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Beauty and its Exceptions

Beauty and its Exceptions

- Khushi Jagetiya

'Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.' We often come across this saying, but how often have we actually believed it to be true? For the world of beauty, there is a fixed set of standards, of a size zero figure and flawless skin. Our perception of beauty is something we want to see reflected in all characters, be it in a novel or a film, and something or someone that may not fit these standards is often sees as not good enough to be a 'protagonist' and somewhere, we may even feel uneasy about it. 

One issue that we should discuss is 'Body Shaming' and whether intentionally or unintentionally, we have all been a part of the body shaming cycle, where the victim and attacker each play a part. It might be in the form of light jokes or by way of mocking somebody, but we have all been there. 

Two books were eye-openers for me as they explore these issues. The first was Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven, and the second, Wonder by R.J. Palacio. These books are a bit different actually, as the first is a romantic novel, with a romance between two high-schoolers, while the second one is about a boy with severe facial differences. Yet, both resonate very well with the basic message, 'acceptance of all by all'. 

In Holding Up The Universe, Libby has been home-schooled by her father, ever since she could remember, and now is finally facing the challenge of starting high school, as an obese girl who is renowned because of an incident where she had to be airlifted from her own house due to her weight. Jack, on the other hand, is 'perfect' on the outside, but not so much inside. Jack fell from the roof in his childhood, which caused him to have 'Prosopagnosia', a disability in which you can't remember faces, but apart from that, he is 'the ideal male lead' who is on the basketball team, dates a cheerleader, and has the perfect face and body. Niven, by writing about how Libby, an overweight girl, and Jack, the 'heart sweeper' fall head over heels in love with each other, and help one another come to terms with their identity irrespective of the gazes and gossip, makes us realize that these two lovers have something we all envy - not each other, but the ability to look beyond the noise of the world. 

As for Wonder, it is truly a wonder to see how even very young children, elementary pre-schoolers, have ingrained in their minds the idea of perfect beauty, and how, as a result, they treat people different from them with a level of contempt one can't easily imagine. Palacio breaks our hearts as readers, when young Augie goes to school for the first time after a long period of home-schooling, only to return home with the harsh judgement about how ugly he is. What one cannot help observe, learn and admire, is that despite it all, he maintains his spirit to learn, make new friends, and most of all, be accepted as who he is.       

Comments

  1. Unknown9 December 2021 at 10:15

    The contents of the blog and well written and from the blog it can be assumed that blogger knows what she has written. It was quite nice and a short blog. In fact i wanted to read more🤗

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