“To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience.”

In this quote, I believe that Armstrong is stressing that beauty is often viewed in the wrong ways. People often see beauty as a measure of status. This could mean owning many fancy and materialistic items, fitting into society’s definition of beautiful, or taking part in high class activities that could be considered beautiful to some people. They see some things as beautiful just because it may make them seem better than others, they consider it a luxury, or its just for show. I believe that our modern definition of beauty is set by the rest of society. For example, there’s always a debate on how someone should look to be considered beautiful. This debate also applies for anything else that could be seen as beautiful. We often feel the need to compare our experiences to others to weigh how much the moment is really worth. If we feel that others won’t think it’s a beautiful or a moving experience, we may feel that it’s not worthy or important. At the same time, society likes to say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. I like to follow this quote as well, but most people are hypocritical of this statement. They say everyone has a different definition of what is beautiful while they judge things that they don’t see the beauty in. Artstrong stated “The only popular thought about beauty today, the one that has the widest currency in the world, is the idea that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. It’s a kindly notion. It seeks to make peace between people who have very different tastes.” It is good to acknowledge that everyone views things differently, but it is interesting to say that society refers to this ideology just “to make peace” with others that have different views. This quote shows that there is a real controversy revolving around the idea of beauty.