Oct 3, 2021
Beauty: testimonial, adornment … or sexism?
It’s partly a statement … and partly an ornament
Sharad’s Sunday Sojourns (week # 494 | 3rd October 2021)
“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” … Plato.
What is beauty?
Is it an endorsement of a particular person towards another?
If so, may we perceive the trait to be utterly conventional or unrealistically unconventional?
Is it an ornament?
Which should be carried with a certain amount of dignity and panache?
Or, plain and simple, is beauty a part of bigotry?
When we say this, we unambiguously refer to the deliberations and denouncements that race, colour and creed bring on to the table, layered with dogma, cherishment, chastity, and last but not the least, a judicious preferentialism.
Why beauty?
I did not wake up at night and started thinking about this straightaway!
Neither was I researching the ancient sayings and adages from the Greek ‘masters’ with regards to, well, virtually anything and everything that human civilisation had and has to offer!
But as unusual as it may sound, I was just skimming through old news clips (one of my favourite past times), and it caught my attention that January 2019 (exactly a year before the onset of the pandemic) was ‘lauded’ as ‘Janu-hairy’ by the fashion media, in reference to the ‘mini-movement’ focusing on evolution and maintenance of underarm hairs.
Of course, puritans would probably fume to target the women, since men are gloriously exempted from the embarrassment via the traditional virtues of ‘manscaping’.
I do not mean to stir up a controversy.
Neither do I mean to downtrend or uptrend certain marked evolutions.
Just as thought provoking as it is, I suddenly remembered the strong protest by none other than our first ‘space hero’ (Mr. Rakesh Sharma), who vehemently opposed the ‘armpit shaving’ instructed to him prior to his own space odyssey!
His logic was plain and simple … he was not yet ready to forego his ‘manhood’ in exchange for that opportunity!
Evolution or revolution?
Consider the societal impact?
Except the sexual fantasies and the carnal implications it brings to the population, a direct comparison between males and females remain out of the question, due to obvious reasons.
We see fashion magazines, TV shows, movies and public displays of physique.
Whether male or female, body parts laden with hair is justified to certain extents.
While it heightens the debate, the actual physiological ramifications have never been debated at length.
Why should they be?
And then, you are even insinuating colouring them? Are you crazy?
As unique and sinister it may sound, and provided you are patient and shrewd enough to isolate the facts from the fiction, a vast majority of the illuminati are prudent enough to not leave comments.
Add to the power of the social media today, a trend can become an evolution, as well as the opposite, within a matter of weeks or months.
What a struggle between the hairs and the heirs of the civilisation!
Male chauvinism, feminism, machoism, sexism … whatever dish you put on the table, nothing changes the fact that your body is your body.
Considering that you are its sole owner, feel free to please it the way you like it. Easier said than done … heh?
An African American, a Hispanic, a Latina, a Caucasian, an Asian … the flood gates of fashion bohemianism have been long opened past the event horizon.
What is ‘normal’? Simple answer … ‘what you think it is!’.
Anything extending that arc, or plummeting below the standard acceptance, should not be over-judged, un-indulged, over-privileged, or under-appreciated!
After all, January sans hair does not change January, just as it remains the same with it!
You do not enjoy it? Well, discover your own métier then.
Nobody’s stopping you!
