The definition of beauty?

[cronus]

Is it in the eye of the beholder? or is it symmetry and fair proportions pleasing to the soul? a universal given? or unique and special?

[Jason]

A quality of character that is by definition appealing and/or pleasing in some fashion or form - that's the best I can do since beauty means different things in specific and differing contexts. It is almost assuredly subjective, but that's not to say that certain confluences of opinion do not regularly occur.

[mistermack]

While there are significant differences between individuals, human brains are actually remarkably alike similar to each other.
So of course, there is a lot of agreement when it comes to looks.
When it comes to faces, symmetry seems to be one of the things we are attracted to. And lack of blemishes. And smoothness of contour that comes from youth.

That's why we like cats. Their fur smooths out their outline. Cats with no fur are horrible.

[Tero]

It's just make up. Anybody can be a princess

[Hermit]

If Playboy Magazine had been published around 28,000 years ago, this might have been the "playmate of the month" or even year. Or millennium.



In the days when most peasants got sunburnt out in the fields and the nobility spent most of its time carousing in palaces and chateaus, poets waxed lyrical about women with skin as white as milk. Now most workers spend their time out of the sun in factories, offices, serving in shops, resataurants and so on, while the rich pranced about on their yachts, waterskiing or whatever. Onassis was not the only one who spent hours enhancing his good looks with the help of an infrared lamp. Tanning studios abound and you can get spray-on tan. The farm workers in the USA became disparagingly labelled as rednecks. As late as a century ago belts were advertised for sale the function of which were not to hold trousers up, but to make the wearer look more corpulent than he/she is. People we now regard as overweight were more desirable because they were apparently not in want of food.

As for symmetry, theree are a number of super-models with noticeably asymmetrical faces.

So, no, if there are any objective criteriafor beauty at all, they are dwarfed by subjective preferences which in turn are mainly formed by whatever social structure we live in.

And some traditions of course, which are not determined by objective criteria either.

[JimC]

This is a beaut thread, cobber!

[mistermack]

As for symmetry, theree are a number of super-models with noticeably asymmetrical faces.

Are super-models meant to be beautiful, then?

Didn't know that.

[Scot Dutchy]

As for symmetry, theree are a number of super-models with noticeably asymmetrical faces.

Are super-models meant to be beautiful, then?

Didn't know that.

If you find them beautiful then they are beautiful to you.