Chapter 3 Chapter 2 The Aesthetics of the Sexes-1

Aesthetics is the guide to renew the relationship between the sexes Aestheticization is always the perception of human essence.It follows the law of aesthetics and combines the standards of the self to idealize human physical and spiritual attributes, making them the unity of desire and aesthetic intuition, the pleasure that consciousness can directly feel, and the source of aesthetic enjoyment.From this aspect, aestheticization is the harbinger of idealization, and idealization is the highest stage of development of aestheticization.  This all shows that people have the value direction of sexual pursuit, can use good and delicate methods well, are closely connected with people's emotional development and pursuit, and are related to people's culture.Aestheticization, therefore, has a special role as an element and factor of love.For lovers who are intoxicated in idealization, each other is the aesthetic image of each other.Both will continually discover in the other that characteristic of beauty which is unique in the other's personality and which is a mutually conquering force for both.It includes face, body shape, posture, moral character and temperament and so on.

However, we must first clarify a question, what is beauty? For many centuries, aesthetic thinkers have been arguing non-stop, trying to find a unified answer to this question.The definition of beauty has caused academic disagreements as early as the ancient Greek and Roman times.And the quarrels of disagreement, which seem to have progressed in every age with the progress of thought, have continued unceasingly.However, the problem has become more and more complicated so far, so that contemporary aestheticians have shelved it.There are various angles and ways to solve this problem, but they can be classified into several main categories according to similar and similar characteristics.

In order to define beauty, several problems need to be solved, which are the premise of beauty and the ideological thread of the development of beauty.According to its essence, is beauty objective or subjective, is it inherent in nature, or is it only produced on the basis of society? Are there objective measures, standards and norms for the existence of beauty? Beauty has practical benefits for people, Still useless? Plato believes that beauty is an objective concept that exists outside of human beings, and it is the supreme and eternal existence.That is to say, he believes that beauty is an objective concept, and all art forms, such as music and poetry, are derived from it. The inspiration of the poet is produced by its mysterious effect, so the poet can never know exactly where the inspiration comes from and its exact time. . "Beauty is eternal, without beginning and without end, without birth and death, without increase or decrease." ①Later, Plotin, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Winkelmann, Schelling and Hegel developed this notion.That is to say, beauty is purely objective.

A second, quite different view holds that beauty is a purely subjective thing.The root of beauty exists in the individual spirit of each person, and we should not seek the production of beauty in objective reality.British philosopher Hume wrote: "Beauty does not exist in the quality of things themselves, it only exists in the spiritual sense of intuitive things, and the beauty seen by each person's spirit is different." Kant Also pointed out: "Beauty is a purely sentimental thing." Lipps, Croce and others also played a similar point of view.This typical subjectivist epistemology makes the issue of beauty extremely complicated. Since everyone has different feelings and everyone is right, there is no standard for discussing issues together.Polarizing views of beauty.The same exists in the question of whether there are objective criteria or physical scales for beauty, which is equally confusing.Objectivists believe that beauty has fixed and absolute physical dimensions.Subjectivists, on the contrary, tirelessly and tirelessly search for the secrets of beauty amidst the instability and variety of individual tastes.

The philosophers of ancient Greece once regarded the scale of beauty as the relationship between quantity and contrast (Pythagorean school), the proportion of things and good symmetry (Aristotle) ​​and so on.Da Vinci talked about the so-called "golden section".The British painter and critic Hogarth believed that the symmetrical sinusoidal curve is "the line of beauty".Later estheticians increased the number of criteria that gave beauty a clear precision.They believe that the combination of various proportions of symmetry, appropriateness, rhythm, harmony, diversity, proportion and graceful form are the characteristics (factors) of beauty, so that beauty has measurable properties.  There are also opposing views on the relationship between beauty and benefit.Some aesthetes and philosophers take a pragmatic standpoint.As the name suggests, they see beauty as a manifestation of practical benefit, with a utilitarian purpose.Juyue's point of view is very representative in this regard.He believes that "the first step of beauty" is "beneficial", and that all human senses and basic functions of the human body, such as breathing, exercise, reproduction, and eating, "can have an aesthetic quality."Guyo believes that the warmth felt by the skin has the attribute of beauty, "more beautiful than the accidental chord of a few notes" is the feeling brought about by the cool touch.Finally, the pleasure of taste can also sometimes be of a "truly aesthetic quality".They not only give people physical enjoyment, but also bring people a sense of beauty.When you drink goat's milk, you experience "a perfect symphony of taste, not hearing."Smell is also a source of beauty.From Juyo's aesthetic point of view, we can deduce that the smell in the stable also confers a certain aesthetic pleasure, at least for some people. 

