i always found conceptions of beauty fascinating. a simple dialogue held between people from different cultures can yield this result. ancient Greek art, up until perhaps Mycenaean art, presented the ideal female form as one that is conducive to childbearing: voluptuous, large hips, and so on. this soon transformed into the slender, body types that have become popular today. this change happened gradually, but once it materialized, it took form on the grand scale. how did this occur, i wonder? perhaps this conception is reserved for primarily those from industrial societies, from metropolitan cities that are too overpopulated to afford that kind of perspective of beauty.
i remember that i read a book, some time ago, that outlined the history of the interpretation of beauty. it detailed the madonnas of each age, from Cleopatra to Jessica Alba. i go to the store and the magazine racks colorfully remind me of what to interpret as the beautiful. there's a new standard, and, i believe, it's one that values fragility as the ideal.
women who can fit into negative sizes monopolize the industry of the attractive. their enterprise has an advertisement efficiency that goes beyond the expectations of change.
of course, this is all from my male-limited perspective. attempts to surpass that limitation would prove devastatingly supererogatory, at the very least -- if not, perhaps, something offensive. what about the women? i'm beginning to think that when they're alone, or perhaps exclusively with their girlfriends, they unwind in such a way that it deconstructs generations of this typified interpretation of beauty.
for instance, my neighbor is a sorority girl, if there ever was one. just a few minutes ago, she and her friends were chatting outside, in the hall. they were heading to the tanning salon, so it became self-evident that they needed to drive a car. i wasn't eavesdropping, mind you. in fact, i didn't even need to try. they were virtually yelling to each other, fearing, perhaps, that their voices wouldn't travel the few feet that they were distanced from one another. they were yelling vulgarities about sex, belching voluminously, and generally behaving in a way that one would perceive as entirely contradictory to the aesthetic of fragility and grace.
maybe i have it all wrong. maybe their behavior was actually so aplomb with grace that whatever they did, belch, bellow vulgarities, talk inordinately loud, they could pull all of that off with an exquisite refinement that's beyond my understanding. or maybe i'm wrong on a different paradigm, in misinterpreting these fashionable trends of the time.
it's a mystery to me.
