This is for all the lovely ladies and gentlemen in the beauty industry….. being in our industry is really hard you come across some interesting people who you grow to love and others well….Let’s just say you make us question why we even work in Spas at all, is it even worth it? Things in life work two ways, if you’re sick or have a family emergency, we don’t get mad at you for cancelling your appointment with us… but on the other hand I’ve had clients livid that my child or myself is sick or that I’ve had a death in family (sorry I’m only human).
Then there are the times that clients will arrive late… I mean really really late, this now makes me really really late for my other clients, that will now be huffing and puffing looking at their watches and unless a miracle happens. I won’t catch up. Then there are the “no shows” …. You know who you are! I love when it’s blamed on not receiving a confirmation call, I don’t know about you, but I make a note somewhere when I book an appointment AND if I miss it, it’s MY fault not the hard working receptionist!!! Because of this no show, I’ve now made no money (we almost ALL make a commission) Can you imagine if we didn’t show up for your appointment? Please just call!!!
If you want a service book for that service or those services, please try not to spring it on us last minute… be realistic, if there’s a little thought in your head that it may take longer give us call and let us know so that we can book the right amount of time!!!
We work really hard keeping up on trends, taking classes, learning about the products we use on you because we’re in this industry to make people feel and look great! We make great friends that started out as clients. It’s just that some of you just don’t get it…..we’re people too, we have feelings, we have our ups and downs ( but still smile all day)….we get sick because we work with public, we have deaths in the family….. We have days you might really not want us there doing your hair or waxing important parts! And most importantly we are not mind readers and WE ARE NOT MAGICIANS!! —That Is All
This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 3, 2013.
But but but we are the customers and the customer is always right. You should prostate yourself to me and kiss my derriere. Your life is mine. You must check with me before doing anything. And if it’s not perfect, not only am I going to stiff you on a tip but I’m not paying for your service.
The aforementioned is brought to you by the Self Entitled Twat Association “Where everything revolves around me and fuck everybody else”.
Welcome to the Real World where work is highly over rated! Swallow hard honey and hang in there! That’s life! 😉
i consider the services i get from my *beauty* shop akin to going to my doctor’s office. their time is valuable to me
eh.. you chose to work with the public, people aren’t going to change. Can’t you charge for no shows? Like doctors do?
It’s not unique to the magic business- I mean “beauty business”.
All you can do is print, in big letters on everything, “24 hour notice required for cancellation or (whatever penalty)”. Remind people your time is valueable and hope they act like adults.
If not, charge them for it!
—–
trends
—–
You folks are responsible for some of the worst things I see around town.
To whit: the Lady Doosh Hairdid of blond all the way down, with the last few inches dark.
There’s more.
p
i’ve stopped recommending my place, they are so busy because they are awesome. just joshing i always tell people about you guys, just not on here
The beauty industry thrives on insecurity and false promises and many of its customers are self-centered jackholes only too happy to empty their pockets for all the ‘beauty’ services available. Naturally, the customers feel entitled and squawk because most of them have pigeon-sized brains to begin with.
‘We work really hard keeping up on trends, taking classes, learning about the products we use on you because we’re in this industry to make people feel and look great!’
To quote Daffy Duck: ‘It is to laugh…’
In other words: ‘spendyouvainsuckersspend!’
i have my haircut once a year but i get lots of pedicures cause my feet are gnarly. it’s not that kind of place ttfn
Inconsiderate, demanding customers suck, but you can always get back at them by talking about them in Korean.
“Oh , poor princess….”
it’s hard to get these videos of late, this is the back half http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrOnhuDfBrU
Really??? Three fucking days, and this poorly written abortion is what we get for a bitch??? I bet the OB bounced her head from shoulder to shoulder as she wrote this.
I work with the public and find that most who live that “charmed life” and can afford the endless trips to the spa with their bottomless pit of a bank account really don’t give a shit about how you feel, how sick (or dead) your family is; they only care about No. 1–isn’t that all that matters? And quite frankly the most amusing part of the whole ordeal is that no amount of spa treatment will fix ugly; and DAMN have you ever noticed how ugly the rich bitches are?? Over-tanned, over nipped ‘n tucked…plastic, almost! And that harsh make-up? Ewww! Again, ya can’t fix ugly. If you really think of it, isn’t that ironic karma? I am a firm believer in treating others as you would expect to be treated but every once in awhile I’d love to try treating people how they treat me for a change…..even for just a day. Now don’t get me wrong, I love working with people; it’s just that small percentage who no matter what you do to be kind, courteous and helpful, will always find fault with everything and care about nothing. We can’t fix ’em we just have to tolerate ’em and rejoice in the people that do matter and treat us with that same care and consideration. For that next “lovely” I’d whip up some special mud, or tell her that urine isn’t only for curing jellyfish stings (insert evil laugh here…http://youtu.be/mjT0V2aanLA)
Dealing with the public you take the good with the bad, people can be annoying and unthinking. TJ has a good point, you should charge for missed appointments.
