Essay 3 Final

Conner Evans

September 5, 2014

English 1100

The Negative Side of Beauty

Everyone perceives beauty as a good attribute but not too many understand its negative effects. Beauty might be amazing to others but for many, it’s not all what it’s cracked up to be. It’s very hard to maintain beauty, for example, physical beauty since one has to always watch what to eat, work out, and then there the whole problem with age. Many push themselves and endure some pretty harsh treatment to remain beautiful. No one really understands what it takes to be beautiful; all they know is that what is indeed beautiful. Beauty can lead to anxiety, depression, and other issues. How can beauty cause that? If one is not beautiful, where does that leave one always feeling second rate, always being looked down on that’s not a way to live.  People can be beautiful or what they’ve done can be considered beautiful if they have been born with traits like potential skills, or intellectual excellence. For the people who don’t have that, it’s an uphill battle to evolve themselves to an ever changing consumer society.  Denis Dutton a very well respected philosopher says in his TED Talk “A Darwinian theory of beauty,” “Beauty is in the cultural conditioned eye of the beholder” (Dutton 2:20). What this means and how this relates is that an every changing society consistently remodels and changes beauty as society changes itself. Yet, beauty has a negative side too since the failure to acquire beauty causes people’s blind embrace of society’s dictation of beauty.

With the desire for beauty and beautiful things no one quite understands the level of stain beauty causes. Dutton explains Darwin’s theory of beauty in connection to “sexual selection”. As he says, “The experience of beauty is one of arousing and sustaining interest” (Dutton). Therefore if one fails to arouse or sustain interest from another person, one does not feel valued for one’s beauty or worse feels not beautiful. A lot of people they aren’t born with striking looks and defined features. They struggle of trying to always make beauty work or hide since they don’t feel beautiful. When one first meet someone, the first impression is on looks thus beauty. People make assumptions on looks. Hence, if beauty is not aroused in another person, then it becomes associated with negativity. People want to be Beautiful. The want to walk down the street and everyone takes a look their way because they can just sense the beauty. It’s this impossible goal of being perfectly beautiful that is making people make irrational decisions like wasting money on surgery and products to improve their physical features.  It’s this problem which reflects the negativity and problems beauty causes.

Another negative effect the quest of beauty is the failure of its acquisition. People want something to take pride in, whether it’s a skill like the ability to sing or maybe being able to dance. It can be physical beauty like a model or something personally created like art or a new invention. Better examples would be already famous creations the Monalisa or Adelel. We all dream of accomplishing and or creating these beautiful thing but it’s a sad truth that most people just won’t meet their goals.  People fail and fail, and keep failing to create beauty and a lot of time, people just give up. One example of people searching to acquire beauty is the talent show American Idol. In the audition rounds, countless numbers give it their best shot to “make it Hollywood” but, in actuality, only few make it and everyone else fail to reach their goals.  What we just saw is something quite sad. We just witnessed someone’s dreams crumble before them. They wanted their beautiful pride and joy to be their voice but failed in an entertaining fashion. That’s just one example though. All day, everyday people fail to find their beauty, and thus beauty can become negative. People invest all that they have into what they think is acquirable. If they fail then, they have nothing. Is it worth it to lose everything? We strive to be great like Messi and Beyoncé who what they do is considered beautiful but that’s the problem with beauty we all can’t be great.

The changing of society and what society says is beautiful is also a negative aspect of beauty. Now a days society dictates what’s beautiful or not, but the problem is that their idea of beauty is unobtainable. Tall, young, skinny girls with zero flaws is what society deems beautiful. The issue is that everyone has flaws, even these poster girls are having hours of makeup done and top it all off their photos are photo shopped. Therefore beauty becomes negative when one does not meet societies standards. Cameron Russell well renowned model says that “image is superficial” (Russell). Superficial means existing or occurring at or on the surface. Well that would mean image the idea that people and society is so concerned about doesn’t get deeper then what you see. Then it’s very negative for those who don’t understand that beauty can be shallow. We should worry more about deeper ideals like your identity and worry less about something as shallow as image.

