The Beauty Industry

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                                       Aldous Huxley

                     The Beauty Industry

Q No. 1:          How much is being spent on beautification by American women?

        Aldous Huxley is a prolific writer who experimented in all forms of literature and delighted in debunking all accepted ideas and standards. In "The Beauty Industry", Huxley deals with the most extravagant habits of the fashionable American women.  Written in a polite, ironic and mild satirical tone, the essay reveals its writer’s moral purpose his vivid observation, close attention to factual details, effective use of contrasts and comparisons and above all his consummate artistic skill.

            With an increase in consciousness of beauty, people have started spending an enormous sum of money on beautification.  After the Second World War when all the business and trade activities faced a grave depression, it was only the beauty industry, which sustained the pressure and went on flourishing.  It indicated the trend of women generally and of American women in particular.

            According to an estimate, American women of that time spent three million pounds a week on beautification that was two times more than the revenue collected from India by the British government.   It shows that the American women prefer to curtail other expenses and spend a lot of money on aids to beauty and advanced experimentation in beautification.

Q No. 2:          What are the reasons of modern cult of beauty?

            Modern mad rush behind beauty is something that invites us to have a closer look into the matter and to sort out its reasons.  The basic reason seems to be the general increase in prosperity.  Today people are far richer than they used to be. The rich people always take care of their personal appearance.  So now people spend more money and time on the cult of beauty.

            Another reason is the change in the status of women.  Now women are freer than past and they enjoy almost all the privileges equally with men. They have the right to look attractive and they exercise it excessively.  They concentrate a lot on their personal appearance and behave like the glass dolls with perfection in all physical aspects.  They try madly to look beautiful apparently and they have neglected the spiritual beauty.  Sometimes ladies behave, as they are possessed by the demon of beauty that compels them to lead merely a physical life and makes their souls numb and sometimes even dead.

            Another reason is the concession given to "Body". People hold the view that body has its duties as well as rights and these rights should be snatched away by the body neglecting each and every other aspect of life.  The ladies pamper their bodies and have become the standard of fairy-like beauty but their inner soul is as immature and undeveloped as ever.

            The media has also played an important part in this mad race. The advertisements related to beautification, sex and personal appearance have produced an unabated desire to look attractive in ladies.  The manufacturers of the aids to skin, hair, fitness and other beauty specialists exploit the psychological complexities and inferiority complex of the ladies and divert their attention to outward appearance only to achieve their own vested interests.

            The sense of depravity and the urge to get emancipation has compelled the ladies to become only an "object" of pleasant looks and flirtation.  They try to have a good time and think it very crucial to look like a "Lost women".  They try to attract others and in this endless effort they sometimes cease to look human at all.

            All these reasons are very strong and compel the ladies to follow the cult of beauty in a blind and mad way.  They look like the kids, following the “Pied Piper" wholesomely and blindly.

Q No. 3:          What are the practical results of the cult of beauty?

            The world is badly affected by the trends of glitz and glamour.  People look like robots in their search for beauty.  Ladies are madly adopting the ways of glamour.  They wish to look attractive at any cost.  They spend a lot of money, time and energy on this cult. They are pre-occupied with fashion mania.  The only thing left in this world is the appearance and it is something that helps to determine someone’s level and social status.  But one wonders that if people are so mad about beauty, have they become beautiful? Are ladies more beautiful today than in the past? And if every one around us is beautiful, has the world become beautiful?

        yes, whereas the outward beauty is concerned, yes.  Now the ladies retain their youth for a longer time.  The “old lady” has become extinct like the dinosaurs.  Ladies remain young for a longer time.  Today the portrait of any artist’s daughter can never be distinguished from the portrait of his mother.  Today’s old lady has stylish hair, cherry lips, neat ankles and slender body, and all this has been achieved by the worship of beauty and beautification.  Up to this level, it is a successful campaign and it has really made people look attractive and younger.

            The aids to beauty have helped people in mimicking the symptoms of beauty that in reality are the symptoms of health. Pink, cheeks, red lips, glowing skin, smart figure, shining hair and sparkling eyes all these are the symbols of health and beauty cult mimicks it.  But have people truly become healthier?  No, they have not, neither physically nor spiritually.

            Beauty is not a singular term and it can never be determined by a single standard. It is a compound term that is multifaceted and complex. If we want to judge the beauty of a china vase or any thing of that kind, we will only need to assess its colour, shape and surface texture but a lady is not a stone-like thing. She needs to look beautiful physically as well as spiritually. The spiritual contents of lady show through and she can never look beautiful if there is some corruption in her personality.

       

             So the cult of beauty is a failure. Its practical results are nothing. People are not beautiful, healthy or satisfied but they try to look so.

Q No. 4:          What type of ugliness shows through?

            The beauty is not a superficial thing. It is not only skin deep.  It has its roots in the soul and if the soul is beautiful the body will automatically look charming.  The beauty is a complex phenomenon.  It includes thoughts, morality, social customs, intentions and the way of a person's life.

