English 303 Section 98A November 6, 2009.

Feminine beauty as defined through the ages: Coming Full Circle.

Feminine beauty is something that has evolved throughout the centuries maintaining some of its "adaptive" characteristics whilst changing "maladaptive" ones. Some of that may be due to default biological influences, some, due to constantly progressing knowledge of what is "reproductively fit." Something is considered beautiful when "a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea" provides a "perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning or satisfaction." We are naturally attracted to beautiful things, and people, so it is clearly not a logical behaviour - i.e. we inherently know what is beautiful. This paper examines what has remained static about beauty, how beauty has changed throughout the ages, and what beauty means today. In terms of what has remained constant about beauty, there have been studies that show that there are powerful, age-old standards by which men find women beautiful. Humans have consistently considered youth, good complexion, good proportions and "normal average features" to be beautiful. An attraction to "normal common features" is called koinophilia, a natural mating strategy in any species. The idea of koinophilia was first coined when Johan H. Koeslag discovered that "the average of two human faces was more attractive than either of the faces from which that average was derived." Despite the tendency for beauty to be thought of as a visual thing, it is also used when describing inner traits such as personality, intelligence, grace, and charisma (which could incorporate body

language as well). Although such traits are harder to notice, the way they define inner beauty has changed very little over time. Like women, men express a desire for partners who are intelligent, kind, understanding, and healthy (Buss 1989a 17). Also, men look for women who share their interests and are similar to them. However, as the obstacles faced by early men and women differed, they understandably acquired a different set of mate preferences as evolutionary adaptations. These preferences begin with one of the most powerful cues to a womans reproductive capability - her age. In general, male attraction to youthful women has been a constant trend.
Our ancestors had two types of visual cues which proved a womans reproductive value. Firstly, features of physical appearance - full lips, clear, smooth skin, clear eyes, small lower jaw, symmetrical features, white teeth, lustrous hair, good muscle tone and body fat distribution, and a small waist-to-hip ratio. Secondly, features of behavior, such as a bouncy youthful gait, animated facial expressions, and a high energy level. All these cues suggested youth and health, and therefore fertility and reproductive capability. Symons suggests that these are the main criteria with which men judge beauty. (Symons, 83). Men who married young, healthy women had more success in producing healthy offspring than did those that married old, unhealthy women. Because of this, men want beautiful, young, sexually loyal women who will remain faithful until death to ensure that he will produce offspring and that the offspring will be his alone. This seems to be a universal preference. Mans idea of beauty seems to be a deeply ingrained evolved psychological mechanism that drives mating decisions. (Buss, 1999, 160).

Evolutionary reasons take us to an even more powerful set of expectations for universal standards of beauty. Standards for female beauty are well correlated with a woman's reproductive value. We all know that "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" however, it is probably more accurate to say beauty is in the adaptations of the beholder

(Symons, 81) where the beholder's eyes have been shaped by millions of years of evolution. Though much has remained static about beauty, much has changed over the ages as well. Beauty is different everywhere, depending on the social and cultural background as well as the contemporary view of what is beautiful. Presently the media, television, and magazines are the most influential guides in shaping what we consider to be beautiful. In the past, the way in which sculptures and artwork depicted women was considered to be the template of beauty. Throughout history there has always been an idealistic - albeit changing - picture of what made a woman beautiful. In Ancient Egypt, a beautiful woman had a much smaller build than beautiful women today. They were thinner, had flat stomachs, wide hips, and small waists. They often shaved their heads and all areas with hair on their body. The fashionable clothing of the time revealed these shaved areas. In Ancient Greece, the influence of mathematics played a large role. Sculptures and architecture were to be made symmetrical and proportional. The concept of ideal body proportions for both men and women was developed, most notably the divine ratio. The sculptures of beautiful women had subtle curves and were fairly slim. The beautiful body was symmetrical and well proportioned, reflecting harmony and balance in the natural world. The ideal image of beauty changed a great deal during the Middle Ages. During this time - as was reflected in paintings and artwork - a woman with a belly who appeared pregnant was considered beautiful. For the first time we saw cultures becoming more appreciative of voluptuous women and embracing curves. No doubt, the impact of the plague in Europe played a role in shaping this image, as a well-rounded woman was less

