Beauty Matters

2004-04-01T02:09:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Beauty Matters, an exploration into the human creation of objects of beauty and the nature of beauty itself with original articles and teaching resources on aesthetics, visual arts, fashion, the culture of beauty and more.

Featured articles

Fashion Statements: Beauty and the Clothing Code: Clothes speak symbolically to wearers and their viewers, but what is the nature of the meanings they communicate?

Make-up in the Pursuit of Beauty: The technicolour world of cosmetics offers endless possibilities of enhancing (or disguising?) the canvas given by nature.

Beauty in the Ear of the Beholder: What makes a piece of music beautiful, and can there be objective standards of criticism?

Featured Teaching Resources

The Significance of the Media in Issues of Beauty Culture: What makes a news story in beauty culture? How does the media promote beauty standards? How does the media contribute to the creation of celebrities? Should celebrities in beauty culture have a right to privacy?

The Body as Image: What is image? How has the body been used as an image in different times and cultures? How is the body used as an image in contemporary art and photography?

2004-01-01T00:53:00.000-08:00

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Beauty Matters

Lucire - The global fashion magazine, with features on international style, beauty, lifestyle and travel.

Apparel News - A comprehensive online source for fashion and apparel information.

Fashion-Era - 100+ content rich, illustrated pages of Fashion History, Costume, Clothing, Textiles and Social History.

Fashion Worlds: All about fashion designers and influences past, present, famous and up-coming, with original articles and regular news updates.

Daily Fashion - An online fashion resource for girls with lots of tips, ideas and stories about fashion.

Beautylink - Gateway to the world of beauty on the web, with news and expert advice.

Fashion Network - Body, style and fashion news (in German).

Barrlu's Arts and Artists Resource Centre - A comprehensive list of artists' resources and arts relevant links.

Hint Fashion Magazine - Online magazine covering many aspects of fashion and style.

DiamondRing.com - For information about diamonds including articles, tutorials and forums about shape, carat weight, clarity grades and more.

Jolique - A website that explores dress and culture across space and time.

Disability and Sexuality - An informative website covering issues of disability and body image.

Isabel Gallery - Fine art reproduction oil paintings of Masterpieces: Van Gogh, Cezanne, Degas, Manet, Botticelli, Gauguin, & more.

The Costumer's Manifesto - One of the World Wide Web's largest, and most eclectic, costume sites.

FashionSenseClub - dedicated to the promotion, support and training of Beauty Consultants throughout the US and Canada.

Cultural Studies Central - An informative website for all aspects of contemporary culture.

Virtual Hair - Let us give you a virtual hairstyle makeover! Get results, without going to a salon.

Hair Boutique - Banishing bad hair days with news and information about hair care and products.

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Alumbo - A self-help website that includes a page of aesthetics resources for the study of beauty and the arts.

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Global Express - Aims to enable young people to gain a greater understanding of the context in which news stories from the developing world happen, and to build links between their experience of life and their understanding of development issues. Editions provide materials that help answer young people's questions and increase their critical awareness of how the media can influence their images of the developing world.

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2000-02-08T02:32:00.000-08:00

Home>>Cultures>>Nappy Hair: A Marker of Identity and Difference

Nappy Hair: A Marker of Identity and Difference

Hair affects not only our appearance but also our identity. It has a remarkable power to shape personal and group identities in the lives of African women in America. In the book, Hair Matters (1), interviews conducted with over 50 black girls and women between 1996 and 1998 reveal the political complexities of African American hair and beauty culture. Ingrid Banks, sociologist and author of Hair Matters , concludes that 'hair shapes black women's ideas about race, gender, class, sexuality, images of beauty and power.' Since mainstream Western images of beauty do not embrace tight black coils, the decision of many African American women to use relaxants, perms, hair extensions and pressing combs reflects a deeper devaluation of black hair in its natural state. As the feminist philosopher Susan Bordo writes, 'When Oprah admitted on her show that all her life she has desperately longed to have 'hair that swings from side to side' when she shakes her head, she revealed the power of racial as well as gender normalization to the Caucasian standards of beauty that still dominate on television, in movies, in popular magazines' (2).

The photographer Bill Gaskins portrays contemporary black hairstyles of African American women in the book, Good and Bad Hair (3). The title refers to the terms used by black women themselves to define different types of hair. 'Good' hair is sleek, smooth, fine, straight and long. 'Bad' hair is coarse, kinky, coiled short and 'nappy'. Such beliefs are obviously derived from a narrow definition of beauty that is marketed and promoted in America's fashion and beauty industry. Their power as a race-based measurement, however, goes beyond a personal statement of choice in approaches to hairstyle and exposes the social and political implications for African American culture.

The cultural historian Bruce Tyler describes how African Americans in the nineteenth-century were encouraged to adopt 'proper conduct and grooming standards' (4). It was believed that these would promote their assimilation into American culture and thereby improve their status in society. When female slaves attempted to change their nappy hair into good hair, they were hoping for inclusion through an imitation of Western beauty standards. Hair was slicked in waves with axle grease, wrapped with string to make it straight and relaxed using concoctions of potato, potash, lye and hot fat. By the twentieth century, many black women managed their own beauty shops and parlours. This coincided with an increase in commercial beauty products and treatments designed to aid African Americans conform to Western beauty ideals. For example, Madame C. J. Walker pioneered an innovatory hair-straightening technique called the 'Walker System'. This involved the use of hot combs and presses to straighten and smooth the naturally coiled hair of African American women. In effect, hair styling practices arose from a desire to transform blackness into whiteness within the larger socio-political arena of racial difference and power.

A return to African-based hairstyling practices by many black women in the 1960s, on the other hand, marked an assertion of national identity and heritage in the face of oppressive Western ideals of beauty and continuing disenfranchisement. Although the popular Afro was achieved by blowing hair out to straighten the curls, it was representative as an expression of beauty ideals centred on an African identity. In other words, hairstyling became a political statement of connection to the black community. A large Afro was worn with pride and denoted commitment to the black cause. Although the popularity of the Afro declined, black hairstyles retained a cultural and political significance. The author Alice Walker describes the feeling of liberation symbolized through the embracing of traditional African hairstyling techniques. She writes, "I remembered years of enduring hairdressers, from my mother onward, doing missionary work on my hair. They dominated, suppressed, controlled. Now, more or less free, [my hair] stood this way and that...It never thought of laying down. Flatness, the missionary position did not interest it. It sought more and more space, more light, more of itself. It loved to be washed; but that was it" (5).

An emphasis on traditional African hairstyling practices continued in the 1980s and 90s. A wide variety of popular styles were worn including braids in West African patterns, relaxed hair, dreadlocks, twists, corkscrews and fades. Such hairstyles are designed to exploit rather than repress the natural texture of black hair. The ongoing promotion and appreciation of traditional African hair and beauty culture however is not unproblematic. As the cultural historian Noliwe Rooks explains about the hair of African American women, "its style could lead to acceptance or rejection from certain groups and social classes and its styling could provide the possibility of a career" (6). The relationship of hairstyling among African American women to racial identity politics thereby serves to create a tension in hair and beauty culture that remains unresolved.

(1) Banks, I. (2000) Hair Matters: Beauty, Power and Black Women's Consciousness , New York, New York University Press.

(2) Bordo, S. (1993) Unbearable Weight: feminism, western culture and the body , Berkeley, CA, University of California Press.

(3) Gaskins, B. (1997) Good and Bad Hair , New Brunswick, N. J., Rutgers University Press.

(4) Tyler, B. M. (1990) 'Black Hairstyles: Cultural and Socio-political Implications' in The Western Journal of Black Studies , 14.4, pp. 235-250.