Other researchers diametrically opposed beauty to benefit, that is, the objective needs of human beings.According to Kant, man's aesthetic taste "only demands independence."This means that the aesthetic scale of consciousness is purely determined by subjective and internal factors, and differences in people's subjective ideas will make it difficult to grasp the problem.  The various opposing views mentioned above have some reasonable elements in the specific system of studying beauty, but none of them can convince everyone.Although Kant's contribution in this area is outstanding, people have increased the scope of cognition unconsciously.The world of mysterious beauty has a more complex structure and many aspects.It's hard to tell if it's subjective or objective.Beauty is an exquisite value of human culture, which always has an objective aspect and a subjective aspect.Man's viewing gives him aesthetic enjoyment, that is, things that can bring the highest level of satisfaction, the process of aesthetic production, and beautiful phenomena.As an advanced form of grasping reality, beauty is specially given to human consciousness.The typical features of beauty are the spiritual progress of society.

Beauty has spiritual value.But it never elicits a selfish attitude toward what is viewed.It does not arouse the pleasure of the taste and smell nerves, has no inevitable and direct effect on the human body, and does not give people superficial enjoyment.In this sense, beauty is useless to the human body, we cannot touch it, touch it.Aesthetic enjoyment is always spiritual and intellectual enjoyment.When we taste a fresh and juicy apple when we are not hungry, the beauty of the color and shape of the apple does not satisfy the physiological needs of the spleen and stomach.This beauty, so to speak, is "suffered" by the spirit that perceives it, and it gives a particularly pleasant, high-level satisfaction.Passy writes: "A thing of beauty makes man merely think of him, delights him, and arouses in him notions of his humanity, rather than lust and the pursuit of the satisfaction of physical needs."

The birth of the charm of true beauty is essentially a long-term social process.The tree of instinct is filled with the invisible roots of life force, which promote the continuous sublimation of the whole organism.The social phenomenon of beauty is the brilliant flower that blooms on the tree of instinct.The ideal biological standard of human beings gradually obeys the value direction determined by society, obeys the requirements of culture, and condenses into a whole. The aesthetic attitude focuses on love, which means a certain appropriateness, the manifestation of the reproduction and self-improvement of the species.The biological attributes of the individual, the most ideal development of the harmonious form of the body, necessarily become objects of aestheticization.Beauty always requires health, and various physiological reactions are carried out briskly and completely.

Cicero once said: "Elegance and beauty cannot be separated from health." Lorenzo Balla, an Italian Renaissance humanist, emphasized that health is a precious quality, a "gift of the body" gift of nature.He wrote: "Many healthy people are not beautiful, but it is unhealthy not to find a single beautiful person." The norms of beauty always have their own characteristics, and the Creator adds colors to all things.Hogarth wrote that "total beauty" is the general measure of every part of the body, great or small, most properly adapted to the fulfillment of its inner function.

It cannot be denied that beauty is closely related to the perfection and "scale" of biological species.The biological "species scale", for humans, it has two typical sexual distinctions.Feminine beauty is round and lustrous skin, ruddy and tender face, raised and elastic breasts, flexible and well-proportioned body, and proper coordination with the shape of the mother of life.When Ovid praised the glamorous Helen and the radiant Aphrodite, he expressed the ideal body of a beautiful woman in ancient times: soft and white, slender and moist, and well-proportioned.  Feminine softness is the form and perfect expression of vitality.In people's minds, female beauty not only has the beauty of harmonious forms created by nature, but also highlights the spiritual value of women.According to Juyo, she was supposed to be "tall, powerful, rosy-cheeked .

