In my essay I will be using an article from Discover magazine titled “The Math Behind Beauty: A Plastic Surgeon Computes the Perfect Face” by Bruno Maddox. The article is talks about how plastic surgeon, Dr. Stephen Marquardt, used a formula created in ancient Greece which is know as the “golden ratio” to come up with a formula for the most beautiful face. The ratio is used to formulate the most aesthetically pleasing structures. I will use this article to complicate my argument and draw inspiration from how it defines beauty as an objective measure to come up with my own opinions.
I will also be using two of my peer’s podcasts in my essay. I plan to use Tehya Casey’s podcast and Liam Darcy’s podcast. These presentations stood out to me because I thoroughly enjoyed the perspectives of each of the people interviewed in each podcast. Both interviewees used contrast as a way to describe beauty. In Tehya’s podcast, her aunt talks about how the New England coasts being raw and rustic make them even more beautiful. This made me think that beauty should or usually comes from something real and natural and is not often man-made. Liam’s podcast lead me to believe that beauty can come from bad situations and the process of growing from these experiences is what makes it beautiful.
The observation that both of those podcasts included contrast is an interesting one, and I didn’t notice it before. If integrating on of those into your essay doesn’t work, you could also consider using Syris’s interview with Elisha, as it also has kind of a theme of contrast.