Conception of beauty

i
in our society
Presented by –
Khushi Mishra and Mehak
From class 12-A
 INDEX

• Acknowledment
• Certificate
• Action plan
• What does conception of beauty
mean over society ?
• Racism
• Body shaming
• How beauty standards differ
around the world?
• How our brain decides what is
beautiful?
• Changing society beauty standards
• The Real definition of beauty
• Interview-4
• Reflection
• Bibliograpghy
 Acknowledegement
I would like to express my special thanks of
gratitude to my English teacher Mrs. Aadarsh
sharma as well as our principal Mrs. Deepti
Jagota who gave me the golden oppurtunity
to do this wonderful project on the topic
“Conception of beauty in our society” , which
also helped me in doing a lot of Research and
I came to know about so many new things I
am really thankful to them.
Secondly I would also like to thank my
parents and friends who helped me a lot in
finalizing this project within the limited time
frame.
 Certificate

This is to certify that this “English

project” on the topic “Conception of
beauty in our society” has been
successfully completed by Khushi
Mishra and Mehak of class XII-A
under the guidance of Mrs. Aadarsh
sharma in particular fulfilment of the
curriculam of Central Board of
Secondary Education (CBSE) leading
to the award of annual examination of
the year 2023-24.
 Action plan
During first term we were informed about
the project and outline was provided
although detailed information regarding the
format was provided. After term-1
examination, which gave ample time to plan
about how to procede with the project. After
that different topics based on which project
can be prepared were provided and finalised.
Further research regarding the topic was
done, a questionnaire was made and
responses were received. All the information
collected either from internet or
questionnaire responses was combined and a
draft was prepared and submitted. After
making some adjustments, approval from
the teacher was received and this project
was completed.
What does conception of beauty mean over society ?

Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that

makes these objects pleasurable to perceive.
Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of
aesthetics, one of the major branches of philosophy. As a
positive aesthetic value, it is contrasted with ugliness as its
negative counterpart.
One difficulty in understanding beauty is because it has both
objective and subjective aspects: it is seen as a property of
things but also as depending on the emotional response of
observers. Because of its subjective side, beauty is said to be
"in the eye of the beholder".[2] It has been argued that the
ability on the side of the subject needed to perceive and judge
beauty, sometimes referred to as the "sense of taste", can be
trained and that the verdicts of experts coincide in the long run.
This would suggest that the standards of validity of judgments
of beauty are intersubjective, i.e. dependent on a group of
judges, rather than fully subjective or fully objective.

Conceptions of beauty aim to capture what is essential to all

beautiful things. Classical conceptions define beauty in terms of
the relation between the beautiful object as a whole and its
parts: the parts should stand in the right proportion to each
other and thus compose an integrated harmonious whole.
Hedonist conceptions see a necessary connection between
pleasure and beauty, e.g. that for an object to be beautiful is for
it to cause disinterested pleasure. Other conceptions include
defining beautiful objects in terms of their value, of a loving
attitude towards them or of their function.
 RAcism
Colorism, as defined by Merriam-Website as “prejudice or
discrimination especially within a racial or ethnic group
favoring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin,”
is ingrained in society. We have grown up hearing phrases like
fairest of them all and have not considered the implications that
linger to this day. For The Guardian, contributor Erin Dyana
Mclaughin wrote a piece about using makeup to appear lighter
until she redefined beauty as a black woman:“Colorism has
programmed me to view myself as everything but beautiful, or
even a woman. Masculinity, ugliness and undesirability are
traits that I have identified with since early adolescence,”
writes Mclaughin. Colorism is systemic. It is a way for people
to uphold white beauty standards that do nothing but “other”
minorities from every industry and aspect of society. Even with
big makeup brands today pushing for more inclusivity and a
better span of options there is still so much to be done. We need
to advocate for shade diversity to be the standard in the beauty
industry—and not the exception. That association between
beauty and whiteness has proved hard to shake. There's a
reason that so many people still think of an "all-American
beauty" as a thin, blonde, blue-eyed white woman.
It wasn't until 1940 that the rules were changed to allow women
of color to enter the Miss America pageant. Before that, the
official rules stated that contestants had to be "of good health and
of the white race."Decisions about who society holds up as
beautiful also have a lot to do with class. Nell Irvin Painter notes
that a lot of the things we consider beautiful are actually just
proxies for wealth. Think of how much it costs to get cosmetic
surgery, or braces, or even a facial.
There are many movements that have tried to address
beauty as a political force. There was the indigenismo
movement in Mexico. One of its icons was the artist Frida
Kahlo. In her self-portraits, she painted herself dressed in
pre-Columbian clothes and hairstyles, with visible facial
hair and hair between her eyebrows. Many have described
those artistic choices as being a radical rejection of white,
colonial beauty standards.And these days, a lot of women
push back on the idea that they should remove facial and
body hair in order to be considered beautiful or hygienic or
professional. The activist and model Harnaam Kaur has
spoken about how her life changed once she decided to
stop shaving her beard: "I feel a lot stronger and liberated
to be who I am and accept who I am freely. ... I'm here as a
woman who's wearing something that's supposed to be —
in quotations "supposed to be" — a man's feature.“