The worst kinda Ugly in Inside Ugly.
P
This is one lousy bitch for sure but a tiny step up from the Martha Stewart recipie exchange that was happening there for awhile. This is the mods way of rapping a few hands that had itchy ‘reporting fingers’. Good. Let that be a lesson to ya!
*Stands to attention and salutes Paulio*
As I’ve said here before – doing time in retail has, I think, made me a far better customer. If the people forking over the money can’t be bothered to treat the people behind the counter as human beings, it’s because they’ve long since lost the ability to act that way themselves.
“This is the mods way of rapping a few hands that had itchy ‘reporting fingers’. Good. Let that be a lesson to ya!”
Don’t start up this shit again boomy (wogdog) It’s done and over with. End of. We, (ALL of us, including you) are moving on.
Lols
Loves ya, Vastie.
P
WHAT IS BEAUTY?
“For all the lovely ladies and gentlemen in the beauty industry…” That Is All
“beaut’y, n. Combination of qualities such as shape, proportion, colour, in human face or form.” (The Concise Oxford Dictionary)
“That Is All” speaks of the “beauty industry” but what can that possibly mean? Does the “beauty industry” “produce” beauty and if so, what would qualify for the title? Clearly the answer to the question – what is beauty? – presupposes some conception of that “combination of qualities” of which beauty may be said to consist. In other words, what shape, proportion and colour in the human face of form are to count as constituting beauty? Of course, beauty is the object of that branch of philosophy called “aesthetics” but what, you might ask, are its guiding principles, those which bestow coherence upon its exercise? This is not an easy question.
The first hurdle is determining if beauty might be conceived in its Platonic form where it would properly be called “Beauty” with a capital “B”. Put differently, does Beauty have an objective existence which transcends cultural and temporal differences? Or is beauty, as is so often said, a subjective matter, “in the eye of the beholder”? I think we can steer a middle course on this one. While, on the one hand, there may not be Beauty in the absolute Platonic sense, one that is, which transcends time and place, on the other hand beauty does seem to have an independent existence which is not simply reducible to individual taste. So we can say that the ontological status of beauty, while real in some sense, is amorphous in nature, resisting strict empirical description. There is no simple “checklist” of qualities which will or will not determine what is beautiful and what is not.
The reason for this is that the operative word in the definition is “combination”. A combination, to be valid or aesthetically harmonious, is ultimately a matter of judgement, but what kind of judgement? At the risk of circularity, it may be called a matter of “aesthetic judgement”, one which is distinguishable from strictly rational judgement which involves making inferences from indubitable premises to logically valid conclusions.
In other words, aesthetic judgement is an autonomous philosophical category. It involves judgement but not bound by strictly rational criteria. This, of course, is the difficulty. How does one rationally analyze that which, by definition, resists strictly rational scrutiny? Well, one doesn’t. Rather, one talks about things like combinations of qualities such as shape, proportion and colour in human face or form. In other words, the content of aesthetic judgement is, as the expression goes, “sui generis” (that’s Latin for “of its own kind”).
Thank you for your attention.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Beauty
Is
A
Skill
FS Inside beauty is also a skill.
You can’t hide Inside Ugly. I’ve met many “beautiful people” who exude Ugliness. It’s a skill to do makeup and enhance someone’s beauty. There is an art to it, but if the inside is crap, it’s just paint and false eyelashes.
In my humble opinion it’s who you are, not what you do. So, not a skill..
p
Exactly, Paul. Beauty is fleeting. I have a friend who spent all her life on makeup, beauty treatments, etc. who was so self-involved, there were times I wanted to bop her. Now, at almost 60, she’s an ‘inner’ wreck because no amount of makeup or/an beauty treatments can cover the ravages of time (and lifestyle). She feels she has nothing left now that her looks are gone. I was never big on the whole ‘beauty’ industry so it makes me sad she never took the time to develop her ‘inner beauty’. Now she’s just a very sad little old lady, lamenting the past. Not a nice way to spend your golden years.
