People like beautiful things -- especially beautiful people. The fact is that being beautiful can make your life a whole lot easier. Yet, in all honesty, it only makes your life easier if that beauty is paired with intelligence.
You see, people also view intelligence as a thing of beauty, which it rightfully is. And if a beautiful person isn’t intelligent, then that beauty will likely work against him or her.
Physical beauty alone will not get you where you want to be in life. It can, however, be used to your advantage when you already have so much else working for you. Of course, all of this is difficult to quantify -- as beauty is, in large part, subjective.
Artists and scientists would argue that the Golden Ratio is what defines beauty. Supposedly, human beings find other human beings attractive when different aspects of their facial structures produce The Golden Ratio. For example, it is said that -- ideally -- a person’s head should be 1.6 times as tall as it is wide.
The Golden Ratio can both be found in such works of art as Michelangelo’s David, as well as in nature itself. The Golden Ratio is actually a number called "Phi" (It’s derived from the Fibonacci sequence, in case you’re interested). The number is considered an irrational number, as it has no fraction equivalent, nor does its decimal ever stop.
It’s a bit hard to imagine that this alone is what defines beauty. Take for example how we defined a beautiful woman over the ages. A couple hundred years ago we liked our women pale and built for comfort. Nowadays we like our women tan and mannequin-esque.
While I’m sure that the Golden Ratio does play some part in what we see as being beautiful, when it comes to people, we see beauty a bit differently. A woman isn’t just beautiful or ugly. She can be pretty, cute, sexy, provocative… and combinations of.
One thing that most people seem to overlook when it comes to beauty is that people perceive beauty just as they perceive everything else -- in comparison and opposition to everything else. Is a beautiful painting a beautiful painting if there are a million identical copies? Many would argue yes. Others, no.
Yet, just about everyone would say that one million identical people cannot possibly be beautiful. For one, it’s unnatural. More importantly, when it comes to people -- in this day in age, anyhow -- we find uniqueness especially beautiful. If you are the same as everybody else, then there is something people will find innately unappealing about you.
This gets even more interesting as, although we find complete uniformity ugly, we find outliers just as ugly. It’s very difficult to understand or keep up with what other people find beautiful -- the trends change seasonally.
All of this is because it’s people who set trends, and as everyone perceives beauty a little differently, those who happen to be the trendsetters decide what is and isn’t beautiful. Until, of course, new trendsetters arrive on the scene.
The Golden Ratio may very well be the magical ratio that functions almost as an infrastructure for beauty, but as we are an incredibly egocentric and stubborn species, in the end, we ourselves decide what is and isn’t beautiful. The good news is you get to have just as much say as the next guy -- or gal.
The only thing that ought to matter to you is how you perceive yourself. Sure, it does matter how others perceive you because you live in a world in which you rely on the interaction with others to get what you want.
At the end of the day, however, if you don’t believe yourself to be beautiful or brilliant or pretty or sexy or cute or aesthetically appealing or just plain awesome, then you won’t be happy.
Intelligence or personality -- or whatever you’d like to call your conscious self -- can be just as beautiful or ugly as your physical self -- and it does factor into the equation.
I’d like to think that these days, intelligence is being factored more and more into the equation. I’d like to hope as the human race continues to age and evolve that intelligence continues to be the key to survival and prosperity.
Regardless, it’s thinking a little bit differently, accepting a different reality and pursuing your own personal journeys that all make you a unique individual -- and if you throw in a pinch of morality, it’s what makes you beautiful.
You don’t have to be pretty like the next girl. You have the potential to be beautiful in your own unique fashion.
It’s always good to understand the basic, quantifiable aspects of beauty, but they fall short as they don’t encompass the most beautiful thing on this planet: the human mind.
Your mind is beautiful and therefore you have the potential to show the world what a beautiful human specimen you are.
Don’t fall into the trap of following trends, trying to fit in with whatever everyone else is labeling as this season’s or generation’s definition of beauty.
Be yourself and be the best version of yourself you can possibly be. Others will recognize your beauty and -- most importantly -- so will you.
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