Student Question
How does Huxley describe the impact of the "beauty cult" in postwar America, its relation to health, and its effects on individual beauty?
Quick answer:
Huxley describes the "beauty cult" in postwar America as promoting artificial beauty, leading women to look younger but not necessarily healthier. He argues that true beauty arises from moral, spiritual, and psychological well-being rather than external products. Huxley suggests that prioritizing artificial beauty over genuine health can disrupt natural harmonies and cause social imbalance.
In Aldous Huxley's essay "The Beauty Industry," he talks about how the beauty industry is the only sector which stayed buoyant throughout the depression of the 1930s and how women increasingly use beauty products to make themselves look younger. One impact of this "beauty cult" is that women increasingly look younger—like their daughters, even.
Huxley believes that beauty comes from the inside, rather than the outside, and that no amount of makeup and creams (which he calls artificial beauty) can make people more beautiful. He talks about the ideal of moral, spiritual, and psychological beauty, all of which are more important and more beneficial than smothering a face with cream. A woman's health is therefore crucial to determining her beauty. Huxley thinks that by trying to cheat the rules of nature, people will disrupt existing harmonies, which will lead to social imbalance.
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