O perspectivă constructivistă asupra frumuseţii

Abstract

Social sciences have tried to gain a better understanding of the subjectivity with regard to taste experience, especially in comparison with neo-kantian aesthetic, which considers the independent taste independently of external conditions. In other words, the sociological stake is to denaturalise the philosophical proof and to unveil the social foundations of judging taste. This study analyses Pierre Bourdieu’s perspective, which says that the beauty of the body depends on the social position of an individual (which represents that total volume of capital the individual disposes of: culturally, economically, socially), on the formation of the habitus (in the context of the individual’s social positioning, being a way of seeing the world) and of taste (the process through which the individual owns his choices and preferences, seen as being voluntary, but being rooted in material constraints). For the French sociologist, the choices with which we operate, the judgments we make about beautifulness and ugliness, are the by-product of our habitus, of our ways of thinking, of acting and of feeling, that we own through education and familial environment and which guides our choices in a non-conscious way. Although it is subjective, beauty is not only affected by taste or aesthetics, but equally depends on culture, and can be interpreted as a result of a social construct.