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Symposium:
Beauty Matters
however, is the distinctionbetween Beauty that Observe that part of a beautiful woman where she is
transcends the physical world and beautiful perhapsthe most beautiful,aboutthe neck andbreasts;
things (in the world) that share some common the smoothness;the softness; the easy and insensible
characteristics:unity, measure, and proportion. swell; the varietyof the surface,which is never for the
Common to both Beauty and beautifulthings is smallest space the same; the deceitful maze, through
the complex act of contemplation:a component which the unsteadyeye slides giddily, withoutknow-
retainedin the cognitive-basednotion of beauty ing where to fix, or whitherit is carried.26
of St. Thomas Aquinas. For Aquinas, beauty
manifests itself in real-world objects through Burke's remarks are startling:not so much in
perfection,proportion,and clarity,and is tied to their franknessabout how the male observer is
human perception and desire: "the beautiful is seduced (by "thedeceitful maze"), but how em-
that which calms the desire, by being seen or phatically his "unsteady eye slides giddily"
known." Thus beautiful things share objective while the female is the passive object to be
features in the world of experience while per- looked at. In addition, Burke's observer is pre-
sons experience the subjectivepropertyof plea- sumed to be heterosexual. In another passage
sure (or calming of desire). In the eighteenth (quoted by Dickie, although not commented
century,a person'ssense of taste comes into play upon in terms of sexual orientation), Burke
as the faculty that (singly or not) apprehends notes:
beauty, the sublime, or the picturesque.Nature
(the naturalenvironment)plays a very important We shall have a strong desire for a woman of no re-
role by expanding the range of beautiful "ob- markablebeauty;whilst the greatestbeautyin men, or
jects" one might perceive;landscapes-both ac- in other animals, though it causes love, yet excites
tual and painted-are the occasions of pleasur- nothing at all of desire. Which shews thatbeauty,and
able experiences.But such pleasuremust still be the passion caused by beauty,which I call love, is dif-
devoid of desire; and thus disinterestedness- ferent from desire, though desire may sometimes op-
the exclusion of ethical, social, andpoliticalcon- erate along with it.27
cerns-becomes mandatory.Subjectivetheories
come to occupy centerstage as more emphasisis Burke clearly reinforces a norm that precludes
placed on the role of the perceiverandless on the men from feeling desire when perceiving other
featuresof the object thattriggerone's faculty of beautifulmen.
taste. The sublime comes to replace beauty as Furthermore,race comes to play a role in
the strongerof the two, andeventuallythe notion Burke'stheory of beauty as well as many subse-
of a sense of taste is replaced by aesthetic atti- quent theories of the sublime. In a revealing
tude. As mentioned earlier,Wittgenstein'smid- essay on the racedcharacterof the sublime,Meg
centurychallenge to the use of basic philosoph- Armstrongretells Burke'sstory of the white boy
ical terms generally led to an abandonmentof who, blind since birth, sees a black woman for
the ongoing project of defining "beauty."No- the first time.28Inspiringboth shock and terror,
table exceptions have been Guy Sircello's 1975 the woman transgresses the boundaries of a
analysis of the properties of beautiful objects properwhite(s)-only,femininebeauty.Kant,too,
andMaryMothersill'srevival of theoriesof taste promotedthe blonde, blue-eyed ideal of female
in 1984.25 beauty, denigratingAfricans and Indians to the
Beginning as far back as Plato, gender and statusof "savages."Thus, Kant'sinquiryinto the
sexual orientation played a significant role in beautifuland the sublime-considered by many
discussions of beauty.Plato's discussion of love to be the apex of aesthetic discourse-becomes
in the Symposiumoperateswithin the context of inextricablyenmeshed in issues of gender,race,
a male-dominated, openly gay society. In the andculturalidentity.Oddly enough,when recent
eighteenth century, philosophers prominently revivals of the concept of "beauty"in philos-
employed descriptions of women's bodies in ophy of art have occurred, they have been
their theories, gendering the beautiful feminine strangelysilent on these fundamentalissues.29
and the sublime masculine. Recall, for example, For instance, Rudolf Arnheim recently pro-
Edmund Burke's tantalizing description of a posed a notion of beauty as suitability, where
