Beauty is The Eyes of The Powerful

Blue(ish) vs. Brown eyes

The idea of beauty is different everywhere, and can even change over time, but the general concept of beautiful and ugly remain set in stone for the most part. "All things in her are flux and anticipation. But her blackness is static and dread" (Morrison 47).

Beauty is reflective of those that are in power. In the novel, white beauty is because of white power. This is true of many different situations. During times of racism and opposition to Civil Rights, those in power were those with European features. Hence the preference of white skin to black skin, blue eyes to brown eyes, and
dirty to clean.

an actual picture I took on
my last trip to India

Right now, I'm watching an Indian movie and all I can think about is the similarity. In India, they literally market products to make skin look whiter. Everybody wants that same kind of beauty. So much so, that people even use only light skinned people in advertisements, especially those that deal with something such as a matrimonial.

relationship goals!!!

The fact that beauty is a social construct based on power presents itself in many cases. As mentioned before, America and India. Both which had European ideals in power, India with the British Rule. Not only this, but in times such as with war, the "ideal woman" would probably be considered as a little bit fat right now. This is because during war rations, those in power could still eat, were ric

Marilyn

h enough to still eat, and so had bigger waists. Perhaps this was why Marilyn Monroe was revered with hips of 35 inches while Taylor Swift has hips of 33.

Mauritania is such a poor country that their people send their daughter to fat camp. The more they eat, they better chance they have of getting married. Food is scarce so fat is good. And not only fat, but obesity. Read about it here.

Beauty is different in a lot of geographical areas, but it always comes from those in power.


Lyrics of the week: "Cause I'd be lost forever if you slipped away, blue eyes you're the reason for my change" from Blue Eyes by Timmy Curran.