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Essay / A look at beauty and cosmetics - 1266
Table of contentsI. IntroductionII. Definition of BeautyIII. History of CosmeticsIV. Motives and methodsV. Points of viewVI. Biblical Examples of BeautyVII. Explicit textsVIII. General principlesIX. Three decision arenasi. Individual and family ii. Church iii. CompanyX. ConclusionMirror, mirror, on the wall, what is beauty after all: Christianity and cosmeticsA beautiful and pious young woman, leaving her car, with the church sticker on the back, enters the hair salon. From the looks of it, she doesn't seem to be new to this. She walked towards a specific living room and set down her purse. The 25-year-old Christian was a beautician or cosmetologist. Her income came from providing beauty treatments. CS Lewis once said, “The sweetest thing in my entire life has been the desire…to find the place where all the beauty came from” (Fields, 2011). Lewis was not and is not alone in this search for beauty. The difference, however, is that while many people, both men and women, seek to find beauty, Lewis sought to find the source of it. Definition of Beauty Anthony Synnott (1990), in his article, said: “Beauty is many things to people” (p. 68). With this statement, it is assumed that Synnott meant that all beauty is subjective and relative. There are many definitions of beauty involving or limited to the physical, moral, and spiritual realms. In Bethany Nelson's article, Leaving Beauty Behind, Kristen Patrow compiled three definitions of beauty: one as a verb, another as a noun, and the final one as an adjective. Each definition is rooted in a Christian worldview. Beauty as a verb refers to "the act of pursuing God" while the noun is an attitude "valued by God...inwardly cultivated" (p. 5) Beauty as an adjective refers to middle of paper .... ..opposing competitions. His goal was to show that “beautification was unnecessary, time-consuming, expensive, unhealthy, ecologically disastrous, degrading, inauthentic, and ultimately futile and contributing to self-hatred” (p. 66). The fourth and final view of beauty identified by Synnott (1990) advocates the animal rights argument. Proponents of this view primarily focus on the inhumane nature of animals used in the testing phase of cosmetic research. This view is against cosmetics for the sole reason that animals are harmed. Members of the Animal Liberation Movement have succeeded in improving some cosmetic tests, but have failed to oppose cosmetics as a whole. Synnott concluded that "all four critiques of the beauty mystique... persist at the same time, although often in different populations and with different impacts on popular culture" (p.. 68).