Beauty Summary BBS Second Year

Beauty

- Susan Sontag

The essay “Beauty” is written by the writer Susan Sontag. Through the essay, she talks about the changing concept or meaning of beauty over different periods. In the essay, she also talks about inner and outer beauty. According to her, inner beauty is associated with talent, morality, virtues and values, but outer beauty is associated with physical appearance.

In Greek time, beauty was taken as a virtue or a kind of excellence. Good character, morality, ability and sensitivity were taken as excellence. They expected that inner beauty and outer beauty would be matched. In fact, they took beauty as overall excellence. However, there was a contradictory situation. Their great scholar, Socrates was brave, honorable and intelligent, but he was ugly. His outside appearance was not matched with his knowledge and wisdom. Therefore, his followers observed their teacher’s inner beauty only and knew that life is full of paradoxes.

The Christian era introduced some different ideas regarding beauty. According to its belief, a person could have an attractive appearance, but he or she lacked virtues. Therefore, Christian made a difference between virtues and outer beauty. Therefore, beauty was taken superficial and less important.

In the modern time, the concept of beauty has become changed, and it is used to refer to female appearance. When the word beauty is heard, people think about female appearance but not her intelligence or quality. While talking about beauty, we say ‘a beautiful woman’ and ‘a handsome man’ in the English language. In French and Italian languages, the word beauty is not used for women only, so they also call ‘a beautiful man’. In the present time, societies teach women to judge their parts of body, and if they find flaw on them, they are called imperfect women. In fact, it makes them being called beautiful is seen as an important part of women’s identity. Due to this concept, women have become compelled to focus on their physical beauty instead of their competence, virtues, maturity, sensitivity and wisdom, but for men physical beauty is not that much important.

Mentioning the concept of a famous artist, beauty is a form of power. According to Susan, it is only a form of power for attracting men but not for doing or achieving anything. For women, it is a limited power and self-cancelling power because women are unable to freely choose or refuse it without criticism. For them, being beautiful is not only pleasure but a duty. Even successful women in any fields dream to be beautiful physically, and they try to attain beauty as a source of power. If they do not look attractive, they are criticized or ignored because male dominated societies have biased eyes against women.

The writer concludes the essay mentioning that women should not limit their attention for being beautiful outwardly, but they must emphasize their inner beauty, which is ever-lasting, influencing and fruitful. She even advises them to be capable, independent and considerate for reviving the ideal value of beauty and protecting their real identity and existence in their society.