Compelling Conversations: for Advanced students
28
APPRECIATING PHYSICAL BEAUTY
“Beauty is the promise of happiness.”
—Henri Beyle Stendhal (1783-1842), French writer
Sharing Views
Most people hope they are attractive to others. What is beautiful to you? Share your thoughts with your conversation partner. Feel free to skip questions or add questions. Have fun!
1. Who are some women that you find beautiful?
2. Who do you consider elegant? Who do you consider stylish?
3. Which woman is the closest to your ideal?
4. What three characteristics about her do you find most attractive?
5. Who are some men that you find handsome? Which is the closest to your ideal?
6. What three characteristics about him do you find most attractive?
7. Who are, or were, some “sex symbols” in your country? Why?
8. Can you name ugly celebrities or people? What makes them ugly?
9. Where can you go to watch people and “feast your eyes”?
10. Do you use cosmetics? If so, when did you start? Who taught you to use lipstick, mascara, etc?
11. Where do you shop when you want to buy something to make you look better? Why do you shop there?
12. What kinds of cosmetics are common for young women in your country?
13. Do you think women are more attractive when they wear makeup? How?
14. Do you read fashion or style magazines? Which ones? How have clothing fashions changed recently?
15. On a scale of 1-10, how important is physical attractiveness to you in a lover?
16. Do you believe in love at first sight? Why?
Vocabulary
Choose three words you know. Use each of the three in sentences with your partner.
balance | athletic | pierced | muscular | enhance
cosmetics | beard | irresistible | trim
plastic surgery | mustache
Proverbs
Read aloud each of the following proverbs. Then, choose one and explain it to your class partner.
Beauty attracts. Personality keeps.
Love is blind. —English
Even pockmarks may look like dimples. —Japanese
The eyes are the window of the soul. —English
In love, beauty counts for more than good advice. —Latin
Beauty is as Beauty does. —American
Inside every fat person is a thin person trying to get out. —American
The Conversation Continues
1. Do you notice women’s hairstyles? What does long hair say? Short hair? What styles do you prefer?
2. Do you pay attention to men’s hair? What does baldness convey to you? Long hair? What styles do you prefer?
3. Do you usually think beards look good? What about mustaches? Long sideburns?
4. Is it common in your homeland for women to have pierced ears? At what age?
5. Do you find permanent piercings or markings attractive? Do they enhance attractiveness?
6. How have notions of beauty changed in your native country in the last 50 years?
7. How are notions of beauty and fashion in your native country different from those in the U.S.?
8. How widespread is plastic surgery in your homeland? Is Botox popular? Why?
9. Do you know anyone who has ever been to a plastic surgeon? What operation was performed? Was the person more attractive to you?
10. In literature, who are some of the women of great physical beauty who were considered irresistible by men? Can you describe one from your native country?
11. Who are some men, in literature or myth, of great physical attractiveness that women found irresistible? Can you describe one?
12. What physical features do you appreciate, and find attractive, in a woman?
13. What makes a man attractive to you? What physical features do you appreciate?
14. What do you find beautiful in nature? What animals do you find beautiful?
15. What makes an object beautiful? Is it balance? Is it harmony? Is it color?
16. What makes someone beautiful? What is beauty?
Discussing Quotations
With the help of your conversation partner, decide what is meant by quotations #7 and #12. Do you agree with these ideas?
1. “Beauty’s but skin deep.”
—John Davies (1565-1618), English dramatist
2. “If eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American essayist
3. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,-that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
—John Keats (1795-1821), English poet
4. “Why should beauty be suspect?”
—Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), French artist
5. “If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have been changed.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French philosopher
6. “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in proportion.”
—Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher
7. “To men a man is but a mind. Who cares what face he carries or what form he wears? But woman’s body is the woman.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), American writer
8. “There’s so much to say, but your eyes keep interrupting me.”
—Christopher Morley (1890-1957), American writer
9. “Beauty and folly are generally companions.”
—Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658), Spanish philosopher
10. “I’m a very physical person. People don’t credit me with much of a brain, so why should I disillusion them?”
—Sylvester Stallone (1946-), film star and director
11. “I require only three things of a man. He must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), American writer
12. “Beautiful bodies and beautiful personalities rarely go together.”
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), psychologist
13. “Just standing around looking beautiful is so boring, really boring, so boring.”
—Michelle Pfeiffer (1957-), actress
On Your Own
Cut out a picture from a magazine of a female or male whom you find attractive. Write four sentences that express your opinions on what makes that person beautiful or handsome.