The Politics of Beauty

Beauty is ancient and yet so controversial. If I let on that  I am interested in it, I may be shunned or seen as non-progressive, non-feminist,or simply vein. Beauty, not just looking good on the outside, requires  a journey inward, a tapping into the mystical, ethereal world that lives within and across all time and place. Jewels line the path that lead into ones own inner life, if I am strong and daring enough. The jewels are bright and glimmer like sunlight when the darkness of the night comes.  I must shed all that I know,or perceive or have heard about what beauty is, and discover what is true for me--naked in the dark. The senses become pronounced, breathing becomes easier and enlivens my body, melting the delusion away.

But the ego doesn't want to let go, I want to hold onto the anger, it's much easier than looking at myself naked in the dark. Just keep breathing, that's it, let it all go. Pretty soon the eyes begin to  shine.  People want to know what I am doing. A man looked at me in the cafe this morning as I passed.

This pathway of breathing into my own awareness, stillness, and livliness, invites joy into my life.  It spills over and manifest itself in the detailing of the feminine expression, in whatever form that may be, whether one is male or female.  The obvious is through what fabric I drape my body in, and haircolors I play with, or whether I decide on layering my hair or not, short or not, etc. etc.  Beauty is the marriage of the internal and the external.

Posted on December 19, 2007 and filed under Beauty.