Aussi loin que la philosophie a existé, l’esthétique fut sa compagne. Guy Mettan en organisant sur le thème de la beauté les troisièmes rencontres internationales de la philosophie francophone à Saint Maurice ne l’a pas oublié. Il m’a été donné de réfléchir sur “Beauté des femmes, beauté des hommes, différences et ressemblances” – une opportunité de revisiter une question que j’avais négligée depuis mon célèbre livre “Les Hommes, ce qui les rend beaux” qui a fait de moi la spécialiste à laquelle on a désormais recours chaque fois qu’il faut commenter les splendeurs d’un Federer ou les attraits d’un Chabal…
Beauty is a byproduct of intelligence: cette phrase que je ferai mienne est en fait une invention brevetée. Je ne sais par qui, Platon ou Hegel ou encore quelque société de marketing ? Platon qui dans le Banquet propose déjà que c’est par la beauté des corps que l’on peut accéder à la beauté des sciences puis finalement à «l’essence même du beau», Hegel qui affirme que «la beauté dans la nature n’apparaît que comme un reflet de la beauté dans l’esprit » et que «c’est par l’idée du beau que nous devons commencer...” ou la société de marketing qui a rajoute un TM (Trade Mark) possessif à cette magnifique maxime?
Quoiqu’il en soit, il m’apparaît qu’il nous faut plus que jamais militer pour la beauté de l’esprit comme valeur supérieure, comme valeur qui nous rassemble, et affirmer qu’entre la beauté des femmes et la beauté des hommes, la ressemblance la plus importante est celle de la beauté des idées.
Cette affirmation est la seule manière de nous libérer des critères sociaux de beauté, parmi lesquels le plus puissant est aujourd’hui celui de la survie de l’espèce. Notre société, prise de panique devant la diminution de la natalité, modèle le regard et impose sa vision du beau: sa propre survie. Alors que l’individu désire toujours l’Autre, l’espèce, elle, ne désire rien d’autre qu’elle-même. Tous les critères de beauté, largement inconscients d’ailleurs, rejoignent aujourd’hui les critères de fertilité. La jeunesse est belle parce qu’elle est fertile. La santé est devenue un critère de beauté parce qu’elle augmente les chances de fertilité et les anorexiques sont désormais chassées des temples de beauté - les podiums - où elles étaient reines. Le ratio taille/hanche de 0,7 (d’une beauté incontestée) correspond bel et bien aux réserves de graisses idéales nécessaires à la gestation et les premiers mois de l’allaitement. On dira volontiers d’un homme de plus de 60 ans qu’il est beau – il est encore fertile – mais on n’entendra que rarement dire – «quelle belle femme!» d’une femme du même âge. Les jeunes femmes qui préfèrent les hommes âgés (et plus souvent riches) sont mues par la même nécessité sociale, et non pas par un matérialisme qui leur est souvent reproché à tort: un homme âgé et riche offre tout simplement davantage de garanties d’assurer non seulement la survie de l’espèce mais la pérennité de sa lignée… et c’est ainsi que les bourses pleines rendent les hommes beaux !
Et pourtant, j’aimerais penser que nous sommes désormais arrivés à un degré de civilisation qui nous permette de nous dégager des lois imposées dans le domaine de la beauté. A l’époque où beau était synonyme d’élancé et de blond, «être beau» - dit Laurent Wolf – «me paraissait un impératif extérieur, un ordre de marche, une contrainte non négociée, dont il était urgent de se libérer... Les nazis avaient une certaine idée de la beauté et voulaient construire un monde rigide débarrassé de ce qui leur était étranger… Ce fut la mort». La société d’aujourd’hui, elle, semble vouloir nous imposer la vie. C’est mieux certes – mais cela reste une contrainte. La beauté des idées, elle, ne saurait être que libre. La beauté en toute liberté, sans modèle, sans marche à suivre, sans critère de bon goût, est un produit dérivé de l’intelligence. Pour les femmes comme pour les hommes.
Publié dans les Quotidiennes, le 26 septembre 2007
mercredi 26 septembre 2007
samedi 1 septembre 2007
Letter from Switzerland
Je suis probablement la seule genevoise à avoir une colonne mensuelle (Letter from Switzerland) dans un magazine du Koweit : Rabaa (les lettre de son prénom sont les mêmes que dans le mien, a, b, r) est mon amie, et rédactrice en chef de ce féminin glamour.
Dearest Rabaa
I would like to share with you a few thoughts about beauty. Indeed, I have been invited at the 3rd International Symposium of French Philosophy, the theme of which was beauty. I gave a talk entitled “Beauty of men, beauty of women, similarities and differences”, and also had the opportunity to attend many other intersting talks. The beauty of ideas was everywhere… and indeed, I proposed that one similarity between beauty of women and beauty of men was the beauty of their ideas, their values, their intelligence. Women and men have the same ability to create concepts, to invent new ideas, to follow their own values. Another similarity is that it has been shown that men spend as much time in front of their mirror as women – with the only distinction that they close the door to do so – at least according to a famous plastic surgeon in New York, who treats both men and women… funny, isn’t it ?
