The Concept of Beauty, Face Facts; Personal Taste or Universal Rules?

 

Dr Stephen Marquadt has created the layouts for the 'ideal' face, the 'golden ration' which makes someone perfect, physiognomically. 

 

DR. MARQUARDT:  "A famous platitude is that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", and to a great extent that is true. A man may find a Ferrari automobile extraordinarily beautiful, where a woman might find it very unattractive; a woman might find a particular dress very beautiful, where a man may have totally ambivalent feelings about it. On the other hand, when it comes to facial attractiveness, there does seem to be a universal perception of characteristics of the form or shape of the face that are found attractive, and this attractive-face concept seems to be not only universal within one culture, but universally cross-cultural, regardless of other parameters, including birth rank, age, sex, etc. This universal perception of attractiveness appears to have a biological basis."

 

JCO (2002) Dr. Stephen Marquadt Interview. [online] Available from: http://www.jco-online.com/archive/article-view.aspx?year=2002&month=6&articlenum=339 [Accessed: February 6th 2015]  

 

- Has this idea of perfected been born from cultural conditioning and ideals? What roles do elements like sexuality, aeshetics and social appeal play ? Is this golden ratio the result of purely westernised ideals? Moreover if it is, then it certainly isn't applicable to a large percentage of the world.

 

Bishonen

- A Japanese cultural ideal of beauty, translated means "beautiful youth boy'

- A very androgynous look which transcends the boundary of gender

- Is heavily influenced and inspired by anime 

IMAGES: GACKT, MANA FROM MOIX DIX MOI AND HOWL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bleaching

- When darker skinned people use products to make their skin lighter, the practice is called bleaching (as some people actually use bleach in the hope that their skin will lighten.)

- Its an attempt to create a more European look

- In places like Asia, Africa and Jamaica, casting systems are popular - the lighter the skin is, the better you are perceived in this hierachy. 

- High SPFs are worn a lot, some people take bleach baths and lightening creams are popular.

- Looking at Bollywood stars, lighter skinnned people tend to be favoured for roles, with few actors or actresses sporting a typically dark Indian skintone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surma/Mursi

- In etheopia the women cut their lips and expant them by wearing lip plates. The bigger the plate the stronger and more self-esteem the woman is perceived to have. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kayan Tribe

- Women have brass neck coils from a young age

- the more slender and thinner then neck, the better and more beautiful the woman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Culture is being driven by image.

Can a universal rule stand in good stead against and endless number of ideals influenced by cultural definitions?

 

Cameron Russell:

-Image is powerful and superficial

- I won a genetic lottery

- A legacy of tall slender figures, white skin and femininity

- Out of 677 models at fashion week, 4% were non-white

- The images of me on billboards are not pictures of me,

they are constructions

- Black people will be frisked more. Racial profiling

 

 

 

STATS:

- In 2008 a black model was used on the cover of Vogue.

This didn't re-occur until 2011

- In 2001 Vogue published the front cover: "The Arrival of

The Asian Supermodel" and not one black or asian model 

was used in the image

- The Chanel 2011 catwalk used no off-colour models

- Jordan Dunn: " People say if you have a black face on the cover of a magazine it won't sell"

 

Do you think there is a clear discrimination within the fashion industry towards models of a non-white ethinicity? These results certainly  suggest so.

 

TED TALK; MUA Eva DeVirgilis:

- women constantly apologise to her about the way they look

- pleases our primordial senses

- Is it going to take illness or death to make us appreciate what we have??

- Should beauty perceptions be based on face value?

- We all strive for symmetry but do we have the right (or the need) to correct out imperfections?

- What defines beauty within cultural identities?

 

 

Relating to Theory

 

After researching about the social construct of beauty, it seems evident that we have had a negative view of 'ugly' people for centuries.

 

 "In the sixth century BCE, Theognis and Pindar used the term kalókagatheia to indicate an intrinsic relation between physical beauty and ethical perfection."   (Wegenstein, Bernadette. 2012, page 22 )

 

"For Lavater, morally beautiful states of being express themselves beautifully on the body, particularly on the face. Morally ugly or bad states of the soul express themselves with a negative countenance. In his view, the face is a general expression of a current state of mind." (Lavater, 18th century, in Wegenstein,2012, p24).

 

 

It used to be the case that people were under the impression that if you were 'ugly' on the outside, then it reflected the morality of your soul. 

 

I think the racists practises that are happening in the modelling industry stems from a dominant western society that states, as Cameron Russell said, that tall, white, skinny and feminine is what is beautiful. This has clearly had a global effect, as it sends a message that anyone deviating from this image isn't good enough. This is has clearly impacted society, and is an obvious trigger for the bleaching movement that is now so popular in many ethnic countries.