beautifulwoman: "beauty"is defined as "the appropriatenessof
4 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism
African Mende tribe who, like Burke, consider mate connections between beauty,gender,race,
the beautifulto be genderedfeminine. The body and sexuality for decades. Consider artists like
of a Mende woman representsideals of beauty HannahHoch, a dadaistwho rearrangedphotos
based on proportionand delicacy. Unlike Burke, of white and black body partsin assemblagesin-
however, the color of beauty is not white/Cau- terweaving raced beauty ideals.50 Or Carolee
casian but ratheran "overall, unflawed copper Schneeman, who posed nude in early perfor-
complexion."42 mance pieces to counteractthe way women had
Furthermore,beautyhas become centralto the been visually depicted for centuries by male
topic of representationin culture in general.43 artists.51More recently, the black and white
Images of women in society, particularlyfrom "film stills" of Cindy Sherman imitated the
advertising,television, and film,44 have placed filmic presence of the beautiful woman posed
the female body-long an icon of beautyand se- for male gazer(s).Her color photos of the 1980s,
duction-at the center of debates aboutpornog- described as parodies of "soft-core pastiche,"
raphy,girls' sports,Olympic competition,body- manipulatedthe erotics of the gaze within the
building,and women's daily exercise routines.45 "politicsof representationof the body."52In the
The pursuitof beauty remains steadfastlyat the 1970s, Adrian Piper engaged the "conflicting
center of controversy among women who dis- standardsof beautyand social acceptanceon the
agree about the role of female agency in body- most intimate level" by cross-dressing and in-
building, cosmetic surgery,and even the simple vestigating the sexist adage of the Black Power
act of wearing makeup.46 Women debate movement, "black is beautiful."53Renee Cox
whetheran elusive ideal of beautyis a menacing, has photographedherself as a modem black
male-fabricatedmyth (where woman is victim) Madonnawith child.54The Frenchperformance
or an avenue of self-realization(where woman artistOrlan has undergonenine surgeriesto re-
sees herself as empowered agent).47 To think constructher face accordingto the ideals of fe-
that issues of beauty within the worlds of fash- male beauty set by da Vinci, Botticelli, and Ger-
ion, popularculture,and the media fail to influ- ard in order to show that such male-defined
ence how beauty matterswithin the artworldis ideals can never be attained.55Painter Janine
to refuse to acknowledge the frequencyand po- Antoni "paints"floors with her hair and can-
tency of cross-fertilization.48As Bordo aptly re- vases with lipstick;56Kiki Smith sculpts self-
minds us: portraits out of chocolate that she licks into
human shape. The photographsof Nan Goldin
The ideasof those who workfor CalvinKlein and catch heroinaddictsin the act, elevating them to
thosewhoworkforOxfordUniversityPress(orUni- the statusof "highart,"while waif-like counter-
versityof CaliforniaPress)arein conversation
with parts appear in dreary Calvin Klein ads as
each other,no doubtaboutit. The questionremains "heroinchic."57
whetherwe arecontentto allowthatconversation to These excursions into previously uncharted
remaincovertandunanalyzed.49 realms of physical and bodily beauty are
uniquely female based and feminine oriented.
Womenartistshave been integralto this "con- Unlike the "body art"of Vito Acconci or Chris
versation"since it began: creating art that stim- Burden,who soughtto shock audienceswith the
ulates much of what is seen and said in the art- graphic display and (ab)use of their bodies in
world today. Cultural images, debates over order to push the limits of "art,"women have
beauty, and changing physical ideals have long had an analysis at the core of their work of the
played a significant role in their work. The fe- very meaning(s)of "beauty."Situatedin a soci-
male body has come to occupy the intersection ety that routinely turns women into objects of
of feminist art,artcriticism,andtheoreticalwrit- the male gaze, women became the creators of
ing about beauty. Unlike male artists such as theiruniquelyrepresentedselves by devising al-
Mapplethorpe, Serrano, Hirst, and Morimura, ternative visions of individual and group iden-
who have only recentlybegun to appropriatethe tity.58Artworkscreatedby women manipulated
language of beauty in their art, women artists- the ideals of beauty to their taste, wresting con-
in increasingnumbers-have been exploringthe trol from the hands of their male counterparts.