likely to be sick than one who was thin and emaciated. This appreciation would continue into the Renaissance and beyond. Women in paintings from the Renaissance would, in today's world, be considered overweight, but in that period they were fine the way they were. Women in this era would often pluck their hair to achieve high foreheads, which were considered sexy. Blondes were thought to have the most beautiful hair, causing many women to alter their hair color through the use of dyes. The complexion was to be very fair, so women often used white lead powder to achieve a pale glow. Eyelashes were to be kept short and thin - eyebrows, not overly pronounced. Cosmetics were never overdone as the renaissance ideal beauty was beauty as it was naturally intended. In the later Baroque period the beautiful woman was stout and heavy. During this period, a woman would have wanted to be even more voluptuous than in the renaissance. It was believed that a curvy woman was healthy, wealthy, and of high social status. In the Victorian Era, the ideal image of a beautiful woman was full figured and still on the heavier side. Corsets were often worn to make the waist appear very slender whilst emphasizing full buttocks and hips. Beauty in the nineteenth century has been volatile. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the ideal beautiful woman was slimmer and toned. Women became much more involved in sports and fitness. Physicians had begun to speak of ideal weight. However, this attraction to the hourglass figure had completely ceased by the mid 1920s and was replaced by the thin flapper. Beauty was no longer based on curves, but the opposite. After the first world war, the role of athletics had become even more prominent and

body fat was considered to be a sign of self indulgence, representing physical inefficiency. But by the 1950s, the curvy, voluptuous woman with a large bust was beginning to make a comeback. Marilyn Monroe, a size 16 woman, became the image of sexy. Women who had lost their curves during the flapper period were now working to rebuild them. In the 1960s, Twiggy was the most predominant model of the times. She was very tiny, thin, and shapeless. Many critics compared her body to that of a young male. Physical attractiveness was now represented by how thin a person was as well as how androgynous they appeared. The images of women in popular magazines such as Playboy were thinner than they had been in previous years. Contestants on Miss America also followed the same trend, weighing in much less than in previous years. Curvy, voluptuous models were replaced by thin, shapeless ones. . In the 1970s - 1990s, magazines played a large role in spreading ideas about what was beautiful to society. Articles were increasingly focused on weight loss and the ideal body image. In the 1990s the ideal body image was further altered with an even greater emphasis on fitness and muscular tone. For women to be considered beautiful, they not only needed to weight less, they had to incorporate fitness into their lifestyle. In addition to this, thin women were considered exceptionally beautiful if they somehow also had large firm breasts. Women in our day are exposed to high levels of media that depict what is a somewhat unrealistic portrayal of beauty. In the first place, women who are selected to be in advertising or to model for magazine covers are selected because of their exceptional attractiveness, which in itself states that they do not represent the norm. This is only to be expected, as attractive women are more persuasive advertisers. If a lovely, well-dressed

