Beauty in a Utopia/Dystopia

In several Dystopian novels that I have read beauty becomes a defining marker between the “good” guys and the “bad” guys. For example in the Hunger Games those from the Capitol put their looks about everything else in their lives. They go to great extremes to have a certain look and completely change their skins, bodies, and hair in order to become beautiful. In other young adult series by Scott Westerfeld (Uglies, Pretties, Specials) people undergo a surgery upon coming of age which removes any and all imperfections and can drastically alter their appearance in virtually any way the person may desire so that they may become a “Pretty”. What does this say about dystopian life? Is beauty or the quest for beauty an important aspect of a dystopia? How does this compare to our society where we are starting to go to great lengths to maintain or create beauty? In a world where people get fat injections into their butt to create a bootilicious beauty or pec implants to bypass the gym are we really even that far from what Westerfeld or Suzanne Collins described in their dystopias?

5 thoughts on “Beauty in a Utopia/Dystopia

  1. I may be guilty of the same utopian fantasy. While creating my utopian opinions for our project I must say that I think of everyone as “beautiful”. Isn’t that what you get when you try and brainstorm perfection? I like to think of utopians as people that take great care of themselves because they are trying to fulfill their dreams. Dystopia deals with a lot of imperfections and unhealthy citizens could be one of them.

  2. But surely beauty is in the eye of the beholder (as is healthy). So what do we mean when we describe the inhabitants of utopia as beautiful? Is that potentially a way of capturing that they are: satisfied, doing work they love, not oppressed, feeling as if they are a part of something that is meaningful to them?

  3. In response to beauty being in the eye of the beholder, I believe we have to consider the lens from which the other is being viewed. In considring tribes where an elongated neck, toes tied and bound up early so they curl the rest of their lives, penises pieced and stretched with wieghts all sound absurd, painful and would be stared at on Phillip’s Street. They are however, considered adding to the attractiveness of the individual. Whether it be a tribal culture or even one in a nation as large as China. And we in turn would look out of place and unnattractive to them.

  4. I think we as a society make beauty an incredibly important part of society (as is evident from plastic surgery, cosmetics, hair, and fashion). Clearly, as this post points out, this emphasis on a person’s looks has tranferred into ideal socieities. However, in my vision of Utopia, I imagine people changing their outlooks on others. I imagine people as being respectful and appreciative of each others difference, realizing we each have something valuable to offer. In this way, having a particular religion, look, etc. would be far less important in terms of our opinions of others. I guess this is just one instance in which we understand that beauty matters to people in today’s world, but do we “fix this problem” by changing people’s appearance or their views?

  5. Reading this immediately made me think of an episode of the Twilight Zone, there are doctors that are trying to repair the face of a “hideously deformed” girl. They do surgery after surgery and explain that we are seeing the last chance she has before being sent to live with other people that are as ugly and unfortunate as she is. At the end of the episode they remove her bandages and she is a beautiful girl but they all scream in horror. Then for the first time we see the doctors and nurses and they are all “ugly” by our terms with pig noses and deformed faces. So thinking about that, I think beauty is looking like the other people in the society, blending in and being noticeably part of the community due to the physical look you have. We are conditioned to think of beauty a certain way, that is why I think it becomes so important in utopias and dystopias. It shows that everyone is in line with the goals and values of the community or if they do not follow the beauty norms it is a way of alienating themselves from the greater value set of the community. For instance, the people of District 12 in the Hunger Games don’t share the values of the Capitol. Even with more money I don’t believe they or any of the outer districts would dress to the norms of the Capitol. I think beauty becomes an important tool for utopian/ dystopian writers in this way.

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