psychology and politics of beauty and the inti- Based on these examples and many more that
Symposium:Beauty Matters Brand,Beauty Matters 7
can be produced, it becomes clear that beauty notingthatthe photographsare "imagesof a kind
has been integralto women's artand discoursein to arouseenvy and desire in the right sort of au-
innovative ways that still fail to gain a foothold dience," thereby serving "a rhetoricalfunction,
in the thinking of most philosophers. If these the way the advertisingphotographdoes."61We
beauty matters-which inevitably carry over returnto the issue of sexuality,or more correctly,
into the world of artand aesthetics-continue to we cannot avoid it.
be ignored,the projectednew phase of "beauty" Finally,I encouragephilosophersto expandnot
will remainirreparablydeficient. The essays of- only the rangeof contextswithinwhichthe analy-
fered here share at least two recommendations sis of beautytakes place, but also to directatten-
for futurephilosophies of art. tion to the recent trend in art writing by which
First, from Kant to conk to Calvin Klein, beautyhas been reconceptualizedinto a version
beauty matters. Pushing beyond the prescribed of the sublime. The core idea in The Invisible
limits of what might be called Minimal Contex- Dragon is Hickey's redefinitionof the term. He
tual theories (those of Danto, Dickie, and states, "Irarelyuse the word beautyin reference
Eaton's previous work, all of which invoke the to an image that isn't somehow dangerous or
artworldor the institutionsof the artworld),the transgressive."62For Schjeldahl,beauty can be
threesymposiumauthorsadvancewhatmight be found in "bizarre,often bleak, even grotesque
called a Maximal Contextualapproach.That is, extremes of visual sensation."63For Beckley,
they call for more inclusion of contextualinfor- beauty is now inexplicably "uncontrollable."
mationratherthanless; a maximizingof context This new model makes subversion(eitheractual
rather than minimizing. Eaton invokes ethics; or potential), the grotesque, and the uncontrol-
Taylor, cultural criticism; Bordo, gender poli- lable necessary elements of beauty. This pro-
tics. Thus, all three authors strongly reject the vokes numerousquestions for the role of plea-
constrictive legacy of disinterestednessby en- sure and desire within the experience of beauty,
larging the scope of nonaesthetic contextual and helps explain the applicationof "beauty"to
concerns. In addition,they reconfirmaesthetics the work of Mapplethorpe,Serrano,and Hirst.
as an inquiry more encompassing than just the The dangerous and horrible, once confined to
philosophy of art.59They bring attention(back) the visual terrorof the sublime, have now infil-
to natureand the humanbody. trated beauty. Positive reviews of Cindy Sher-
Second, human color, size, shape, ethnicity, man's 1990s photographsof bloody manequin
and sexuality are all beauty matters. Philoso- body partsareanothercase in point.When asked
pherswho deny the centralityof the humanbody about the "grotesque,disastrousand disturbed"
withinthe discourseof the beautifulandthe sub- characterof her work, Shermanreplied:
lime arethe legacy of earlierphilosophical"clas-
sics"thatweighs uponourown talk aboutbeauty Theworldis so drawntowardbeautythatI becamein-
now. ArthurDanto is one of the few philoso- terested in things that are normallyconsidered
phers who has set a good example by dealing grotesqueor ugly, seeingthemas morefascinating
with these issues head on. For instance, after andbeautiful.It seemsboringto meto pursuethetyp-
noting the lack of beautyin much artof the early ical ideaof beauty,becausethatis the easiestor the
1990s (concernedwith issues of morality!), he mostobviousway to see the world.It's morechal-
proposeda notion of "internalbeauty"by which lengingto lookattheotherside.f4
artworkslike RobertMotherwell'sElegies to the
SpanishRepublicmight be admired: This new "darkside"of beautyis unexpected.
