McCallion
Quest

Is Beauty only ‘Skin Deep’?

By:  Megan Jones

The Webster’s dictionary defines beauty as “that which delights the senses and exults the mind” or “physical loveliness.”  The dictionary judges the beauty of an object by how it looks on the outside. Sadly, we, as a society, judge it in exactly the same way. We judge it superficially and without great thought. 

     If you look around today, you can see why we do so. Almost every magazine cover, TV ad or billboard bears the image of a skinny woman with a pretty face, tons of make-up and great clothing. By projecting these images to society, the media convinces us that this is how we should strive to look. We think that to be considered beautiful, we must look flawless. This type of unrealistic thinking causes problems, especially among teenaged girls, causing them to have low self esteem and sometimes even driving them to go on unhealthy diets that can jeopardize their health. Because we are so easily influenced, the majority of people, especially teens, have this mentality,  

     When asked to define beauty, many Hazel students had the same answer. Though a few mentioned personality, the majority said, “when a person looks good”, “when a person is hot” or when a person has a “nice body”.  This is what our generation feels is beautiful. Personality is taken into account less and less and physical appearance is more important when judging a person’s beauty. This mould that we have created is extremely degrading and unfair. Things really shouldn’t be this way. 

    So, if we should not judge beauty by ‘physical loveliness’, how should beauty be judged? If it isn’t a person’s physical appearance, what is it exactly? I personally think it’s a combination of both, but it really depends on the way you look at things. Sometimes you see a person and think that they’re gorgeous. But later on, when you get to know them, you realize they’re not as pretty as they seemed at first. The same thing happens when you get to know a person and, as you begin to understand them as people, you begin to see them prettier than you did upon first review. It really depends on the way you think.  I suppose beauty doesn’t or shouldn’t really have a specific definition because everyone views it differently. So, as cheesy as it may sound, maybe those old school people who coined the phrase, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” actually knew something.