What about the differences then? I think that overall, men enjoy much more freedom with respect to their approach to beauty than we do as women. We appear to be more dependent upon the social criteria which define, in your culture as well as in mine, what is beautiful and what is not. And indeed, depending on the studies, scientific reports indicate that only between 4 and 16% of women feel they are beautiful. In contrast, all the men I have interviewed (you certainly remember the book I published two years ago on the beauty of men) – yes, all of them thought they were indeed beautiful. And if not gorgeous, they certainly had at least one particular part of their face or body they thought was outstanding. For these men, beauty is without normative criteria, it’s individual and free. We should all be free alike…
Another very touching aspect we discussed during this symposium was the beauty of handicapped people. I don’t remember whether I told you that I support in Geneva an organisation called Handiculture, which every year elects a Miss Handicap. When I first met the people who started this association, I was impressed by their aims: they want handicapped women not only to be integrated in the society, but to be beautiful and proud. I just published a few months ago my latest book on the subject of Handicap, of which the last chapter is dedicated to Handicap and Beauty. I mention among other exceptional and exceptionally beautiful handicapped women, Brenda Costa, the gorgeous model for the perfume Shalimar by Guerlain. She also wrote a book about her own story, entitled beauty of Silence – because indeed, she was born death – which does not prevent her to start her book with this words: I have always been lucky. And here are the comments of Alison Lapper, the handicapped woman who was the model, handicapped and pregnant, for the beautiful statue by Marc Quinn you may admire in Trafalgar Square in London: “I regard this statue as a modern tribute to feminity, disability and motherhood. The sculpture makes the ultimate statement about disability: that it can be as beautiful and valid form of being as any mother “ – as any other did I add.
I admire the freedom handicapped people are able to take today towards their own beauty. We should go the same path and be at least as good…. And if you and your readers were interested in providing some support to Handiculture, that would be fabulous, even more so that handicapped women from Arabic countries are many in the next contest for Miss Handicap !
In the meantime, I wish you all the best of freedom and beauty, to you, your daughters, your family and all your readers!
With love Forever
Barbara
Publié dans Bariqaldana, septembre 07
Dearest Rabaa
I would like to share with you a few thoughts about beauty. Indeed, I have been invited at the 3rd International Symposium of French Philosophy, the theme of which was beauty. I gave a talk entitled “Beauty of men, beauty of women, similarities and differences”, and also had the opportunity to attend many other intersting talks. The beauty of ideas was everywhere… and indeed, I proposed that one similarity between beauty of women and beauty of men was the beauty of their ideas, their values, their intelligence. Women and men have the same ability to create concepts, to invent new ideas, to follow their own values. Another similarity is that it has been shown that men spend as much time in front of their mirror as women – with the only distinction that they close the door to do so – at least according to a famous plastic surgeon in New York, who treats both men and women… funny, isn’t it ?
What about the differences then? I think that overall, men enjoy much more freedom with respect to their approach to beauty than we do as women. We appear to be more dependent upon the social criteria which define, in your culture as well as in mine, what is beautiful and what is not. And indeed, depending on the studies, scientific reports indicate that only between 4 and 16% of women feel they are beautiful. In contrast, all the men I have interviewed (you certainly remember the book I published two years ago on the beauty of men) – yes, all of them thought they were indeed beautiful. And if not gorgeous, they certainly had at least one particular part of their face or body they thought was outstanding. For these men, beauty is without normative criteria, it’s individual and free. We should all be free alike…
Another very touching aspect we discussed during this symposium was the beauty of handicapped people. I don’t remember whether I told you that I support in Geneva an organisation called Handiculture, which every year elects a Miss Handicap. When I first met the people who started this association, I was impressed by their aims: they want handicapped women not only to be integrated in the society, but to be beautiful and proud. I just published a few months ago my latest book on the subject of Handicap, of which the last chapter is dedicated to Handicap and Beauty. I mention among other exceptional and exceptionally beautiful handicapped women, Brenda Costa, the gorgeous model for the perfume Shalimar by Guerlain. She also wrote a book about her own story, entitled beauty of Silence – because indeed, she was born death – which does not prevent her to start her book with this words: I have always been lucky. And here are the comments of Alison Lapper, the handicapped woman who was the model, handicapped and pregnant, for the beautiful statue by Marc Quinn you may admire in Trafalgar Square in London: “I regard this statue as a modern tribute to feminity, disability and motherhood. The sculpture makes the ultimate statement about disability: that it can be as beautiful and valid form of being as any mother “ – as any other did I add.
I admire the freedom handicapped people are able to take today towards their own beauty. We should go the same path and be at least as good…. And if you and your readers were interested in providing some support to Handiculture, that would be fabulous, even more so that handicapped women from Arabic countries are many in the next contest for Miss Handicap !
In the meantime, I wish you all the best of freedom and beauty, to you, your daughters, your family and all your readers!
With love Forever
Barbara
Publié dans Bariqaldana, septembre 07
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