In terms of species and sexual perfection, male beauty has its own special standards.Genius works of art often depict such examples of beauty with great aesthetic vitality, such as Hector, Ajax, Odysseus, Achilles, Agamemnon, Onius, Roland and David. Wei et al.Men's aesthetic objects are often clear and distinct faces, harmonious and well-proportioned body shapes, round and strong muscles, broad and thick chests, strong physiques without losing grace, and strong and firm steps. Aestheticization always combines body and spirit, which is a good unity of physical quality and spiritual quality.Beauty always seems to emanate from the light in the body, as if it is the radiation of the spirit.Physiologically, it is connected with the higher impulse of human consciousness. According to ancient Greek myths and legends, the Cypriot sculptor Pygmalion carved a radiant statue of a beautiful woman with ivory—Galathea.He is so obsessed with his works, as if intoxicated, he often hugs the cold knees of the statue, and his only hope every day is that it can have fresh vitality.Aphrodite was deeply moved by Pygmalion's pain and persistence, so she infused Galatea with her soul.This story shows that if the body lacks the soul, the vivid beauty of human beings will not be perfect. Giordano Bruno said in a dialogue: "The soul is much more beautiful than the body can possibly have." Montaigne said in "Experiment" that the beauty of Venus, the symbol of love, is mainly "spiritual." light".In the case of certain defects in the body, the focus of aestheticization will naturally turn to the spiritual aspect.What women love most is not necessarily a man who has a strong body and a large body, but has spiritual strength (wisdom, bravery, willpower, etc.).Conversely, a man may also like a woman who does not have a "proportioned body", but is very gentle, considerate, and has sincere emotions.Social virtues can make up for natural defects to a certain extent, but physical perfection cannot make up for the lack of virtues.However, in terms of the aestheticization of love, this compensation obviously has a certain limit.Because, after all, aestheticization first focuses on the appearance of the object, that is, with the help of the original visual and auditory organs, a reliable perception and intuition of the body shape is formed. The creators of ancient Greek culture were also aware of this, and more importantly, clearly understood this profound and eternal "aesthetic" truth of the body.In the time of Phidias and Braxiteles there was an aesthetic attitude towards physical strength, nude features, and the harmonious appearance of man.At that time, it was very popular to achieve the ideal physique through physical exercise.Danner, a French historian and critic, wrote in "Philosophy of Art": "Almost all nations neighboring Greece are ashamed to be naked; only the Greeks don't mind taking off their clothes to participate in gladiatorial and walking races. In Even young Spartan women are almost naked when exercising." ① (See Danner's "Art Philosophy" People's Literature Publishing House, 1963, pp. 43, 44.) The era of the aestheticization of the human body does not degenerate to the point of sensuality, because natural nudity subject to the laws of beauty and the requirements of custom does not arouse erotic desires.On the other hand, men, especially because of women's semi-naked clothing, their carefully erotic style can generate powerful temptations that are difficult to resist.The French writer France has every reason to believe that the polytheistic ideal of nudity trampled by Christianity should continue to be respected: "Any clothes are in the final analysis one point, that is, the blasphemy and the greatest insult to the plump and wonderful human body." A beautiful female body will have an aesthetic effect.It dazzles men, stirs their natural emotions, even blinds their judgment, softens hard hearts, makes unexpected decisions, and goes beyond conventional norms.In his ancient poems, Slaveykov reproduced the scene of the ancient legend that the Athenian consul tried the crime of the geisha Flina."Kill her, kill her!" shouted the indignant crowd, and the stern judge had condemned her to death with certainty.And at this critical moment, Felina's defender, Gibberides, decisively took off the purple-red gown from her shoulders.The judge and the ebullient crowd were stunned like chickens suddenly stopped. They were stunned by the geisha's exquisite body. The divine form emanates in an instant Quiet and clear brilliance, The crowd was still roaring just now:  "Put this proud geisha to death!" All of a sudden, everyone was speechless, Indulge in the appreciation of beauty.  The human face is the most concentrated expression of beauty.It "condenses the influence of each body shape into a whole" and forms a profound personality characteristic.Facial expressions, unless tried to hide them, are generally a direct reflection of a person's feelings.A person's character is marked by a certain way through the face.It is the mirror of the human soul and the best organ for expressing one's thoughts and feelings and communicating with others.Therefore, it is a perfect whole of emotional changes and life charm, and a picture of the unity of physical and mental values. It is understandable, then, that the aestheticization inherent in love centers on the richness of the face and the vividness of the person.Therefore, the spiritual beauty of the faces of men and women should be placed above the beauty of the rest of the body. Human demeanor is an extremely important aesthetic feature expressed by human physiology.According to Winkelmann in "History of Ancient Art", grace is a person's "beautiful companion".This charming measure of perfection is especially evident in the free and easy countenance, the variety of expression, the graceful posture and characteristic manner.Lessing emphasizes that