lady tells you to buy a certain brand of soup, you would pick that brand over one being marketed by an average looking man. Although an obvious example, "research has shown that speakers who [appear] credible, trustworthy, attractive, or likeable are more persuasive than those who are not." (Aronson et. al., 176) "America throughout the 1990s, in fact throughout the past century, has been and continues to be obsessed with the idea of beauty; especially the idea of the perfect feminine kind of beauty" (Bann, 1). It goes without saying that American global influence has also been great in the same time period, and that such an emphasis on beauty for women has been global and perseverant. Bann also goes on to mention the effects of the "mass media sale of cheap images of beautiful women" - "if beauty were simply an ephemeral ideal to which only those blessed by birth could attain, our society, and especially our young women, would not be at the heart of one of the most troublesome health crises our country has ever endured" (Bann, 1) In an effort to gain that perfect, slim, sexy body that is shown off on our television screens, magazine covers, and internet websites, health is a cheap price to pay. The incidence of anorexia nervosa in the general population is, for the most part, isolated to women, which is not surprising in the least - the social pressure to be beautiful, the current image of what is beautiful, the perceived (and real) benefits to being beautiful and attractive, coupled with the possibility of attaining it that we see all around us in mass media, are sufficient motivation. The average girl today being exposed to women who are beautiful enough to work in such media will clearly experience a sense of inferiority, as opposed to the average girl in ages past before the invention of the photograph, or the television, and more recently the internet highway, who was not so bombard with images of attractive women.

The effects of this media on body image are more pronounced in women, as society places greater emphasis on a woman's beauty than a man's. Hence, "men who are dissatisfied with their bodies are less likely to experience psychological suffering than are women who are dissatisfied with their bodies" (Markey et. al., 521) and "a startling proportion of dieters [are] normal or underweight by medical standards and [do] not need to lose weight." (Neumark-Sztainer et. al.) Men tend to have a more positive body image compared to women, believing that they are physically attractive when women tend to think they are not. Even in Markey's study, where "the majority of men in this sample tended to be overweight or obese (BMI > 25), they were more likely to be satisfied with their bodies than were the women (who were less likely to be overweight or obese)." (Markey at. al. 526). Being beautiful is that much more important to the woman's mental wellbeing than it is to the man's. Throughout history, beauty has evolved, seemingly from one end of the "weight spectrum" to the absolute polar opposite. In the last century alone, the ideal image has gone from beauty that was grounded in reality, to voluptuous women, to stick-thin girls and androgyny, to lean, athletic bodies in the 1970s, which in a slightly altered form continues to be what the media portrays as beautiful and ideal (Bann, 22). This "obsession" with beauty that has evolved together with our sense of fashion has given rise to numerous surgical procedures, weight-loss methods (some with more dubious results than others), and even some psychological disorders . It is the emergence of the stick thin image that is cause for great concern for the health of our women. The pressure to conform to current standards of beauty are enormous for women. Although the evident reality of the matter is that there are many attractive women and many different things that men find attractive in

women (i.e., beauty truly is in the eyes of the beholder), women still strive for beauty based on media portrayals even though it may not get them what they want in life, be it the type of man they want, or the type of attention they receive. Yet it is impossible and unrealistic to deny how important it is and always has been for a woman - A beautiful woman generally has a better life, which also applies to men although to a tremendously lesser extent.

Works Cited

Aronson, Elliot, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, and Beverly Fehr. Social Psychology. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada Inc., 2005. Bann, Erin E. "Effects of Media Representations of a Cultural Ideal of Feminine Beauty on Self Body Image in College-Aged Women: An Interactive Qualitative Analysis." Dissertations International. 15 Apr. 2001. 9 Nov. 2009 <http://proquest.umi.com> Buss, D.M. Evolutionary Psychology. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. . Sex Differences in Human Mate Preferences: Evolutionary Hypotheses Testing in 37 Cultures. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12 (1989a): 1-49.

Markey, Charlotte N., and Patrick M. Markey. "Relations between Body Image and Dieting Behaviours: An Examination of Gender Differences." Sex Roles 53.7/8 (8 Oct. 2005): 415-421 EBSCO. 10 Nov. 2009 <http://web.ebscohost.com> Neumark-Sztainer, D., N.E. Sherwood, S.A. French and R.W. Jeffrey. "Weight Behaviours among Adult Men and Women: Cause for Concern?" (1997): 672-676. Symons, D. Beauty is in the Adaptations of the Beholder: The Evolutionary Psychology of Human Female Sexual Attractiveness. Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture. Ed. P.R. Abramson, and S.D. Pinkerton. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. 251-279. Control

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