I never quite understand the way society decides who is beautiful and who is not. But an open face and a capacity for kindness always feel like reliable signifiers to me.
Interpretation
Society's standards of beauty are often unclear, yet kindness and an open demeanor are true indicators of beauty.
Tilda Swinton's quote reflects on the subjective and often arbitrary nature of societal beauty standards. She suggests that instead of adhering to conventional definitions of beauty, one should look to the qualities of kindness and openness as more reliable markers of a person's true beauty and worth.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about beauty standards in a classroom setting.
I believe that all great art holds the power to dissolve things: time, distance, difference, injustice, alienation, despair. I believe that all great art holds the power to mend things: join, comfort, inspire hope in fellowship, reconcile us to our selves. Art is good for my soul precisely because it reminds me that we have souls in the first place.
I don't have a career, I have a life. I don't have an exterior judgment on what would be good or bad for me.
For a lot of actors, there's a sort of code of honor around playing something other than yourself, which I just don't have. I love feeling like I'm - I won't even say acting out, but performing in some deep seam of my consciousness or my family's consciousness or my past. That's really amusing to me.
If we don't accept loneliness, then capitalism wins hands down. Because capitalism is all about trying to convince people that you can distract yourself, that you can make it better. And it ain't true.
To me, we are the most beautiful creatures in the whole world. Black people. And I mean that in every sense.
If you are ever wondering, 'If I have thinner thighs and shinier hair will I be happier?' you just need to meet a group of models because they have the thinnest thighs and the shiniest hair and the coolest clothes and they're the most physically insecure women on the planet.
Beautiful people do not just happen
To be born woman is to know - although they do not speak of it at school - women must labor to be beautiful.
For my peculiar face, I look best when I look as though I'm not wearing make-up.
It was the sort of beauty you feel so deeply it becomes contagious and somehow makes you feel beautiful too.
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