Beauty isn’t just all the pretty things in life. There is a dark negative side to it as well. Beauty cause a lot of harm to all of us. It’s very hard to maintain beauty, for example, physical beauty since one always has to watch what to eat work out and there is the whole problem with age. Many push themselves and endure some pretty harsh thing to remain beautiful. As it’s also very hard to acquire beauty, a lot goes into and not too much comes out. Beauty is the root of many problems in society today.

Work Cited

"Looks Aren't Everything. Believe Me, I'm a Model." Cameron Russell:. Ted Talk., Oct. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.

"A Darwinian Theory of Beauty." Denis Dutton:. Ted Talk, Feb. 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.

Before and After

The Negative Side of Beauty

Conner Evans

September 5, 2014

English 1100

The Negative Side of Beauty

Everyone knows beauty as good thing but not too many understand the negative effects. Beauty might be amazing to others but for many it’s not all what it’s cracked up to be. It’s very hard to maintain beauty, for example physical beauty you have to always watch what you eat work out and there the whole problem with age. Many push themselves and indoor some pretty harsh thing to remain beautiful. No one really understand what it takes to be beautiful all they know is that you’re indeed beautiful. Beauty can lead to anxiety depression, and other issues. How can beauty cause that? Well let’s say someone is beautiful well it’s because they work at it, always watching what they eat, always pushing their bodies and always wondering when age will catch up with them, and no one wants to live life worried. And if you’re not beautiful where does that leave you always feeling second rate always being looked down on that’s not a way to live either and that’s just physical beauty.  People can be or what they’ve done can be considered beautiful if they have born with traits like potential skills, or intellectual excellence. For the people who don’t have that it’s a uphill battle to evolve themselves to an ever changing consumer society. As Denis Dutton’s said in hid TED Talk “A Darwinian theory of beauty” “Beauty is in the cultural conditioned eye of the beholder” (Dutton 2:20). What this means and how this relates is that an every changing society consistently remodels and changes beauty as society changes itself. For beauty isn’t just rainbows and other aesthetically pleasing things it has a negative side too.

With the desire for beauty and beautiful things no one quite understands the level of stain beauty causes. Dennis Dutton a very well respected philosopher talks about beauty and that out of all the critics and experts on beauty the best expert was Charles Darwin. Dutton goes on explaining some of Darwin’s theories of beauty and the one that raised my head was “sexual selection”. This to raise my head for what Dutton says next “The experience of beauty is one of arousing and sustaining interest” (Dennis Dutton).  It seems that sexual selection is about being lucky with of which traits you inherit. For a lot of people they aren’t born with striking looks and defined features. They struggle of trying to always make it work or hide there not so nice side. How is this fare? How can we single out human beings for not looking as pleasing as we would want them to be? This is a cold hard fact that everyone deals with. When you first meet someone your first impression is on looks their beauty. We don’t know if they are good, intelligent, or nice we just make assumptions on looks. Which brings me back to my main point of this whole paragraph beauty causes a lot of stress and negativity in people’s lives. People want to be Beautiful. The want to walk down the street and everyone takes a look their way because they can just sense the beauty. It’s this impossible goal that is making people make irrational decisions like wasting money on surgery and products to improve their physical features.  It’s this problem which reflects the negativity and problems beauty causes.

Another negative effects of beauty is acquisition of something of thing beautiful. People want something to take pride in. Whether it’s a skill like the ability to sing or maybe being able to dance. It can be physical beauty like a model or something you personally created like art or a new invention. Better examples would be already famous things like the Monalisa or Adelel. We all dream of accomplishing and or creating these beautiful thing but it’s a sad truth that most people just won’t meet their goals.  People fail, and fail, and keep failing to find this and a lot of time people just give up. Perhaps the best example is American Idol. In the audition rounds countless number give it their best shot to “make it Hollywood” but in actuality only few make it and everyone else failed to reach their goals. And it entertains us but is it really moral to do that? What we just saw was something quite sad. You just witnessed someone’s dreams crumble before them. They wanted their beautiful pride and joy to be their voice but fail in a entertaining fashion. That’s just one example though. All day everyday people fail to find their beauty. People invest all that they have into what they think is acquirable. If they fail then they have nothing is it worth it to lose everything? To them to get their beauty they would sacrifice everything. We strive to be great like Messi and Beyoncé who do great things that can only be described as beautiful but that’s the problem with beauty we all can’t be great.

