True Beauty?

I read this quote on an article titled "Material Girl":


"[We] are brainwashed to think blond hair and blue eyes is the most beautiful of all."


What do you guys think about this, I personally see how this argument could hold.

 

in other cultures beauty is far from what 'americans" think of as beautiful, however many asian nations praise the american standard of beauty

 

Blondes never really had that much appeal to me.

 

I think that "brainwashed" is hardly a fair term. We live in a society where people are encouraged to be as individualistic as possible (don't start, Truth-Bringer - you yourself are evidence enough that it is possible to be highly individual in America today) and any "brainwashing" in regards to physical beauty is simply a limited perception of the impact of popular culture on the human mind. The cultural image of beauty in America has always been, in one basic form or another, the blond haired, blue eyed Caucasian. While people are free to decide for themselves what they consider beautiful they will always feel the influence of the culture on their perception. People of a weaker constitution will blame the culture for influencing their decisions and call it brainwashing.

 

LOL. Well I of course have to disagree. We live in a culture that "encourages" people to conform (many of the elites encourage the conformity to be more precise) - not to experience the full range of individual freedom. While it is possible to act in an individualistic manner - if you cross the government, they will immediately attack your exercise of freedom if they disagree with it.

I would agree with you that "brainwashing" isn't the appropriate term in regards to beauty standards, but this image has been upheld and spread to the masses by the fashion industry/media in the past. I think that has changed a lot in recent years though. You see many more models of different races and different ethnic looks these days.

If you want to talk "brainwashing" then you're probably thinking about the public fool system and government or economic classes...

 

Blond hair and blue eyes are an arbitrary ideal. Personally, those are not my ideal so you would have a hard time convincing me that I have been brainwashed into believing those were the most beautiful. You could argue, and I would agree that a certain percentage of the population has been convinced (brainwashing is questionable) that blond/blue are the most beautiful.

 

What does the ideal child look like in your mind? Or how about .. when you think of the word "baby", what do you picture?

i dunno but that damn image of that baby in the Teletubbies comes to mind

 

I'm a chauvanist.

I agree with it.

 

We're not brainwashed per se. It's society working as it always has. Chinese women stuffing their feet into pairs of size 1 nike infant shoes for the "small deformed foot" cultural fetish. Those odd neck ring folks who like to elongated their necks like an armored crane. Culture definitely directs what beauty is to a culture member. However there are many more aspects to what each person personally finds attractive. You have your cultural steered aspect, you have your genetic aspect, and you have other aspects I can't exactly put my finger on. Genetically we're programmed to find people attractive who have certain size/shape/location in the facial features. The unknown aspects are what steer people to choose different specifics, I have no idea why a man would find a girl with a huge butt more attractive or less attractive than one with a skinny rear. I mean I know what I find attractive, but have no answer for why, I don't believe it to be cultural cos a lot of my friends find certain aspects I find attractive absolutely unattractive. I suppose also attraction incorporates the emotional state of the individual who is attracted. I know that I've seen plain girls become beautiful in my eyes after getting to know them as friends for a while. I know that I've found girls who dress a certain way attractive due to the behavior that the state of dress implies. There are way too many aspects to simply be so simple as saying Blue and Blonde is beatiful or that culture has programmed me in any way.

 

I think that media, tv, and movies have convinced people of their own ugliness, but the funny thing however is that, at least in my experience, it does not transfer into the perception of others. I think that we find the same things attractive regardless of what the media may try to convince us is attractive. But I feel that media does succeed in making us more self-conscious.

 

True, but then again, you have to remember this IS America, and we have a lot of people who can't think for themselves.

 

Keep in mind that when the Romans occupied England and named it, the term literally meant land of angels because in Roman art angels were always depicted as having blonde hair fair skin and blue eyes. They were amazed to find an island full of people meeting this description.

 

...

What I want to know is how white people got duped into thinking that tanning is attractive... while still holding that tanned whites are more beautiful than people born with pigment.
People without pigment should actually be concerned when their skin starts to get darker... and should noice the leathery texture of old tanners' skins. We're being cooked when that happens, you know? We come from the land of the ice and snow...

But can't put too much blame on us for thinking Californian stupidity is beautiful... Cultures all over the world do stupid things in the name of beauty. Where animals have beauty through natural selection, we create it through culture and it is often stupid.
I've never found blondes all that attractive myself. My wife is Asian. I'm white and I try to stay out of the sun.