Opposites attract..?

So today's lecture was on Structuralism and Binary Opposition. Sounds a lot more complex than it actually is, but that's always the way when you start throwing around all this academic terminology.
Despite feeling a little worse for wear, I found today's lecture and seminar really engaging.
Ivan made a really interesting point about the human fascination with symmetry. I'd heard the theories regarding symmetry and attractiveness, this lovely lady's usually exhibited as a fine example...

But yeah, basically he said it relates to the natural balance of the human form. Two arms, two legs, two halves of the brain etc. This got me thinking about balance and harmony and the significance it plays within film and media. Its like within say horror films, you need an equality between plot/narrative and action/gore in order to maintain the interest of the audience.

Also, he made a really interesting comment on human understanding and how we interpret what things are/ what they mean by firstly understanding what they are not. I don't really know how to elaborate on that concept, nevertheless I thought it was a valid point that I wanted to highlight.

We went on to consider the different oppositions that occur in everyday life such as light/dark, good/evil, happy/sad and then Ivan introduced the concept of the anomalous zone, or the zone of indeterminacy. That is to say that nothing is ever definite and more often these kinds of oppositions exist on a sliding scale, with the two polar extremes and a whole range of middle ground. This grey area that exists is what we more commonly associate with, because as Ivan stated, nobody is ever wholeheartedly at one end of the scale. Even the most unpleasant, bad natured of people perform simple selfless acts and are therefore not purely evil. To put it in Ivan's words 'even Myra Hindley petted a cat at some time in her life'.