What is beauty?

     Who is the most beautiful woman you can think of? Although "inner beauty" is synonymous with aesthetic beauty to some (mostly ugly) people, I'm not talking about that. Who do you consider to be the sexiest woman alive? Can you pinpoint why you feel that way?

     The concept of physical beauty is infatuating to me. What makes our brain process and judge the physical characteristics of another human? How did the idea of beauty even come into existence? How can it be defined so differently from generation to generation, or even human to human?

THE SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION 

     Science tells us that symmetry is what the human eye is attracted to. Preference for symmetry is a trait that is common among highly evolved animals. We perceive a symmetric individual as more attractive, because symmetry is equated with a strong immune system. Scientifically speaking, beauty is defined by healthy genes and the likelihood that their offspring will survive. Likewise, males tend to find beauty in a woman with small facial features, defined cheekbones, and large eyes, and a vertically aligned chin and forehead. This "baby face" trait suggests that a woman has more long-term mating potential and reproductive health. 

     Now take a minute to chew on that.

   As odd as all of this may seem, Its easy to make since of. Our initial response to someone is not based on the reasoning we use think we use. Its primal, and at the same time, highly evolved. 

BEAUTY IN HISTORY

     

     Does this woman look familiar to you? Maybe she looks like your Aunt Jenny or a woman you would find smoking a Black & Mild outside of Walmart. Any way you wish to look at it, this woman is not beautiful. Or is she? 

     This is Wilma (yes, like Wilma Flintstone). She was reconstructed from a set of cannibalized 43,000-year-old female Homo Neanderthalis bones. We can not know for sure, but many are wondering if this Neanderthal, with fair skin, freckles and red hair, was the idea of beauty in her day. With that in mind this shot is mesmerizing. I find it creepy. Like, worms in my tummy creepy. To think that her features would have been considered small and dainty compared to other females of her race is mind blowing to me. Although we, as Homo Sapiens are a different species, we come from the same Genus and studies show that we did in fact walk the earth together at one point. Would Wilma have been considered attractive to early Human Beings?

     Women have always taken extreme measures to be fashionable and therefore more attractive, but I can hardly think of a more extreme time period for beauty than Elizabethan England. 

     By todays standards, Queen Elizabeth I of England can hardly be considered a beauty. However, in her day, she set the standard for it. Women in her day would go to great lengths to look like this great monarch. They would use make up made from white led and vinegar to appear paler (considered a sign of dignity). They would use Belladonna (a toxic perennial herb) to dilate their pupils, to give them the appearance of large, dark eyes. And GET THIS; since fair colored hair was considered beautiful women would go to great lengths to bleach theirs, including rinsing it with urine! (That is if they didn't just shave their head and wear a wig.)

TODAY

     While today we criticize for the great lengths women go to for beauty, we must realize that such lengths define our past and undoubtedly our future. Beauty is not a mythical entity, its real and primitive. As the world's cultures mesh into one and races become less distinct, our Ideal beauty changes. These two women are both legendary American beauties, the most revered of their day. The difference is only 50 years. What will be beautiful 50 years from now? Or even next year? We won't know until it happens. 

In the meantime, I still want a nose job. 

-Mariah