grace is a particular representation of what we call beauty.It's always "beauty in motion". Spencer pointed out that demeanor is a kind of effectiveness and appropriateness in physical performance.It shows the most necessary activities performed by the human body with the smallest force in a certain environment.Ju Yue believes that paying attention to demeanor is generally manifested as spending more effort.The harmony of motion is often connected with the happiest emotions of man, and grace is often one of the signs of love. Demeanor is undoubtedly the ideal movement made by the human body to maintain the balance of the individual with the environment and with others, and it has aesthetic significance.The aesthetic demeanor of the human body is precisely the harmonious and well-proportioned combination of all parts of the human body, and the perfect combination of the natural dexterity, vitality, ease and appropriateness of the human body's movements. This kind of movement should be the natural consumption of energy, not deliberately artificial It is an active adaptation to social and natural conditions. Aestheticization brings spiritual meaning to sexual desire and the corporeal form of human reproduction.Since ancient times, aestheticization has imperceptibly promoted the proper combination of biology and society, guiding people along the glorious path of beauty, so that they can be emotionally excited and cultivate aesthetic appreciation and joy.Immediate sensual allure and vital energy are illuminated by a spiritual radiance.The physical body itself becomes the display of the spirit.The higher a person's cultural accomplishment is, the more colorful his spiritual world will be, and the higher his aesthetic level of love will be. Men and women in love always demand each other from the perspective of aesthetic idealization, and look at each other through the prism of spiritual decoration.No matter what they see or feel, everything is good, beautiful, even divine in their partner.When Romeo met Julie at the Capulet's house, he exclaimed: "My love in the past was not true, and I met a peerless beauty tonight!" Vol., p. 27.) Many philosophers have discussed the significance of the connection between mutual aesthetics and erotic love.According to Feuerbach, "the object of love's pursuit can rise to the sky and return to the ground. That is to say, this object has both the supernatural perfection of God and the real perception of real people. Aestheticization is essentially It expresses the individuation of the image to a certain extent. Otherwise, mutual attraction between men and women would never be possible.” Feuerbach also wrote that “the beauty of nature is all concentrated, regardless of difference, and individualized in the Gender differences." Aestheticization is the negation of standardization.It is the awareness of the individuality of the figure that makes it a unique and irreplaceable ideal of love. Rationality, which uses logic as its ever-victorious weapon, is also helpless in the face of the mysterious imagination and blurred fantasy of love.The ecstatic lover ignores the boring logical and abstract field, but stubbornly maintains the feelings of the world, as well as specific, delicate and personalized objects. “We tend to conceive of each other in terms of certain characteristics, which we tend to exaggerate their true role, and, if necessary, to evade rational scrutiny,” writes Mauklier. “We need this exaggeration to justify our mere desires, And strive to give it a lofty meaning, to recognize all kinds of moral and ideological perfection, so as to convince oneself that the person one loves is unique and absolutely irreplaceable. This fact itself is the beginning of love, it is a kind of love. a kind of excessive sexual excitement, a subjective exaggeration of actual power. Without this voluntary conscious illusion and this unconscious self-motivation, there is no love, but only a sexual Desire." The existence of this illusion is reasonable, and the subjective "whitewashing" of the object one pursues is the accelerator of love. At the same time, lovers always have such feelings and psychology, that is, to modify and refine the objects they perceive with their own eyes according to the aesthetic reconstruction of the image of their loved ones.The mind tries to avoid everything that provokes unpleasant feelings and isolates that which threatens the whole of the feeling.And all the pleasant and hopeful things are transformed and gradually perfected in the magical aesthetic modification.In the novel, Balzac called the best emotion "the poem of the will", and the magical power refers to the true love, which "changes a person's appearance, makes his posture flexible and symmetrical, and makes his voice sweet and pleasant." .It creates a joyous mood on the most dramatic of occasions. Love makes people's life full of warmth and fragrance.Ibsen's gentle and beautiful heroine, Solveig, has long waited for her Peer Gynt.Peer Gynt asked her to forgive and confessed to her, but Solveig replied:  My dear, you are not wrong! You brought joy to my life. I praise our first tryst,  And this encounter on Holy Spirit Day.  Dostoevsky wrote that beauty can save the world.Its profound meaning and "reasonable core" need not be said any more. Love beautifies not only the image of the beloved, but everything around it: the house, the trees, the mountains, the pastures, the air, the sky, the moon, the stars—the whole universe.Just as the golden light gilded everything with magical charm, as if emitting light. The success of love makes people feel happy and refreshed, and frees people's spirit from the pain, depression, melancholy and loneliness in life.This state might as well be called youth, a reflection of a psychological state.In a beautiful song, Slaveikov describes the touching scene of people in this beautiful state: Youth is brighter than the sun A heart full of golden fantasies; The footsteps of youth are invincible,  Difficulties and obstacles can't stop you. How light and joyful life is in youth, Melancholy clouds can't cover your heart;  full of joy, so that there is no cold heart, As long as youth is always there, as long as youth does not go away!  