 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Interview Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Plain talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
It is amazing how researchers never fail to find new fields of interest, ranging from religion to sex. Lately the number of new discoveries has increased -- not merely scientific discoveries, but previously unearthed facts about various important figures in the world.
One researcher, for example, claims that Robin Hood was gay, contending that Little John, rather than Maid Marian, was his true love. This reassessment is based on a study of the 14th-century Ballads of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. Another research paper also attracted my attention. It was published as a book with the intriguing title, Survival of the Prettiest. The author is Nancy Etcoff, a psychologist who, for some time now, has been trying to find out what beauty is. It is a fascinating study which opens our eyes, especially men's eyes, to some interesting facts of life. Beauty has preoccupied many philosophers, who tried to find out why it ensnares the heart and captivates the mind. Asked why people desire beauty, Aristotle replied, "No one that is not blind could ask that question." But, according to Etcoff, we live in an age when beauty is morally suspect. She quotes Naomi Wolf, the leading feminist who claimed in 1991 that beauty as an objective and universal entity did not exist. Beauty, Wolf explained, "is based on a myth that put women where men wanted them to be -- out of the power structure."
Many intellectuals believe that beauty is inconsequential because it explains nothing, solves nothing and teaches nothing. They are of the opinion that beauty can be seen both as a source of strength and as a source of weakness. Yet women are always searching for means to beautify themselves. According to Etcolf, in 1996 a reported 696,904 American women underwent voluntary aesthetic surgery that involved "tearing or burning their skin, sucking out their fat or implementing foreign material." The researcher concludes that all cultures are beauty cultures. Every civilisation reveres it. The description of Nefertari and of Helen are examples of this. Every civilisation pursues beauty, even at enormous costs. Beauty's ability to provoke pleasure, rivet attention and impel action is what ensures the survival of our genes.
Beauty is not only a human characteristic, though. We find beauty in a peacocks' tail, in a nightingale's song, in the setting of the sun and the rising of the moon. Poetry in all languages sings of beauty. Nobody is immune to beauty. Our beauty detectors scan the environment like radar. We can see a face for a fraction of a second and rate its beauty. Yet to the question, "what is beauty?", there is no easy answer. Experts describe the experience of perceiving beauty but not what it is, and this is all the Oxford Dictionary has to say: it is "excelling in grace of form, charm of colouring and other qualities which delight the eye and call for the admiration, (a) of the human face and figure (b) of other objects. The author discusses beautiful people's character and others' response to them. Good-looking people are more apt to win arguments and persuade others of their opinion. They tend to be more at ease socially, more confident. Finally, she believes that good-looking adults are more likely to get away with anything, from shoplifting to cheating at exams!
