In Denis Dutton's TED talk, he states that beauty in its basic form is a result of evolutionary tendencies. This idea is perfect and I fully agree! Humans have no real seeded control of what we find beautiful.
We spend our whole lives watching propaganda from large fashion and beauty companies trying to SELL US WHAT BEAUTY IS! It is ridiculous and ultimately annoying to think that a select few people know what we are beautiful.
I think people are just like the peacocks evolution. We dress and try to alter our appearance to ultimately attract the attention of the person we desire. Through eons the peacocks have a similar tail that has proven to be favorable with females. People are no different. As times have changed, the images that trigger our deep seeded mind to think of something as beautiful has also changed. For example, 100 years ago it was considered prestigious to be fat. It signified that you had enough wealth to eat plenty of food.
I really like the way Denis compares this to our desire to have portraits of nature, which seems to originate from our humble beginnings as a human race. After millions of year we have created so much of our own 'beauty' with things like our cities down to our hand held devices. Even so, a majority of us still look longingly at posters, calender's or paintings of nature. I believe that no matter how much humans try, we will never be able to match to beauty that nature has managed on its own.
These ideas are important because they bring humans back to a primitive simple form. This form signifies the simplicity in our lives that we generally ignore today; thanks in part by the advancement in technology which creates constant distractions and stimulation for our mind. I think if we just step back from it all, we will find that we don't need the propaganda from fashion commercials to tell us (YOU) what beauty is. You know it, you have always known it, you just need to listen to the far reaches of mind when it tries to tell you. For the love of all things, do not ignore your own animal instincts! They did after all, get us this far in our human evolution.
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Agreed Ethan, I really do love the idea that despite all the attention that social media is getting which advertises fashion, make-up, and high tech technology as beautiful, all of us still cannot find any art more beautiful than what the natural world produces. Even with this modern view of beauty we can still find the reason for why we feel that it is beautiful by looking back into our deep rooted past. It is also so important that we love that part about ourselves and that we DO embrace our ancestral instincts, because like you said, they have brought us this far, and I think that's pretty wonderful in itself.
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