I am making a confession here. I
was eavesdropping this morning, in my regular cafe, at my usual table,
to 2 Spanish guys who were talking about beauty and ugliness of a
woman. It is not a habit of mine to eavesdrop, honestly. I was doing
exactly what I do each morning at that cafe, nearly always by myself,
reading the daily paper, sipping my coffee and, on certain mornings
when the papers have all been grabbed by other customers, I usually
just sit quietly. Occasionally deep in thought about nothing in
particular, more often than not just let my mind wander or stay blank.
It was one of those mornings. I swear I was minding my own business
without the slightest interest of what's happening around me. Then ...
The quiet-ish conversation at the next table where
the 2 guys sat suddenly got very much louder, with one of them raised
his voice so much that likely the entire cafe could hear:
" Monse? Did you say you think Monse was beautiful? The one that works in the super? But she was ugly! How can you find her attractive, man? " he practically roared : " She is U-G-L-Y! " And he punctuated that with a peel of loud and jeering laughter.
The conversation by then was more like an argument, about
the same woman and the same theme, and getting louder and louder, with
one of them insisting that Monse was beautiful, attractive, sexy,
warm, friendly, and the other was killing himself then laughing so much
he could hardly articulate his pretest, that she was so ugly as near
bordering repulsive.
All that went on while I got so fed up I
wanted to go over and tell them the proverbial, time immemorial, and
sage definition: " Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". But that's
not ladylike, and I checked myself, diverting my hearing to my own mind
of silent thoughts.
There's no standard beauty is there? Apart
from the created mold of the current specification by the fashion and
commercial quarters, that today's woman must be within this to that
measurement in their height, weight, shape, and size. Totally ignoring a
woman's individuality, her character, her cultural background, her
sense of value and humour, all such contribute to, or deduct from, a
woman's beauty.
One has to consider too about who is doing the sentencing. That of the observer. If you ask a toad what his ideal female should be like, you will get the answer that she
should have huge big round eyes sticking out of her head, an extremely
wide and flat mouth, a yellow belly, wide spread out toes, and a dark
greyish back with very coarse skin!
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