Beauty lies with the beholder?

The first thing that attracts us to a person is their appearance, right? As humans we are that fickle? We don’t see their red bloody good heart or their working brains? Just the person’s looks?

Recently I was asked to be part of a panel of women who would decide who should be on a list of the sexiest people in the country.
After an hour of debating I realised our tastes were very limited. Limited in the sense of race, skin colour and overall cleanliness.

I raised the issue that the idea of looking for a sexy creature should not be confused with looking for pretty people.

But that idea fell on deaf ears.

So this led me to think about what I consider beautiful. You have heard the saying: “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder?” This statement suggests that beauty is not a universal concept. And what I consider beautiful may not be your cup of tea.

Scientists have shown that beauty is a universal concept. That we can decide if we like the person or not in several seconds. And according to these learned men and women, our liking is hugely based on a pretty face. And this is determined by the ratio of a face features. This leads to what we then think of as sexy.

Still with me? Well this is a way said to me that sexiness is really prettiness. So while I was arguing with the panel of sexy people that pretty and sexy are not the same, scientist said I was wrong.

“Sexual attraction is closely connected to a symmetrical face because such person is perceived as more attractive than the person with asymmetrical face,” they say.

So when we see such people, of “symmetrical face” our mind or subconsciously we perceive them as more healthy.

A dentist, Dr. Jefferson (don’t know how a dentist has expertise on beauty but he does…) thinks that the position of a person’s nose, eyes and chin has an ideal, location – a so called “golden ratio”.

He further alludes to my problem that “sexually attractive face is also defined according to skin complexion which varies among the cultures.”

So I say that beauty is not a universal and shared concept it a very specific ideal. But more specific to taught norms and value systems. So beauty as I understand it is in the eye of the one who has power to set norms and values… the beholder is subject to that.