The body positivity movement and the fat-acceptance

movements have also consistently pushed back on the idea
that thin, young, white, able-bodied women are the epitome
of beauty — or that beauty should be a precondition for
respect to begin with One thing to keep in mind is that
beauty is a facet of power. Being considered beautiful can
help you gain access to certain spaces, or increase your
power in certain settings. By the same token, a perceived
lack of beauty, or a refusal or inability to conform to
certain beauty standards, also has really tangible
consequences.
 body shaming
The "Beauty To-Do List“
Somewhere along the way, society got caught up in the craze of
defining beauty by creating a series of beauty standards- a "to-do
list," if you will. Some infamous criteria for beauty are: the face
should be as small as the hand, the legs should be as thin as
chopsticks, and the waistline should be the width of a piece of
vertical A4 paper. Anything else instantly gets a big, fat, red label
with the word 'UGLY' on it. Where does this "beauty to-do list"
come from? Why do people get so caught up in it?People are told:
you're not good here, you shouldn't eat this, you need to fix this.
You have to become like many of the stars on the magazines, and
you eventually convince yourself that those changes will result in a
"better" life. There is also a group of people who haven't been
directly told but who absorb beauty standards from their
surroundings. They feel even more sad and self-abased and are
anxious about their body. They will tell themselves that they are not
beautiful and should get rid of all "not beautiful" things.Body shame
is inextricably linked to consumerism. Many brands are now
focusing on products aimed at skinny girls. Brandy Melville is a
fashion brand known for selling S size clothes. As a result, a large
number of people can not find clothes suitable for their body shape.
Brandy Melville instills a sense of superiority in consumers by
insinuating that it is a fashion brand that only skinny girls can buy. It
creates a false narrative that skinny girls are superior to fat girls.
Brandy Melville increases their sales by making its customer base
feel exclusive. From an economic perspective, this may be a
successful marketing tool. But for our society, is the body shame,
sizeism, and stereotypes really worth the economic benefits?
In his book "The Crowd: a Study of The Popular Mind,"
author Gustave Le Bon argues that one of the most striking
features of the modern age is the replacement of conscious
behavior by unconscious behavior in groups. He says that
individual rational people in a group do not necessarily
change the overall behavior of the group. This can explain
why people can unconsciously believe in sizeism and
fatphobia and rudely judge others' bodies.
Our Society and "Bad" Bodies
Heavy Craving, a movie recently released in China, directed by Pei-Ju
Hsieh, tells the story of a fat girl who constantly receives exclusionary
and discriminatory comments. On her birthday, her mother buys a
weight-loss class as a gift for her. In my opinion, this is no more than the
typical excuse for sizeism: saying it's "for your own good." You need to
lose weight for your own good so you can wear beautiful clothes like
the other girls. You need to build muscle for your own good because
that is what a man usually does unless you are a sissy. You need to
cover up your acne for your own good, so people would not laugh at
you. These arguments are deeply steeped in condescending fatphobia
and rarely spoken out of true medical concern. After all, weight is not
necessarily a reliable predictor of health.Later, the heroine in Heavy
Craving discovers a boy who enjoys cross-dressing and is afraid of his
secret being exposed.. In this film, the reason that "fat" girls fear social
discrimination against their bodies and little boys fear being exposed for
“feminine” behaviors is that they fear people judging them. They fear
their families trying to change them “for their own good” rather than
accepting who they are.Self-confidence is by no means unwarranted
narcissism, and what we call anti-body shame is not a call to abandon
self-care. What we should glean from the cultural trend of body
shaming is that judging and shaming is an absence of human care. We
should be more accepting of ourselves and more respectful of others.
We need to respect our bodies, respect our differences, appreciate all
skin tones, all body shapes, and all self-expressions. Choose what you
want to choose, accept what you have, and live for yourself. Authentic
identity should come from what we feel within ourselves, not from the
judging mouths and eyes of others. Liyuan Zhang, a 17-year-old rising
senior at Beijing No.2 Middle School, loves to study social and political
issues. He is a co-founder of ''Cubic Sugar, '' a drone donation program
for anti-poaching in Africa. He also likes to sing, and he is an anchor of
Netease Music radio station. He hopes to learn more about politics and
current events by researching and writing for Next Generation Politics.
 HOW BEAUTY STANDARDS DIFFER
AROUND THE WORLD