            The ugliness of the soul shows through.  People trying to have fun in any possible way, break the limits of society, religion and morality.  This trend spoils the personality of such people and they look detestable and ugly.  The natural purity and innocence of a face fades away due to some abominable activities.  It is so because these people are going against the flow and laws of nature, specially against the laws related to the sex.

            So the ugliness or emptiness of soul, character and personality are obvious even on the first look and they spoil the artificially made up bearing too.

           

Q. No. 5:         How can the humanity become beautiful?

            A lot of money time and energy is being spent on beautification.  People are preoccupied with this cult.  They want to become beautiful at any cost.  But question arises if the humanity has become beautiful. No, it has not. Humanity is not an object to be embellished with face paints, hair lotions, and fitness equipment or by any beautician.  Humanity needs harmony to become beautiful; harmony in the thoughts, actions and relations.  It will become beautiful only when all the people will get their rights and pay their duties honestly, when psychological ugliness is removed and when the spirited filthiness is cleansed.  In the present condition, it is difficult rather impossible to beautify the world community.  For this purpose every individual will have to realize the situation and act accordingly to wipe out the ugly reflection of the modern man in the mirror of morality and humanity.

Q No. 6:          What is the difference between the beauty of a porcelain jar and that of a lady?

            Today, the ladies try to beautify themselves as the perfect “object”.  They try to polish their skin, figure, hair and dressing.  They look perfectly beautiful according to the beauty standard of a porcelain jar.  Like these ladies, the beauty of a porcelain jar is judged on the standard of its shape, colour and surface texture.  It does not matter what lies inside it.  But the beauty of a lady is a different matter.  She cannot be judged on the level of a porcelain jar.  Her figure or shape does not make her exclusively beautiful. She needs to have a spiritual beauty too.  She needs to be morally beautiful and she needs to be psychologically beautiful.  Otherwise she will have a beauty like that of a plastic dummy modeling in a Shopping Mall.  A lady has a dummy like beauty unless she is beautiful form inside.

Q No. 7:          What are the disharmonies present in the human beings?

            Man has to live his life according to some rules and laws.  A man cannot live in this world without values and traditions.  These laws and traditions are generally according to the human nature.  When man breaks the limit of these boundaries, and he blindly runs behind his animal instincts, he loses his balance and falls a victim to disharmony.  This disharmony has many aspects.

           Physical disharmony can be seen in those factions of society who go for over painting and over cult of beauty. They neglect every other thing and emphasize only on the physical charms and joys.

       Psychological disharmony can be seen in those people who are unable to set any realistic goal before them. They try to express their psychological tangles and complexes through a bold way of dressing and make up. They fail to make a defense mechanism and run impulsively behind their desires and raw motives.

           Social disharmony is indeed the biggest problem. All those members of society, who are denied the right of being accepted, exhibit an eccentric behaviour. Generally, women are not given their rightful status in society so they adopt such type of attitude that makes them prominent and distinguished. Other social outcasts also show the same tendencies.

            Spiritual disharmony can be seen in the people who try to fulfill their primary needs in an instinctive style and many evils like greed, avarice, nudity and selfishness afflict them and spoil them as a human being.  Breaking the moral laws and values of society and religion causes the moral disharmony.

            These disharmonies spoil the status and role of a man and they drag him down to the level of an animal. So such things should be watched out and rectified to regain the balance of the society.

Q. No. 8:         Bring out the elements of irony, satire and humour?

            Humour is an effective tool for the prose writing.  In humour, things are lightly ridiculed in a pleasant way. The purpose of humour is to point out the faults and follies of someone in a humours way to create laughter and smiles but at the same to produce some thought provoking process in the mind.

         "The Beauty Industry" is essentially a humorous essay which light heartedly ridicules the madness and preoccupation of modern mind with the cult of beauty.  He compares the beauty expenditures of American women to the total revenue collected from India.  Then he humorously talks about the condition of British and other European women and their hope of becoming beautiful.  The crone of the modern day is presented funnily as having cherry lips, slender figure and neat ankles.  He further laughs at the fact that the portrait of an artist's mother cannot be distinguished from the portrait of his daughter.  The most humorous reference is about the ladies who cease to look human at all due to over make up and hair dyes.

            Humour is supported here by satire.  Satire means to ridicule something in a bitter way.  Writer has ridiculed the beauty cult in a bitter way at some places.  The very first paragraph satirizes this trend and laments that the slump affected every industry and business but could not touch the beauty industry.  He contemptuously talks about the British Matron and calls her a “lost woman”.  She tries to keep herself young and beautiful in spite of the fact that a "nun" should never even think about any worldly matter.  The Christian ascetic ideas no longer trouble anyone.  Huxley declares that this campaign is a total failure because no one has genuinely become beautiful.  He ridicules the superficiality of people and their standards.

            This essay has some ironic elements too.  When the writer talks about porcelain jar as the standard of beauty, he simply wants to make fun of the aesthetic sense of the beauty specialists.  The rights of "Body" are also satirized. The results of this campaign are ironically presented to make us realize the situation and its implications.

            This is a superb essay that has serious, humorous, and ironic as well as satiric elements. It conveys all the aspects of modern cult of beauty and the writer vividly expresses his point of view about it.