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Is beauty a virtue?
From medieval romances, it's the sort of impression one might get (though there exists also some weird conflation between beauty and other virtues, where "the most beautiful" can be decided through knights jousting, and so on).
But in today's society, with today's common morals, perhaps with christian morals, it seems a strange concept. Certainly it's something you might think about twice before saying. A "virtuous" person is someone who is perhaps hard working, or kind, who devotes his life to god, to charity, to humanity, etc.
With beauty there is also the issue that it cannot be attained by all, and that the greatest part of it is in fact entirely out of our hands. This doesn't seem to be compatible with the leftist, perhaps even with the Christian message.
And still, without openly admitting it, we revere the beautiful. It is no conspiracy that good looking people are more successful in general, and that's just one part. If you go to boards like /hr/, you will find women who are absolutely idolized, for no action or "virtue" of their own, if we are to exclude beauty from being a virtue.
How can a young person in our society get famous? For one, they could create something special, they could do something extremely charitable, or they could simply be beautiful (instagram model generation and so on).
There is evidently something missing then, with this world view. It cannot explain this phenomenon.
But another question then is, if we agree that beauty is indeed a virtue, how do we deal with the ugly? Am I, as an ugly person, simply damned by life? Unvirtuous by birth? How can such a world view be reconciled with those who it shuns from the moment they are born?
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Beauty cannot be escaped.
It is beyond virtuous.
There are things higher than virtue, and beautiful things should terrify you.
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>>8296928
Can the lack of beauty then be compensated by virtue?
I guess it's really a question of whether or not I can convince myself of that.
Or really, a question how to deal with being an ugly jealous fag.
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>>8296943
It cannot compensate, for beauty cannot be beaten.
Virtue is an entirely different story, so virtue may or may not have beauty associated with it.
How to deal: Sense of humor or die.
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>>8296950
I think it's extremely important for your psychology not to always be looked down upon. It's the reason I haven't given up on playing piano. I don't like it as much as I like the feeling of being good at something.
>Sense of humor
Can you elaborate on this? Is this really the way to save myself?
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>>8296989
You don't have a choice.
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>>8296926
Beauty isn't a virtue, but it's an outward sign of virtue, because it means you were blessed by God. And yes, by medieval standards, if you were born or became ugly, God has marked you as less virtuous and inferior. This only really applies to the romances, though, not so much to everyday life.
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>>8297103
That's a nice story you told.
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>>8297103
The Westboro Baptist Church did a Vine that went:
"Fact Check! God doesn't hate you because you're a fag. You're a fag because God hates you."
There's your par level.
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>>8297103
Oh, I'm sorry, do you really need citations for basic tropes? Here:
" In romance, the dominant fictional genre of the medieval period, female beauty is an imperative, signalling virtue and nobility, opening the way to the divine and inspiring the highest ideals, but at the same time dangerous, destructive, treacherous. Its powers can be magical and life-enhancing, literally wish-fulfilling, but also corrosive, imprisoning and death-dealing. Secular literary texts engage with the difficulties of interpreting beauty, of making sense of its affect. At the same time, beauty is strangely unelaborated in romance texts: interpretation cannot rest on detailed description of beauty, but must probe its often concealed valences, its collocations and, especially, the actions and consequences that attend beauty. Beauty proves virtue not only in those who possess it, but also in those who experience its power, both within and beyond the text."
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9781137426741_3
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Beauty is harmony with the world
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>>8297151
You sound highly educated.
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Beauty is a spook.
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>>8297103
That's something I've always wondered about, because it seems so foreign to the character of the charitable Christian who lives among paupers and beggars.
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>>8297178
How do I de-spook my penis though?
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>>8297256
scissors
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>>8297277
It would be extremely painful.
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>>8297289
not for me.
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>>8297246
Remember sexism is strong here: beauty is a sign of goodness mostly in women. Men can be given afflictions (like ugliness) in order to better show or foster their nobility of spirit, or the text might just speak of their goodly countenance or beatific smile, and ignore the open sores and baldness. And beauty doesn't always equal goodness even in women, but if a beautiful woman is evil, you often find out that she's using magic to make herself look hot, and that her true appearance reflects her wickedness (Morgan le Fay gets that at times).
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>>8297420
What does beauty then mean in a man?
Why does von Eschenbach tell us that Parzival was the most beautiful young boy the world had ever seen? And was that not part of the reason he was received in such a friendly manner?
Or Gawain, or, if I'm not misremembering, Erec as well. Why are all these heroes so beautiful?
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>>8297682
Androgynous leftovers from a more pagan time
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>>8297682
Generally, knights also follow the handsome=good, ugly=bad, with exceptions, because they're knights, not monks, and nobody wants to read about ugly knights and maidens (then as now, as Hollywood knows). Curtly and chivalric virtues overlap and compete with Christian virtues, but they're not quite the same: one is secular and romantic, the other supposedly theological. Actually, the beauty of those knights is often evidence of their gentilesse and mastery of the courtly virtues that please ladies: bad knights are usually ugly.
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>>8298086
Interesting, thanks.
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