Beauty- Boon or Bane!

We have certainly heard the common saying “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. It is obvious that a beautiful object is certainly pleasing to the eye. It cannot think or feel and its sole beneficiary is the beholder. But what about beauty when it is applied to human beings, especially women? Those females who are blessed with good looks are indeed considered lucky. They do not have to work hard to get what they want. It’s just a piece of cake for them.

Most men want to marry beautiful women. Just go through the matrimonial ads which appears in both newspapers and magazines and you’ll find that beauty and fair complexion are given prime importance. Why not ban matrimonial advertisements asking for “fair-complexioned” brides and bridegrooms? The youth of today have a very unrealistic concept of marriage and ideal partners. They seem to have a lot of expectations and inclinations about their going-to-be-partners or future mates. But are the qualities desired by men that are so important in marriage, possessed by most beautiful women and vice versa?

In fairy tales we certainly are exposed to the fact that the princess is always beautiful and besides, she is also gentle, modest and self-sacrificing. And when she marries the handsome prince they live “happily ever after”. What is true of fairy tales is also true of the movies. The actress is always charming and beautiful and along with her physical endowments she has all the other desirable qualities, such as humility and a sense of devotion. She may be ill-treated and tortured by society. In the end, justice prevails and her selfless love for her man triumphs. But movies are just movies. When it comes to media, we are absolutely convinced that what they depict is fictitious. Ultimately, people are disillusioned and are misled into thinking that the ideal heroine depicted therein can be a reality in practical life. People who find themselves the centre of attention because of their looks are sooner or later likely to develop an inflated ego. Beauty is given so much of importance in the media that it is sure to affect any woman who has the physical qualities that are supposed to count. Beauty is given prime importance in various beauty contests and short-lived careers like modelling, air-stewardess and acting. Other than this, you don’t find people giving as great an importance to beauty.

Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/940601

What is more, there is a tendency of equating beauty with complexion. Why do people associate white skin or fair complexion with beauty? Then what about the concept of “Black beauty”? There are so many black people or dark complexioned people who have set out on high goals and achieved a lot and have become successful in life!

Even the white-dominated western world has changed its outlook towards beauty, where girls of African origin are often selected as winners of the beauty pageant. Even today we find colour discrimination or racism still operative in India and other countries.

We know that Gandhi has his lessons on freedom struggle from South Africa where he fought for the removal of racial discrimination against the blacks and the browns by the whites!

To the whites, all Indians maybe blacks, but in India, there is a big divide between the whites and the blacks or in other words, the Aryans and the Dravidians. In this respect, Indians are more colour-conscious than the whites. Rebuking someone by pointing to his/her colour should be made a punishable crime just as insulting one by referring to his caste. Rejecting a girl for her colour is as unjust as rejecting her for inadequate dowry.

Why don’t people realize that each race has a particular skin colour in order to adapt to the kind of geographical condition and weather. Instead, people have preference for a particular skin colour which only leads to deception. Most of us take beauty to be an asset for a woman. But is it always so? Like all other things, good looks too have got its darker side. Women with average looks are likely to have a much more pleasing personality than a ‘beauty’. She takes the trouble to develop her natural abilities and she uses her talents, skills and intelligent to the full, as she is not preoccupied with her looks. As a wife and mother, she is also more likely to be successful than a ‘beauty’.

Instead of associating beauty with colour, people should realize that, after all, the blood that runs in through our veins is of the same colour irrespective of religion, caste and sex. Money can’t buy you beauty or the colour you prefer. We should be self-contented about the way we look. After all, we can’t change what is been inherited. If everybody was beautiful and fair, then there would be no discrimination and no more advertisements on ‘look fairer or beautiful’. Such ads only make people insecure and steal away their confidence. No matter what your skin colour is, beauty shouldn’t be judged based on the colour. Remember, even black hens lay white eggs. If only people can change their attitude towards beauty, there won’t be such intricate problems. After all, beauty is not everything. Let us remember that, “As we grow old, beauty steals inward”. Ultimately, I would like to say that every person in this world is beautiful in one way or the other.

Beautiful or ugly- it is the very human beings who have created this concept. Finally, I would like to conclude by quoting the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”.