Why Beauty Is Not Shallow

Some people appear to be of the opinion that beauty is shallow. They simply haven't seen enough good architecture and good art. There is nothing shallow about the Sistine Chapel or the Chrysler Building. Beauty takes talent and effort to produce and deserves respect.

Now it may very well be that spirituality does not discriminate for beauty; but it most certainly does not discriminate against it, and the people who think that there is something incompatible between being beautiful and being spiritual are obviously coming from a wrong place. In many cases they are not driven by spirituality at all. They are driven by hatred. It may very well be legitimate to be angry at not being treated well because of your appearance. However claiming that this anger is spiritual, and that the people who have not been treated that way are shallow, is very wrong. The unattractive women do not own suffering. People suffer for all sorts of reasons, and there are many beautiful women who suffer as well.

Is beauty shallow? Once again, there is nothing shallow about great architecture and art. Nor is there anything shallow about magnificent things in nature. As for people's physical beauty, it is part genetic and part what they are doing with it. Some people will be experienced as beautiful by everyone, and some will be experienced as beautiful by some and not others. We have toward that effect two studies. Judith Langlois found out that a face with particular proportions will be experienced as beautiful by everyone cross-culturally. Another study showed that someone will find any given face the most attractive. There is both absolute beauty and relative beauty.

The two studies validate the correct claims on both sides while invalidating the wrong ones. The Langlois study shows that beauty is not merely taste-dependent, and that there is such a thing as absolute beauty which is a function of mathematics. This validates the case for the artistic search for value in beauty and invalidates the abuse by feminists against attractive women. The other study shows that there is someone for everyone. This validates that a person deemed unattractive at home does not have to be relegated to a lonely existence and invalidates the abuse by bad parents and stupid teenagers against unattractive kids.

The latter situation has been used to claim that beauty is traumatizing and should not be pursued. The confusion is between a value and the misuses of the value. Anything that has any kind of appeal to people will see someone wanting to use it for wrong. That does not make it bad in itself. Money, intelligence, and moral values such as altruism and patriotism can also be used for wrong; but that does not make any of them bad. Michelangelo and John Keats are not responsible for the actions of bad parents, stupid teenagers and unscrupulous plastic surgeons. Beauty is not the reason for these wrongs. Misuses of a good thing to turn it into a bad thing are.

When someone on the Internet was writing that people were shallow, a man responded with “they have ways to go before they can be as shallow as you.” In many cases we see just that in the people who militate against beautiful women and men who love them. They are driven by hatred rather than spirituality; and they misuse and discredit spirituality by using it in this way.

Are there attractive women who are shallow? Of course there are. However there are plenty of people who are shallow who are unattractive, and much more importantly there are many attractive people who are quite deep. There was nothing at all shallow about Julia or her artwork. Nor was her life a bed of roses. She was very spiritually connected, very thoughtful and very strong. These things did not keep her from being exceptionally beautiful.

So it is time that these confusions be put to rest. Beauty is not the same thing as abuses of beauty, and it is itself innocent of such misdeeds. There are plenty of people who either possess or value beauty who are deep enough. There is amazing beauty in both nature and human architecture and art, and none of these things are shallow. And while it is certainly wrong to mistreat kids because the town does not find them attractive, nothing of any merit is gained from attacking women who are beautiful and men who love them.