Rational Insanity
Beauty?
No one is ready to give up the definition of beauty being in the eyes of the beholder. The 21st century may be leaps and bounds from the era of the aetas but one thing's for sure, that little green, hydrocephalic heads with big black eyes and antennae still do not define beauty quite the way modern Filipinos would define it. While beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, the Filipino has a very discriminating eye and is not about to see anything beautiful in the stuff horror movies are made of; but the Filipino would brave the stuff horror movies are made of just to achieve physical beauty.
The Filipino concept of physical beauty, like the ruins of the coliseum, has stood the tests of time. Perhaps there have been additions to its definition, but the time tested definition has remained the same. Beauty gives pleasure even if achieving it could be painful. The 21st century Filipino has gone from the more mundane to the more introspective concept of beauty; although this does not mean that the standing definition of beauty has been trashed, altogether. Now, Filipinos are willing (although hesitant) to accept dark skin as a sign of beauty. If only cosmetic companies would stop treating dark skin like it was a disease so that treatments and tons of whitening creams could be prescribed for it, maybe the Filipino would finally turn to more important things other than the lightening of his/her skin.
On the average, forty percent of the Filipino population has tried some form of whitening treatment or applied whitening cream to their skins. This translates into a huge percentage of the monthly income of these Filipinos spent for whitening their skin. The Filipino is vain; very vain. Skin whitening is just one of the many things that Filipinos would go through to stand up to the Filipino standard of beauty. Worse even are the expensive and painful cosmetic procedures that enhance physical beauty. Some would even go through the pain of extensive cosmetic surgery to actually transform a face that is not beautiful enough to something that is approximate to the general concept of beauty.
The female Suludnon of Panay Island, for instance, would file their teeth with abrasive stones to please the men of their tribe. Men, on the other hand, would use thorns as needles to apply tattoos to their body to impress the women. All these are done in the absence of anesthesia (uurgh!). The modern day Filipino would spend hours in the gym following the orders of a less than pleasant, odorous gym instructor just to achieve the perfect figure. Some would even starve themselves regularly until only a pound separates them from the anorexic twins! These are just examples of what people would go through for beauty. What is all this fuss with beauty, and why is it such a big deal, anyway?
In this century, we have a million and one reasons to be beautiful and none to be ugly. Evolution must have played its part really well in the development of human brains so that pro-creation is not just a singular matter. Pro-creation may be a basic biological process but it can be broken down into myriads of very complex components. Physical attraction is one of these elements. Physical appearance has much to do with attraction to the opposite sex. Only hypocrites would say that the first thing that they look for in a person is internal beauty; beauty which is not just skin deep. Whether we like it or not, we cannot begin to realize how wonderful a person is in terms of behavior and character if we were not physically attracted to that particular person in the first place. If physical attraction leading to pro-creation is quite likely, the basic reason for physical beauty, self-esteem is the lamest of these reasons. Some people nowadays seek cosmetic enhancement of their features because they want to acquire a certain level of self confidence and self-esteem. Bad news, expecting a rise in self-esteem and self-confidence from a painful cosmetic procedure is like waiting for water from a stone; a Moses to strike the stone with his magical staff is a mandatory requirement.
With all these toss and tumble about beauty in the modern world, most of us are inevitably forced to look at the mirror and reflect on whether we are beautiful by modern day standards or not; if the physical state that we are in is enough to win us the prince or princess of our dreams, or if our quest for beauty is just a pointless crusade. Eons ago, a bone used in the place of a hair clip was a sign of beauty. Somewhere in the world, a tribe considers extremely long necks as a sign of beauty, some even have needles sticking out of their lips just to be beautiful, and so, the question really is, “Will the physical beauty that we so long to achieve stand the test of time?” True, the concept has lived through centuries, but nobody ever said that the concept of beauty is beautiful in itself.
With all the cosmetic enhancements and “life-changing” products at our disposal, why is the hunger for beauty still insatiable? Why has the quest for perfection in physical beauty intoxicated our once, simple, and basic perceptions? Perhaps these are two very important questions we should ask ourselves when we look into the mirror and notice crows feet under our eyes and decide to go for some costly face lift, or when we see our breasts sagging and call our cosmetic surgeons to report a life-threatening emergency “Why are all babies beautiful? Why are all old people beautiful?
Beauty has become too commercial and while we can easily achieve advertised beauty as long as we have fat pay checks, let us not forget that physical beauty alone is like a book with nothing on its pages. Let us ask ourselves if our physical beauty has a story to tell. Now, we know why all babies are beautiful -- it is not because of their supple skin or their pinkish glow that we all want to achieve with lotions and pinking powders, but because their story has just begun. Now, we know why all old people are beautiful -- it is not because of the hundreds of lines on their faces and sagging skin that we dutifully try to avoid with night creams and face lifts, but because their story has already been told.
Beauty in this century is innocence not youth. Beauty in this century is wisdom not intelligence. It has always been and always will be.
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