Beauty IS at the eyes of the beholder..

In rural Africa, the fatter a woman is the more beautiful she is.  Before a girl is married out, she will be force fed until she becomes very fat... very beautiful... (how I wish people who live around me think like them.. :)

Hundreds of years ago, the prettiest woman in China was a woman whose feet were perfectly bound at  the size of 7 cm.  Men got excited and aroused when they saw those tiny feet...

Definition of beauty differs in each culture... Perception of beauty differs for every single human being.  I once argued with my husband about this beautiful model.  With fair creamy flawless skin, big eyes, slim body and long black hair, I thought she was very beautiful.  When I mentioned it to my husband, he said she looks like Michael Jackson...!! I was shocked... He didn't notice all the qualities I saw in her but he did notice that she had artificial-look slim nose like Michael Jackson's.

From the wikipedia, I read that beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction.

So whatever brings an experience of pleasure and satisfaction is beautiful. We get pleasure and satisfaction not only from what we see, but also from what we taste, what we touch, what we hear and most importantly from what we feel... 

I do believe that everyone CAN be beautiful regardless whether he/she is born fat, skinny, fair, dark, short, tall, handicapped or perfect as long as he/she brings pleasurable experience to the people around him/her.

I also believe that a person needs to take care of himself/herself to be beautiful.  I met one lady who kept complaining that she was ugly that's why she is never approached by men.  If I just look at her, I can see that she is beautiful... She is definitely slimmer and taller than me with perfect skin and big eyes.  But when I met her, a lot of times I couldn't stand being with her for more than 15 minutes.  She talked non-stop, bitching about everyone in her life who has been making her life miserable.. She has very strong body odour.. She doesn't care about the way she dresses because I could see stains and loose thread on her dress, all the time... She always put her hair up in a clip, never bother to comb it properly.. She talks with her mouth full of food, splatting food and saliva in the air.  After awhile, I couldn't see her beauty anymore... I finally believe her when she said she was ugly... She IS ugly.. but not because how she looks but because the way she behaves...

I really want to tell her that... but she is not a close friend of mine and I am afraid that she will take it differently, so I let her be ugly instead...

On another hand, I have a plump friend with small eyes and freckles on her face.  By most people's standard, she is nowhere close to being pretty.. But her husband is crazy about her.. She has tons of friends who would go to the end of the world to make her smile.. She loves life.. She is full of live.. Being with her makes me feel good.. She brings so much joy and laughters to the people around her.  She jokes about her extra 30 kg above BMI.  She never talks bad about other people, she always smells like she just gets out of a shower, she dresses like a lady who has millions of dollars although she bought the dress at a bargain shop and she never let her hair get messy or oily or (God forbid) smelly when she meets anybody...  She has such a profound dignity and respect for herself.  She makes herself beautiful.  She feels beautiful... I really think she is one gorgeous lady...

@Ladies...: Let's be beautiful..

@Men...: Please learn how to think like a rural African tribe..