Monday, 12 October 2009
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Translating Beauty
I was playing around with google and wondered what would come up in google images if you entered "beautiful woman" in different languages. How do you translate "beauty"?
In English, celebrity icons like Halle Berry, Jessica Alba, and Angelina Jolie showed up on the first page. Megan Fox did not show up. I'm guessing it is because she symbolizes "hot" rather than "beautiful". So then what makes a woman beautiful? I think the person needs a certain demure and class. She is not attractive to just men. She embodies so much more than just sexuality. This is coming from a woman's point of view though. The first google images results page also contained several images of women with large breasts, which is maybe comes from beauty defined by men.
"Beautiful Woman" - English
vs. 
I chose Chinese next and I thought that I would get more cute and girly images. Some Asians value youth and purity as standards of beauty. I did get a few images symbolizing this kind of innocent atmosphere, but I was surprised to find several sexual images too.
"美女" - Chinese
vs. 
When I looked up "belle femme" in French, I probably got the most sexual images out of everything that I searched, but this may be because there seems to be a lingerie line called Belle Femme. I also got some pictures that gave me a kind of artistic feel to them. I'm not the most knowledgeable about French culture though, and I'm sure there large differences between French-Canadians and European French.
"Belle Femme" - French
vs. 
I just chose all these photos from the first page of results that I got from google images. Yes, my opinion may be biased. Some very random pictures resulted as well! Do you speak another language? Give this a try and see what you get!
Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Japanese people find yaeba (crooked teeth) to be cute and braces are quite uncommon in Japan. And what other cultures consider to be beautiful may seem atrocious and scary to more westernized countries:
How do you define and translate beauty? Even if you find yourself to be the ugliest person on Earth, there will always be some people who will find your personality, nature, or quirks to be beautiful to them.
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Comments (19)
Yeah you're right.
Beauty is much like art.
People may or may not know a lot about it,
but they know what they like.
To me beauty lies solely in the personality. It's kinda an extremist view, but I find the physical to be greatly pointless. Heh, and, even when you include my opinion on in, I tend to have (while also mainstream) out-there interests. I like that which is different - to me, that's beautiful.
That's a toughie.
In people, it's a complex mixture of the physical, emotional, intellectual aspects of a person.It's whatever floats your (interest) boat.
Oooh interesting task. I definitely don't disagree with Google =P
What a great post!
I like your site it's very interesting... I'm taking a nutrition course right now in University it's interesting.
the last image is revealing too much... and quite disturbing >.<
I'm new to Xanga, and I found your posts on a fluke. I'm so glad I did! They are so heartwarming! Personally, I think that beauty radiates from the inside. Have you ever met someone that seemed utterly unattractive, and then after talking to them for a while you can't seem to find their flaws? There's a man in south america who, although he is missing a huge chunk of his face, is also probably the most beautiful man I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Thanks for representing the truth :)
@IvyStarIsAwesome - Hey there and welcome to Xanga! :) I completely agree with you. U know who i find gorgeous? "Ugly betty"... but i don't think she's ugly at all! such a beautiful and caring personality.
funny pictures
The thing about Japanese people and crooked teeth is actually really interesting. I always wondered why these "cute" Japanese girls always had crooked teeth. That seems strange to me, but I suppose there are different strokes for different folks. Thanks for the insight.
By the way, this was a really cool idea you had.
Its interesting the different pictures that came up when searching in different languages.
That's a lot to think about. I was just reading about a town in East Africa where obese equals beautiful, and girls are force fed after the age of seven to put on weight.
Beauty varies. There is no exact definition, is there?
I think all of the women in all of these photos are beautiful except the one with the plate in her face. And I would probably feel differently about her minus the plate if you also added a little hair to her head.
wow that was a very interesting post!
how the variety is so great yet its all under one principle of defining beauty
WoW wt about the last one it freaked me out @..@
Here's a search for "mujer bonita." It's Spanish.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=mujer bonita&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
When you type "mujer linda" (linda is another word for pretty/beautiful in Spanish), more pictures have full-figured or just plain large women in them.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&um=1&sa=1&q=mujer+linda&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10&start=0