Today we’ll step on a very controversial territory – the essence of beauty standards.
Why controversial? This is because beauty is really a relative concept. Its standards depend on a variety of factors, including the natural conditions and the economic situation of the society.
Historical overview
For instance in India, plus-size ladies are considered true beauties. It’s just because the girls there are fit and slim mainly since they are simply malnourished.
In general, this principle of female attractiveness is quite famous and was widespread a long long time ago.
Let’s start here – the Stone Age. In those distant times, corpulent ladies were obviously in fashion. This is evidenced by the ancient figurines of Venus: large, beautiful women with giant breasts, belly and thighs.
A slightly different situation developed in ancient Egypt, where the population did not suffer from a lack of food. Therefore, the beauties on the frescoes are not fat, but quite narrow-hipped, with long legs and small breasts.Perhaps that is why we are so pleased to look at the ancient Egyptian drawings – they remind us of the modern beauties we constantly see on the covers of fashion magazines.
However, due to certain religious beliefs, in the Middle Ages flamboyant women were called witches, while modest forms, covered with heavy fabrics, were considered beautiful.
But is it possible that a human individual, such a complex mechanism, can be guided only by simple biological principles or religious ideas in defining beauty? It’s hardly so. Indeed, even during the 20th century, the concept of attractiveness has changed very much.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the standard of a beautiful girl was a tall, thin lady with a narrow waist, large breasts and wide hips.
This image was replaced by women of the 1920s. They began to wear short dresses with a low waist in a straight silhouette. The fashion was thinness, short haircuts, bright makeup, and a cigarette complemented the image. These women were confident and were on par with men.
Blond beauty and the object of desires of millions of men, Marilyn Monroe conquered the whole world and became a beauty icon of the 1950s. Lush hairstyle, snow-white skin, and seductive, voluminous forms could not leave anyone indifferent.
However, today the forms of Marilyn Monroe do not seem as popular as fit bodies of some models. Everything around us is changing, including our perception of beauty. Everyone measures it differently.
The inner constituent
But does beauty stop at looks only? Not really. Many scientists and psychologists believe that beauty is an emotional concept. When a mother looks at her child he seems to her the most beautiful in the world, and not because it really is, but because a woman looks at her baby with love. People in love are also wonderful for each other.
There are people who are not very beautiful outwardly, but who have some kind of pleasant and light aura emanating from them. It can be kindness, positivity, good communication skills, charizma. But whatever it is, after a few moments spent next to such a person one completely forgets about his imperfections and starts considering him more and more attractive.
From indian gay chatrooms in the USA to Chinese dating platforms – everyone would agree that without inner beauty, the outer does not play a significant role. And everyone understands that now it is easy to simply tap on our selfies on the screen several times and get no wrinkles, even complexion, straight nose and so on.
That’s why the first sympathy arising from the photo does not mean anything yet. To really become interested in a person, you need to find out what kind of interlocutor he is, what his attitude to the main agendas is, what he loves and dislikes. And then our consciousness begins to understand whether we consider this person really beautiful or not.