When I started wanting to photograph fashion as a genre I actually had a 5 minute worry about being a physical freak and not being all buff and hunky.
Fuck it.
p
but you are hunky and buff and smell delish
While this is true(obvs), I know I’m not everyone’s first choice. I’m cool with that. Taught me a lot about inner beauty, and how you either have it or don’t.
Smell is just soap and cologne. 🙂
p
Don’t underestimate your own beauty, Paulio, you’re A-1 gorgeous in this ole girl’s eyes, inside and out.
Know what? I have a lot of sucking up to do on the board for the recent troll warz. Can we go back to food talk, please? The Paul Lovefest will bug some folks. 🙂
I hated lowering myself to the Asshole Level this year(TWICE!). It’s been a craptastic year in a couple areas, with some family deaths and a health issue or two. Not going to justify it, just point out that I’m not as big an a-hole in real life as I looked like. ShittyD I expect to hate me forever, and I’m going to have to learn to live with that. lols
(I luvz you ladiez, ya know dat)
Okay, enough RealP. Back to MeatTalk and the Bitches.
I had some of the moose pepperoni on toasted multigrain bread from Julien’s bakery the other day. Mustard. It was awesome.
I’m going to maybe try some moose hamburg on a taco kit this week. I know taco kits aren’t “the real deal”, but they have their own charm, and I really love that spice packet.
Does anyone have experience with bbqueing moose steaks? These are in the freezer now. Is it a gamey meat that needs different prep? If I’m going to dislike it, I want to taste it the proper way it should be made. When the snow is gone(In sh’allah) this week, I’m going out to bbque on the patio. I’m hoping the moose is good for the grill. It’s in a steak shape, so Im presuming that’s the intended use.
Made a maple vinaigrette last night. Used half 3-6-9 oil with half balsamic vinegar. Some dijon for taste, and a squirt of maple syrup. Put it on spinach salad with only sliced pink lady apples. It was frigging yummy.
Have a good Sunday, Bitches. Going to look at orchids in a bit.
p
i made meatloaf with spicy salsa mixed in, really good and not too dry. i am inexperienced when it comes to moose meat
Moose steak – marinate, marinate, marinate and pound it with a tenderizer mallet at least 5,398 times. You’ll be able to cut it with a fork – at least that’s how they used to do it at the now defunct Ponderosa steak house franchises.
good way to alleviate stress, pound on some meat^^
Heh-heh-heh, Painey! Good one.
” ShittyD I expect to hate me forever, and I’m going to have to learn to live with that. lols”
ShittyD doesn’t need friends. He’s got a higher power riding with him.
http://i.imgur.com/WE3aw.gif
10-4, Good Buddy.
I wear makeup because I want to for me and just me.I used be laughed at by a lot of people and in fact I let others laughter almost kill be.I still have a lot of work to do on my inside and hopefully I’ll get those operations I need then I’ll feel even better.One day before I die, I may actually like myself. That’s my goal anyway.
I hope you don’t mean plastic surgery, Boru – that will only give you another false sense of security. Personally, I like the finely aged and seasoned look – as long as I can smile, I’ll never lose my inner beam. And if others don’t like it, they can go suck on a wooden shoe.
“BEAUTY AS A SKILL” & “INNER BEAUTY”: SOME DIFFICULTIES
RSVPs
: Furious Styles (03/23, 10:53AM)
“Beauty is a skill.”
In my “What Is Beauty?”(10:08AM) I claimed, following That Is All, that beauty was an attribute of a person, a combination of properties such as shape, proportion and colour in the human face or form. In other words, it was a visible attribute by virtue of which one might ascribe beauty to someone. Such visibility – beauty must be seen to be ascribed – was the central criterion which determined the validity of the ascription. But now it seems that visibility in the sense that beauty – in order to be beauty – must be seen with the eyes is no longer an adequate description. Beauty is a skill. However, some difficulties arise in connection with the revised definition.
The most obvious one is changing the nature of beauty itself, from a substantive or a noun to a verb or an activity. In other words, its ontological status has been transformed. It ceases to be something one is and becomes something one does. Is this coherent?
