HOMO  PULCHRITUDUS : Beauty as a Product of Dominant Ideology and its Representations in Film

Abstract: This dissertation approaches the concept of beauty. Looking through the consistent efforts ofphilosophers and artists over the centuries to define and capture beauty, we come to the conclusionthat such a thing is impossible in its entirety. The rules and the standards that measure out thebeautiful. By being something that can be defined and measured, I come to the conclusion thatbeauty and the way we talk about it and recognize it, forms a set of rules that establish a system.This system helps the dominant beholding part of power to maintain its status. Nietzsche, throughhis genealogical method, managed to prove that perhaps the easiest way to define or try tounderstand a concept is to examine how it evolved in various historical contexts. Nietzsche realizedthat distinct historical periods give a variable conceptual results for a certain value. The onesregulating those standards of evaluation, are the relations of power within a society. Foucault,evolving Nietzsche's hypothesis and thought, finds that the respective systems of power are the onessetting the specifics of evaluation that better suit them in order to maintain control. Systemsaccording to Foucault define and set the limits for our actions and thoughts. The respective socialvalue systems set the limits for the beautiful in our case and its definitive characteristics, resultingto a series of variable beauty standards that have been dominant in different historical periods. Themost effective tool of the dominator is the creation of regimes of truth. Regimes of truth arehistorically specific mechanisms that produce discourses which function as true in particular timesand places. These systems of truth are being regulated through narratives. In our time screentechnology has achieved something unprecedented in the communication chronicles of humanity,the possibility of globalized broadcast. The emergence of cinema has managed to influence anddefine the standards of beauty with unprecedented results in pop culture.