My name is Sydney Schwartz, and I am an 18 year old high school student trying to tackle the challenging and complex idea of the impact of aesthetics and appearance on one's identity. Trust me, not only do I know that's a mouthful to say, but I also recognize the complicated issues surrounding the topic. As humans, we constantly strive to uncover our identity. So many factors play into who we are. Through aesthetics and appearance, I hope to better understand the vast concept of identity.
As a high school girl, I'm structured by society to judge appearance and aesthetics depending on certain articles of clothing or a variety of other factors that involve appearance. It is my goal, however, to openly and willingly learn about the different philosophies, faiths and cultures that guide people's view of appearance and aesthetics in order to lessen my quickness to judge, and rather seek to understand.
Identity categories such as race, class, gender and religion are some of the main ways that I hope to further my understanding of aesthetics and appearance and delve into a variety of issues pertaining to this subject. By studying the art of aesthetics and appearance, I hope to reveal more about myself and my own identity. I believe that through this blog, I will navigate more smoothly through the waves of complex and difficult issues that relate to the nature of beauty and appearance in our everyday lives. Aided by classroom literature and personal experiences, I pledge to honestly and wholeheartedly share with my readers the impact of aesthetics and appearance on identity. I can only hope that in doing so, I help to shape and discover the identity of both myself and others.
Topics such as social media, politics, social influences and interactions and popular culture, I plan on relating to the art of aesthetics and appearance. As an 18 year old, I hope to appeal to my peers, as well as seek to help older adults understand my perspective and possibly relate to certain topics that I plan to cover. Through video clips, news occurrences and other materials such as literature and psychology vocabulary, I will dive head first into the wonderful world of aesthetics and appearance. It is my objective as a teenage blogger to keep you interested and curious. So, come join me on my journey as I frequently study aesthetics and appearance. I hope you're as excited as I am!
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." -Confucius
Coincidentally, I was thinking about this a week ago, particularly in regards to the perception of outer beauty. I find it interesting, yet concerning, that something as arbitrary as the determination of what is and isn't aesthetically pleasant, has lost a great deal of subjectivity. What makes a particular athlete or movie star beautiful? Is it due to their ubiquitous portrayal in the media as successful, and, therefore, they have taken the mold of what is beautiful? How has the status quo of aesthetic attractiveness changed since the beginning of time, when there was no guide lines for what is and isn't beautiful in men and women. If there is one woman in the world that has been determined by the rest of society as the epitome of beauty, is the rest of womenkind gauged by how close of a resemblance they bear to that woman? It appears that "Beauty being in the eye of the beholder" is not alive and well and it's difficult to know when it ever was alive. Human nature guides society towards each other. It is the innate fear of being alone. When one person "calls a girl hot", the rest of society conforms to that notion and concludes who is and isn't attractive. In today's day and age, if 100 women were to be lined up in front of 100 men and the men were asked to identify the most beautiful woman, there'd be such a lack of variety in the responses because society has created these notions of what beauty is, leaving very little flexibility to the definition of beautiful.
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