Gwapa. The different parts of the Philippines reverberated
with shouts of joy and glee when Catriona Gray was proclaimed Miss Universe
2018. “I knew it,” gesticulated someone on the verge of tears. “She is indeed
fitting for the title because she is beautiful!”
Nugent (2013) says
that beauty is the quality present or inherent in an object or person, making
it a stimulus which positively elicits pleasure, admiration, and satisfaction
as a response. This quality is either pleasing to the mind or desirable to the
senses. Psychology Today says that here are some universal standards of beauty
across the world. Symmetry in the face and the body, plus clear skin and
youthfulness are preferred traits.
Since time immemorial
beauty has been said to be in the eye of the beholder. Meaning, we perceive what
is beautiful differently. Our own choices and stimuli for admiration might be
on the physical feature or the character-trait of others. Therefore, to insist
on your own definition or to label men and women based on the color of their
skin, their race and sexual orientation could fall into bigotry.
When a certain
representative of the country joins a beauty pageant, that person is selected
by the committee to be the epitome of their country’s definition of beauty.
Therefore, all the contestants who will join such events are beautiful. It is
going to be a battle of personality, self-confidence, advocacy and
intelligence. So, anybody could win the title whether he or she is dark-skinned
or fair.
Already social media
platforms are awash with reports of emboldened bigots verbally, and in some
disturbing cases, physically assaulting people of color, Muslims, and members
of the LGBTQI+ community (Sherlock, 2016). This could be alarming since
education is still trying to straighten things out. Books on open-mindedness
and convergence are published yet the hate continue to thrive. Educators are on
the crossroads since cultural and religious convictions are still creating
barriers to the openness of acceptance.
Others still prefer
to see the stain on the white sheet and dwell on the negative parts of the
whole. This attitude could be attributed to the orientation of the person.
According to Robert Locke (2018), there is a neurological explanation as to why
some people end up being so negative. It has to do with the part of the brain
called the amygdala, which functions as an alarm and is constantly on the lookout
for danger, fear and bad news. Such persons failed to develop the ability to
evaluate and face up to problems which can counteract this mechanism. Ergo,
they constantly look for the bad side of everything.
This might be the scientific
explanation why others could not see beauty on poor people and dark-skinned
ones. They equate beauty with symmetry, fair skin and even expensive clothes
and things. They belittle those who could not afford proper dental care and
moisturizers. They grimace on the imperfections of others and label them as
ugly. They look at the persons with disabilities as persons who do not deserve
to be called beautiful. They could not accept mainstreaming since their brains
are incapable of such function.
Our society must cope
with the dynamic transformations and the setting of norms. There is no
one-size-fits-all definition of beauty since there are causal factors that
allow us to evolve. Psychologically, we need to be healthy in terms of
acceptance and controlling the animalistic side to overpower our sanity.
Catriona is
beautiful. She deserves the crown. And we are beautiful too. The persons beside
you have their innate beauty from the one who created them. They deserve to be
appreciated as well.
In the end, what the
heart speaks is what defiles. Those who are incapable of appreciation must be
the one to be laughed at. They deserve the negative things they harbor. We
allow them to wallow in their own distress and free ourselves from their hate.
Life is too short to
dwell on the dark. We do not allow others define our own happiness and least,
our BEAUTY.
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