Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise:
Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,
Love's Labours Lost by William Shakespeare 1588Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
What does this phrase literally mean?
UsingEnglish.com says:
Different people will find different things beautiful and that the differences of opinion don't matter greatly.Cambridge Dictionaries Online says:
Not all people have the same opinions about what is attractive.Therefore, perception of beauty is subjective. What's beautiful for you may not be as beautiful for others. e.g. Sadly for Filipinos, fair skin is more attractive than tanned skin. This perception should be blamed for Filipinos' colonial mentality or what colonizers have taught Filipinos: white skin is better and more beautiful. Hence, the reason why there's a lot of advertising campaigns in the Philippines with ridiculous slogans like:
Get whiter skin in 7 days!Having fairer skin for Asians is like a status quo (or an irrational preference for the current state) because fair skin is associated with being elite and that they don't work at the farm or any jobs that require to work under the sun the whole day. So most Asian actors pay high price to be "white".
On the contrary, most, if not all, non-Asians adore tanned skin because tanned skin means they can afford to go on holiday trips, lay down at sandy beaches sunbathing.
So you see. We really do have different perception about what is beautiful.
What is beautiful for you?
