beauty

I’ve been reading the book On Beauty by Zadie Smith and am in the midst of a conflict between the married couple who are central to the plot. They are fighting because he had an affair and he says “‘It’s true that men – they respond to beauty…. it doesn’t end for them, this…. this concern with beauty as a physical actuality in the world – and that’s clearly imprisoning and it infantilizes…. but it’s true and….. I don’t know how else to explain what – ‘”

American beauty

It seems men are attracted to physical beauty and so as a response to this women invest a lot into their appearance. According to a website called Beautyrank.com (no longer alive):

“There are seven main characteristics of a beautiful face:

1. Higher forehead – increased brain volume (intelligence)
2. Bigger eyes with long eye distance – improved clarity & vision angle
3. Dark and thin eyebrows – health & youthfulness
4. Longer and darker eyelashes – resistance to weather
5. Narrow nose – better filtration of air.
6. Full red lips – healthy offspring
7. Narrower face shape – less fat

What these factors mainly represent is fertility, intelligence and longevity.”

How do you measure up against this? This of course means that women spend a lot of time and resources on transforming ourselves into beauty that is not our own, so that we will be loved? But does it really equate to fertility, intelligence and longevity for which these physical cues are meant to represent? From the challenges in relationships these days, obviously not…..

Try out our AstraMatch meter to see how your relationship measures up!

Check out this video from Dove that shows how our perception of beauty these days is pretty much unreal!