(5) Walker, A. (1988) 'Oppressed hair puts a ceiling on the brain' in Living By The Word: Selected Writings 1973-1987, New York, Harcourt.

(6) Rooks, N. M. (1996) Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture and African American Women , New Brunswick, N. J., Rutgers University Press.

Home>>Cultures>>Nappy Hair: A Marker of Identity and Difference

2000-02-07T01:35:00.000-08:00

Home>>Creative Arts>>Female Beauty in Twentieth-Century Poetry

Female Beauty in Twentieth-Century Poetry: A Critical Analysis of Selected Works

Homage to My Hips
By Lucille Clifton

these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don’t fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don’t like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!

Lucille Clifton’s ‘Homage to My Hips’ is a poem celebrating the female body and its power. The narrator’s pride in her hips is conveyed through repetition of ‘these’, implying ownership and hence assertion in her expression of selfhood. Clifton also uses a repetitive style of sentence structure to suggest that ‘these hips’ are something special. Through the poem’s forward-moving rhythmic progression, Clifton conveys a sense of ‘these hips’ swaying proudly, hips that are ‘mighty’ and ‘magic’.

Clifton’s use of language also invites a comparison of ‘these hips’ with the hips of other women. The implication is that her pride in having ‘big hips’ is something unusual. Moreover, Clifton positions herself positively in relation to these other women, whose hips are ‘enslaved’ and ‘held back’. This theme can be related directly to Clifton’s experiences as an African-American, in which beauty is strictly defined by white and unattainable standards. It also foregrounds and questions the assumption commonly portrayed in the media that thinness, or having hips that ‘fit into little petty places’, is desirable. The speaker’s awareness and acceptance of her body as it is allows her to take charge of her sexuality in a way that is denied to women who are striving to attain what the poem views as oppressive standards of female beauty.

Horse
By Chase Twichell

I’ve never seen a soul detached from its gender,
but I’d like to. I’d like to see my own that way,
free of its female tethers. Maybe it would be like
riding a horse. The rider’s the human one,
but everyone looks at the horse.

Chase Twichell’s short poem, ‘Horse’ introduces a division between female ‘gender’ and ‘soul’. This idea is introduced in the first line and is sustained throughout the poem through the continuous splitting of sentences across the line, including the use of enjambement (lines 3-4). The concept of ‘gender’ is metaphorically compared to ‘female tethers’, implying the notion of something binding the ‘soul’, thereby restricting a true expression of the speaker’s sense of self. Furthermore, the symbolic imagery of a rider on a horse in the closing lines serves to identify the speaker with the (unseen) rider and her ‘gender’ with the horse at which ‘everyone looks’. In this way, the poem separates a self-awareness of ‘gender’ from the experience of being ‘human’.

The themes consistent throughout the poem revolve around female conflicts, concentrating on appearance, identity and social acceptance. Female beauty, or appearance is aligned with social norms and expectations. Following a feminist approach, gender is thereby revealed as a social construction, distinct from biological sex. The construction of female beauty in these terms is not unproblematic, and the maintenance of existing power relations between the genders in a patriarchal society is symbolically underlined through the notion of ‘female tethers’ and the limitations these impose.

The Snow Queen
By Peter Howard

Presumably, the frozen bird believes
The cobra to be beautiful. Her brain
Infers this from her fascinated eye:
It is an understandable mistake.

By catching them on frozen slides, we may
Beneath a microscope observe the shapes
Of snowflakes, all hexagonal, each one
Unique. So we were told. A lie, no doubt.

Though at the time the story cut no ice,
Its magic worked. One inch of snow. England
Freezes. Trains stop. Old women die of cold.
My bastard car won't start. The phones are jammed.

I know it. Snow is dangerous. Frost kills.
Yet, when clouds seem to threaten, my heart beats
Faster, and I can never turn my eyes
From soft, seductive, fatal, fields of white.

‘The Snow Queen’ by Peter Howard is a poem about the opposition of beauty and danger, and the way in which these two concepts may co-exist in reality. In the first stanza, a bird, paralysed with fear, admires the beauty of the very cobra that will presumably soon be its killer. In the following three stanzas, snow is metaphorically assigned an anthropomorphic intent to hide its dangerous aspects (‘frost kills’ and ‘old women die of cold’) behind the ‘seductive’ beauty of its appearance. The rich alliteration of ‘soft seductive’ and ‘fatal fields’ in the final line conveys a sense of beauty lulling the speaker into a false sense of security, or into making ‘an understandable mistake’ about the nature of beauty.

This poem can be interpreted as an allegorical statement about the psychological truth of female beauty. The interaction between the symbols of bird, cobra, snow and narrative voice in the poem create a coherent meaning beyond that of the literal level of interpretation. The implication is that female beauty is similarly dangerous to men: appearances are deceptive and possibly ‘fatal’. The closing lines effectively underscore the allegorical nature of the poem through increased reference to the human body. Parallels can be drawn between the way in which the speaker’s ‘heart beats faster’ (itself emphasized through enjambement) in the sight of ‘soft, seductive’ snowy fields, and his presumed physiological excitement when seeing a woman whose beauty he finds both alluring and dangerous.

Earthbound Mirrors
By Stephen Oliver

A woman polished as an earthenware jug
filled with northern light:

and you know there isn't a chance of that.
Is that what beauty's all about

what you'd like to give into most
to make a gift of it, to get what's going?

Right through your eyes allow me
to see these transparencies

which crush me like ice. Now, that's beauty.

And so I practise at departure
as this light moving the trees - airily.

What saves me (if you can call it that)
are the words here which stick,

something like a rubber/boot on damp ash.

This poem from ‘Earthbound Mirrors’ by Stephen Oliver is about female beauty as a reflection of the viewer’s own thoughts and desires: ‘what you’d like to give into most’. Both the form and use of language evoke a sense of absence and space, thereby conveying beauty’s lack of material reality. One and two line stanzas serve to create a visual impression of emptiness on the page. Words such as ‘airily’ and ‘light’ suggest impermanence, whilst ‘transparencies’ implies that the speaker is looking at something that is not really there. An emotional distance and coldness is conveyed through the evocation of ‘northern lights’ and beauty crushing the speaker ‘like ice’. These correspond to the theme of beauty as an evasive, translucent quality. The unreality of beauty is contrasted in the final line with the concrete image of ‘a rubber/boot on damp ash’.

Psychoanalytic criticism relates the poem’s theme to a Freudian perspective of the role of beauty in achieving happiness: while undoubtedly a source of pleasure, beauty has no discernible nature or origin. The speaker’s appreciation of beauty as ‘what you’d like to give into most’ is concerned with the compensatory value of beauty: the idea that aesthetically pleasing appearances can stave off suffering and provide temporary pleasure. Furthermore, the concept of beauty as a reflection of the viewer’s own desires can be related to Kant’s theory of the definition, value and function of beauty in his work, Critique of Judgement (1790). Like Freud, Kant believed that beauty does not inhere in the material qualities of the object but is a function of the viewer's receptivity to it.

Girl Powdering Her Neck
By Cathy Song
from a ukiyo-e print by Utamaro

The light is the inside
sheen of an oyster shell,
sponged with talc and vapor,
moisture from a bath.

A pair of slippers
are placed outside
the rice-paper doors.
She kneels at a low table
in the room,
her legs folded beneath her
as she sits on a buckwheat pillow.

Her hair is black
with hints of red,
the color of seaweed
spread over rocks.

Morning begins the ritual
wheel of the body,
the application of translucent skins.
She practices pleasure:
the pressure of three fingertips
applying powder.
Fingerprints of pollen
some other hand will trace.

The peach-dyed kimono
patterned with maple leaves
drifting across the silk,
falls from right to left
in a diagonal, revealing
the nape of her neck
and the curve of a shoulder
like the slope of a hill
set deep in snow in a country
of huge white solemn birds.
Her face appears in the mirror,
a reflection in a winter pond,
rising to meet itself.

