Who possesses the most beautiful body in the world?
What makes that person’s body beautiful?
What have you been told, what have you seen and heard about what makes a person’s body beautiful?
Who or what do you look to for examples of what makes a person’s body beautiful?
What are the similarities and differences between your own ideas about beautiful bodies and those of your or others’ culture/ race/ ethnicity/ religion and gender/sexual identity?
Check out the online ‘Zine links under “Body Beautiful” for a variety of beautiful bodies!
Piercing Identity: FPU's Virtual Center for Diversity 
I dont think anyone posses the most beautiful body in the world since everyone ideal beauty is different.
I have been told that body type, eyes, and smile are the most beautiful parts of a person i personally believe a persons personality can either enhance natural qualities or diminish them completely.
I find beauty in piercings and tats as well as good smirks. Everything else is pretty trivial to me…oh and no B.O is also beautiful. Many people forget that when they think of beauty.
Where do our ideals of beauty come from and do particular cultures have specific ideals across culture?
“Six exercises to help keep your legs, back, and core in optimal shape for wearing fall’s mile-high heels.” I kind of thought this was a witty satire created by Vogue…I’m pretty sure they’re serious. Now, not only can women sickly obsess about their weight naked in front of a mirror, but now they have to do it wearing seven inch heels?! I wonder if Darwin would look at these stick figures and say, “Yeah that top looks good on them, but how will they ever bear children?”
The definition of beauty changes. I have long pondered how one acquires the authority to define beauty.
When I was a teenager, I saw ONLY white models in fashion magazines. White was the only color skin defined as beautiful — if fashion magazines are considered definers. Then things changed — later 70s — and other races and ethnicities were illustrated in those same magazines. Our definitions of beauty were forced to change b/c the “authority” inherent in those magazines offered us different definitions of beauty. This was a good thing. I still remember the first time I saw non-white people in magazines — it was shocking and new and wonderful — beauty is changeable.
THIS IS WHY I HAVE HOPE THAT WE CAN CHANGE OTHER DEFINITIONS — has anyone seen the “That’s So Gay” PSAs? thoughts?
Beauty is one of the most worried about topics that (almost) everyone has thought about. I’ve also noticed that most people who worry about their looks are actually worrying about how other people see them. This can cause many problems, especially health, weather its working out excessively, or even eating disorders.
Beauty and being beautiful is one of the most socially know topics that (almost) everyone has thought about. I’ve also noticed that most people who worry about their looks are actually worrying about how other people see them. This can cause many problems, especially health, whether its working out excessively, or even eating disorders. Society has put an image out that being thin and toned is the “most beautiful body” their is. I believe that people need to rethink this. If you believe your beautiful and you like the way you look, than that is what you should go for, not what society says, but what the individual says about themselves.
I just went through the web page selection, trying to find out if all of the diverse groups listed have different criteria for being beautiful. Do African Americans define beauty differently than Native Americans? Do lesbians define a beautiful women differently than straight women? I couldn’t find an answer. Is it all about individuals do you think? (As a head’s up for the Human Sexuality class — check out CURVES, the mag for lesbians. Lipstick and Dipstick have very interesting exchange with a San Francisco lesbian who is upset about her interest in porn. We’ll be starting erotica/porn soon.)
Beauty is fluid. After a change in my body after having my eldest daughter it took me almost seven years to accept my “new” body. It wasn’t until I morned what I had been, before I could accept what I had become and she it’s beauty. As a women and a mother this acceptance is key to understanding one’s own beauty.
A common prhase is that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Beauty is perception and the question I find hard to answer is who’s perception really matters? We belong to societies which sometimes forces us to conform. In all reality it is the self that defines beauty. No matter how someone looks and how others see them it is how they see themselves that is truly important.
I try to talk to a person and get to know them rather than looking at them and making a judgment strictly based on their bodies.
I believe that if someone has the confidence to view their bodies as beautiful then that will be passed on to other people.
Common societal guidelines for what bodies should look like are formed and molded on what we view in the media, on the Internet, on television, and in magazines.
These guidelines are often unrealistic and as the American obesity problem keeps rising people are becoming larger. And, the average person is not the size or they do not possess the figure of a model or celebrity.
As long as a person is healthy, taking care of themselves, and they are at a healthy weight they should not have negative perceptions of themselves based on what the media is telling them to look like.
As Americans we have a different perception of what beauty is and, for example, in Europe people look and dress differently. In other cultures women and men are considered desirous for things other than their bodies.
I have always been told that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But then again, beauty is always portrayed in magazines as skinny, tall, blonde women with blue eyes. When I came out to my mother, she asked me if I was going to cut my hair off. To her, beautiful women have to have long hair. Growing up, she always braided my hair and I always admired my niece for having long hair. I don’t know that that is something I feel is beautiful. In middle school and high school, the popular girls were always this kind of beautiful. Over time, I have seen beauty as being within a person. I have changed my perception and seen that a person is beautiful because of the person that they are and not because of what they look like. I think people should be more open and willing to get to know others, rather than judging based on looks. It is a strange world that we live in and I think as people grow up, they mature and begin to see beauty as fluid, or within people, as other comments have mentioned. But I think that this idea should be one instilled in humans from the beginning, not something that we only come to realize as we get older.