Is Beauty Treated As If It Is Universal - 865 Words

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, is a phrase commonly used in today s society to make a politically correct assessment of our judgement of beauty. The popularity of this quote has helped convinced the general public that it is an universally truthful statement. This statement suggests that, the perception of beauty is based on an individuals subjective judgement rather than an any empirical justifications. If the majority of the worlds population believes this statement to be true, then why is beauty treated as if it is universal? When we analyze beauty campaigns, it is evident that major corporations are capitalizing on the predominate Euro American standard of beauty. Ad after Ad our minds are bombarded with notions of a hierarchical beauty standard. These ads function as representations of societies cultural values and thus help promote an unattainable standard beauty. This prompts the question of why does our theorization of aesthetic judgement not coordinate with how an i ndividual makes judgements on beauty in the real world? One notion is that society has adopted the theory of eighteenth century philosopher Immanuel Kant s judgement of taste. In Kant s book Critique of the Power of Judgement he lays the foundations for the belief that our judgement of beauty has both subjective and objective properties. He supports his theory by claiming that our judgement of beauty is dependent on four main factors quality, necessity, universality, and purposiveness. InShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Mary Shelley s Frankenstein1744 Words   |  7 PagesBeauty is often the most lethal poison. It intoxicates both the beholder and the beheld. Humans are raised into a society that instills certain standards of elegance and beauty. 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