She dips a corner of her sleeve
like a brush into water
to wipe the mirror;
she is about to paint herself.
The eyes narrow
in a moment of self-scrutiny.
The mouth parts
as if desiring to disturb
the placid plum face;
break the symmetry of silence.
But the berry-stained lips,
stenciled into the mask of beauty,
do not speak.

Two chrysanthemums
touch in the middle of the lake
and drift apart.

Cathy Song’s poem, ‘Girl Powdering Her Neck’ is a contemplation of a portrait of a geisha from one of the artist Kitagawa Utamaro’s studies of the floating world, ukiyo-e in Japan. Geishas were women largely responsible for the amusement of newly-rich lower-class merchants in the capital’s Yoshiwara district during the second half of the 18th century.

In this poem, the narrator is engaged in her daily routine of preparing her body for a man. She speaks of her beauty as a mask and her personal world as one of silence and solitude. As in the wood-block print by Utamara, Song provides an intimate and close-up portrait of this woman who parts her lips but maintains her silence: ‘The mouth parts (…)/ But the berry-stained lips,/ stenciled into the mask of beauty,/ do not speak.’

The changing rhythms in the poem underline the speaker’s increasing identification with the woman in the print. In lines 1-15, the woman is perceived as motionless and unmotivated. She is a beautiful object at which men like to look. These lines contain iambic (‘Her hair is black,/ with hints of red’) and a mixture of iambic and anapaestic feet (‘The light is the inside/ sheen of an oyster shell’). The use of trochaic feet in lines 16-36 (‘Fingerprints of pollen’) highlights a shifting concern to an appreciation of the woman as a figure in action, animated by routine and purpose. The rough juxtaposition of stressed syllables in lines 37-49 emphasises a sense of the woman as not only a figure in action, but also as an individual in conflict with herself (‘But the berry-stained lips,/ stenciled into the mask of beauty’). The abrupt closing lines of the poem, with their figure of two chrysanthemums touching then drifting apart, can be interpreted as a metaphorical depiction of the woman’s two selves: frivolous and entertaining in the role of geisha, yet melancholic and sad in her silent personal world.

Home>>Creative Arts>>Female Beauty in Twentieth-Century Poetry

2000-02-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

Home>>Cultures>>Chinese Beauty through the Changes of Time

Chinese Beauty through the Changes of Time

Women in China have traditionally been associated with the pursuit of beauty. For example, the Confucian scholar Liu Xiang ( c 77-6 BC) wrote "[she] takes delight in one's appearance" (1). The Chinese word 'beautiful' originally meant 'pleasant to sight' and is one of the earliest characters inscribed on oracle bones from 16-11 BC. However, standards of beauty have changed significantly throughout Chinese history. From slender to plump and frail to graceful, shifting ideals of feminine aestheticism in Imperial China can be traced through paintings, sculptures and contemporary accounts of women famous for their beauty. Although such women appeared as leading politicians and warriors, it was nevertheless from within a predominantly male-centred society that expectations of femininity were constructed. Conversely, the emancipation of women since the 1920s and increasing globalisation in the twenty-first century have effected further changes in ideals of beauty and fashion in modern China.

Western Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 8)

Founded by Liu Bang in 206 BC, this became one of the great dynasties of Chinese history. It was in this period that Confucianism was established as the main ideology of government in China. Chao Fei-yen is reported to have been one of the most beautiful women in this dynasty. The Emperor Ch'en-ti was attracted by her slim and graceful figure. She displayed her agile body as a vivacious and energetic dancer. With her sister, Chao Hede, she used her beauty as a weapon against the Emperor, of whom she was a concubine. The government was thrown into chaos in an internecine struggle for power. Although she was ultimately unsuccessful, her story shows that strength and confidence were highly regarded as virtues in a woman during this period. This is in stark contrast to the frailty and wilting beauty that was later to be admired in the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties.

Similar strength of character and resilience can be seen in Wang Zhaojun, also highly regarded for her beauty during the Han dynasty. Having caught the attention of many at the refined and sophisticated Chinese court, Wang Zhaojun continued to flourish despite having been bargained in marriage to strengthen an alliance with the Huns in the wilderness of the Asiatic steppes.

Terracotta sculptures that survive from the Han dynasty reflect the tall, slender ideal of feminine beauty so admired by the Emperor. Tomb figures from this period strive to capture the life and vitality of the subject and are noted for their graceful, slender style. Robes worn by noble women during the Han dynasty had a long train that trailed behind, gracefully emphasizing the women's height and stature.

The Lienuzhuan

The Lienuzhuan , compiled by the Han Confucian scholar Liu Xiang, contains 125 biographies of exemplary women. Aiming to promote dignity and moral virtue as necessary components of beauty, the Lienuzhuan can be seen as an attempt to caution women against using their beauty to gain power as the sisters Chao Fei-yen and Chao Hede had done. Many stories maintain that external physical beauty is merely a manifestation of internal beauty in the form of virtue. The book contains several biographies of physically ugly women who nevertheless married emperors and became empresses as a result of their attractive, special inner qualities. Women lacking such virtue, on the other hand, are described as scheming to entrap men in sensual pleasures in order to distract them and fulfil their own selfish plans. These women are attributed with causing disruption and breakdown in families and the state. It appears therefore that, whilst not regarded as necessarily dangerous, beauty at this time was strongly linked to female virtue. As such, beauty could be displayed primarily through strength of character and moral disposition.

T'ang dynasty (AD 618 - 907)

The T'ang dynasty is renowned for the artistic and personal freedom it afforded women. Artwork from the period shows energetic, full-bodied women engaged in outdoor athletic sporting pursuits such as polo on horseback (2). Delicate features and plump faces in sculptures of aristocratic ladies of the T'ang dynasty convey the ideal image of feminine beauty. Ceramic figures of elegant female courtiers that were used as tomb furnishings in the period are known today as 'Fat Ladies' for their fleshy faces.

The origin of this standard of beauty can be attributed to the T'ang emperors' preference for plump women as a sign of wealth and privilege. An example of such a woman is Yang Kuei-fei, a heavy and robust concubine with whom the Emperor Ming Huang became infatuated. Known as the 'Jade Beauty', she is celebrated as one of the most beautiful women in Chinese history. Chroniclers at the time described her white skin and delicate features, comparing them to fine carvings in the jade with which she surrounded herself.

Song dynasty (AD 960 - 1279)

The Song dynasty was marked by a return to Confucianism and a desire to live a simpler life than in the former T'ang dynasty. Peace and economic security encouraged a flourishing of such educational and intellectual activity. This is reflected in a plainer style of dress for both men and women during this period.

In contrast to the T'ang dynasty, women were now encouraged to remain indoors and to be seen by none but their husbands. It was socially expected that women should display their virtue physically. This expectation was instrumental in establishing the practice of footbinding during the Song dynasty. The physical limitations of bound feet were intended to emphasize female delicacy and vulnerability in comparison with superior male strength, thereby confirming men's sense of mastery over women. In effect, female subservience to men in Song society was encouraged as a display of the highest form of chastity and virtue. Attention to physical appearance was therefore crucial to women in attracting the interest of both powerful men for marriage, and husbands in competition with their other wives and concubines. Paintings commissioned by emperors during the Song dynasty portray women according to these presiding standards of graceful and plaintive beauty (3).

