Beauty is only skin deep...

Суббота, 30 Мая 2009 г. 10:55 + в цитатник

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Mark H. Teeter 15/05/2009

Is beauty only skin deep? If so, this shallowness projects remarkable force, as English and Russian popular wisdom has long affirmed: Christopher Marlowe told us that a pretty face could "launch a thousand ships," as Helen's did at Troy, while the Soviet film "Vesna" decreed two generations ago that "Beauty is a terrible power."

To keep our navies in port and radiance bludgeons stilled, humans must exercise self-discipline with pretty things and people, part of which involves describing beauty and its absence in acceptably civil terms. Russian speakers acquiring English would do well to pay close attention to the nuances of our descriptions of one another's external virtues and imperfections: "In your face!", for example, is not actually a physiological reference.

Granted, in this age of democracy, multiculturalism and lawsuits, many Anglo-Saxons fairly ooze blandness when assessing the appearance of others. This is partly to avoid charges of "lookism" (discrimination based on physical appearance) and partly because they are, well, Anglo-Saxons. That said, it's obvious that nature often makes one person more attractive than another to a third - and while it may not be your job to tell the other sorry, you're Miss Congeniality, it's still important to know the terms involved.

Ladies first. Descriptions of a physically appealing woman are best limited initially to the five most common adjectives for this purpose - "beautiful," "pretty," "attractive," "good-looking" and "lovely." These are "neutral positives," so to speak, but learners should listen for (and mentally file) the particular contexts native speakers use them in. If you want to ascend to the top of the appeal ladder, you can select - carefully - from among the superlatives "gorgeous," "stunning," "striking" and "sexy," the last perhaps best reserved for third persons... and probably third persons not dating your interlocutor.

A very serviceable term, especially for the young, is "cute," which often denotes beauty without knowledge of or pretensions to it. For seniors among the X-chromosome-enhanced, "handsome" is often appropriate, as are a series of words which lead away from externals and toward character traits and attire: "elegant," "chic," "delightful," "refined" and "charming." The handy "fair" is a nice anachronism ("fair damsel" sounds medieval) that you may occasionally hear among adults in mock high-tone usage ("And where is our fair hostess?").

There are fewer words for appealing males, either because there are fewer appealing males or because men are more often the ones so moved by the opposite sex that they compulsively assemble words for its attractions (see Shakespeare). The standard "neutral positives" for men are "handsome" and "good-looking," with various less-physical and more-attitudinal (or sartorial) adjectives figuring somewhere behind, among them "clean-cut," "sharp," "manly," "suave," and "stylish." If you feel that more than one of these apply to the picture above this column, please note that I have steady work and enjoy dancing.

Now for the harder part - what to use for people who physically repel you, turn you off, make you wish you were elsewhere and so on. The standard "neutral-negative" epithets for women (out of earshot) include "unattractive," "plain," "homely," and "not much to look at." The male counterparts are basically limited to a modest corps of un- compounds ("unattractive," "unsightly," "unhandsome") and a long list of non-physical adjectives, one stronger than the next, which includes "appalling," "awful," "foul," "gross," "hideous," "loathsome," "offensive," "repugnant," "repulsive" and "revolting."

The standard-bearing negative for both genders is "ugly," of course, but the absoluteness of this word can be tempered. Men may be called "handsome-ugly" (Jean-Paul Belmondo is the classic example); and "Ugly Betty" of the international TV series is not, as the world knows, really ugly. Indeed, people are more aware than ever that Andersen's classic "Ugly Duckling" is a story of true beauty emerging in its own good time, a moral for the ages.

Many terms for beauty and ugliness have both literal and figurative meanings, of course, and sometimes these can be used consecutively to good effect. In the Paul Newman movie "Harper," for example, a sleazy small-town sheriff ominously warns the visiting big-city hero about the idiosyncrasies of local law enforcement: "If I wanted to get ugly..." the lawman begins - and Newman interrupts him, "You are ugly!"

A beautiful comeback! But never use it yourself, or the next ugly thing might be your nose.

Extreme Extra Credit: One point for identifying "Miss Congeniality" as a recent Sandra Bullock movie - and two for recognizing it as an ironic (or "left-handed") compliment here, identifying the less attractive of two individuals.