Beauty Contested (1.15.25)

Seen, and unseen.

I love The Great British Bake-Off (“Baking Show” in America). The banter, sense of fun, and friendly competition prove a great mix that rise to the occasion every season. One peculiarity is how the judges describe flavors as “beautiful”. Cakes may look beautiful, but shouldn’t they taste delicious? What I think they mean is that at its highest level, baking is artisanship that produces beautiful flavors, just as one can sing a beautiful song, or pen a beautiful poem.

Sadly, technology has contorted the concept of beauty in our society. The advent of photography, film, and internet media has led to an overemphasis on physical beauty, leading to objectification, body dysphoria, and poor self-esteem – often, but not exclusively, among girls. Technology also grooms an image-conscious society - one obsessed with superficial beauty for want of status more than aesthetic sensibilities. Our Instagram feeds relentlessly insist that it is not enough for something beautiful to simply “be”. It must be possessed, captured, photo-bombed, upvoted, retweeted, promoted, viral. But do we not starve our own capacity to appreciate beauty when we ask others to appreciate it for us? Do we truly crave beauty, or do we crave validation in “likes”?

Photo by Artem Bobkov on Unsplash

When we value validation over beauty, we forsake the opportunity for introspection. It is a deep, personal experience to behold and consider a thing as an end to itself. But there is also a subtle, consequential, value shift when a thing is no longer appreciated for what it is, but only for what it can do for you. After all, if utility defines how we relate to things, will utility not also define how we relate to each other?

Aquinas believed that beauty was both objective and subjective; he also considered there to be great value in moral and intellectual beauty, in addition to physical beauty. He believed in the goodness of a rich world in which beauty could affect us merely by encountering it, without the need to own or possess it. In this way, beauty is a doorway to intimacy between us and the profound, or divine.

My favorite song to play on the guitar is Joe Cocker’s “You Are So Beautiful”. Written by Billy Preston, the inspiration was his mother. When I play it, I think of my children: Can’t you see/You’re everything I hoped for/Everything I need/You are so beautiful/To me. Though I mostly associate the song with a time when they were very young, I still see beauty in their flawed adult selves; I pursue the sight of it every day.

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash

You don’t need a special qualification to recognize beauty. Just keep your eyes, and your mind, open. One way to nurture this capacity is to strive to create beautiful things yourself – whether a floral arrangement, an elegant piece of code, or a fair process. Make it a private and intimate experience – in which it suffices that the thing is done well; seek satisfaction in the purity of effort which needs neither praise nor prominence to be good.

-J