Reply To: Is Being "Pretty" a Subjective Description?

Home Forums Shidduchim Is Being "Pretty" a Subjective Description? Reply To: Is Being "Pretty" a Subjective Description?

#783441
oomis
Participant

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Mostly, the concept of looks is subjective in terms of our cultural ideals. But no one can argue that there is not a concept of beauty that ALL people would recognize as such. I see a sunset over the ocean with purples, pinks, and oranges filling up the sky – that’s objectively breathtakingly gorgeous. But when you see a person, your concept of pretty might differ from mine. I never believe or give credence to a shadchan that a girl is pretty or a boy is good-looking. First of all, they have an agenda, and second, what they find attractive my child might not. Some people love curly hair, others cannot stand it. Somwe like redheads, some blondes, some brunettes, some like shorter, some like taller. There might be someone that everyone will agree is pretty, but most of us are culturally ingrained for out standards of beauty. There was a time in history when the size twos who are being redt shidduchim left and right, would have been considered scrawny and malnourished, and certainly not healthy for bearing children. It’s all in the mindset of the specific time.

I knew a woman once who was married three times. She was thought to be stunning and heads would turn when she walked in. She was NOT pretty by any stretch of the imagination (had a really huge bumpy nose like Streisand, and an underdeveloped chin), but she walked with confidence and believed herself to be pretty, and she attracted people with no end in sight.