THE POWER OF BEAUTY

The power of beauty can be for positive and negative use. For positive use can be for charity that is promoted by Miss World pageant. For negative and selfish use to attract attention like attracting another woman's husband. Beauty can be in various forms. As a hot and sexy beauty or girl next door beauty. Using beauty for harmless flirting or dangerous seduction resulting in failed marriages or in tragedy. Beautiful women at most times with their feminine wiles get away with things like traffic summons when stopped by police. Beautiful women also tend to get what they want.

Nations went to war because of beautiful women like in the case of Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousands ships. Cleopatra purportedly used her beauty to get Caesar and Mark Anthony to help her run her empire. Matahari, a dutch exotic dancer used her beauty to get war secrets from German officers and passed to the British during the First World War. She was the classic femme fatal.

Beauty is seen as pervasive and negative force in society, but I think it has a positive influence on women of different ethnic backgrounds, size, height and skin color. Once a woman gets attention, the “snowball” effect gives women a feeling that they can achieve anything that they want when they are regarded as beautiful. The power that women attain, makes them gain respect and admiration in communities, they become well known and perceived as trustworthy. They also go on to use their beauty to enhance other women's experiences. Feeling beautiful is a powerful effect on your attitudes and habits, but it has to be balanced with reality. Unfortunately sometimes this power we achieve can become a dilemma for women who are unable to balance with reality, especially the younger women when they are most susceptible to outside pressure.

There is no measure for beauty as beauty is totally subjective. It is true that our society places a huge emphasis on physical beauty, because we are all beings who enjoy working with and seeing beautiful things. Therefore, based on the society's belief, these beautiful women use their physical beauty with panache and chutzpah to get what they want. Undeniably, beauty is a powerful weapon for women with which to achieve their goals. However, beauty can fade through time. If a woman is purely dependent on her external beauty in life, how far can she use her physical beauty? Next decade? Twenty more years?

With the aging factor, women need to maintain their beauty with their inner charms. A woman is beautiful because she is well-equipped in multiple aspects i.e. education, social contribution, career etc. Most importantly, she also has admirable values like empathy, kindness, thoughtfulness, selfless. She is willing to counter social standards for what she strongly believes in. Also, she believes that women do not have to be a size 2 size 0 to be beautiful. Most importantly, she utilizes her beauty to implement programs that help raise awareness that beauty can come in all shapes and size. A beautiful woman is not a fool who spreads foolish and cruel standards. A woman who can be able to be well-equipped with physical beauty and inner beauty is a woman with substance and eternal beauty.

Some historians say Cleopatra was not truly that beautiful. It seems she used her charm and ambition instead of beauty to make the two Roman leaders to fall in love with her.

Generally, power corrupts. Henceforth, possessing the power of beauty comes with responsibility. A pageant beauty, therefore, must use her beauty wisely and for the common good.