Perception of Beauty

On 2 August 2010 in a Washington DC subway, Joshua Bell - one of the top musicians in the world - played six of Bach's most intricate pieces on the violin for 45 minutes. During this time, thousands of people passed by; only six people stopped to listen. The one who paid the most attention was a three year old boy, who was eventually pushed by his mother to move on.

This was an experiment conducted by the Washington Post, and raises questions about our perception of beauty. Do we recognise talent in an unexpected context? If we cannot spare the time to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, what else are we missing?

Two nights earlier, Joshua Bell sold out at a theatre in Boston; seats averaged $100.

Further reading on this experiment can be found HERE.

These findings struck a cord with me, and really made me question as usual our purpose in life; what are we doing here?? So much of what we do on a day-to-day basis is dictated - if not directly - by social norms. Who says you can't have spaghetti for breakfast?

On a materialistic level, since when did it become expected that women should have hairless legs? I'm not saying I don't shave my legs in protest (although I did receive a razor and moisturiser for a Secret Santa present which was odd...), but I do think that a lot of what we are expected to look like and do to our bodies highlights our inner need to conform to the norm; who sets the norm anyway?

This clip exploits the media's radical attempts to dictate 'beauty'. No wonder our perception of 'beauty' is so distorted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAnRQncZ_uk

Aside from all this, there has been a great deal of psychological study into our perception of beauty. For example, symmetry is attractive to the human eye; pity that no-one's body, face or shape is completely symmetrical. Males in Western cultures generally prefer females with a small jaw, a small nose, large eyes, and defined cheekbones. Scientists have also found that the body's proportions play an important role in the perception of beauty as well (well duh).

Unfortunately - or fortunately - when you strip it all away, no person out of the seven billion people on this earth, is born to look the same as anyone else. So why oh why do we continue to conform to the 'norm'??