The changing of society and what society says is beautiful is a negative aspect of beauty. Societies crave for the next thing has caused many of problems. People always want the best and the best is always changing, so you can see the problem here. People want and want and take and take but don’t really understand what they sacrifice. For one, they lose a bit of sanity. Like psychopathic murders they have a taste in their mouths that they have to satisfy. The can only get what’s considered the best the best clothes, the best gear, and the best make up. All of this to satisfy their self-image so they can make themselves feel beautiful. However how some people obtaining these items can only be described as ugly. People lie, cheat, steal to get what they want. For example we have all seen the black Friday mobs. People have died literally died trying to get these goods. Last year I saw on the news an anchor was talking about how an old women fell in a crowed entering a store. Well she died from all those people stepping on her. All those people ignored an old lady in the thirst of getting new shirt or IPhone. Can’t you see how awful that is? I bet they all had the same look in their eye when they trampled that old lady like viscous animals. All people want is to improve themselves to be beautiful and their nothing wrong with that it’s just how people get when they want something is the problem.  It’s also how society can rapid changes view on beauty that we get this problem. There’s no solution to the problem there is no way you can stop the monster that is society.

Beauty isn’t just all the pretty things in life there is a dark negative side to it. Beauty cause a lot of harm to all of us. . It’s very hard to maintain beauty, for example physical beauty you have to always watch what you eat work out and there the whole problem with age. Many push themselves and indoor some pretty harsh thing to remain beautiful. As it’s also very hard to acquire beauty a lot goes into and not too much comes out. Beauty is the root to many problems in society today. Everyone knows beauty as good thing but not too many understand the negative effects.

Can Beauty Be Constructed?

Conner Evans
September 2, 2014
English 1101

                                                     Can Beauty Be Constructed?

           Beauty is the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit. Which simply means beauty is constructed. Beauty can come from any where or anything and can take any number of shapes or forms. Beauty doesn't have to subjugate itself to one thing or one person, it can be anything. Aimee Mullins made her own beauty by taking what most would call a weakness and turned it into a strength. Aimee was born with a medical condition that resulted in the amputation of both of her lower legs and has become one of the most prominent thinkers on the topic of prosthetic innovation. She had no legs and through hard work made not having legs into an advantage. She was able to make herself legs. Not just one pair of legs but more then a dozen pairs. You see her beauty is emphasized whenever Aimee walks down the runway strutting her beautiful legs. Aimee isn't the only one who expresses beauty, people all over the world create beauty and beautiful things.

         Beauty is not just physical, outside looks its so much more then that. It can be someones art work that they have put a ton of work into, or a contruction of a game or movie that can only be described as beautiful. Its what appeals to you. For me, I have many beauties. One in potectular is making music mixes. Its a form of creativity for me anyone who contributes to the process. I love taking all my favorite songs and putting them together in way that everything fits snugg like a puzzle. After I edit and twist somethings what was once all seprate little song has now become a big masterful mix of my creation. It appeals to my senses and is my form of beauty.

        The last thing to prove that beauty is constructed is one all so important line. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. what this means is beauty cannot be judged objectively, for what one person finds beautiful or admirable may not appeal to another. I can say that something I don't find beautiful isn't beautiful to someone else. We all proclaim individuality well beauty is just another tool that makes us different. For example I hate listening to opera music but to a lot of people its beautiful music. That being said everyone is different so beauty is different for everyone. Which means beauty must be constructed in order for everyone to appreciate what they value as beautiful. Beauty is constructed It just depends on who values it.