Beauty:
What is beauty? How can we determine beauty or measure it? One idea of beauty was developed in Greece around year 400 b.c. Back then they tried to find measurements on what is anatomically perfect. This was mainly done to give artists an idea about how our bodies are build so they could make their artwork more realistic and perfect. For example they meant that a perfect mouth should be 1.6 times the width of the nose, and an underarm should have the same length as a foot. They developed hundreds of rules like this, and meant they could measure beauty that way.

Today our main pursuer of beauty is Hollywood and the fashion industry, and they are pursuing beauty pretty much in the same way as the old Greeks did. One of the main aspects that make Hollywood differ from the Greeks is what they call 'star quality'. This is an abstract concept that is not explained and that makes the Hollywood idea of beauty a lot wider then the Greek. 'Star quality' you might say is aberrations from the norm of beauty, and also that part of a 'star' we can recognize our selves in. Brad Pitt is not anatomically perfect, but it is that exact fact the makes him hot for most people. An anatomically perfect person actually looks pretty doll and normal for most of us.

If we look at the common mans idea of beauty we get a much more diverse concept right away, but still there are patterns. We tend to think that celebrities are more perfect then our selves, and use the fact that they are on TV as a reason to adjust our idea of beauty after their looks. This is of course completely irrational and also unreasonable, but it is also the only way to explain the sensation people feel when they see a celebrity in real life. The fact that celebrities being on TV, not necessarily means anything else then them having a job that requires just that, is mostly ignored. We see them as something more special then us anyway if it is deserved or not.

Another aspect particularly men instinctively look after when we look after beauty is fitness. Instinctively we look after a mate to reproduce with and get a healthy offspring. Here we look for elements like clean skin, shiny hair, white teeth, muscle etc. These are all elements indicating a healthy lifestyle with both sexes, but females look for totally different things in male beauty. Men are the protectors and therefore personality plays a much greater role for female attraction. Physically women look after muscle, but anatomically a man can be much rougher built and still be beautiful in the female mind. The main personal quality women look for is reliability, as a mate that can't be trusted can become dangerous instead of protective. All these elements are for most people easily faked, as you can build muscle without having a physically challenging lifestyle and shampoos can make your hair look shiny.

One thing we also need to consider is that humanity consists of many different races, and a beautiful black person look totally different from a beautiful white person. The old Greek idea of beauty does not apply when we start considering different races. A good-looking black person does not look like Brad Pitt with black skin and visa versa. Beauty is not seen as the same all over the world, as there are some fundamental continental differences to the idea of beauty. Being tall and dark in Russia is not seen as particularly handsome, and in some parts of Africa having a large butt is seen as hotter then having a small one. We are not talking about more primitive parts of the world either, but simply just different ideals to what beauty is. So you might say that you will be seen as real hot somewhere in the world, and definitely not in other parts of the world. As I said earlier Hollywood is our main pursuer of beauty today, and unfortunately the American idea of beauty is starting to take over the whole world.

Age is also an element that changes our views of beauty. A good-looking kid is judged as pretty on totally different grounds then a good-looking 20year old. Here are elements like innocence and helplessness important, as these awakes our fathering or mothering instincts. A good-looking 20year old should look healthy, strong and independent. Between 30-50 a little more body fat is allowed as this indicates fertility. When we pass 50 some wrinkles are actually seen as beautiful as this indicates wisdom and experience in life. A 20year old with a little more body fat will be seen as less beautiful, even if this is the very element that indicates beauty in 30-50year olds. A 20year old with a helpless look is also seen as less beautiful, but this very element indicates beauty in kids.

What I am trying to say is that beauty is a far too complex thing to measure on a one-dimensional scale going from ugly to hot. Elements like cuteness, coolness, gracefulness, race, age, quality of picture etc. is not considered. When rating peoples beauty and are limited to a one-dimensional scale, what happens is that you start comparing those pictures to public images of beauty as Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Will Smith etc. and stops being personal in your judgement. So the conclusion is that we have no idea what beauty is, and it will therefore be impossible to measure.