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The Enigma1
of Beauty
one out of three consumers globally say they
are spending more money today on beauty
20 and health care products . . . than ever
before. Worldwide, sales of makeup, dieting,
hair- and skin-care products, as well as gym
memberships and cosmetic surgery,3 generate
billions of dollars every year.
25 And there is at least one good reason for
the desire to be attractive: Beauty is power.
Studies suggest that good-looking people
make more money, get called on more often
The Face of Beauty. According to plastic surgeon Stephen
Marquardt, this diagram shows the proportions of the ideally
in class, and are perceived as friendlier.
attractive face.
30 But what exactly is beauty? Trying to define
it is difficult, and yet we know it when we see
1 The search for beauty spans centuries and
itor so we think. Beauty is health, says
continents. Paintings of Egyptians dating back
one psychologist. Its a billboard saying
over 4,000 years show both men and women
Im healthy. I can pass on your genes.
painting their nails and wearing makeup.
35 And our awareness of it may start at a very
5 On the other side of the globe, the ancient
early age. In one set of studies, six-month-old
Maya of Central America considered crossed
babies were shown a series of photographs.
eyes2 beautiful and hung little balls between
The faces in the pictures had been rated for
childrens eyes to develop this look. In 18th-
attractiveness by a group of college students.
century France, wealthy noblemen wore large
40 In the studies, the babies spent more time
10 wigs of long, white hair to make themselves
looking at the attractive faces than the
attractive. In cultures throughout the world,
unattractive ones.
people have gone to extreme lengths to achieve
the goal of beauty.
Today people continue to devote a lot of time 1
2
An enigma is something that is mysterious or difficult to understand.
Crossed eyes are eyes that seem to look towards each other.
15 and money on their appearance. According to a 3
Cosmetic surgery is surgery done to make someone look
more attractive.
recent report by the Nielsen Company, a global
information and marketing corporation,
2A What is Beauty? 23
Men of the Huli people of Papua New Guinea prepare for a sing-sing
(an annual festival). They dress in feathers and paint to resemble the
local birds of paradise. Here men are the objects of beauty, says
scientist Nancy Sullivan.
southeast Peru preferred shapes regarded as

overweight in Western cultures.
Take another example: in every culture, ones
hairstyle sends a clear message. In the Huli
80 culture of Papua New Guinea (an island nation
north of Australia), men grow their hair long
as a symbol of health and strength. Teenage
boys in this culture learn from a young age
The idea that even babies judge appearance to style and decorate their haira behavior
45 makes perfect sense to many researchers. In 85 more commonly associated with the opposite
studies done by psychologists such as Victor gender in many cultures. It is also the men (not
Johnston at New Mexico State University and women) in this culture who are the objects of
David Perrett at St. Andrews University in beauty. For certain festivals and celebrations,
Scotland, men regularly showed a preference for men dress up and paint their faces. The more
50 women with certain features: larger eyes, fuller 90 colorful a man is, the more masculine4 and
lips, and a smaller nose and chin. Another study attractivehe is considered.
suggests that women prefer men with large For better or worse, beauty plays a role in
shoulders and a narrow waist. According to our lives. But it is extremely difficult to define
scientists, the mind unconsciously tells men and exactly what makes one person attractive to
55 women that these traitsthe full lips, clear skin, 95 another. Although there do seem to be certain
strong shouldersequal health and genetic physical traits that are considered universally
well-being. In other words, its a fundamental appealing, it is also true that beauty does not
part of human nature to look for these qualities always conform to a single, uniform standard.
in a mate. 100 A persons cultural background, for example,
60 Not everyone agrees with this notion, however. may influence what he or she finds attractive in
Our hardwiredness can be altered by all sorts others. In the end, beauty really is, as the saying
of expectationspredominantly cultural, goes, in the eye of the beholder.
says C. Loring Brace, an anthropologist at the 4
Masculine qualities and things are typical for men, in contrast to women.
University of Michigan. What is considered
65 attractive in one culture might not be in
A New York model prepares for a beauty competition by
another. Look in most Western fashion having her hair cut and colored.
magazines, for example, and the women on
the pages are thin. But is this the perfect
body type for women worldwide? Douglas
70 Yu, a biologist from Great Britain, and Glenn
Shepard, an anthropologist at the University
of California at Berkeley, say no; what is
considered beautiful is subjective and varies
around the world. Yu and Shepard found in
75 one study, for example, that native peoples in
24 Unit 2 Skin Deep

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The Enigma1

southeast Peru preferred shapes regarded as

24 Unit 2 Skin Deep

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