Recent History

Greek and Roman artists have provided the basis and also set the standard by which male beauty in western civilization can be measured.

Accordingly, the ideal Roman male was defined as tall, muscular, long-legged, with a full head of thick hair, a high and wide forehead – a sign of intelligence – wide-set eyes, a strong brow-line, a strong perfect nose and profile, a smaller mouth, and a strong jaw line.

A combination of these characteristics would give rise to an impressive and commanding look depicting an aura of handsome masculinity.

The desirability of a beauty ideal may be a harbinger for racial oppression. Accordingly, there is a well established notion in American society that black features are less attractive or desirable than white features. The perception that all that was black was inherently ugly was highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalised racism, in which members of marginalised groups hold an oppressive view toward their own group, or start to believe in negative stereotypes of themselves.

It was for this reason that the “black is beautiful” cultural movement set out to dispute this idea. On the other hand, beauty ideals may also act as a trigger in order to promote racial unity, rather than disharmony.

Mixed race children, therefore, are sometimes perceived to be more attractive than their parents. In this respect, it has been suggested that their diverse genetic background may actually help them in the future.

Human Beauty

The determination that a person is “beautiful”, whether it relates to an individual or in a collective sense, is often based on the aspiration of inner beauty. Such an entity is associated with certain psychological factors. These may include such diverse attributes as personality, intelligence, grace, charm and elegance.

Another aspirational prerequisite is that of outer beauty.  This is represented as a manifestation of such physical factors as health, youthfulness, symmetry, averageness, and complexion.

A popular way to gauge the extent of outer beauty is by means of a beauty competition, such as the Miss Universe. The level of audience appreciation may be regarded as a measure of their definition of such beauty.

Conversely, inner beauty is more difficult to quantify, even though beauty competitions often claim to take this into consideration as well during the final judging.

A useful measure of physical beauty is to be found in the concept of averageness. It has been found that when pictures or photographs of human faces are assembled together to form a composite image, such an image moves progressively closer to the ideal image, and as such is perceived as being more attractive.

Such an outcome was initially recorded in 1883, when the cousin of Charles Darwin was using photographs to study the faces of vegetarians and criminals in order to determine if each group of individuals could be associated with specific facial characteristics. His work concluded that that the combined images were more attractive than those of any of the individual images.

Latter day researchers have replicated these experiments under more controlled conditions and have found that the computer generated, mathematical average of a series of faces scored higher than that of the individual faces.

Beauty – How To Succeed

Peter Radford writes Articles with Websites on a wide range of subjects. Beauty Articles cover History, Human, Society, Mathematics, Philosophy.

His Website contains a total of 75 Beauty Articles, written by others and carefully selected.

View his Website at: beauty-how-to-succeed.com

 View his Blog at: beauty-how-to-succeed.blogspot.com

Overview

The concept of Beauty can refer to a particular person, a special place, an object of interest or even the concept of an idea, all of which can provide a perceptual experience related to pleasure, meaning or satisfaction.

The study of beauty is intrinsically a part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology and culture. In the form of a cultural creation, beauty has become extremely commercialised.

The characterisation of an “ideal beauty” is represented in a person who is admired, or possesses features widely associated with beauty in a particular culture. There are many historical figures that have come to personify beauty itself, such as Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, and Marilyn Monroe. The subjective experience, which refers to the sensory buzz and awareness associated with a perceptive mind, related to “beauty”, often involves the interpretation of some entity as being as one and in harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being.

Beauty, as expressed by the popular saying, is in the eye of the beholder. In its most profound sense, beauty may engender a salient experience, which refers to a state or quality of standing out relative to neighboring objects, of positive reflection about the meaning of one’s own existence. Something that reveals or resounds with personal meaning may indeed be regarded as an object of beauty.

In classical Greek mythology, beauty was associated with the idea of “being of one’s hour”. Accordingly, a ripe fruit, which is “of its time”, was considered beautiful, whereas a young woman trying to appear older or an older woman trying to appear younger would not be considered beautiful.

History of Beauty

It was in the submissions of the ancient Greek philosophers, such as Pythagoras, that the earliest Western appreciation of beauty was to be found. The school, personified by Pythagoras, discovered that there was a strong connection between mathematics and beauty.

In particular, they noted that objects proportioned according to the golden rule, which can be expressed as a mathematical constant with a value of 1.618, seemed more attractive. In fact, this view of symmetrical structures that were in proportion is based on ancient Greek architecture.

It has been found that people whose facial features are symmetric and proportioned, in accordance with the golden ratio, are considered more attractive than those whose faces are not. Another important factor is that of symmetry since it suggests the absence of any hereditary or acquired defects. In fact, one of a number of aesthetic characteristics, including being average and that of youth, which are associated with the health, physical attractiveness and, ultimately, the beauty of a person, is associated with the concept of symmetry, especially that of facial features.

Even though there may be significant changes in image and fashion, it has been found that people’s interpretation of beauty may be defined in a number of ways. In this respect, eyes that are large and a complexion that is soft and clear, are especially desirable. Further, such features are most certainly considered beautiful, irrespective of gender, and certainly regardless of culture.

Interestingly, the features of a newborn baby are inherently attractive, and youthfulness is a timeless characteristic that is always associated with beauty. Early in child development, there is evidence to suggest that an affinity for beautiful faces emerges, and this definition of attractiveness is regardless of their gender or culture.

Peter Radford writes Articles with Websites on a range of subjects. Beauty Articles cover History, Human, Society, Mathematics, Philosophy. Website has many more.
View his Website at: beauty-how-to-succeed.com
View his Blog at: beauty-how-to-succeed.blogspot.com