Ming dynasty (AD 1368 - 1644)

Between 1279 and 1368, China was under the foreign domination of the Monguls. During this period, the Monguls restricted the assimilation of Chinese culture and attempted to preserve their own national character. Following the success of an uprising against the Mongols in the 1350s, a new Chinese dynasty with the name Ming was declared in 1368. The founder, Zhu Yuanzhang, aimed to restore a traditional Han cultural identity. The growth of urban prosperity and cosmopolitan entertainment can be contrasted with the solitude and reclusion expected of women. They were classed as outsiders as a result of male anxiety and warnings about the dangers of their beauty.

Footbinding became more widespread and severe during the Ming dynasty as the "symbol for feminine beauty, hierarchy and morality" (4). The author Wang Ping comments on poetry from the period, writing that "The women presented in these poems and literary works all have the same qualities: they are floating and weightless like unreachable treasure. Men cannot help feeling pity for them and falling in love with them" (5). The ideal of beauty portrayed in such poetry emphasizes sickness, fragility and suffering as much as it does delicacy, elegance and grace.

However, the meaning of bound feet in the Ming dynasty was essentially grounded in eroticism. Bound feet were central to a woman's identity as an aspect of her beauty that she could control. An outpouring of novels, plays and poetry by female writers at this time highlights the erotic associations of bound feet. The 'Three Inch Golden Lotus' standard of perfection in foot length was therefore closely associated with an expression of sexuality. As such, footbinding formed part of a larger valorisation of passion, or qing, that is characteristic of the Ming dynasty. A high point of Chinese erotic culture, the cult of qing helped to bring explicit sensual and passionate significance to ideals of beauty in women.

Ch'ing dynasty (AD 1644 - 1911)

The conquest of the Ming dynasty by the Manchus in 1644 brought China under the authority of the Ch ing dynasty. The State attempted to regulate the sexual and gender roles of women through the prohibition of footbinding and the promotion of chastity in widowhood. Although footbinding continued among upper-class women, as the historian Susan Mann writes, "the meaning of bound feet shifted away from eroticism and toward social responsibility" (6). In other words, footbinding became a mark of social elitism and feminine morality rather than a symbol of eroticism as it had been in the Ming dynasty. Indeed, 'beauty' was no longer a formal requirement in ideal standards relating to the role of women during this period. Women were expected to possess virtue and talent, but beauty as a suggestion of passion and sexuality was inhibited.

The difference between ideals of beauty in the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties is revealed in the exclusion of all poems dealing with love, sex or romance from a collection of women's poetry by Wanyan Yun Zhu, published in 1831 (7). She wrote that, "in compiling this anthology, I have attached the greatest importance to purity of emotional expression and the harmony and elegance of rhymes poems about sexual love and romance by courtesans, whom earlier compilers anthologised profusely and rhapsodised over, are not included here."

Political, economic and social change (1911 - 1976)

Underlying currents of nationalist protest against Manchu authority in China fuelled the organization of a Republican movement in the 1890s. In 1911, Sun Yat-sen was elected provisional president of the Republic of China. Following the May 4 th Movement of 1919, nationalist movements involving large sections of the population aimed to push China towards modernization. Increased contact with the West through trade and commerce brought many women in China together with new Western ideas of gender equality and women's rights. Not surprisingly, ideals of feminine beauty were influenced by women's emancipation and pursuit of education, employment and independence. The practice of footbinding declined and many women wore the cheungsam or qipao . In response to the shorter skirts seen in Western fashion, the cheungsam was tight fitting with high side-slits. It revealed more of a woman's body than any previous style of Chinese clothing. 'The Changing Face of Chinese Beauty' (8) details the rise in popularity of lipsticks, eyebrow plucking and shorter fringe lengths during this period, and the way in which women continued these practices surreptitiously during the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 76). These changing aspects of beauty symbolized the transition from more restrictive traditions to women s newfound freedom in China.

Consumer culture and beauty industries (1976 - 2003)

The death of Mao Zedong on September 9 th 1976 heralded the end of an era and the beginning of an 'open-door' policy with further economic reforms in China. The first Chinese fashion magazine, Shizuang , or 'Fashion', was published in Peking in 1979. Receptive attitudes and experimentation with regard to Western fashion styles signalled a growing interest in personal appearance, beauty and consumer culture. Within this consumer culture, changing attitudes to women in China can be discerned. Female beauty became a commodity in a renewed importance of the expression of body and gender ideals. Consumerism provided an alternative arena for femininity outside the domination of the Party State.

However, a dichotomy between nature, tradition and China on the one hand, and culture, modernity and the West on the other hand, can be seen to underlie contemporary Chinese consumer culture. Whilst women in China are advised to make themselves 'modern', sexy and alluring, they are also expected to represent Chinese culture and values through the proper enactment of chastity and submission in their roles as housewives. The tension between these two ideals is expressed in magazine advertisements. For example, whilst advertisements for bust enhancers portray uninhibited women with natural curves symbolizing modernity and Western civilisation, those for skin care products tend to rely on pictures of chaste, shy women wearing traditional Chinese dresses in domestic settings. Similarly, the rising popularity of beauty pageants in China, with the Beauty Queen Guan Qi being crowned Miss China on September 21 st 2003, reveals a conflict between the desire to embrace a Western tolerance towards activities once suppressed as being bourgeois and decadent, and the need to justify the competitions in terms of providing suitable role models for women. An emphasis on the judgement of beauty in manners and education as well as in appearance is reminiscent of the traditional Chinese ideals of inner virtue and talent in women regarded as beautiful.

Furthermore, the export of American entertainment products such as films, music and MTV, together with the aim of opening markets for Western beauty products and technologies in China are reflected in the rapidly changing norms of attractiveness among Chinese women in recent years. As a result, the processes of globalization are implicated also in the establishment of beauty industries in China. Practices promoted by these industries typically include breast enlargements, skin whitening procedures, limb lengthening and the creation of 'double' eyelids. Cosmetic surgery is becoming increasingly popular as a means of altering the shape of noses and eyes to accord with Western appearances (9). Ideals of beauty in contemporary Chinese culture can therefore be seen to be attached to symbolic meanings based on China's transformation from a closed socialist society to a globalized consumer culture.
Sources

(1) In The Machinations of the Warring States , a 33 volume work by Liu Xiang ( c 77-6 BC) of the Former Han period.

(2) For example, the Tri-color Glaze Pottery Figure of a Lady playing Polo in the permanent collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

(3) For example, Looking in a Mirror by an Ornamental Box by an anonymous Song painter in the permanent collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

(4) Ping, W. (2000) Aching for beauty: Footbinding in China , Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

(5) Ping, W. Ibid.

(6) Mann, S. (1997) Precious Records: Women in China's Long Eighteenth Century , Stanford, Stanford University Press.

(7) Wanyan Yun Zhu (1831) Correct Beginnings: Women's Poetry of our August Dynasty (Guochao quixiu zhengshi ji).

(8) http://www.chinavista.com/experience/old/beauty.html

(9) BBC News, Chinese woman seeks perfect beauty , published 2003/07/24

Home>>Cultures>>Chinese Beauty through the Changes of Time

2000-02-05T12:59:00.000-08:00

Home>>Cultures>>Beauty Under Islam

Beauty Under Islam

Violence during the staging of the 2002 Miss World beauty pageant in Nigeria sharply exposed the incompatibility of the understanding of beauty in the West with that of Muslims under Islam. As the reporter, Gamal Nkrumah, wrote in The Al-Ahram Weekly, "Beauty is only skin deep, but in Nigeria, it has assumed such profoundness that in the preparations to stage an international beauty queen pageant an estimated 250 lives were lost because of sectarian violence" (1). Denounced by Muslim leaders as a "parade of nudity" (2), riots were fuelled by an article in the Nigerian newspaper This Day, venturing the opinion that Muhammad himself would have enjoyed choosing a wife from the beauty pageant. Clearly, Islamic attacks by protesters chanting "Down with Beauty" reveal a deeply seated commitment to religious beliefs concerning the appropriate display of female beauty, not only in society at large but also within an all-encompassing context of religious government itself. What form does this understanding of beauty take under Islam, and how can its manifestation in the lives of women be reconciled with Western ideals of beauty culture?

