My 5 Categories of the Beautiful

My 5 Categories of the Beautiful

Well this is not your common lifestyle page in the magazines or newspapers or showbiz bulletins.


I wonder how you categorize beauty. But these are my five categories of what is beautiful.

1. An image of general acceptability : There is this immediate perceptible sense of acceptability for a person's image, character and attitude.

2. Self confidence and inner beauty : Unlike the first and the rest, this is a function that is internal but projected for others to perceive.

3. Beholder's preference of certain physical attributes: This is an external function of the beholder's taste for beauty. While this is the common view of beauty, this is so influenced by popular media stereotypes of beauty, which is shaped by the dominant Western culture.

4. Warmth and capacity for good relations : Unlike the first, this is a function of interaction rather than perception

5. Zest (spirit) in life : I would include here (a) physical energy and healthy body (b) active sexual life,(c) positive view of life and joyfulness, (d) genuine interest in people, (e) devotional spiritual life, and (f) intentional care of personal image.

Obviously there is a degree of subjectivity to all these categories. Whichever you apply.

God in the Bible never gave us definitions of what is beautiful. It must be borne of our conventions of perception. When he created things, he said, "It was good." Everything was created good and thereby intended to be beautiful.