A look at beauty through perception

Beauty (by Grace Nichols, 1986)

Beauty

is a fat black woman

walking the fields

pressing a breezed hibiscus

to her cheek

while the sun lights up

her feet

Beauty

is a fat black woman

riding the waves

drifting in happy oblivion

while the sea turns back

to hug her shape

Our society has drilled into the people that beauty is the skin on the surface that adds appearance to the structure of a person. We have perceived beauty to be that perfect slim, smooth skin girl with the perfect cut hair that complements her appearance; or a guy wearing a tight shirt that further complements his body build with the dazzling smile across his face and the beautiful eyes staring at you. We have put the word "beauty" with "perfection" and expected to see them in pairs. The pressure that society has set for young girls and boys to be "beautiful" are relatively high and are so unrealistic in order to sell you products that apparently makes you more beautiful. The problems is that we have blindly taken society's definition of beautiful and have started battering our faces with creams, swallowing pills and applying creams, herbs and medicines to be perfect; however what we don't realise is the fact that beauty is found in the person and not the skin that engulfs the person. The poem by Grace Nichols further conveys this idea; Grace compares the definition of beauty to the exact opposite facade of beauty that society has thrown at us. However what grace does is that she throws a contrast in the visual description of beauty but then describes that activity the person to do a true act of beauty. Grace describes beauty to be a thing that a person has a hold of and is not something that a person has to necessarily acquire. Beauty is not perfection but the understanding of joy and happiness against all odds; beauty is in the action not the reflection; beauty is in the core and not on the surface.

Looking at these videos you can see there is something fundamentally wrong with the what society has told us what beauty is. The visual aspects of both videos shows the stereotypes of beauty, they show what society wants us to think what beauty. The first video portrays the idea that the beauty that society shows us to be beautiful is photoshopped and edited which makes it fake. Therefore we as humans are killing ourselves over by taking pills, applying creams and herbs in attempts to achieve a body that was initially photoshopped. Which brings about the idea that beauty set by society to be perfection can never be achieved regardless of products they sell you, so then what beauty truly is, is the person as the person being. The second video complements a similar idea that shows the nonsense that society breeds about beauty to kids, teenagers and adults.

By visually demonstrating truths, facts or any problem for the matter one is likely to convey more persuasive aspects. Visuals imagery helps us imagine the consequences and the different problems of our world. Visual imagery helps show a clear cut problem which persuades us more towards the solutions and visual imagery is one of the most attention grabbing and persuasive structure. Showing the behind the scenes of the many advertisements and showing our mindless struggle for beauty we are able to comprehend a clear problem. Showing this thorough visual media we are able to understand the different truths and formulate our opinions and understand that beauty is not what society tells you but is what we as the people make it to be. 

Humans are limited but at the sometime expandable, we can use our eyes to see but our eyes which have certain limitations are great for perceiving and understanding complicated patterns and sequences. Our eyes and minds are vulnerable to great deal of visual persuasion and therefore there is the questions that how do we know if what we see is actually the truth out there? maybe it is or maybe it isn't. A great of convincing is done through the images and a little play in the images can greatly affect out understanding of any matter. The idea of trusting our senses becomes an arising questions the longer we think about it, but there is no choice but to trust our senses and make the best of it.