Our preoccupation with beauty is an international obsession,

but how we define beauty across the globe couldn’t be more
different. In an effort to break down beauty barriers, we’re
taking a look at what being “beautiful” means at home – and
beyond our borders.
Our preoccupation with beauty is an international obsession,
but how we define beauty across the globe couldn’t be more
different. In an effort to break down beauty barriers, we’re
taking a look at what being “beautiful” means at home – and
beyond our borders.
BRAZILIAN AND SOUTH AMERICAN
BEAUTY STANDARDS

In Brazil, beauty has a lot to do with what’s going on south of

the border. Large breasts and a waif-like figure are less of a
concern than a toned and curvy bottom half. Thicker, more
muscular legs and hips are the focus here, with particular
attention being paid to — you guessed it! — the butt. Here, if
exercise and diet won’t cut it, many women are willing to go
under the knife for implants designed to perk up those
trademark South American assets. Beyond the physical,
Brazilian women are notorious for their free-spiritedness and
seemingly effortless sensuality. Despite the work that goes
into those enviable beach-bodies, there’s something inherently
sexy and confident about these South American stunners. Take
a note from fellow Latina, Columbian-born Sofia Vergara,
who says, “Confident people have a way of carrying
themselves that makes others more attracted to them.”Related:
Hayley Hasselhoff makes history as European Playboy’s first
curve cover model.
The French do it au naturel

In France, jolie laide is the motto — loosely translated to

describe unconventional beauty. Here, those distinct and
quirky physical traits that you work so hard to conceal are
exactly what French women find most appealing. A
refreshing take on what it is to be “pretty.” Take a cue from
the French and give that contouring brush a break. Finally an
excuse to use the hashtag #iwokeuplikethis! See also: My
battle with alopecia helped me redefine beauty.
Sticking to the shade in Korea

One of the most coveted traits in Korea is their much sought-

after porcelain skin. Long admired by women across the
globe, the market for Korean skin care and face masks
products has surged drastically in recent years in a bid for
women of the West to combat aging and achieve that perfect
complexion. For the women of Korea, maintaining that perfect
pale complexion is no small feat, the problematic origins of
which trace back in history to a time where tanned skin
implied a lower social status. For products to include in a skin
care regimen that would make any Korean woman proud,
check out these Korean skincare brands in Canada.Related: I
tried a Korean kyung-rak facial and this is how it changed my
face.
India’s perception of beauty shifts as the East
looks West

Present-day standards of beauty in India have taken a turn

towards western ideals, now putting pressure on women to
lighten their skin and slim down in a bid to hold court with the
women of the West. The desire to conform to western beauty
norms, of course, is a product of colonization. One of the most
enviable traits of the modern-day Indian beauty is their thick,
lustrous hair. One of the most commonly used tricks of the
trade Indian women use to maintain their trademark locks is
none other than coconut oil. Massaged into the scalp, the oil
will provide a deep conditioning treatment and condition your
hair back to health.See also: The currency of beauty in the
workplace.
New Zealand women make the ultimate
commitment for their beauty rituals