Islam is a religion that pervades all areas of life for a Muslim, whether this is national in politics, social in the community or private in the home. Revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, the Messenger of God, the teachings in the Qur'an express God's will for all humankind. Accordingly, the Qur'an gives guidance on the commitment or surrendering of the lives of Islamic Muslims to the will of Allah. Beauty is considered to be a divine quality and is articulated as such in Islamic art and architecture. An aesthetic joy of beauty is emphasized in calligraphy and pottery, and directs the serenity of contemplation when sitting on a traditional carpet. Beauty itself, therefore, is believed to emerge from spirituality and to guide the inner qualities of peace, harmony and equilibrium in artistic manifestations of the Islamic religion.

How does this divine, spiritual dimension of beauty impact on ideas of femininity in Islam? In the first instance, 'masculine' and 'feminine' are not considered to map precisely onto the biological sex of a person. Allah embraces principles of masculinity through being Absolute, and principles of femininity through being Infinite. In other words, elements of both masculinity and femininity are present in all men and women. However, the Qur'an reveals Allah as masculine under the name of Majesty ( jalal ) and feminine under the name of Beauty ( jamal ). This implies that femininity is understood foremost as an embodiment of beauty. Qualities associated with beauty are described in the names used in the Qur'an when Allah is revealed in a feminine context: the Generous, the Merciful, the Forgiving. It follows that, whilst masculinity is displayed outwardly, femininity is interiorized. Such qualities of feminine beauty are perhaps most eloquently portrayed in Sufi literature. The love story of Layla and Majnun shows how transcendent levels of meaning raise the heroine to the place of the Divine Reality waiting in stillness, spoken in terms of female beauty. Masculinity is depicted as an outward act as the hero goes in quest of the Divine beloved.

Criteria for female beauty can now be seen to derive directly from Islamic understandings of femininity, as revealed by Allah in the Qur'an. Women are expected to be silent, immobile and obedient. The Qur'an states explicitly that believing women should "lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons..." (3). The Qur'an instructs both men and women to observe the 'hijab rules':

1. The clothes worn by a man must cover the body at least from the navel to the knees. Those worn by a woman must cover the complete body except the face and hands. Head-to-toe garments worn by women include the Burqa,Chador and Hijab.

2. The clothes worn should be loose and should not reveal the figure.

3. The clothes worn should not be transparent such that one can see through them.

4. The clothes worn should not be so glamorous as to attract the opposite sex.

5. The clothes worn should not resemble that of the opposite sex.

6. The clothes worn should not resemble that of the unbelievers i.e. they should not wear clothes that are specifically identities or symbols of the unbelievers' religions.

Full observation of these rules for women includes hijab of the eyes, heart, thought and intention. In other words, women are expected to guard their modesty and veil their beauty not only through their style of clothing but also in the way they walk, talk and behave. This is justified in the Qur'an as being a preventative measure against molestation: "O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad); that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested" (4). Indeed, testimonies of Muslim women defending their decision to wear the hijab or burqa in Western societies emphasize "its original purpose to give back to women ultimate control of their own bodies" (5). When the body is concealed, character judgements cannot be made on the basis of physical attributes. In this way, the hijab is regarded as providing both protection and equality to women in Islamic society.

However, these teachings have profound implications for women that go beyond a mere aesthetic appreciation of beauty. The Moroccan scholar, Fatna Sabbah argues that Islamic religious concepts of beauty lead to the dehumanisation and demonization of Muslim women (6). Although a divine quality, beauty provokes a desire in men that is believed to be sinful and satanic (shahwa ). Women are therefore associated with the devil through their beauty. Their appearance must be hidden from sight to enable men to control their desire. These dangerous connotations of female beauty are deeply rooted in Islamic religious history. The imam and orator Ibn al-Jawzi (1126-1200) taught, "the beauty of women is one of the poisoned arrows of the devil" (7). It could be argued therefore that, rather than offering protection and equality to women, the hijab functions to establish their position as a sex object by making them wholly responsible for not arousing the passions of men. Whilst Muslim women in Western societies may claim to feel liberated by their choice to wear the hijab , those in Islamic states who refused were frequently slashed with razors, had acid thrown in their faces, were killed or imprisoned for showing their bare arms and legs before they were required to cover their bodies by law. Notions of liberation in such circumstances are therefore questionable.

When Vida Samadzai walked down the catwalk in the 2003 Miss Earth contest, she became the first Afghan entrant in an international beauty pageant for 30 years. She was also warned by Fazel Ahmad Manawi, deputy head of Afghanistan's Supreme Court, that she could face prosecution if she returned to her native country. Her crime? Wearing a red bikini. Judges at the contest, on the other hand, awarded Samadzai a newly created 'beauty for a cause' award for 'symbolizing the newfound confidence, courage and spirit of today's women' and "representing the victory of women's rights and various social, personal and religious struggles" (8). Whether in Islamic or Western cultures, beauty pageants raise critics on both sides of the argument concerning displays of female beauty. Burqa or bikini - are women truly liberated by either of these?

Sources

(1) Nkrumah, G. (2002) 'Beyond Salvation', Al-Ahram Weekly , 28 Nov. - 4 Dec. 2002, Issue no.614

(2) BBC News, Miss World Nigeria boycott spreads , Friday, 6 September 2002.

(3) Al-Qur'an 24:31

(4) Al-Qur'an 33:59

(5) Mustafa, N. (1993) 'My Body is my Own Business', The Globe and Mail, June 29, Facts and Arguments Page (A26).

(6) Sabbah, F. (1984) Woman in the Muslim Unconscious , New York, Pergamon Press.

(7) In the text Dhamm al-hawa

(8) Sunday 9 November, 2003, Manila, Philippines: Miss Earth Contest.

Home>>Cultures>>Beauty Under Islam

2000-02-04T05:35:00.000-08:00

Home>>Collection>>The Question of Beauty

The Question of Beauty

By Dr. Judith H. Langlois. First published by the Office of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

When I took my Ph.D. examination all candidates were grilled by five professors about their dissertation to make sure they "know their stuff." My dissertation was an innocuous study of preschool children's peer relationships, and I knew the data and the relevant literature like the back of my hand. I answered all the questions quickly and articulately. Except one. A professor asked me if I had considered whether the children's facial attractiveness influenced their peer relationships and popularity and, therefore, my results. My immediate reaction was to roll my eyes back and say emphatically, "No, of course not!" But then flashbacks of college blind dates crossed my mind. I remembered well the first question asked by both males and females: "What does he or she look like?" I was uncertain how to answer my professor's question. On the one hand, I was taught "never judge a book by its cover," implying that attractiveness should not be important. On the other hand, there were all those blind dates....... I stumbled and stammered. My professor gently let me off the hook by telling me that perhaps I should think about the question before I did my next study.

That simple dissertation question became the impetus of a research effort originally conceived to demonstrate that the professor was wrong and facial attractiveness was not important for children and their relationships. Some twenty years and many research studies later have revealed that the professor was right and I was naive about the importance of attractiveness in child development. Facial attractiveness, I emphasize, is not the most important influence on children's relationships and development; intelligence and personality are both more important than attractiveness. Through my research, however, I now recognize that attractiveness makes a significant and meaningful contribution, more than previously believed.

Myths About Beauty.

