“You” as Visual Art
…continuing on from my essay on beauty in SL and whether a man can be beautiful. This was of course inspired by comments on my view that it is unusual to call a man “beautiful”, and that the usual word is “handsome”.
First, let’s look at the various cases. There’s actually three cases; actual live humans, portrayals of humans (pictures and statues), and the not-human.
As far as the word handsome is concerned, I can’t think of any non-remarkable case where it would be used for not-humans. Even in the case of statuary or portraits, it seems odd. Possible, maybe even standard, but marked in its own way. For me, talking about the statue or painting itself, and not the person it portrays, as being handsome (as opposed to well-made, or, dare I say it, beautiful) strikes me as flowery writing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, if that is the style you are aiming for. But it’s a definite stylistic effect to me, and not unremarkable.
A key point with the word handsome is that, when not describing something specifically human, it is almost always used to describe a portrayal of a human; the one exception to this is in the phrase “a handsome sum of money”, and even there, great wealth is traditionally considered a very masculine thing to aspire towards.
As for beautiful, it has far wider usage. Of course, it is used to describe the people inside a portrayal. It can also be used unremarkably to describe the portrayal itself. And there are many examples of media that can be described as beautiful, from music to sunsets to movies to poetry. The prime requisite for something to be beautiful is that it can be sensed by eye or by ear or by mind.
The key difference is that, in natural usage, handsome is a word that to me is absurd, when used to portray something other than humanity. Beautiful is far more flexible, and can be used to describe things perceived by eye or by ear. I would also go far as to say that things perceived by the mind, such as poetry and stories and personalities, can be beautiful. Touch, taste, and smell are outside the realms of beauty.
So, having established to the satisfaction of the voices in my head that handsome is typically used for humans and beauty is typically far wider in range of use, it leads to the next question. Well, a pair of questions. Within the context of humanity, what is handsome? And what is beautiful?
Of course, both words can and are used to describe both men and women. To a limited extent, they are also used to describe children. However, they contain certain concepts of adulthood in their meaning, and can be quite distressing to a child if used wrongly.
So, without further ado, what is a handsome woman? I’d say late-20s or older, rectangular or athletic build (curviness goes against the concept of handsomeness), and a longer face and a squarer jaw than is typical in women. Hair style typically short, compared to most female styles.
And a beautiful man? Lean to average build, softer musculature. Hair styles cover the entire range from medium (for typical male styles) to hippy. The face too tends to be rounder than the male average.
Both definitions of course leave a lot open to interpretation and subjectivity, and are quite vague. It is quite intentional. I have better things to do with my time that fight off suitors with a stick, claiming to be all that and more. No physical description can portray the beauty inherent in your mind.