Example: She says he’s handsome, I say he’s average; such is our notion of beauty, which is in the eye of the beholder.
Origins: In various forms, 3rd century BC Greek, 16th century AD Shakespeare and Lyly, but not in its current form until the 19th century AD. (Source.)
Rewrites:
- in beauty, the beholder sets the gauge
- beauty is subject to the jaundiced eye
- glamour is an astigmatism true to the beholder
- fairness favors the beholder
- loveliness is the gift of the onlooker
- charm is an artifact of the beguiled
- grace is a spectator event
- elegance is a biased view
Discussion: This rewrite took me a while. The trick here
is to decide what to call “beauty” and then how to acknowledge its reception.