Many conventional truisms about attractiveness are really myths. Despite the old adage "never judge a book by its cover" and despite the prevailing belief that attractiveness does not matter once we know a person, even parents judge and treat their own children differently based on attractiveness, although they are not aware of it. In a study of more than 150 Caucasian, Mexican American, and African American newborn infants and mothers, we found that moms of attractive first-born infants were more attentive and affectionate than moms of less attractive first-borns. All the mothers denied that attractiveness should matter in parental treatment of children but their behavior belied their beliefs.

Many studies, in addition, demonstrate that facial attractiveness is a significant correlate of children's popularity in the classroom, where the children are among familiar peers. One study we conducted shows that attractiveness is significantly related to social acceptance and popularity for girls throughout the entire school year. For boys, low attractiveness is associated with rejection by peers. Moreover, the likelihood that unattractive boys would be rejected increased, not decreased, as the school year progressed and as the boys became better acquainted.

These studies on parent-infant interaction and children's popularity directly contradict the notion that attractiveness becomes less important as people become better acquainted. Many studies also contradict the conventional wisdom that "beauty is all in the eye of the beholder." A 1960 study by psychologist A. H. Iliffe establishes vast agreement in attractiveness judgments made by more than 4,000 men and women ranging in age from fifteen to fifty-five and from different regions of the United Kingdom. Michael Cunningham and his colleagues point out that attractiveness ratings of Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, and Whites made by Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, and Whites are highly related. Even the attractiveness of young babies can be reliably judged by college students, even though they initially complain that all babies look alike!

Even more surprising, we discovered that infants, as young as three- to six-months of age, agree with the attractiveness judgments of adults, suggesting that the standards and preferences for beauty are not learned gradually through exposure to the media but rather are in place early in life. How do we know that babies prefer attractive faces given that they cannot talk to us? To answer this question we've conducted two different types of studies to assess infants' preferences for attractive faces.

The first study is a visual preference experiment. In these experiments, we showed a group of babies several slides of faces reliably rated by adults to be more or less attractive. The babies saw the faces of either Caucasian male or female adults, African-American adult females, or the faces of other infants. In each experiment, eight attractive and eight unattractive faces, matched closely for hair length, style, color, and facial expression, were chosen from a large group of faces. Pairs of these faces were projected side-by-side so that each image was about the size of a real face. The amount of time each infant looked at each face was then recorded. The results of all these studies were straightforward and unambiguous. Babies look longer at adult-judged attractive faces than at unattractive faces, regardless of whether the face is male or female, white or black, adult or infant.

We wondered whether these visual preferences of infants extended to other infant behaviors. To answer this question, we asked a professional mask maker to design and construct attractive and unattractive masks for a woman who would later interact with infants as a "stranger." The masks were realistic and life-like. They were thin enough to move the stranger's face so she could smile and talk freely. (Each mask, similar to those seen on the television program "Mission Impossible," took about 2.5 hours to apply to the stranger's face for an experimental session.) The stranger played with sixty one-year-olds, one at a time, using a strict, rehearsed script so that her behavior would be consistent for all infants. The stranger did not know whether the attractive or unattractive mask had been applied each day because the masks' interiors were identical. Thus her behavior toward the infants could not have been affected by her knowledge of whether she was "attractive" or "unattractive." The interactions between the stranger and the babies were recorded on videotape and scored by observers who could not see the stranger's face and who, therefore, could not be biased by the mask she wore.

The results showed that infants' preferences for attractive females do indeed extend beyond visual preferences to include actual behavioral differences. The infants more frequently avoided the stranger when she was unattractive than when she was attractive, and they showed more negative emotion and distress in the unattractive than in the attractive condition. Furthermore, boys (but not girls) approached the female stranger more often in the attractive than in the unattractive condition, perhaps foreshadowing the types of interactions that may later occur at parties and other social situations when the boys are older!

It appears that what our mothers and grandmothers said was true-that standards of attractiveness were gradually learned through exposure to the media-is actually wrong. Standards of and preferences for attractive faces are either innate or acquired much earlier than previously supposed.

Defining Beauty.

What exactly IS facial beauty and why is it that infants, children, and adults all seem to prefer attractive faces? Defining beauty is a task scientists and philosophers have tackled for centuries, largely without success. Recent empirical work on the effects of facial attractiveness, nevertheless, has proceeded without any conceptual or scientific definition of attractiveness. Researchers simply have defined attractive faces as those that raters agree are attractive! Even Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (10th Edition) is not much help: "Beauty. The quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit."

For our understanding of "what is facial beauty," we wanted and needed a more precise and scientific definition to help explain why infants, young children, and adults from various parts of the world could so easily agree on which faces are attractive and which are not. After searching all the existing research literature, we located a series of historic studies that showed that faces close to the average facial configuration of the population of faces should be attractive.

In the 1800s English anthropologist Sir Francis Galton and American psychologist George D. Stoddard created composite portraits by superimposing photographic exposures of faces. Essentially they constructed imprecise mathematical averages of faces by using this photographic technique. Galton's goal was to design facial types; he was especially fond of fabricating composites of criminals and vegetarians. Stoddard assembled composites of members of the National Academy of Sciences and of the 1883 and 1884 graduating classes of Smith College. Both Galton and Stoddard noticed and remarked that the composites were "better looking" than their individual components.

Why might "average" faces be preferred over non-average faces (not "average" in attractiveness, but average in facial configuration and proportion)? A cognitive theory emphasizes the role of prototypes in understanding how a person processes information. A prototype is an abstract, cognitive representation that reflects the best example of a category of objects or events, and it often is defined as the central tendency or the averaged members of the class of examples. For example, an average sized dog, neither very large nor very small, is usually represented as the prototypic dog in the human mind. So a dog that represents the average of all dogs would be the prototypic dog and a face that represents the average of all faces in the population would be the prototypic face. Many studies show that after seeing several examples of a category-for instance, schematic animals or schematic faces-one responds to an averaged representation of those category members as if it were special or familiar to us even if we have never seen it before. Studies even show that young infants can average incoming stimuli to form a prototype. Perhaps this is why infants in our research preferred attractive faces; if attractive faces are prototypical of the category of faces, they would be preferred because they seem more facelike or more familiar to the young infants.

A second theory also emphasizes the importance of "averageness." The field of evolutionary biology suggests that perhaps innate, built-in mechanisms account for these preferences for attractive faces. In the most common form of natural selection, called normalizing or stabilizing selection, evolutionary pressures operate against the extremes of the population and in favor of characteristics representing the average or central tendency of the population. Thus average values of characteristics shaped by normalizing selection are preferred in the population. According to this view, individuals with average population characteristics should be less likely to carry harmful genetic mutations than individuals with extreme population characteristics. In fact, evolutionary biologist Donald Symons has proposed an innate mechanism of perception that detects the population mean of anatomical features. For faces, Symons refers to this mechanism as a "beauty detector." The "beauty detector" averages observed faces and, because of stabilizing selection pressures, prefers these "average" faces over faces more distant from the mean.

Both cognitive and evolutionary theory suggest that faces representing the average of the population will be perceived as attractive as did Galton's work in the 1800s. We examined the hypothesis that averaged faces would be attractive by performing a "high tech" version of Galton's technique. We photographed a substantial number of UT Austin male and female undergraduates using a standard background, lighting, and distance. We randomly selected ninety-six male faces and ninety-six female faces and randomly put them into three sets of thirty-two faces for each sex with no overlapping faces in the sets. We then created three "composite" or averaged faces for each sex on a computer in a two-step process.

In the first step, we "digitized" the individual faces by converting the light and dark shades that comprise each face to an array of numbers, or chromatic values, that represent each face and can be manipulated just like any other set of numbers. Each color value represents a different shade present in the picture of the face.

In the second step, we mathematically averaged the numbers representing the different individual faces in each of the six sets. We created composite faces of two, four, eight, sixteen, and thirty-two different faces averaged together for each set of randomly selected faces. These averaged faces were photographed and rated for attractiveness by 300 judges along with the photographically equivalent (in other words, slightly blurred) slides of the individuals who went into them.

