The Assault on Beauty

 

Recently, New York declared an annual "Fat Beach Day."

It was a day when "plus size" people were encouraged to hang out at the beach, proud and unafraid.

Apparently, the idea is spreading (although, if my recent forays to the beach are any indication, every day is plus size day).

One of the organizers described it thus: 

"We're going through something culturally that is impacting us every day on an individual level and a systemic level."

That clear it up for you? (Gosh, these people love the word "systemic.")

Elsewhere, Dove USA, whose principle product is the "Beauty Bar," hired this woman to be a brand ambassador:

Hey, body positivity, people!

And then there are those ubiquitous Gatorade ads...

I could go on but I know I don't have to. We are being told by people who matter that we shouldn't be judgmental about beauty.

At this point, let me state this: I am aware of the old saw, "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder."

But is it, really? Are there no objective standards of beauty, things we can agree on? I think there are, or at least have been. Like this, for instance:

Can we agree that Cindy Crawford is beautiful? And before you say anything, I know that standards of beauty change over time. But I submit if Rubens were alive today he'd be reaching for a damn Pepsi.

This rant, though, is not just about the female form. It's far broader than that. There is an assault on beauty today that is both broad-based and, I believe, ideological.

I'll get to that second part. First, let's see how broad-based this is

How about architecture? 

This is the Boston Public Library. The Renaissance Revival structure, built in the late 19th century, was once described as a "Palace for the People."

Beautiful, no?

Now consider the library's more recent addition, glued right on to the back...

F**king ugly, right? A Brutalist eyesore. (If you disagree, I don't want to know you.) 

But wait, Scott, it was designed by Philip Johnson, and he's such an important architect. We all study him in architecture school! Don't be such a Philistine!

Suck it. I don't want to go to your boring dinner parties anyway. I'd probably bring you a lousy bottle of wine and use the wrong fork.

So, how about art?

Can we agree that this is beautiful?

Or, a few centuries later, this?

Now what about this?

But, Scott, that's a Motherwell, and he's sooo important!

I don't care. It's ugly, and I question how much talent or practice it took to paint it. Imagine if Motherwell had been asked to paint the Sistine Chapel.

A more recent trend is called "vomit art," which is exactly that. Here's a practitioner, hard at work:

How about something mundane, like a drinking fountain? Once, our cities designed them like this...

Now, you're more likely to see this...

How about something as simple as a lamp post? I give you lamp posts, yesterday and today.

(Courtesy of the Culture Critic on X.)

And music! In a single generation we have gone from the sublime craftsmanship of Sgt. Peppers and the aching timelessness of God Only Knows to rap music, deconstructed to the point having no melody, harmony, or discernible connection to actual music at all.

We are a society that has decoded the human genome, explored Mars, and can make a pizza arrive at your door in ten minutes. We do great things!

So, why have we turned our back on beauty? What the heck is going on?

Well, something is going on, and if you're guessing it's not a good thing, you'd be correct.

It is a part of a larger assault on Western society, traditions, and culture.

If you are a loyal Naked Dollar reader, you know I've written about critical theory, cultural Marxism, and perpetual protest culture. One of the key takeaways is that it's never about the nominal thing (black lives, trans rights, climate, Gaza...).

The people marching in their daily protests know virtually nothing about any of the underlying issues. The animating force is a hatred of God and Country, something bred in them at our schools. It's a desire to tear down our country, because, after all, why should we have it so good?

Much of this stems from the nihilistic teachings of our intellectual class, critical theory in particular. Critical theory informs us that there's no such thing as absolute truth, that truth is just a fairy tale concocted by those with power.

This intellectual virus spread, giving everyone permission to dismiss the vast inheritance of Western Civilization and its tenets like the Enlightenment, those things merely being the social constructs of the Dead White Europeans who had power back whenever.

All laws, traditions, and institutions stemming from those times needed to be torn down.

What's occurring in the aesthetic realm is no different. Standards of beauty are constructs of the old ways, just another means of oppression. How dare you insist that an artist spend years leaning a craft when the downtrodden—the other— don't have the resources?

Why, any application of paint (or vomit) to canvas is equally valid!

Call it Critical Aesthetic Theory, or perhaps just, "Critical Aesthetics."

Who are you to judge what's beautiful? You and your classical art and your Cindy Crawford are just relics of the old order, and you don't get to decide what's beautiful anymore. In fact, we reject the entire idea of beauty! If we accept that some things are beautiful, we are implicitly saying other things aren't.

No! 

My 300-pound body is beautiful, and if you say otherwise, you are a vile member of the oppressor class—and you know what we do to them these days.

Worse still, there is an historical connection between beauty and religion. Beauty, as manifested in art or architecture, was understood to be a way of apprehending the divine. The great cathedrals, for instance, reached purposefully for the heavens.

                                                   Chartres

Art was meant to reassure us that while perfection may not be attainable in this life, it would be in the next.

                                            The Birth of Venus

But of all the institutions worthy of Ivy League contempt, surely none rank higher than the church and formalized religion. If traditional attitudes towards beauty have anything to do with those things, well, you know...ick.

Are purveyors of our aesthetic decline self aware? Do vomit artists or Madison Avenue advertising suits think, consciously, I am trying to tear down Western Civilization?

For the most part, no. Like the students setting up little Hamas tent villages, they are the useful idiots, coasting along where the culture takes them.

But there are people driving that culture, from the professoriate at our most elite universities to the radicals running some of our most prestigious NGOs (see: Ford Foundation). These places are the font of the evil philosophies that are polluting our minds.

Should you, dear reader, support any of these institutions, stop. Just stop. If you're on a board, quit, and tell them why. Or, better, stay and raise your hand to the lunacy.

Now, this grumpy white man is going to turn on the radio and find the classic rock station.