Secondly, there are corresponding but greater difficulties connected with assessing beauty as a skill as in assessing it as a bodily attribute. While there are no absolute rational criteria in attributing visual beauty – such criteria were seen to be aesthetically “sui generis” – the difficulty in assessing beauty as an activity seem to be even more tenuous. What would the criteria of a beautiful skill look like? Do all skills of whatever sort possess the possibility of attaining beauty or only some?
But there is another difficulty as well. A beautiful person – one exemplifying that combination of of properties as shape, proportion and colour and so on – exists independently of the one who happens to make the ascription. In other words, the beautiful person is beautiful regardless of the assessment of a second party. Put philosophically, such beauty has an independent ontological existence regardless of what you happen to think about it. In the case of beauty as a skill, however, the skill, in order to be assessed as beautiful, must be judged by a second party in order to make the ascription. In itself, the “skill” has no ontological existence.
: Boru 1014 (11:10AM)
“Inside beauty is also a skill.”
Here we have what might be called “the interior turn.” Beauty is no longer an external attribute which might be visually appreciated. It is no longer even a skill which, in some fashion, might be assessed by a second party as being beautiful. It has migrated, so to speak, inside the the individual where it takes up a hidden, covert residence out of the sight of others. It neither demands nor requires any second-party assessment. To be beautiful only self-validation is necessary unless, that is, some specification can be given as to how one might identify “inside beauty”.
Does this make sense? Am I beautiful because I think I am? As I skilfully compose this comment, is it beautiful as a result even if I am the only one who thinks this is so? For that matter, is there anyone who wouldn’t be beautiful if beauty depended only their assessment of their interior, undisplayed skilful feats?
In other words, has the concept of “beauty” been drained of any coherent content?
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
i’m with my ttfn, no make up for me except for some lip balm. boru, if you can’t convince yourself that you’re a worthwhile person, going under the knife won’t help
—–
In other words, has the concept of “beauty” been drained of any coherent content?
—–
Dunno, but that TL:DR post sure is!
I keed. I keed.
P
I believe it was Shakespear who said…
Hath not a Beautician eyes? Hath not a Beautician hands, organs,dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer as a SET is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
If a Beautician wrongs a SET, what is his humility?
Revenge. If a SET wrongs a Beautician, what should her
sufferance be by a SET’s example? Why, revenge.
The villainy you teach me, I will execute,
and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
Fragile bunch of pussies!!!
I don’t “hate” anyone. In fact there are very few people here I don’t enjoy, even if you are bearing the brunt of my sarcastic assaults.
There…I hope you’re happy!!! I’ve had to show my sensitive side. Now, you can all go back to fucking off!!!!
I love you too, Stephen.
(leans in, hugs, is thrown off)
xo
p
(I understood your frustration, ShittyD. No hard feelings)
i feel better, here have a dog http://imgur.com/HOhnmyb
Furious is showing his bias.
Good to see everyone is showing the love today. Except for maybe the Boomy chick. Makes the puffin (soon to be something else) feel pretty good.
Nice pic Boomy.
Steve I kinda guessed you had a sweet sensitive side in ya.
**Group Hug**
Wonderful,A group with Borderline Personality Disorder.We’re either at each others throats or having a group fuckin hug.Jesus people pick an emotion and and stick with it,contempt or love….Another attempt at humour.
We put the fun in dysfunctional, boru!
Damn you, Stephen, damn you all to hell for shattering my illusions! (voice trembles slightly)
“i’m with my ttfn, no make up for me except for some lip balm.”
Me neither, for the most part. Sometimes I put make up on (job interviews, going out at night, etc…), but it’s usually a BB cream and some mascara and some blush and some natural looking or sheer lipstick, or if I want more coverage, mac’s mineral powder with the blush and mascara. Very rarely do I put eye shadow on. I just find I look too ‘done up’ if I put anymore than that… and the mineral powder feels like too much, sometimes. I have nice skin/complexion, so I don’t really need much. Last time I visited the clinique counter, I wanted to buy their almost make up (sheer foundation) and the sales lady said she couldn’t, in good conscience, sell me anything for my face because I shouldn’t be using anymore than a tinted moisturizer, if that. I know not everyone has the luxury of having nice skin, so I don’t judge those who want to wear foundation.
