When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
CLARIN

Botticelli To Body Shaming: How Our Ideal Of Beauty Went Awry

Modern society has it wrong: Beauty is about love, not looks.

Sadly, the never-too-thin image dominates our modern aesthetic.
Sadly, the never-too-thin image dominates our modern aesthetic.
Juan Eduardo Tesone

-Essay-

BUENOS AIRES - What or whom do we consider beautiful today? Surely there aren't really any beautiful or ugly bodies, but only beautiful or ugly individuals, or perhaps people with beautiful or ugly behavior. Such would depend not on evaluating curves or physical traits, but rather changing our definition of beauty itself.

Beauty, beyond its subjective evaluation, is strongly anchored to a particular time period. The current preference for thin — sometimes excessively thin, or even anorexic — bodies, as seen on the catwalks, is a far cry from the beauty ideals of other eras.

During the Italian Renaissance, beauty ceased to be considered a reflection of the Divine, as it had been in medieval art. Instead, artists began to depict the naked body in harmony with humanistic values and human exceptionalism. Botticelli's Three Graces exude an intense warmth and sensuality in their curves, yet one could safely state that they would never make it on the catwalk today. Or Goya's Naked Maja: thousands may admire her in the Prado, but would a modern fashion house ever hire her?

[rebelmouse-image 27090020 alt="""" original_size="287x448" expand=1]

Three Graces detail from Botticelli's Primavera

The definitions that dictate what is beautiful today generally depend on imagery the advertising world imposes on us. The body is now an object-image, admired like a magazine picture taken out of context, and the result is a stream of statuesque bodies with frozen expressions. Where is the creativity here? Does it lie in the often identical bodies of models, or in designers' ability to highlight all sorts of bodies? Perhaps personal beauty and sensuality do not stem from our more or less conventional physical appearance, but from our intelligence, our way of carrying ourselves and our attitude.

How could you describe someone's body as beautiful without listening to what he or she has to say? Photoshop, which allows pictures to be retouched "to perfection," is the ultimate symbol of this paradigm. It presents something false as beautiful, implying that it exists and that you could, and should, hope to encounter it when you walk out onto the street. Like Snow White's mirror, Photoshop lies, sending us on a dispiriting yet unrelenting quest for an identity that alienates us from reality.

Touched-up, fatless, lifeless, standardized and anonymous bodies... taking these literally as their models of beauty, people can end up killing themselves with eating disorders, or resorting to "beauty" surgery that turns their faces into death masks. And even then, they cannot truly hide the passing of time and defeat life's inexorable, natural progression.

Has anyone ever become more beautiful through such surgery? It's unrelated to the sort of reparative surgery intended to help people recover from traumatic accidents and bodily injuries.

Cultural relativism aside, subjective personal taste also shapes our ideas of beauty: While beauty is related to sensory perception, the 19th-century German poet Goethe believed it had more to do with internal feelings than external sensations. Plato connected beauty with love and, beyond that, with goodness.

Beauty is connected to pleasure, which has nothing to do with results-driven utilitarianism that drives contemporary society. The authentic joy that beauty triggers in an individual can never be experienced universally, it is shared between the giver and recepient of said beauty.

Like a window opening onto a garden, it is our gaze that creates beauty. And this sense of beauty, colored by affection, transcends time and place. Love is the greatest beauty product ever made, and it works wonders on us all.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

How Vulnerable Are The Russians In Crimea?

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on the occupied Crimean peninsula, and Russia is doing all within its power to deny how vulnerable it has become.

Photograph of the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters with smoke rising above it after a Ukrainian missile strike.

September 22, 2023, Sevastopol, Crimea, Russia: Smoke rises over the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters after a Ukrainian missile strike.

TASS/ZUMA
Kyrylo Danylchenko

This article was updated Sept. 26, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.

Russian authorities are making a concerted effort to downplay and even deny the recent missile strikes in Russia-occupied Crimea.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

Media coverage in Russia of these events has been intentionally subdued, with top military spokesperson Igor Konashenkov offering no response to an attack on Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, or the alleged downing last week of Russian Su-24 aircraft by Ukrainian Air Defense.

The response from this and other strikes on the Crimean peninsula and surrounding waters of the Black Sea has alternated between complete silence and propagating falsehoods. One notable example of the latter was the claim that the Russian headquarters building of the Black Sea fleet that was hit Friday was empty and that the multiple explosions were mere routine training exercises.

Ukraine claimed on Monday that the attack killed Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. "After the strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, 34 officers died, including the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Another 105 occupiers were wounded. The headquarters building cannot be restored," the Ukrainian special forces said via Telegram.

But Sokolov was seen on state television on Tuesday, just one day after Ukraine claimed he'd been killed. The Russian Defense Ministry released footage of the admiral partaking in a video conference with top admirals and chiefs, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, though there was no verification of the date of the event.

Moscow has been similarly obtuse following other reports of missiles strikes this month on Crimea. Russian authorities have declared that all missiles have been intercepted by a submarine and a structure called "VDK Minsk", which itself was severely damaged following a Ukrainian airstrike on Sept. 13. The Russians likewise dismissed reports of a fire at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, attributing it to a mundane explosion caused by swamp gas.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refrained from commenting on the military situation in Crimea and elsewhere, continuing to repeat that everything is “proceeding as planned.”

Why is Crimea such a touchy topic? And why is it proving to be so hard to defend?

Keep reading...Show less

The latest