For the Maori people of New Zealand, nothing says beauty

like a tattoo on your face. Traditionally done with a chisel
(ouch!), tattoo machines now add permanent adornments to
the faces of these women: swirly-shaped markings called Ta-
moko. To find yourself at the top of the heap, you’ve got to go
big: the most beautiful women are thought to be those with
their chins and lips fully tattooed.
No rest for the Russians

Never caught on a “sweats” day and seemingly oozing with

sexuality, Russian women may have coined the phrase “more
is more.” Contrary to the French, Russian women see more
value in putting added effort (and funds) into their appearance.
Born in Russia, supermodel Irina Shayk has this to say about
beauty back home: “…in my country, women spend a lot of
time on beauty rituals and take very good care of themselves.
Natural beauty is carefully cherished and is brought to
perfection by makeup, clothes and the unique combination of
little things that are called 'personal charm.'"
A dangerous quest for beauty in Thailand

The pursuit of perfection in Thailand is no laughing matter and

many women have paid the ultimate price in their quest for
beauty. The ideal Thai woman is in almost comical contrast to
the natural traits so many local women are born with. Value
here is placed on pale skin, a narrow frame and pronounced
eyes and nose. One valuable — and safely attainable — beauty
regimen to take away from Thailand is their emphasis on
protecting their skin from the sun. While their motivations may
have more to do with maintaining a lighter complexion than
sparing themselves from harmful rays, there’s no denying the
benefits to always seeking out skin care products that boast
SPF all year 'round.
 How our brain decides what is beautiful?

Pursued by poets and artists alike, beauty is ever elusive. We

seek it in nature, art and philosophy but also in our phones
and furniture. We value it beyond reason, look to surround
ourselves with it and will even lose ourselves in pursuit of
it. Our world is defined by it, and yet we struggle to ever
define it. As philosopher George Santayana observed in his
1896 book The Sense of Beauty, there is within us “a very
radical and wide-spread tendency to observe beauty, and to
value it.”Philosophers such as Santayana have tried for
centuries to understand beauty, but perhaps scientists are
now ready to try their hand as well. And while science
cannot yet tell us what beauty is, perhaps it can tell us
where it is—or where it isn’t. In a recent study, a team of
researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing and their
colleagues examined the origin of beauty and argued that it
is as enigmatic in our brain as it is in the real world.There is
no shortage of theories about what makes an object
aesthetically pleasing. Ideas about proportion, harmony,
symmetry, order, complexity and balance have all been
studied by psychologists in great depth. The theories go as
far back as 1876—in the early days of experimental
psychology—when German psychologist Gustav Fechner
provided evidence that people prefer rectangles with sides
in proportion to the golden ratio (if you’re curious, that
ratio is about 1.6:1).
At the time, Fechner was immersed in the project of “outer
psychophysics”—the search for mathematical relationships
between stimuli and their resultant percepts. What both
fascinated and eluded him, however, was the much more difficult
pursuit of “inner psychophysics”—relating the states of the
nervous system to the subjective experiences that accompany
them. Despite his experiments with the golden ratio, Fechner
continued to believe that beauty was, to a large degree, in the
brain of the beholder. So what part of our brain responds to
beauty? The answer depends on whether we see beauty as a
single category at all. Brain scientists who favor the idea of such a
“beauty center” have hypothesized that it may live in the
orbitofrontal cortex, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex or the
insula. If this theory prevails, then beauty really could be traced
back to a single region of the brain. We would experience beauty
in the same way whether we were listening to Franz Schubert
song, staring at a Diego Velázquez painting or seeing a doe
denning under the starlight.If the idea of a beauty center is
correct, then this would be a considerable victory for theory of
functional localization. Under this view—which is both widely held
and widely contested—much of what the brain does is the result
of highly specialized modules. To simplify the idea a bit, we could
imagine assigning Post-it notes to areas of the brain with job
descriptions underneath: “pleasure center,” “memory center,”
“visual center,” “beauty center.” While some version of this theory
is likely true, it’s certainly not the case that any kind of mental
state you can describe or intuit is cleanly localized somewhere in
the brain. Still, there is excellent evidence, for example, that
specific parts of the visual cortex have an exquisite selectivity for
motion. Other, nonoverlapping parts are quite clearly activated
only by faces. But for every careful study that finds compellingly
localized brain function, there are many more that have failed to
match a region with a concrete job description.
 Changing ocietys beauty standards

