Human Beauty

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Human Beauty

Charles Darwin wrote in 1872 in his book "The Descent of Man": "It is certainly not true that there is in the mind of man any universal standard of beauty with respect to the human body.

Although we "are all legally equal", everyone knows that people are often treated differently according to their physical appearance. Even when we apply for jobs, appearance may dominate qualification. We even believe that attractive people are better - "what is beautiful is good" is a common standard in our thinking.

We have to admit that beauty standards might be different between cultures and between times, I will show in this essay that the underlying constraints, which shaped the standards, are the same. And that these constraints may be of an evolutionary origin.

Obsession and the shaping of our perception of attractiveness and beauty comes from human mate selection criteria, which have evolved through human evolutionary history, . In such a view, perception of attractiveness will be sex-specific because both sexes should have different aspirations for mates.

Nancy Etcoff, According to evolutionary considerations on a theoretical level females experience higher risk than males in opposite-sex interactions because they have the higher investment in the offspring. Since females invest more per offspring, their potential fertility is lower than that of males. Females are thus the limiting factor in reproduction and males have to compete for them. Females in turn choose among males. In humans, sex differences are most prominent in the role that status and physical attractiveness play in mate selection. Females value men's socioeconomic status, with social position, prestige, wealth and s...

... middle of paper ...

... good looks nature's ultimate survival strategy? , P.43 - 49, February 2000

- Grier, James W. and Theodore Burk. Biology of animal behavior: Reproductive behavior; Sexual reproduction and sexual selection. p. 318 - 358. 6th ed. 1984 Wm. C. Brown Communications, Inc. Iowa.

- Perrett, D. I., May, K. A. & Yoshikawa, S. (1994). Facial shape and judgment of female attractiveness.

Nature, 386, 239-242..

- Interview with Dr. Riyad Sadek. November 14th 2000.

- Etcoff, Nancy. Survival of the prettiest. 1999

- Darwin, Charles. The descent of man and selection in relation to sex. Penguin Books, 1954, London, England.

- Grammer, K., & Thornhill, R. (1994). Human (Homo sapiens) facial attractiveness and sexual selection:

The role of symmetry and averageness. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 108, 233-242.

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