It’s just so bad for you when you have blemishes or red splotches or dry skin…. Like those who have pimples and try to cover it up with heavy concealer and foundation… you’re just going to make it WAY worse. I had a bad allergy on my face last year and I felt like a leper and humiliated to go to work and try and deal with people on a professional level. It HURT and I had to just wait it out until the meds took effect (about 10 days) I had to constantly put vaseline on my face…. I tried putting on some cover up and OMG it was awful. And I find when I put foundation on my skin feels so irritated and gross when I take it off for days afterwards. My skin is super sensitive and the more make up I wear, the shittier it will get. So I’m glad I don’t have to wear a lot of make up. When you struggle with your weight, it’s nice to have SOME features you can be proud of. I get compliments on my skin all the time, mostly from those in the beauty industry and it’s a real confidence boost sometimes when you’re having a shitty day and a sales person, on commission won’t sell you make up because you don’t need it. So I can totally relate to those who get services done. If it makes you feel great about yourself, fill your boots!
As for beauty regimes… I don’t really LIKE going to the spa. I watched an internet tutorial about how to do your own eyebrows after I just wasn’t happy with the job the chick waxing my eyebrows was doing, and I actually found I was much happier with the job I did and hay! It’s free! All it took was a good pair of tweezers, eye liner pencil, a ruler, an eyebrow comb and some manicure scissors. Same with my manicure/pedicure. I do just as good a job as the professionals on my own hands and feet.
My mom got me a great salt scrub for xmas, and it’s taken me forever to find a skin care line that works well for my skin. It’s pricey at $100 for the set, but it lasts me six months or so, so it doesn’t cost that much in the long run. Every time I got a facial, my skin would feel really tight and dry and sometimes break out in red splotches…. So, being someone who hasn’t had a problem with break outs, I figured it wasn’t worth it. So, I really don’t need to go to the spa (because, like I said, I don’t really enjoy it). I find the best is when you come up with home made stuff like body scrubs and foot scrubs or face masks. My FAVORITE home scrub is some honey with some course sugar. Works well on feet and legs before you shave. I also like using olive oil with some sugar on my feet, but if you do it in the shower, you have to be careful to wipe out the tub because you’ll go flying next time you get in from the slippery olive oil.
One thing I don’t skimp on is my hair, though. Cuts with my stylist every five weeks at a decently priced salon, and I only let her colour my hair. I love the scalp massage and she does a great job. I figure that’s one area I can splurge on since I don’t usually get any other stuff done. I do have a thing for mac lipstick. $18 a pop, but worth it, especially since I don’t really spend that much cash on beauty stuff anyway.
I don’t wear a lot of make up just enough so that I think I look purdy.
I went years not caring what I looked like.For years I had depression so bad, I am here today because I love my child.
I’m not confused for a ‘Walker’ and shot in the head,while I’m in public so I guess I must be doing something right. lol
Hot Damn, Boru! Full points for a Walking Dead reference.
If anyone dislikes your comment, it’ll be that bitch Andrea. Grrrrrr.
http://i.imgur.com/pKyEN.jpg
Surely not “Too Soon” >; )
I’m old, fat, ugly, and arthritic and I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks of me.
aaa, good old art, sometimes my hands get so sore i can’t even operate a can opener
Wow, everyone is eerily loving on the bipolar bitch-board today!
Wow how Refreshing to see such a love fest!!! What an amazing change has come over you hard nosed bitches! It’s amazing what a little bit of Christian influence can do to even the meanest of mean! Spread the Love!!! You’re Welcome!
vous me faites lima oscar lima zulu
Oops – wrong thread. Suck back, reload.
All I know is, even my corbies are sick & tired of winter. I was doing my weekly Chapdurz run yesterday and one of them buzzed me so close he swatted my back with his wing.
Elk burger? – gotta get me some o’ dat!
Hay TT, I know you groove on history. Reading an excellent book right now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Hitlerland-American-E…
No – not Ivan’s idea of a dream themepark. lol
I have a photo project idea where we recreate famous iconic photos, with zombies. Moaning Lisa in the Louvre, for example!
p
Oooohhhhhhh!
Could I be “Guy in the White Hat” zombie?
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2010…
Pleeeeeeeeeeze!
Maybe Jackie O going over the back of the limo to get to the pieces of JFK’s brains, blown out of his head, eating them greedily?
Fuck. That’s dark. Even for me! lols
p
Never did get the whole zombie craze – what’s the appeal? This coming from someone who watches way too much South Park and Futurama.
There’s no dealing with them, no negotiating, no intimidating, no bullcrap one-upmanship.
