The Beauty Backlash
- Thread starter AmberEyes
- Start date
As a side note: Venus was not an average women.
Most people at those time periods were scrawny and malnurished, attaining the perfection of beauty then was hard for anyone but the wealthy.
Definitions of beauty tend to follow what looks like (even if not true) you are healthiest. In a time where obesity is common and constantly reinforced as a sign of ill health, it is no wonder perceptions for many have shifted to "Thin = fit = beautiful". Whether or not its true , its what goes into peoples minds.
Most people at those time periods were scrawny and malnurished, attaining the perfection of beauty then was hard for anyone but the wealthy.
Definitions of beauty tend to follow what looks like (even if not true) you are healthiest. In a time where obesity is common and constantly reinforced as a sign of ill health, it is no wonder perceptions for many have shifted to "Thin = fit = beautiful". Whether or not its true , its what goes into peoples minds.
Interesting thing about beauty, is that we are born with our ideas of what is and is not beautiful. I recall a study on beauty that used infants as test subjects. The test was to see whether infants would find the same people beautiful as adults do. The idea being that infants would have little or no external influences.
Anyway, the test proved conclusively that infants gravitated toward the people that were generally deemed beutiful by discerning adults. The study found that our ideas of beauty are not learned, but a condition of our being.
Interesting, huh?
I don't have conventional ideas about beauty in women, beauty is not just a surface condition I have found that paint and clothes are to often substituted for personality , humour and grace.
That's quite fascinating. I wonder if it's somehow related to an inherent recognition of the 'healthiest' members of the gene pool? I'd be very interested to read that study - do you by any chance have a link or a name of the organization that sponsored that study?
I don't recall. I actually watched it on television. CBC or Discovery or Discovery Health or something like that. I only watched with passing interest, so I didn't make mental notes on anything.
I'm sure if you searched Google you'd find the information. I do recall the study revealing that beauty has a lot to do with symmetry. So, there ya go.
I recall a similar flick and symetry was mentioned also discussed was the fact that men are responsible for building the feminine ideal and women the male ideal.
There's no real evidence to support that. The evidence actually indicates the opposite. Men, for example, have the idea that muscles equal good looks. Women, on the other hand, see overly muscular men as unattractive according to surveys. Yet, men persist in building muscles in their attempt to become attractive. So who is driving that? Is it women? Certainly not! It's men!
You can put the shoe on the other foot as well. Men certainly have their ideas on what women are more attractive than others in their personal opinions, but men are otherwise not particular. Men are like male dogs. They just want to fornicate and they'll jump at any opportunity. To suggest that the whole "female ideal" is in anyway male driven is patently absurd. And that's putting it mildly.
Have you ever talked to a female about other females? They're vicious! The pressure on females comes from other females. Period.