Beauty.
TMBWITW
Translation: The Most Beautiful Woman In The World.
Is she Gyneth Paltrow?
And do you know OkCupid can set up a fat and ugly filter on your account should you desire such a thing?
Here we go again.
Exactly, where are we going?
Back to the beginning of heralded beauty.
Sparta or Troy, if you will.
Helen of Troy: the face that launched a 1000 ships.
Not to mention, a ten year war.
Did our little Helen favor yoga?
Was she a vegan?
Did she lypo or botox?
Or both.
Probably not, and that is only one of the reasons why Gyneth Paltrow cannot possibly be the most beautiful woman in the world.
Who is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World; by Simon Doonan appears on Slate.com. in its October 3, 2013 edition.
Doonan’s quest began when, when earlier this year People magazine declared Gyneth Paltrow to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Paltrow is unquestionably beautiful. But her strenuous efforts to achieve perfection-thrashing around a gym morning, noon and night and eating nothing but plankton and kale juice leave us all shrieking,What if you took away her battery of pilates gurus and aura cleansers.
Noonan argues that in order to be crowned the most beautiful woman in the world you should be living your life full throttle a la Liz Taylor rather than tormenting yourself with a deranged, ascetic self maintenance regime. Non?Elizabeth Taylor.
I recall a story from my university days when my class was studying Faustus, my professor told us when most directors launched a production; Helen of Troy would either be just a voice off stage or they would never show her face even though the actress might be absolutely lovely, for fear the audience wouldn’t believe the actress portraying Helen possessed the kind of beauty that actually would launch a 1000 ships.
When I was growing up Taylor was considered the epitome of beauty, especially in films like Father of the Bride, A Place In the Sun, Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. and Butterfield 8.
She ate.
She drank.
And she loved.
What would OkCupid do with a woman like Elizabeth Taylor these days?
Amanda Hess reports in an article dated October 3, 2013, titled; Fat and Ugly Filter Won’t Help You Meet your Match on Slate.com; OkCupid has constituted a feature that allows users to pay a monthly fee to filter out potential dates by body type (users select their own category, from choices like skinny to curvy and used up) and their attractiveness level (as determined by the OkCupid hivemind).Elizabeth Taylor.
I recall a story from my university days when my class was studying Faustus, my professor told us when most directors launched a production; Helen of Troy would either be just a voice off stage or they would never show her face even though the actress might be absolutely lovely, for fear the audience wouldn’t believe the actress portraying Helen possessed the kind of beauty that actually would launch a 1000 ships.
When I was growing up Taylor was considered the epitome of beauty, especially in films like Father of the Bride, A Place In the Sun, Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. and Butterfield 8.
She ate.
She drank.
And she loved.
What would OkCupid do with a woman like Elizabeth Taylor these days?
Amanda Hess reports in an article dated October 3, 2013, titled; Fat and Ugly Filter Won’t Help You Meet your Match on Slate.com; OkCupid has constituted a feature that allows users to pay a monthly fee to filter out potential dates by body type (users select their own category, from choices like skinny to curvy and used up) and their attractiveness level (as determined by the OkCupid hivemind).So far, the feature has not gone over well.
As Gawker puts it; OkCupid Users Can Now Pay To Weed Out Uggos and Fatties.
Gentle Readers: are you appalled?
I am.
Amanda Hess: What does offend me is that OkCupid is monetizing a service that is unlikely to bring its users closer to better dates, relationships or sex.
So let us take a moment and do the fantasy thing.
I love Orson Welles, Wallace Shawn and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
All three of these men would be weeded out as Uggos and Fatties.
Insanity.
And so would Elizabeth Taylor.
According to my mum and my blind aunt Phyllis, Liz was the definitive MBWITW. Everyone was in the thrall of that violet-eyed, bejeweled hooch-guzzlin’ brunette.
The reality of these polls and dating sites is, of course, incredibly complex. They teach us to look at potential lovers through a very shallow and status-oriented lens.As human beings, we are naturally attracted to beauty.
We should never be judged by our looks.
But the truth is; we are.
Who knows?
Maybe Helen of Troy would not make the cut at OkCupid if she were alive today.
But as long as love and sex exist, we will continue to fantasize and dream about what perfect beauty is.
And was.
But when asked to cast my vote; I will always vote for the unbridled and full throttled kind.
In my opinion that will always be the kind of face that launches a 1000 ships.
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