Say "Cheese" or do the pose?

Aesthetics.

Pretty. Cool. Cute. Extravagant. Relaxing. Beautiful. Ugly.  Elegant. High-class. Cheap. Handsome.  Plain.

These are the words that most of us use when we describe or criticizing something. However if something beautiful for you it may not be that beautiful for others or if something is cool for them you might find it as something weird. Just like how the Western art is different from the Asian art or may be the same in some ways. For example in fashion, Koreans dress more to express unlike Americans who dresses more to impress. (That's how I see it.)

Source: http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2011/07/26/5/192/1922564/5d671d47b17decbf_saks2.preview/i/American-Designers-Celebrate-American-Fashion-Sakscom.jpg

Source: http://trendfashiondesign.com/2012/07/wonder-girls-fashion-style-2012-korean-girls-band-clothes/popular-wonder-girls-fashion-style-2012-korean-girls-band-trends/

They also differ in music. Most Asian songs have both sing and dance while the most Westerns’ have drama in their songs. In film, Westerns are fond of creating weird or what we call experimental films than Asians. 

“I don’t like KPop that much but I love to listen to Maroon 5 and One Direction. I don’t watch Glee or Gossip Girl but I am a fan of Full House, Princess Hours, Boys Over Flowers and other Korean drama. I used to text in jeje language, now I don’t like receiving text messages like that.”

My personal aesthetics? It is a mixture of what I get from the Western and Asian art. It is also affected by the society where I am in. My examples above are more of art and media. Perhaps because it is more close to me than artistic works in museums.   However I like something if it’s relevant to me, has meaning, can move me, can amaze me, or can even make me think or wonder. If I don’t get the point of a particular art then to me it’s just an expression of an artist that I don’t know of. Just like my examples above, I don’t like KPop (but does not mean that I hate it) because I don’t get the language of their song than Maroon 5 and One Direction’s. I like Korean dramas (Kdramas) more than Glee and Gossip Girl maybe because I used to watch Kdramas since grade six and in our province we did not have cable connections. Also the language is translated in Tagalog which I understand more than English. Lastly, I realized that when I say “So jeje”, it means so cheap or perhaps ugly. Unlike before I love to send text messages in jeje language. I think I started to stop texting in jeje language since first year college because I was influenced by my “high class environment” but later on I realized that Jejemon is actually an art because it is an expression of self.

I personally believe that aesthetics is not having standards. It is just a matter of how I can relate to the art.