IS THE POWER OF BEAUTY WANING?

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 87

IS THE POWER OF BEAUTY WANING?

By Constance Clyde.

That the power of beauty is or. can ever oo altogether lost is, of course, an impossible notion that it is on the wane •>s in idea that appears to have some support from the facts of modern life. It is not so much that woman's beauty has lees influence than formerly, or that other qualities now tend to take an equal place. In the mediaeval times "a woman had no chance of making an impression save by ner race, the political platform and Om stage being forbidden to the histrionic while social life and the wit and charm they evoke were in one sense of theTord largely unknown. Therefore the winner in the tournament searching for the lady on whom to bestow the prize must judge by looks alone. Similarly, in Victorian times, when convention decreed some =vant of individuality as suitable to young and unmarried women, the girlhad to "oeiy on her looks to do that task of masculine subjugation whicii now can be effected by other means almost as easily. No one who iias looked on the modem social world with an unbiassed mind but must notice how little handsomeness can effect when unaided by any other charm. The advantage of beauty liea in the fact that it assists a woman who is on the outskirts of the social world to get into it more quickly than would otherwise be the ease. Oiice ireide the circle, however, a handsome woman needs to bo almost as clever as a plain one if she wishes to hold her own. In spite of this fact, however, I do not advise girls to turn, their mirrors to the wall or'to turn their curling tongs into knitting pins. The plain woman, like John Wilkes, needs only ten minutes to make up on her handsomer sister. Unfortunately, unlike that politician. she> often does not get the half-hour. Is it in the civilised or in the ultracivilised nation that we notice this weakening of what is sivnncsedly woman's chief weapon? The modern Frenchman cares nothing for good looks in comparison with elegance and espieglerie. As some critic has said, to be beautiful is to be almost unfashionable, for then the woman has no chance of showing what she can achieve without good looks—by means of her own individuality. Certainly a cursory view of the Parisian streets shows us that most French women are quite fashionable : at the same time we admit their elegance. It has been admitted "again that the 'bright-eyed, pinkcheeked Enslish girl does not "go" in Paris. She is not interesting. Curiouslyenough, the visiting Australian also fails to find charm in the English girl, though he admires the older women. Yet it is certain that the English <nrl beats both the Australian and the French girl in good looks, in freshness of colouring, and regularity of feature combined.

The ineffectiveness of the classical profiie has been noted before this. Bret Harte observed it when be remarked in one- of his shorter tales how poets anited to praise the regular outline and statuesque figure, while men fought and died for quite another type. A statistician, again, has noted, correctlv or incorrectly one cannot- tell, that women with the short, upturned nose have more opportunities of marryincr than those whose features are on the longer and more correct pattern. "If Cleopatra's nose shorter it would have altered the history of the world," said a litterateur, meaning that it was her presumably Grecian features that captured the great Csssar. Yet perhaos the saying ro.av be true • if her nose had been shorter. les« Grecian, she might have succeeded with his "dull, coldblooded" namesake.

Are we losing, then, our appreciation oir beauty so far as it concerns itself with phvsical perfection? What we may Io«a in that, however, we wain in our aporeciation of another qualitv—namely, vita.lifv. There never was a time, perhaps, the really "live" woman was more appreciated than ehe is at present, is the sex -which, is most oiven to morbidness and abnormality. Here we find the greatest number of sjeniuses. . lunatics, imbeciles, atheists, suicides," 1 and other de%iartures from the usual. It is he that is the first to throw up the sponge and' the first to query whether life be worth living or no. It is in the very nature of woman to believe in Life, and it is she who possesses this vitality the most who wiias the greatest regard. In these davs when strife and overwork are tending to throw men off their balance (in some countries breeding a new race of men altogether), the woman with strong vitality will tend to come more and more to" the front. As friend and worker or as wife she will be always desired. As vitalitv seldom exists without at least some measure of good looks, it will not mean that beauty will altogether vanish from the earth, but beauty, so far as it consists of mere regularity of feature, will certainlv mean less than it does now. Yet to the end man will alwavs consider himself beauty-led, for where he finds this vitality, this love of lifo and healthiness of .soul, he will see beauty even though this is observable by no one else.