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The Meaning Of Conceptualization Of Beauty

Satisfactory Essays

Morgan Kilmartin
Fall 2016
The Meaning Of…
Conceptualization of Beauty The term beautiful first appears in the English language around the 14th century with the use of the word “beaute” in Middle English, derived from the Anglo-French “beau” with roots in the Latin “bellus”. The common usage of the term connotes both “having qualities of beauty” and “exciting aesthetic pleasure” (Merriam-Webster, 2016). The semantic reference to aesthetics in the term highlights the Greek and Roman influence on art, literature, and philosophy in English culture historically. The classics of the ancient world are found idolized and highly esteemed in the British museums as objects of art. Primarily, these consist of Greek and Roman sculptures, vase paintings, and plays from the ancient world that are canonized, as well as Renaissance artworks. Thus, when one popularly hears the phrase “classic beauty” in contemporary linguistic usage, it typically refers to the mirroring of the forms, expressions, or figures of the Greek and Roman mythological figures in a woman. Where the term beautiful was previously used equally in relation to men and women, in contemporary discourse it is more generally limited to models of femininity or objects of appreciation (Merriam-Webster, 2016). This supports the feminist claim that standards of beauty lead to both sexual objectification by the male gaze and self-objectification in women and girls due to the application of external criteria of judgement in

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