If this is beauty...

[trinityvixen]

I'll happily stay ugly.

Yes, symmetry is important, but our appreciation of beauty is as much about the differences and oddities and the stark contrasts as it is about perfection. I don't think a single one of the slideshow photos makes the person in it look more beautiful. More cookie-cutter "pretty" perhaps. (The woman at the start of the article is positively a different person with the manipulation and not more beautiful for it.)

I'm also weirded out that James Franco looks almost the same in his "after" as he does in his "before." I've honestly never thought about him in any context of "beauty." Mostly because his defining feature for me was determined when my former roommate called him "Johnny McSquinty" after we saw Spider-Man. I suppose he is very classically beautiful. I don't think he's striking (not like Paul Newman, say, who is another called "classically" beautiful). Perhaps that solidifies my thesis that beauty is deviance from the golden mean of perfect symmetry. James Franco has never provoked me to heights of ecstatic slut-itude. Not like this guy, or this guy, or this guy. (Or even this guy, and I only just started watching his show!) It's sort of the same as my reaction to Denzel Washington. I read in People magazine ages ago, that he had the closest to a perfectly symmetrical face of just about any star in Hollywood. I agree. Denzel Washington is gorgeous. But he doesn't do it for me.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I think those links only prove I have a fetish for thick eyebrows and serial killers. Healthy!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Word. I'm having a hard time saying no to the sure-to-be-terrible, not-even-a-fan-of-the-series Star Trek reboot movie. 'cause: beefcake.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I sure as shit didn't give a rat's but about a lot of hero characters until certain people stepped into their shoes. (Or flying metal boots as the case may be, :::COUGHROBERTDOWNEYJRCOUGHCOUGH::)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

A pipsqueak! Pipsqueak!

[viridian.livejournal.com]

Word. I think Nicole Kidman has probably close to perfectly symmetrical beauty, and while I do think she's very flawlessly pretty, she's also creepy as fucking hell.

Meanwhile, however, I am driven nuts by the idea that my eyes aren't quite symmetrical or that my nose is too something every time I look at a photo of myself. Blech.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

As you know, I have fearlessly revealed the secret behind Nicole Kidman's beauty for years now (SHE IS AN ALIEN) despite the likelihood of personal reprisals from the great Zarnoid empire.

If it helps soothe your discomfort, I haven't noticed your supposed "flaws" which means either you're imagining things or they add to your attractiveness which is only a good thing. Remember, unusual is beautiful, no matter what a stupid computer program says.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on all three of those ladies. Liv Tyler...that woman is incandescent. feiran saw her once in real life and she said she was all but stunned unconscious by how gorgeous she was. Reese is just cute as a button. Angelina needs no defending, she's pretty, and we know it. She also has the most enviable ability to make any haircut look good. What the shit?

[viridian.livejournal.com]

I'm sure no one else picks apart my features like that, but I think everyone tends to nitpick their own flaws a little.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Surely they do. Just allow your friends to reassure you that that time spent picking apart should be minimal as possible, k?

[viridian.livejournal.com]

:P

I was not fishing for compliments! I just honestly look at photos of myself and go "... can't I EVER make a face that doesn't look f'ing weird?" But I think everyone probably does.

[avram]

That's weird. We're usually told that large eyes are a sign of beauty, but in cases where there's a visible difference, the "beautification" program tended to shrink people's eyes.

Maybe Israelis have a screwed-up notion of beauty.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I noticed that, too. In the slide show, they shrunk Micahel Cera's eyes so badly he looked like young Tom Brokaw. Wide, large eyes are also associated with youth, which is always beautiful, right?

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

The woman in the first link looks more beautiful on the left. On the right she just looks ordinary.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That's just it: this isn't beautiful, it's standard. AKA boring.