NAPATSORN TREESAP

This is the reaction writing after reading Botticelli by Barry Yourgrau. It was written to submit the writing task in the Creative Writing Class at Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand, and I want to share it with all of you.

               “We were consumed by mirrors” is the sentence that touched right in my heart when I read Botticelli by Barry Yourgrau. I think people are obsessed with the beauty too much just like in the story that people carry mirrors with them.

               In my perspective, the beauty obsession can be like pestilence. We might not see it physically, but we can see it mentally. People concern how other people think about them. They concern what dress they should wear or what hairstyle they should have to impress others. Sometimes, I think that have they ever thought about impressing themselves, not just what people say? In my opinion, this can cause beauty standards in the society. Like we see in the present day, people follow the fashion or makeup trend, but for those who don’t follow the trend, they are likely to be judged. From what I have experienced, I had seen a group of friends who laughed at how a person dressed which I believe that people should respect each other. We don’t have to choose to do things the same because we all are different. Maybe because of this, it makes people follow each other without realizing it which in
fact, it’s not right or wrong to dress or do as they want.

               Since beauty standards occur, people seem to forget the meaning of the word “different.” They forgot that we’re all beautiful in our own way. They keep doing things and
having the same mindset that society expects them to do or have.

             I will give you the example here, in Thailand, we value a person who has white skin, slim, and shawty as a beauty. People are crazy about it too much. They even have
a clinic where you can have skin whitening injections!

         I believe that this problem will stay like this for a long time because it started since the education system. For instance, teachers in school are always searching for the beautiful
students to do the Thai dance rather than the students who have the passion or love for it. Even in the university, there’s the belle of the campus for being a public relation for the university which I believe that it’s useless because we can find a person who has a real passion and ability to be a competitor with each other by minds or perspective rather than by beautiful they are.

          It’s very ironic to see all of these happen because the world has developed to be better and better, but it’s humans’ minds that are still the same since the old time without developing their perspectives to idealize the differences.

        Moreover, in my opinion, the mirror is like the tool to see the reflection of ourselves which I think when we’re looking at the mirror, the picture we’ll get is ourselves, but in the story, it seems like they are all the same from the symptoms that they get whether physically or mentally, for they all think is the same that it’s a beauty.