It goads philosophy into delving into the moral,
Thepaintingsarenotto be admiredbecausetheyare social, andpolitical implicationsof a culturethat
beautiful,butbecausetheirbeingso is internally con- finds the ugly beautiful. When anorexic girls,
nectedwiththereferenceandthemood.Thebeautyis blood and vomit,junkies, dead sharks,and sado-
ingredientin thecontentof thework,justas it is, in my masochisticsex come to be reveredas beautiful,
view,withthecadencesof sungordeclaimed elegies.60 we can either remain disinterested or we can
honestly confront the perversityof how beauty
Danto goes on to analyze the internalbeauty of has come to matter in distinctly nontraditional
Mapplethorpe'sgraphic depictions of penises, ways.
8 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism
35. This would be similar to Nancy Tuana'sediting of a 48. New questions are continually being asked outside
PennsylvaniaState UniversityPress series called "Re-Read- philosophical circles that bear directly on aesthetics, such
ing the Canon." as "Is Fashion Art?"by Sung Bok Kim in Fashion Theory:
36. Warren,p. 4. See also Warren,Ecological Feminist The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture 2 (March 1998):
Philosophies (IndianaUniversity Press, 1996). 51-72. Also, recent issues of art magazines have devoted
37. Marcia Muelder Eaton, "Aesthetics:The Mother of sections to art and fashion updates:see ARTnews96 (Sep-
Ethics?" The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 55 tember 1997): 114-123; Art in America (September 1997):
(1997): 361. 42-45.
38. SandraLee Bartky,Femininityand Domination:Stud- 49. Bordo, TwilightZones, p. 19.
ies in the Phenomenologyof Oppression(New York:Rout- 50. MaudLavin, Cut Withthe KitchenKnife: The Weimar
ledge, 1990). Photomontages of Hannah Hoch (Yale University Press,
39. Naomi Wolf, TheBeautyMyth:How Imagesof Beauty 1993).
Are Used Against Women(New York: William Morrow, 51. Lynda Nead, The Female Nude: Art, Obscenity and
1991). Sexuality(London:Routledge, 1992), plate 26. A review of
40. Susan Bordo, UnbearableWeight:Feminism,Western Schneeman'srecent retrospectiveshow is the subject of an
Culture,and the Body (Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1993), essay by Nancy Princenthalentitled, "The Arrogance of
p. 334, n. 25. Bordo cites a 1984 study in which "a poll of Pleasure,"Art in America 85 (October 1997): 106-109.
33,000 women revealed that 75 percent considered them- 52. Laura Mulvey, "Cosmetics and Abjection: Cindy
selves 'too fat,' while only 25 percentwere above Metropol- Sherman 1977-87," in Fetishism and Curiosity (Indiana
itan Life InsuranceStandards,and 30 percent were below." UniversityPress, 1996), pp. 69, 66.
As Bordo adds in TwilightZones: The Hidden Life of Cul- 53. Lowery Stokes Sims, "The Mirror,The Other:The
tural Imagesfrom Plato to 0. J. (University of California Politics of Aesthetics,"Artforum28 (March1990): 111-115.
Press, 1997), psychologists call such self-hatred "body See also Adrian Piper, Out of Order,Out of Sight, 2 vols.
image disturbancesyndrome"which can persistuntil a girl is (MIT Press, 1996).
deathly thin; "this ideal of the body beautiful has largely 54. "ExhibitingGender,"by David Joselit,Art in America
come from fashion designers and models" (p. 108). (January1997): 36-39.
41. In additionto Bordo, see Joan Jacobs Brumberg,The 55. BarbaraRose, "Is It Art? Orlanand the Transgressive
Body Project:An IntimateHistory of American Girls (New Act,"Art in America (February1993): 82-87, 125. See also
York:Random House, 1997) and Fasting Girls: The Emer- Peg Brand,"Disinterestednessand PoliticalArt,"in Aesthet-
gence of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern Disease (Harvard ics: The Big Questions, ed. Carolyn Korsmeyer (Malden,
UniversityPress, 1988). MA: Basil Blackwell Publishers,1998), pp. 155-171.