We found that averaged faces made of sixteen-and thirty-two-faces were judged to be significantly more attractive than the average attractiveness level of all the individual faces. Additional analyses indicated that, of the ninety-six individual male faces, only three were judged to be significantly more attractive than their thirty-two-face composite-about what is expected by chance. Of the female faces, only four were rated as significantly more attractive than the composites, again only the number one would expect by chance.

By using advanced computer technology, we demonstrated that "averaged" faces are perceived as attractive; we replicated this finding in two populations, male and female, and in three samples from each population. Although we do not think that "averageness" is the only aspect of facial beauty (expression and age are important as well), we do believe that "averageness" is a necessary and critical element of attractiveness. Without "averageness" even the most youthful, smiling face will not be judged as attractive.

Although evolutionary and cognitive theory are generally considered quite different theoretical accounts of human behavior, they both posit similar mechanisms in the case of preferences for attractive faces by suggesting that prototypic or averaged faces underlies the tendency of infants and adults from diverse cultures to notice and prefer attractive faces. At this point, we can't choose between evolutionary theory, which suggests that preferences for attractive faces are innate, and cognitive theory, which suggests that preferences for attractive faces are acquired early in life through exposure to category members. Indeed one of the most exciting aspects of this work is that we will eventually be able to contribute some answers to the age-old nature vs. nurture debate: what capabilities are we born with and what capabilities are developed due to experience?

Caveat.

I end with a cautionary note. After hearing of this work and about the "myths" of attractiveness, one might wonder if this research on the nature of facial beauty is in some way an advocacy of the importance of beauty, an approval of the emphasis on beauty in the media, or a suggestion that because preferences for attractiveness are evident so early in life, they are an immutable aspect of human nature. The answer to all three questions is no! It is true that even the youngest of us fall victim to the "beauty-is-good" bias automatically, and that often we are not aware that we have such biases in favor of attractive individuals. As cognitive humans, however, we are capable of controlling many aspects of our thoughts and behaviors, an ability that distinguishes us from lower animal species and allows us to change undesirable aspects of our behavior. Studying and examining these unconscious influences, such as biases toward facial beauty, help us become aware of how and when they operate and thus allow us to learn to oppose them. The same research that identifies these unconscious processes can rob them of their mystique and influence and can lead us to behave more consciously and humanely.

Dr. Judith H. Langlois is the Charles and Sarah Seay Regents Professor of Developmental Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin.

Reproduced with permission. Copyright (c) 1997 Office of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

Home>>Collection>>The Question of Beauty

2000-02-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

Home>>Body>>Modifying the Body: Tattoos and Piercings

Modifying the Body: Tattoos and Piercings

Body modification in the form of tattooing and piercing is traditionally viewed with reserve in contemporary Western societies. Those with tattoos or piercings are seen as rebellious and defiant of social conventions. However, body adornment in other non-Western cultures plays an expressive role in the articulation of cultural and religious values. Ritual ceremonies involving body modification and ornamentation mark rites of passage, the calling of spirits and the enhancement of beauty (1). Whilst Western societies promote slender, tall athletic bodies as an ideal of beauty, perceptions of beauty in other cultures often focus on what has been done to the body rather than on the body itself.

Body modification is not a new practice. It can be seen in many ancient cultures. Evidence of body marking has been found on Egyptian mummies dating from between 4000 and 2000 BC. The word tattoo is derived from the Tahitian word meaning 'to strike', tatau , and examples can be found in the history of ancient societies in Hawaii and Tahiti. A recently discovered 'Ice Man' whose tattoo markings were preserved in a glacier, is estimated to be around 5000 years old. In Britain, tattoos of animal motifs on members of ancient tribes were designed to scare their adversaries in warfare. As Julius Caesar remarked, the blue appearance that these tattoos gave to the warriors made them 'frightful to look upon in battle' (2). However, when Roman soldiers imitated these tattoos themselves, the Roman Emperor Constantine I banned the practice as being against 'God's handiwork'. In effect, body ornamentation in Western Europe was thereby largely repressed and extinguished through fear of religious persecution by the then dominanct Christian religion.

In other non-Western cultures, however, tattooing, piercing and scarification of the body were regarded as a necessary part of religious expression. Within these cultures, body adornment and alteration were believed to distinguish humans from other animals, so providing evidence of civilisation and socialisation. Ornamentation was performed following strict observation of ritual preparation, ceremony and taboos. For example, tattooing was widespread as a religious practice among the peoples of the South Pacific. In the Marquesan Islands, tattooing of men began at puberty in a ceremonial rite. Women's arms and legs were also inscribed with complex and elaborate motifs. These tattoos were believed to defend against spiritual and physical danger. Similarly, a sacred rite among the Maori involved using a mallet and chisel to gouge deep cuts in the skin, usually on the face. Those who received the tattoo were highly respected for their spirituality and bravery and were secluded from other non-sacred people while their wounds healed.

A form of tattooing called cicatrisation or scarification is widely practised in traditional African societies. Rubbing charcoal into small cuts made with razors or thorns forms decorative patterns of scar tissue in the skin. These designs are often indicative of social rank, traits of character, political status and religious authority. For African women, scarification is largely associated with fertility. Scars added at puberty, after the birth of the first child, or following the end of breastfeeding highlight the bravery of women in enduring the pain of childbirth. Scars on the hips and buttocks, on the other hand, both visually and tactually accentuate the erotic and sensual aspects of these parts of the female body.
In other cultures, piercing rather than tattooing forms the main focus of such religious and social symbolism. For example ear piercings in Alaska are used to represent social status and prestige. Similarly, lip piercings in Inuit (Eskimo) societies are performed at puberty to mark a boy's transition to manhood, whilst social distinction is emphasized by nose piercings among the Tlingit of Alaska. Tattooing, on the other hand, is traditionally thought to enhance female beauty in Inuit (Eskimo) societies. Close parallel lines running from the lower lip to the chin of a young girl are usually drawn by older women using a needle, thread and lamp soot.

Body ornamentation, especially tattooing, was spread among Western societies when soldiers and sailors returning from conquest and trade imitated the practices they had seen among the indigenous people of Asia, Africa and the South Pacific. Working class men in Europe and America wore tattoos primarily as a symbol of tough masculine pride throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, a revival of interest in body modification in Western industrialized societies in the late twentieth century is associated more with domestic youth culture movements than with the foreign origins of such practices. The Beatniks of the 1950s and Hippie movements of the 1960s turned to Asian tattooing techniques as a personal expression of spiritual and mystical body aestheticism. Conversely, working-class young people of the Punk movement in the late 1970s and 80s used tattoos and piercing as symbols of rebellion in an explicit political protest against their feelings of imprisonment in society's rigid class structure and values.

A recent rise in the popularity of tattooing and piercing in the West is evident in magazine features (3), themed photographic exhibitions (4) and newspaper articles (5). In America, it is estimated that between 10 and 25 per cent of teenagers have some kind of tattoo or piercing (6). The opening of a tattoo and piercing section in the London high-street store, Selfridges, indicates a new interest among middle class men and women in body modification techniques. This can be attributed to an increasing professionalism of such practices and access to high quality tattooing resources (7). Popular forms of tattooing range from a single image to a full bodysuit tattoo. Common sites of body piercing include the ear, eyebrow, nose, bridge, cheek, lip, navel, nipple and genital. Different methods of piercing add further variety to body modification styles and include the regular method, surface, pearling, sub-incision and pocket piercing.