You can’t pretty ’em up. You can’t make insipid Stephanie Meyer sweaty teenie hormone shit out of them. They are “the other” but you don’t even have to hate them. You just have to kill them. Or die.
Simple as that.
Thanks for the title, Ivanski – too bad I don’t buy books anymore – haven’t in over 2 years – http://www.ebook3000.com is all I need. Might even find the book that you recommended – you’d love it if you had an e-reader (and think of all the trips you and the lovely Mrs. Ivan could take with the moola saved! At least worth an overnight trip to Mushaboom for the Atlantic Fence Post Festival).
My bro and I have been hooked on ebooks3000 for a little over a year. 98% non-fiction and no 50 Shades of Shit trash – woo hoo!
Here’s a site I think you might like – one of my favs: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/
Sounds like the Kardashians.
Oh Zombies can take the place of anybody that you believe the world would be better off without. That’s the beauty of them. You can view them as the 1% or the 99. CEO’s or panhandlers, rappers or country singers, Middle managers or shop stewards, Pedos from Rome or the Sharia brigade…It’s really quite perfect.
Thanks for the site. You posted it once before and a couple of weeks ago I spent the better part of a Saturday night sopping up the PBR and watching hilarious conspiracy docs.
“Hitlerland” has just come out in trade PB so, presumably it’s an e-book by now.
How did you enjoy the one you were reading a couple of weeks ago about humour in Nazi Germany?
Excellent book, Ivan. Not a long read but a good one. Re the documentary site, I’ve told so many people about it, I forgot who I told – another Grandpa Simpson moment.
I’m about to start on a bio of Napolean that was recently released and have another called ‘Napoleonic Friendship – Military Fraternity, Intimacy, and Sexuality in 19th Century France’ – ooo-la-la, an inside look at the boys in the barracks! Be still my heart!
To be followed by Robert Massie’s ‘Catherine the Great’.
Also available for free, Ivan: ‘The Rebecca Code: Rommel’s Spy in North Africa and Operation Condor’, another read on my list.
Hmm, thought I saw a little twinkle in Boomy’s eyes.
I don’t know what that is Reg, but I’m going to continue as if it doesn’t exist, like everyone else. Plus, everyone here is pretty cool and funny, and contributing, even Old Man ShittyD, from down the block!
Back to food and books.
P
Ditto, Mr. Paulio.
ARE THE CRITERIA OF AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT REALLY
“SUI GENERIS”?
“That, of course, is the difficulty. How does one rationally assess that which, by definition, resists rational scrutiny? Well, one doesn’t… In other words, the content of aesthetic judgement is, as the expression goes, ‘sui generis’ (that’s Latin for ‘of its own kind’).”
Montrealman, “What Is Beauty?” (03/23, 10:08AM)
But if meaning is the product of rational reflection – how else, one wonders, is meaning otherwise acquired? – then to say that the content of aesthetic judgement resists rational reflection since the criteria of such content are “sui generis” must lead to the conclusion that the concept of beauty is meaningless. Does this make sense?
Since the concepts of truth, morality and of reality itself inform and give direction to our lives, how can one conclude that the concept of beauty is meaningless? To say so is, in effect, to say that our lives themselves are meaningless. Assuming that this is not the case – perhaps an unsupportable assumption as we must keep all options open – the criteria of aesthetic judgement must, in some fashion, be amenable to rational reflection. But how? The issue appears to turn on what one means by “rational reflection”.
To be rational, according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, is to be “sensible, sane, moderate, not extreme, based on reasoning or reason, rejecting what is unreasonable or cannot be tested by reason in religion or custom.” Okay, but then the question is just bumped along and becomes one relating to reason itself. What does one do when one reasons? Well, the COD defines reasoning as that by which we “Form or reach conclusions by connected thought silent or expressed.” But does this help? At first sight no but, on reflection (!), maybe.
To form or reach conclusions by thought whether silent or expressed is called, in philosophy, “ideogenesis,” the manner in which ideas are initially formed or “born”. So how are our ideas born? They are born, if that is the word, by the process of conceptualization, the formation of concepts. Rather than as some empiricists maintain – I am reading one now – conceptualization is not just some sort of passive activity in which one just happens to mirror the external world . On the contrary, conceptualization is the distinctive activity of an active agent – the “conceptualizer” if you like – one who resides at the level of concepts, of ideas. In other words, we all live at the conceptual level. Perception itself, to say nothing of conception, does not consist simply of the passive observation of “brute facticity”, of simple objects or things-in-the-world, but rather consists of perceiving things as being of a particular sort. It is this “sort” which lies at the heart of conceptualization which bestows upon such objects or things their meaning. We are ultimately conceptual beings. Contrary to the claims of radical empiricism which equates measurable tangibility with reality, we live in the realm of ideas, of concepts. We swim in the conceptual world like the fish swims in the sea.