Mainstream media’s ideal beauty standard for women is constantly

changing. In the nineties, women were put under pressure to have
thin figures like Kate Moss. By the turn of the century, any body
type that was considered even slightly bigger than the ideal slender
look was deemed overweight.Celebrities like Jessica Simpson, Kate
Winslet, and Renée Zellweger were wrongly shamed for their
bodies during the early 2000s. Now, hour-glass body shapes like
the Kardashians’ have become the ideal beauty standard. Women
have always felt society’s unfair pressure to look a certain way, only
now we finally have the research to back it up. Researchers at York
University in Toronto noticed this trend not only in changing
beauty standards for women, but also in the ways that these
idealised body images are consumed.In the study, a group of female
undergraduate participants were shown images taken from an
Instagram influencer or model, who had either a “thin-ideal,” “slim-
thick-ideal,” or “fit-ideal body type.” These body types were
identified in the study as the three most pervasive beauty standards
we see today in Western media.The images of thin-ideal models had
a slender figure with small arms, legs, and waist. Fit-ideal was
defined as the type of content you would see under the hashtag
#fitspiration — thin, but toned. And a slim-thick body is one with
an hour-glass figure, but has “large breasts, thighs, and butt.” After
being shown these images, participants were asked to compare
themselves to the different mainstream body types, by rating if their
thighs, arms, or waists were similar to the model’s.
The results of the study demonstrated that, when exposed to
idealised body types, women felt an increased level of
dissatisfaction with their own weight and appearance. In fact, they
felt even less body satisfaction when they compared themselves to
slim-thick models. The transformation from the thin, waif-like
figures of the nineties to today’s hour-glass, slim-thick body types
shows that in the last three decades, the demands we put on
women to meet unattainable beauty standards haven’t changed.
Although perhaps the answer is that we shouldn’t jump from one
beauty standard to the next; we should dismantle them altogether.
 REAL DEFINITION OF
BEAUTY
First of all, beauty is not only physical. Yes, there is physical beauty
but it doesn’t mean anything if we feel rotten inside. If beauty is
only skin deep, it’s not beautiful enough because it fades quite
quickly. Beauty with brains is a useful definition but beauty with
heart has even more depth. True beauty in people is character deep.
Think about it. When you meet someone physically attractive for
the first time, you may want to talk to them. If you are single, you
may want to establish a romantic relationship with them. Whether
you would want to do it will depend on what you think about them
as a person, not just as a body. Yes, you could have a beautiful body,
but that doesn’t mean you are a beautiful person. Beautiful people
feel beautiful to others. Can you think of someone you found
beautiful as a person over a period of time? You could only find
someone beautiful when you admire, and even love them as people.
It is hard not to fall in love with someone you consider beautiful.
But, beauty is not only present in people. Beauty is present across
nature and it would be helpful while understanding how to be
beautiful, that we understand what beauty means to us. What is
beauty? As per the dictionary on google, beauty is a combination of
qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, which pleases the aesthetic
senses, especially the sight. Do you agree with this definition? I
partly agree. I don’t think this is a complete definition. A complete
definition of beauty would have to define the impact of beauty on
us. That’s how we would understand its meaning. How does beauty
make you feel? The right way to understand what means is by
understanding what beauty makes us feel. So, here is the definition.
Beauty is something or someone that moves you.
If beauty is something or someone that moves you emotionally, who or
what could be beautiful? Beauty is hard to achieve as a person. I can’t
be sure if anyone would call me beautiful. Certainly, I would aspire to
be a beautiful person, but I am not sure if I am one. Have I known
someone I would call beautiful? Yes. I have met a few people who were
beautiful in different ways. Yes, there is physical beauty. There are men
and women around the world who have been gifted or have created
beautiful bodies. They look attractive, and people around the world
want to see them because of their beautiful physique or figure,
whatever applies. However, beauty in people is not physical only since
that experience is fleeting. When someone is beautiful as a person, they
are loving, caring, and clean of conscience. They make other people
feel cared for around them. Everyone speaks highly of them in their
absence. A beautiful person makes us want to be beautiful, since they
move us.
 Interview
We took interview from different people speacially from young
generation who have different point of view from others. We took
4 interviews and from each interview we get to know more about
on this topic.

