6d2fd7_523d58a5820d4c70bd63f65cfec2b40b.jpg

    Fancy hairdos were "in" too. Though Helen was a Spartan so had way more freedom than say Athenian women. They were more cloistered than Saudi women today. The streets of Athens were almost exclusively a male preserve(save for children and whores). This Spartan freedom was considered scandalous by the Athenians. The idea that a woman could walk about the town in broad daylight, that she had a say in choice of marriage partner(and a bit of hanky panky before it) and she could own land? Gadzooks! :eek: Oh and they wore more revealing outfits. IIRC and I dunno if it was the Athenians, or some other Greek crowd but they called Spartan women "Leg women", because they wore dresses that were slashed to the waist. The brazen hussies! :D

    Thin was in too. Funny and sadly enough the first reference to what we would term anorexia/eating disorders in women was reported by Greek doctors.

    So yeah if you find an atomic powered DeLorean or a Tardis and have a hankering for the classical world head for Sparta rather than Athens. Either way if you're a bloke, you'd need to get your A game on in the gym. Greek men spent hours exercising and honing their bods to fit the Greek ideal. It's thought that a fair few of the Ancient Greek male statues were modelled, even cast from life. Maybe this is more advice to women out there who find an atomic powered DeLorean or a Tardis? :D Though defo head for Sparta. Bring the recipe for gunpowder and have the hunks line up. Though the Greeks also thought small willies were more aesthetically pleasing, so maybe not...

    Many worry about Artificial Intelligence. I worry far more about Organic Idiocy.



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