But the concept of beauty is just that, a concept. As such, it is amenable to rational reflection at the conceptual level but one which is not reducible to some ultimately basic formulation or some tangible and incorrigible substratum but which does mean that it is subject to rational reflection. As such, the concept of beauty has meaning for us and so the content of aesthetic judgements are not “sui generis” I previously maintained but rather a legitimate object of rational reflection.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
I made chicken earlier this year. The Frootique has half chickens that are “flattened”. i bbqued the Frootique ones. I whacked my home chickens with a frying pan(boneless/skinless) and seasoned them up and put them in the oven. They cook quicker and faster, and seem to even taste better. Has anyone her done that?
p
P I was looking at that deep fryer that uses a couple tablespoons of oil to deep fry your fries or whatever.Does anyone have one of those?Very curious how well it works.
I use a rotisserie to cook chickens.
I buy the roast chickens from Zobeys/Frooteek for sandwiches etc, and love them. As long as the oil fryer didn’t coat it in deep fried kinda oil, I would try it. I try to stay away from deep fried food. Bad for my stomach/good for sharting. lols
p
Apparently hOphra loves her deep fryer.
I try to stay away from oily food… it is bad to for the tummy.Moderation is the key.
Deep fryer – shudder! Wouldn’t have one in my house, thanks. Or a microwave because when I had one, I never used it – oven warmed foods taste so much better.
Right on, Boru, moderation in all things but extra on the weekends.
Interesting observations Montrealman, but is beauty really just a concept? Studies show facial symmetry is a reasonable and measurable product of physical beauty. Standards of beauty, however, are subjective to environmental factors. Those born in North America were taught to value thinness. In the east, they value the fat which reasonably indicates health and wealth. Sui Generis is a good way to describe the subjectiveness. Are you a lawyer?
RSVP
: no_fool (03/25, 1:27PM)
“Studies show that facial symmetry is a reasonable and measurable product of physical beauty.”
Well, I think you would have to say that one must be in possession of the concept of beauty prior to performing that measure to determine the possession of facial beauty. (What is “reasonable” in determining the possession of beauty is another matter, one which was the subject of my three posts.) In other words, one does not measure facial symmetry first first and then, as a result of that measurement, proclaim the possession of beauty afterwards but rather one must be in initial possession of the criteria of what constitutes facial symmetry as an attribute of beauty and then, on measuring the face in question, determine that it is indeed beautiful. In still other words, concept possession is prior to empirical measurement.
Yes, I agree that the concept of beauty is not rigid, that it may vary according to environmental conditions and that what, in fact, constitutes physical beauty itself is also fluid. Today’s thin figure, for example would not have been considered “beautiful” 400 years ago or, as you point out, in the east. But these are variables which fall under the general concept and does not alter the fact that prior possession of the concept of beauty governs what individual instances of that concept might look like.
No, I’m not a lawyer but I do have a Ph.D. in philosophy. I’m not sure whether that helps or not but it does incline one to a way of thinking about things, in this case the concept of beauty.
Thanks for your observations.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
The research studied attraction or attractiveness by showing subjects pictures of people with symmetrical facial features and people with jacked up features (no symmetry.. one eyebrow higher than the other, crooked nose, etc). Then the people voted on attractiveness. Those with the most symmetrical features were voted most attractive or “beautiful”. Therefore, there was a measurable constant component for beauty of the face.
Beauty of the body, however, is subjective and more difficult to measure because one would need to look at subjects’ various social, economic and geographical backgrounds to analyze those trends.
Right, I knew you were a philosopher. The latin legalese threw me off a bit.
RSVP
: no_fool (03/26, 6:44AM)
I think your research example – people voting for those with the most symmetrical features were voted the most beautiful – supports my claim that they (the voters) were in possession of one of the attributes of beauty – facial symmetry – prior to voting.
In other words, the “measurable constant component” simply confirms their possession of the concept. It didn’t “come out of nowhere.”
Thanks again for the comment.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!