The Gaze: Can We Savor Others Beauty Without Desiring It?
Today, I want to write about whether one should gaze long at beauty. I've had different opinions on this topic from time to time. Since beauty, for me, is defined as the soul and body of a woman, I'll base my discussion on the beauty of women.
For me, beautiful women with sexy bodies and looks are like a great painter's painting or a sculptor's statue.
Of course, I'm not looking to discuss the definition of beauty and sexiness right now. You can take whatever comes to your mind when you think of beauty and sexiness as the definition. These definitions change over centuries and even multiple times within a single human life.
We look at the subtleties in Da Vinci's, Titian's, Rembrandt's paintings, the world depicted, the figures, carefully, for a long time, sometimes admiringly. We don't feel ashamed for looking. We don't consume ourselves because we don't possess it, nor do we burn with the desire to own it.
Similarly, I see beautiful women as works of art. Nature's or God's art. Some are natural wonders, some are human-made marvels. But all are nature's art. Because we continue to live and strive with the power we receive from nature. So, how do we become desensitized to these natural or human-made wonders around us, or why do we feel shame or jealousy for gazing these wonders?
Even though we deny it, having that beauty, maintaining it, and sharing it with the world is not easy. And for the women who spend their lives preserving this beauty; some of us belittle them, accuse them of being superficial, and think they spend too much money or time on their appearance.
I think it's quite the opposite. We should be grateful to them for dedicating their time to this with endless energy and motivation — in my opinion, we should even go a step further and raise funds for them.
And so, we enjoyably and admiringly watch these works of art in the streets, at work, in movies.
I used to sneakily glance at these works of art, feeling regret for looking or burning with too much desire to possess them. But now, I see them as nature's works of art and believe it's more appropriate to admire them without falling into the desire to possess them. I even plan to evolve my work to share their beauty with the world. I want to leave the legacy of the last remaining beauties, a mix of nature and human, for future generations who may be suffocated by robotic beauties. (I've taken on a very noble mission right now. When you start writing, words just flow...)
As I was writing this, I realized that I sometimes feel the same way about men. Even though I have no interest in men, sometimes we come across men who are the epitome of beauty. And when we realize that we are watching them, we feel ashamed and jealous of being their fellow human beings and we bow our heads. And we move on, trying to suppress these human feelings.
Now, in these moments of looking, I want to stay more in the moment and not label my feelings. Like watching a sunset, I believe one should stay in that moment without defining it and get lost in that view.
The bottom line is that beautiful people should be valued like sculpture, like art. We should gaze and savor them with similar admiration and have the right to do so.
As someone often nudged by righteousness, a social question arises at this point:
So what about the people being watched as works of art? I don't know about that. Especially when I travel to small towns and villages, I remember the locals staring at me from one end of the street to the other without blinking. It was a disturbing situation at the time. Now that I think about it, why was I so uncomfortable and uneasy?
Maybe our social and cultural norms should evolve according to this new situation. Everyone should be able to gaze at the people they find beautiful without harassing them, without burning with the desire to possess them. Would this freedom bring permanent individual freedom? What's the relevance?