The flourishing of love contributes to the joy of successful life.For centuries, love has enriched and developed the human aesthetic sense.Everything related to love has a mysterious and charming power, becoming tender, perfect and more beautiful. Love is the most delicate and fragile product of man's psychic life.For it, the stern face, the majestic and arbitrary gaze, and the vulgar and tedious daily life are the most fatal blows that corrupt the taste.Love seems to be tempered with extremely sophisticated spiritual "tools".In the nature of love one can feel the sparkle of diamonds and the clarity of porcelain.Minor carelessness is all previous efforts for naught.The Art of Loving Artistically and the Art of Loving In the "spiritual magic" of love, art plays a particularly important role.Without the beauty and vivid image of common feeling, love cannot exist, or love does not sprout at all.The emotional union of men and women takes the artistic aestheticization of reality as the medium.Love arises in an atmosphere of aesthetic transformation, and love and art have a certain identity. Art plays a civilizing role in social relations.It presents a world that embodies the ideal of beauty. In Goethe's words, art seems to be the master of a harmonious crystal palace. It can concentrate all "beauty and happiness", make people's hearts "more and more tender", "replace the joys of the body with the joys of the soul", and transform the power of human beings. Transformed into "virtue, charity and compassion". The interpenetration of art and love is not an accidental interweaving. Both are necessary for various feelings and different emotional tendencies.Love pursues the same aesthetic feeling as art, and pursues the dramatic color of feeling.On the other hand, since ancient times, the development of art has been reproducing love and praising its greatness and loyalty through different forms.Art always reflects human love.One of the important objects of artistic creation and aesthetic appreciation is love.Without the eulogy of love, art will remain in a dead form.Weininger and some ascetics believe that any value of beauty, if there is a direct or indirect participation of sexual desire, then the value of beauty actually ceases to exist.They believe that art despises the reproductive instinct of man, rejects the body, and roams only in the world of fantasy.According to Weininger, American and same-sex desires have nothing in common. Freud believed that sexual desire is the main content reflected in art.The drive to make art is driven by relations between the sexes, especially the inexplicable "sublimation" of the repressed "Oedipus complex."According to Freud, the artistic imagination is the ideological compensation of sexual desire, but not the specific compensation.Sexuality, which has not been realized in real life, is transformed into "sublimation" into fantasy, which promotes free artistic creation. It should be said that art is neither entirely based on sex as the only theme, nor is it incompatible with the theme of sex. Men and women in love usually show a particularly great interest in art appreciation and enjoy it.They see in art projections of the feelings of love which they seek to know and understand. One of the tasks of art is to awaken the dormant sense of beauty and stimulate potential life intentions and enthusiasm.Couples feel and realize that art inspires them viscerally and gives them great inner strength.That is why they are eager to share the emotional power of a work of art, to fully experience its beautiful atmosphere. Art refines human relationships, "moderates" or purifies erotic impulses, and ennobles, by means of the imagination, man's bodily desires and impulses. According to Hegel, the yearning and expectation for art, the aesthetic fiction created by imagination embodies human ideals, and is the resistance and negation of the mediocre "plain reality".It allows couples to communicate feelings, thoughts and feelings in an "elegant expression".The art world is a special world that showcases the true nature of a spirited human being. Objectively, art can transform people's feelings, desires and enthusiasm in the form of works in an extremely delicate way, making unrestrained impulses manifest as galloping imaginations and alleviating instinctive recklessness.Prompted by art, people control their inner primitive impulse in an aesthetic way. Vygotsky was right when he said that the power of "artistic emotion" is extraordinary, and that emotion never fails to demoralize and shock the mind.On the contrary, art places a unique barrier on human consciousness.Turn wild, blind sensuality into "smart emotion" and obtain "bright and noble lightness," that is, emotional enjoyment. Art flexibly embodies values ​​and norms in an artistic way.It is incompatible with blunt, rigid, and boring moral preaching, although it does embody the important content of morality.The function of art in this respect is magical. Men and women in love are often viewing works of art, while the brain is trying to create artistic images based on its own understanding.Lovers understand the value of art and pursue it in their realization.Appreciating and feeling its "creative beauty" (listening to music, watching paintings, reading literary and artistic works, etc.), they connect certain aesthetic values ​​with real life, not only experiencing beauty, but also transforming life.Make your own rational explanations for them.At the same time, they can also be the subject of artistic creation (dancing, singing, playing musical instruments, writing poetry, etc.).