Define beauty according to your standards

What is beauty? The Riverside Webster’s II New College Dictionary defines beauty as ” a pleasing quality associated with harmony of form or color, excellence of craftsmanship, truthfulness, originality, or another often unspecifiable property.” Judgement is passed unnecessarily on what beauty really is.
During the 1600s, Africans and African Americans were not beautiful to those of other races. White men and women treated them as if they were merely work animals and nothing more than the dirt they walked on.
Today, in a society where people in general stuggle to be beautiful and desirable, being what is seen as beautiful has become harder to achieve. So many people scrutinize others. It is said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder and what is beautiful to one may not be to the other.
In the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s, afros and neon colored make-up and clothing, were beautiful. Men during that time generally preferred a woman with a lighter, more fair complexion, long hair and a ” coke bottle” figure.
Women in the public eye, either on the television or big screen during that time included Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones. They represented what beauty was seen to be at that time. The men that were considered handsome and nice looking were Shaft and Marvin Gaye.
Beauty today is not only depicted by those such as Janet Jackson and Halle Berry, but also by Jill Scott and Queen Latifah. Also, Erykah Badu and India. Arie’s natural beauty is accepted and appreciated. Society today has grown and matured to a greater level where all types of beauty are accepted.
Who’s to say what is and what is not beautiful? The best beauty comes from within. One should cease to continue to mimic and conform to what is seen on the television, big screen, and in magazines. The key is to love oneself and define beauty according to one’s own standards.