42. Sylvia Ardyn Boone, Radiance From the Waters: 56. Kay Larson, "Women'sWork (or Is It Art?) Is Never
Ideals of FeminineBeauty in MendeArt (IndianaUniversity Done," TheNew YorkTimes,January7, 1996, sec. H, p. 35.
Press, 1986), p. 119. 57. See, for example, Goldin's "GettingHigh, New York
43. There are far too many titles to mentionhere.Authors City" (1979), or Mary Ellen Mark's"HeroinAddict on the
include JudithButler,Bodies ThatMatter:On the Discursive Toilet" (1969), in CarmenVendelin, "JunkSells," New Art
Limits of "Sex" (New York: Routledge, 1993); Elizabeth Examiner25 (November 1997): 34-38. The promo for the
Grosz, VolatileBodies (IndianaUniversity Press, 1993). essay states, "The irresistableappeal of the loser now per-
44. Some of these discussions are heavily influenced by meates the art world, which has, of late, been pumping out
psychoanalytictheory,for instance, the work of LauraMul- images of prostitutes,drug addicts, streetkids, and the gen-
vey, Visualand Other Pleasures (IndianaUniversity Press, erally down-and-out"(p. 5). See also Holly Brubach,"Be-
1989), ParveenAdams, The Emptinessof the Image (Lon- yond Shocking," The New YorkTimesMagazine, May 18,
don: Routledge, 1996), and FrancettePacteau,TheSymptom 1997, pp. 86-87.
of Beauty (HarvardUniversityPress, 1994). 58. In a review entitled "Void,Self, Drag, Utopia (And 5
45. See Susan Rubin Suleiman, TheFemaleBody in West- Other Gay Themes)," Roberta Smith notes that "feminist
ern Culture: ContemporaryPerspectives (HarvardUniver- artistsof the 1970's (JudyChicago, Ree Morton,Eve Hesse,
sity Press, 1990), and Subversive Intent; Gender, Politics, Harmony Hammond and Lynda Benglis) were the first to
and the Avant-Garde(HarvardUniversity Press, 1990); and tackle the issue of gender,"which subsequentlyinfluenced
Berkeley Kaite, Pornographyand Difference (IndianaUni- gay and lesbian artists of the 1980s. The New YorkTimes,
versity Press, 1995). March26, 1995, sec. H, p. 40.
46. Other recent directions the discussion has taken in- 59. A recommendedtext along these lines is Noel Carroll,
clude: Susan Wendell, The Rejected Body: FeministPhilo- A Philosophy of Mass Art (New York: Oxford University
sophical Reflections on Disability (New York: Routledge, Press, 1998).
1996); Deviant Bodies, eds. Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline 60. Danto, "Beauty and Morality,"p. 366. This essay is
Urla (Indiana University Press, 1995); PosthumanBodies, reprintedin Beckley and Shapiro's UncontrollableBeauty,
eds. JudithHalberstramand IraLivingston (IndianaUniver- pp. 25-37.
sity Press, 1995); and Freakery:CulturalSpectacles of the 61. Ibid., p. 367.
ExtraordinaryBody, ed. RosemarieGarlandThomson (New 62. Dave Hickey, interviewedby Ann Wiens, "Gorgeous
YorkUniversity Press, 1996). Politics, Dangerous Pleasure:An Interview,"The New Art
47. See Kathy Davis, Reshaping the Female Body: The Examiner21 (April 1994): 13.
Dilemma of CosmeticSurgery(New York:Routledge, 1995) 63. Schjeldahl,"BeautyIs Back,"p. 161.
for a defense of cosmetic surgery as empowering female 64. Noriko Fuku, "AWomanof Parts,"Art in America 85
agency. (June 1997): 80. See also CindySherman:PhotogaphicWork
10 The Journalof Aesthetics andArt Criticism
1975-1995, eds. Zdenek Felix and MartinSchwander(Mu- Herversion of this essay. For furtherexplorationsof beauty,
nich: SchirmerArt Books, 1995). see an anthology of readings edited by Brand,Beauty Mat-
65. My sincere thanks to Philip Alperson for supportfor ters (IndianaUniversityPress, forthcoming).
this Symposiumprojectand for helpful commentson an ear-