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well-- the old saying is Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there is a certain truth to that. in term of humans, some aspects of beauty vary from culture to culture, age to age, but some aspects are stadard.. all cultures seem to find symetrical human from beautiful. and clear skin, and certain qualities (and quantities!) of hair.
Non-human forms are harder to quantify for beauty. some of it is learned.. (think of the king of austria, who complained that Mozart's music had "too many notes") some of it is, it seems hard wired into human psyche.. water--since we are so dependant on it, whether immediately visible (a sea scape) or implied--by a lush land scape is thought to be beautiful.. but any one who has lived in a dessert, learn to see beauty in the space landscape, where water is a premium. but, there are still a lot fewer painting of the dessert.
so what is beautiful can be learned..
i am aware of my own conflicting values when it comes to beauty. I love symetry, especially multi fold symetry-- think of a kalidescopes, but i also am enamored by asymetry!
i value beauty-- and i find it every where. in nature, especailly in nature's efforts in the concrete jungle that is manhattan.
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i once heard posed an interesting question:
if you could quantify both your beauty and your intellect and then place them in even ratios side by side, and then were given the opportunity to decrease one and augment the other in equal proportions, would you alter either? if so, how much beauty would you 'sell' in order to gain a few IQ points? or would you sacrifice a few points for the opportunity to experience a greater degree of physical beauty? i wonder if our inclinations would change one way or the other depending on our emotional and physical maturity. anyone care to share their take on this?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Both beauty and intellect convey power, but a woman might find a career as an entertainer far more profitable than as a financier. And more fun too. Since men are seldom regarded as beautiful, and the esteem associated with intellectual or athletic superiority is so highly valued, it is hard to imagine a man preferring beauty.
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>it is hard to imagine a man preferring beauty.
try imagining a *really ugly guy (and I'm not thinking about "Beauty and the Beast" here; that's a fable with an epimyth).
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I take slight offense to the comment that women may get more pleasure from entertaining. I am extremely proud that that which I can control, my intellect/knowledge/technical skills, is what I excel in while that which I cannot control, the symmetry of my face, my skin tone, the shape of my lips, is merely average. While I can and do exercise and take pride in how I look, I am not going to be bothered with the way the genes met/talked/parted.
This is not to say that I wouldn't trade a few IQ points to be blonde, size 2, with a double D chest for a week or two!
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"women may get more pleasure from entertaining. " But that is not what I said. They can make more money as an entertainer than they can in any other business, and maybe have fun doing it. Sen. Clinton has been called " the most brilliant woman in the world": (I forget where, or by whom) but her income is I believe far below that of many female entertainers.
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This is not to say that I wouldn't trade a few IQ points to be blonde, size 2, with a double D chest for a week or two!
As you implied perhaps, chemeng, the degree of personal control is the thing - the cruelest dictatorship is the rush to judgment imposed by others' preconceptions.
This is true of beauty, brains, gender, skin colour and a host of other attributes to which we all react, is it not?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Chemeng takes slight offense to the comment that women may get more pleasure from entertaining.
Dr. Bill responds: But that is not what I said.
What he said: a woman might find a career as an entertainer far more profitable than as a financier. And more fun too.
Emphasis mine.
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All right, I mis-read the post. I am, after all, a stranger here. Perhaps I'm a bit oversensitive being a female in a male-dominated workplace. Oh well, I'm over it. Please don't hate me!!!
As for entertaining being more fun and profitable.....I would think that a lot more intelligent women are sucessful because of their intelligence than beautiful women are because of their beauty. I would doubt that many beautiful women owned their first house at 21 solely due to their beauty.
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It is still obvious that the playing field is not level, when gender is involved. Far too many women still get handed the soiled extremity of the baton when advancement is doled out. But I believe that progress, while shamefully slow, will continue to be made.
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