Everybody has their own definition of beauty, people define beauty the way they see it; for example, someone with a light skin tone can be viewed as beautiful to some, and the one with a darker complexion beautiful to others. Segun Garuba-Okelarin, a writer and blogger at Lotions Potions and Me, in her article, states that beauty comes from within—you are beauty and beauty is you. You are a masterpiece, a work of art. There is only one you, made up of your genes and life experiences. And there will never be another. According to Celia Celine Uwineza, an assistant secretary, beauty to her is what she can see with her eyes and what is appealing to her. “I am an honest person, I can’t tell a person that they are beautiful and yet it’s quite the opposite, which would be lying. Beauty to me features the structure of your face, the shape of your body, and if all those are appealing, that is when I conclude that a person is beautiful, and I always make sure to compliment them, but if they are not I simply say nothing to them,” she says. Based on Jean Felix Muyisenge’s experience, he came to the conclusion that beauty is about perception. And that beauty is a combination of how you look at someone, how you feel about someone, what you think of them, what you expect from them, how close you are, and the degree to which you understand them. “There are people I meet, and I am immediately stunned by how beautiful and attractive they look and I get an urge to be closer to them like ‘yeah these are the people to hang out with’. However, the closer I get the more the beauty that I once saw in them starts to fade, sometimes I ask myself what made me rate their appearance at all? And what has now changed? “There are also other people whose looks I wasn’t impressed by at first sight, but the more time we spent time together, the more I start discovering changes in their looks. They definitely get prettier as time goes by,” Muyisenge says. “Beauty is art, and art is unique in the eyes of an artist or the admirer, art requires calmness, beauty is not about the quantity it is about the quality because everything can change but the uniqueness of a person can’t be easily changed,” says Hyguette Tumukunde, a student. “Nowadays it’s very complicated in our society, many people get harassed for being ‘ugly’. I don’t agree with the narrative that beauty comes from physical appearance; to me beauty is the personality of someone, their character and their behaviour is what real beauty to me is,” she says. According to Garuba-Okelarin’s article, various cultures have different definitions and perceptions of beauty. From the Kayan tribes who believe that long giraffe-type necks are the ultimate sign of beauty and from age five, start priming their necks with heavy brass rings, to several parts of Asia where pale or white skin is often seen as a sign of beauty and affluence. Eden Mugabo, a digital artist, says that he does not believe in beauty standards and that standards are there to ruin perspectives. “How can someone who is not you determine if you are beautiful or not? We are all different, if a person believes that they are beautiful or that a certain number of things are what makes a person beautiful it should be their opinion. If I believe me to be beautiful regardless of what others think, it is my opinion and no one should try to change that. As an artist I take time to observe all kinds of people and they are all beautiful to me in their own way,” he says. In an article by Neerja Birla, an Indian philanthropist, educationist, and mental health activist, she says that there is no such thing as a perfect body. The concept of perfection is in itself a flawed concept, real beauty comes from within, and the most beautiful people in the world are those who have a good heart. The perception of beauty itself is wide and different, everyone has their own definition of beauty. What is yours?