Interview - 1

Ques.1 What do you think about Brown/Black beauties?

Ques.2 What are your thoughts on plus size people?

Ques.3 What is beauty for you?

Ques.4 Which country people do you find most attractive?

Ques.5 According to you does your family members/Friends are counted in

beautiful persons?
Ques.6 Do you think beauty is necessary for people ?

Ques.7 To you who matters a person with very beautiful visual but not a good
heart or the one person with golden heart?

Ques.8 What are your thoughts about your physical features?

Interview – 2

Ques.1 What do you think about Brown/Black beauties?

Ques.2 What are your thoughts on plus size people?

Ques.3 What is beauty for you?

Ques.4 Which country people do you find most attractive?

Ques.5 According to you does your family members/Friends are counted in

beautiful persons?

Ques.6 Do you think beauty is necessary for people ?

Ques.7 To you who matters a person with very beautiful visual but not a good
heart or the one person with golden heart?

Ques.8 What are your thoughts about your physical features?

Interview – 3

Ques.1 What do you think about Brown/Black beauties?

Ques.2 What are your thoughts on plus size people?

Ques.3 What is beauty for you?

Ques.4 Which country people do you find most attractive?

Ques.5 According to you does your family members/Friends are counted in

beautiful persons?

Ques.6 Do you think beauty is necessary for people ?

Ques.7 To you who matters a person with very beautiful visual but not a good
heart or the one person with golden heart?

Ques.8 What are your thoughts about your physical features?

Interview – 4
Ques.1 What do you think about Brown/Black beauties?

Ques.2 What are your thoughts on plus size people?

Ques.3 What is beauty for you?

Ques.4 Which country people do you find most attractive?

Ques.5 According to you does your family members/Friends are counted in

beautiful persons?

Ques.6 Do you think beauty is necessary for people ?

Ques.7 To you who matters a person with very beautiful visual but not a good
heart or the one person with golden heart?

Ques.8 What are your thoughts about your physical features?

Interview – 5

Ques.1 What do you think about Brown/Black beauties?

Ques.2 What are your thoughts on plus size people?

Ques.3 What is beauty for you?

Ques.4 Which country people do you find most attractive?

Ques.5 According to you does your family members/Friends are counted in

beautiful persons?

Ques.6 Do you think beauty is necessary for people ?

Ques.7 To you who matters a person with very beautiful visual but not a good
heart or the one person with golden heart?

Ques.8 What are your thoughts about your physical features?

Pictures of interview

Manya singh
 Reflection by Khushi mishra
I Khushi Mishra class 12A am very delighted to
been given a chance to do research on this topic. I
would like to thank my teacher for this topic. In
the process of making this project me & my
partner were devastated and shocked after
reading all the facts and thinking of the world.
According to me people and their talent should
not be judged only by there physical appearence.
There are many other aspects of human to be
taken in consideration before judging anyone.
Beauty should not only be defined by visuals of a
human but their nature.
 Reflection by Mehak
I Mehak of class 12-A am very grateful to my english teacher
for letting me and my partner to choose this topic . Through
this file we learned a lot about the world and society which I
was not so aware about. I came to know about the perspective
people around the world see each other. In this modern era
where people just care about there looks and physical
appearnce. after doing many research on this topic I came to
know that beauty standards may differ and it is not the
problem at all but differentiating people based on there looks
body type or beauty is not a good deed. people should learn
the real definition of beauty by heart. As if we continue to
differntiate people on this basis its going to be very hazardous
for the people. Many people commits suicide because of this
behaviour lowering their self esteem. So according to me we
should try not to hurt any one and we considerate about other
people's feeling.
 Bibliography
• Wikipedia.com
• Pinterest.in (For pictures)
• Google.com
• Studentshare.org
• Youtube
• Google (For pictures)
Thank you