Thursday, October 26, 2006

Fake beauty


This video is making the rounds, and it is pretty remarkable too.

While I don't agree that fascination with beauty is the source of low self-esteem amongst normal people (if so, then very sporty or intelligent people should make us feel clumsy and dumb too), I always had a strong preference for real and solid things. If something only looks good through fifteen layers of fakeness, what good is that?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

she was still beautiful without the make-up and hairdo.
besides, true beauty (often) comes from within. interesting video though.

Anonymous said...

Right you are, Terry. No amount of make-up can make me like a "dumb blonde" or any other sort of "stunning" air-head.

The face is the mirror of the soul, and its mirror part cannot be hidden. (Except with latex, maybe...)

Anonymous said...

I agree that it's not our culture's fascination with beauty that causes low self-esteem but the fact that the media is constantly telling women what they should look like. And the fact that only one body type(ginormous boobs, tiny waist, etc.) is represented in the media only adds to the problem. That's one thing I like about domai, it represents women of all shapes and sizes.

Hannah said...

Why'd they even bother with a model?

On the other hand, I feel kind of cheated, seeing that video. It basically says (though I know that the intended point is different) that no woman can meet today's standards of beauty by just being yourself.

Anonymous said...

The face is the mirror of the soul, and its mirror part cannot be hidden.
That's a very insightful statement pascal, yes you are so on cue.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Hannah, that sounds like the intended message to me, how is it different? (The message of the video anyway.)

Anonymous said...

I love the video.

I don't think there is such a thing as fake beauty. If something is beautiful, it is. The 'before' is a person, and the 'after' is a picture. Persons and pictures can both be beautiful.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yeah, but the fake part comes in because you think you're looking at a person. You think you're looking at a true representation.

Hannah said...

Hmm.. I think I wasn't totally awake. I was thinking about how makeup commercials also make women look beautiful so that people will use their products... because they need those products/technology to even be beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Eolake said: Yeah, but the fake part comes in because you think you're looking at a person. You think you're looking at a true representation.

I get your point. But I am not sure there is such a thing as true representation, either. Everything we see is coloured by our beliefs. In this case, I don't think they even named the model so there's no claim it represents anything specific.

You could say it's a true representation of what the team came up with. Similarly, I never doubted that your Ms. Gurli was a true representation of Ms. Gurli.

I noticed one of the YouTube commenters wrote "Sad." I think that was sad.

BTW, I think they went slightly over with the enlargement of her eyes.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

"In this case, I don't think they even named the model so there's no claim it represents anything specific."

Quite right. And it's not a crime anyway.
This whole thing is a very muddy area.

Like, nobody can or should stop anybody from putting up plastic "wood" paneling on their walls. But to me it is distasteful.

Anonymous said...

"The physical is always a representation of what's going on within. For example, I feel I'm a very old soul."
At age 10 I already had some silver hair. A sign?...
To be honest, I think I was quite immature at that time.

"That's one thing I like about domai, it represents women of all shapes and sizes."
I had barely noticed. They're confidently beautiful, and that's plenty enough for me. I've never gotten that stupid reflex of "measuring" a girl's body.
Even though I was top of my class in Maths. :-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

"At age 10 I already had some silver hair."

Moi oussi. (Or however it's spelled.)

"To be honest, I think I was quite immature at that time."

I was over-ripe early on. I would stand in the little prisons they keep toddlers in, and stare solemnly out at the world.

Anonymous said...

Eolake wrote: Like, nobody can or should stop anybody from putting up plastic "wood" paneling on their walls. But to me it is distasteful.

But the plastic "wood" is an imitation. That's a different motivation. Distasteful, no doubt.

In contrast, the beautiful female head, to me at least, is a new thing. An artistic creation. If anything, it "imitates" an idea in the artist's head. And that's what art is about anyway.

I commented about the size of her eyes to point out that there the artist's idea of perfection was slightly different than mine. (Not that mine is any more correct than theirs. Just different.)

Anonymous said...

That'd be "Moi aussi"
You're not bad, for someone who admits hating French. ;-)

"I would stand in the little prisons they keep toddlers in, and stare solemnly out at the world."
Can we have a photo? Pretty please? It'd be sooo cute, I bet!
You were definitely precocious in wit!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Dang, I spelled it "Moi aussi" at first, but then I thought it can't be like an Australian.

I shunned cameras like the devil when I was a kid. Perhaps with the goal of deniability that I ever was one.

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, you were. Some of it is still visible today. Not only on your face :-) but in the innocent look you are able to cast on nude women.

But I also think the thinking adult in you has been there since very early.
:-)

Regarding that spelling issue : remember for next time that 30% of the words between English and French have a common origin. Even though their meaning or spelling may have evolved over time. For instance, "sensible" in French means sensitive, and the English word would translate as "sensé".
(Makes sense?)