However, whilst body modification may be finding new levels of acceptance in certain areas of society, motivations for tattooing and piercing among adolescents and middle class women are profoundly different in nature from those of the sailors, soldiers, bikers and gang members more commonly associated with such practices in the West. Originally a social symbol of group identification and affiliation, tattoos and piercings are now being invested with more personal, individual meanings. Clinton Sanders, a sociologist who spent seven years engaged in field research work among young people with tattoos, believes that tattoos provided his subjects with a means of self-identity. He writes that they marked themselves with 'indelible symbols of what they see themselves to be' (8). The sociologist Chris Shilling argues that as notions of the inner 'self' are conflated with the appearance of the surface of the body, adornment and ornamentation occupy an increasingly significant role in the construction of personal identity (9). In other words, piercings, tattoos and other body modifications allow a person to control and manipulate visual projections of their own sense of individuality. For example, the website 'Body Modification Ezine' (10) includes numerous readers' stories about the extent to which a tattoo or piercing has changed their image of themselves. One contributor wrote that being pierced 'helped me know who I am'.

It appears therefore that, whilst practices of body modification in traditional non-Western cultures serve to connect people to their social position and ancestry, tattooing and body piercing in the West functions to delineate individuals from the society in which they live. As such, body modification in contemporary Western societies is not only a code of identity but also an attainable aesthetic standard of beauty and physical appeal among those that ascribe to its values.

(1) Krakow, A. (1994) The Total Tattoo Book , New York, Warner Books.

(2) Sanders, C. (1988) 'Marks of mischief. Becoming and being tattooed' in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography , Vol. 16, No. 4, Jan, pp. 395-432.

(3) For example, Betts, K. (1994) 'Body language' in Vogue , April, vol. 184, issue 4, p. 344.

(4) For example, Manne, D. (1993) 'Hung up on SM' in The Melbourne Times , July 7, p. 13.

(5) For example, Masterton, A. (1994) 'Carved in Flesh' in The Age Extra , September 3, p. 13.

(6) (2002)'Body piercing, tattooing, self-esteem and body investment in adolescent girls', Adolescence , Autumn issue.

(7) Rubin, A. (1988) Marks of Civilisation , Los Angeles, Museum of Cultural History.

(8) Sanders, C. (1988) 'Marks of mischief: becoming tattooed', Journal of Contemporary Ethnography , Vol. 6, No. 4, Jan., pp. 393-432.

(9) Shilling, C. (1993) The Body and Social Theory , London, Sage.

(10) http://www.bmezine.com/

Home>>Body>>Modifying the Body: Tattoos and Piercings

2000-02-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular units of work

Online cross-curricular units of work

The Science and Politics of Cosmetic Surgery: What is cosmetic surgery? What views do different people have about cosmetic surgery, and why? What are the key scientific aspects of issues concerning cosmetic surgery? How does the media cover issues and problems of cosmetic surgery, and what effect does this have on our understanding and opinion of them?

Beauty in Contemporary Global Cultures: In these activities, students develop their understanding of the economic, social and political forces which shape all of our lives through a study of beauty in contemporary global cultures. They develop knowledge of the world as a global community, and the political, economic and social implications of this.

The Body as Image: What is image? How has the body been used as an image in different times and cultures? How is the body used as an image in contemporary art and photography?

The Significance of the Media in Issues of Beauty Culture: What makes a news story in beauty culture? How does the media promote beauty standards? How does the media contribute to the creation of celebrities? Should celebrities in beauty culture have a right to privacy?

Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to read the downloadable worksheets associated with these Units of Work.

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular units of work

2000-02-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

Home>>Presentation of content

Presentation of Content

This website is designed to be read by people seeking original, quality information about the nature and culture of beauty, and by teachers looking for ways to incorporate these ideas in their classroom teaching.

It does not:

include many graphics: "since most users have access speeds on the order of 28.8 kbps, Web pages can be no more than 3 KB if they are to download in one second which is the required response time for hypertext navigation. Users do not keep their attention on the page if downloading exceeds 10 seconds, corresponding to 30 KB at modem speed. Keeping below these size limits rules out most graphics." (Jacob Nielsen, expert on web design and usability).

It does:

employ scannable text

use highlighted keywords

include meaningful sub-headings

use outbound hypertext links to refer readers to additional information, images, interactive and multi-media presentations of the main content.

Further details about the presentation and design of this website can be found in Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity by Jacob Nielsen.

Home>>Presentation of content

2000-01-31T09:57:00.000-08:00

Home>>About the Author

About the Author

Lindie Pavati is a qualified teacher, artist and musician. Born in Italy, she completed University honours and postgraduate degrees in Rome and London. Her PhD thesis studied the work of designers in Milan, analysing its social context and cultural significance. She was editor of the journal, La Sociologia dell’Arte and co-founder of the Centre for Youth: Art in Society. Between 1992 and 2001, she specialised in the cross-curricular development of PSHE and Citizenship, teaching in secondary schools across the UK. She now lectures in adult education and teacher training.

Home>>About the Author

2000-01-30T12:16:00.000-08:00

Home>>Collection>>In Praise of Intellectual Beauty

In Praise of Intellectual Beauty

By John Haber. First published in Haberarts.

Description is revelation.
— Wallace Stevens

Why Art Takes Words

What difference does it make whether Rembrandt or a follower painted The Polish Rider, as long as it still looks beautiful? When scholars burden us with arguments, is it only to dull our senses and certify some dealer's prices? I think not, and to explain why, I am going to deny the very premise that there is appearance or beauty on the one hand, history or interpretation on the other.

Sure, the intellect can often denigrate beauty, even ruin it entirely. The threat goes far beyond our respect for art, right to its existence. At least unfamiliar followers of Rembrandt are still painters, and their work is still art. But when critics claim that a row of oversized Campbell's soup labels can be art, they imply that something else—say, something in the supermarket—might not be.If that sounds a little too much like a cause for celebration, try turning our merry critics loose on a Native American tapestry or an African ritual object. Will it be art, decoration, both, or neither? How about its knock-off behind the furniture display at the mall?

The ability of the mind to establish value in old colored fabrics and aluminum cans is remarkable. At the very least, it reminds us that art is a human creation, and that alone gives it meaning. However, I want to leave tough philosophical questions about the nature of art aside right now. My goal is to plead for the beauty that the critical intellect can bring alive for us, even when its words sound difficult and obscure.

Seeing beauty for the first time

When we classify things, it is our way of arranging in our heads what we see, and it allows us to see more. A botanist can be so much more sensitive to the beauty and variety of plants than most backyard observers—and more aware of how that beauty and variety hinge on the smallest detail. Even a bored, hurried city dweller like me can be made to see more than just one green patch after another and to relish the difference.

Science does not have exclusive insight into nature, of course. Art, too, inspires us with the wonder of living things. All the same, both work by forcing us and, ultimately, training us to see. As Yogi Berra said once, you can observe a lot just by looking.

For the same reason, it always helps to decide who painted something: we can then see more in the painting. In ordinary language, the word "connoisseur" has both connotations—of aesthete and scholar making attributions. Artists most committed to beauty for its own sake will take added pleasure when someone sees their special style in something they did, and the viewer takes much the same pleasure in the draftsman's art.

Several generations, myself included, have been turned on to painting by reading Bernard Berenson on the Italian Renaissance and Erwin Panofsky on the Northern Renaissance. Both, writing decades ago, in a sense created artistic personas out of a mass of art and a scarcity of historical records. Sometimes it meant chucking out the losers, but often it meant appreciating a wider range of different styles—and appreciating them more deeply.

The best researchers have often been the finest teachers, because they could share with their students the pleasure that took them to the cutting edge. Thanks to teachers like these, I can appreciate both the delicacy of Jan van Eyck and broader streaks of shading in Petrus Christus, his close follower. I can thrill again to angular complexity of an influence on them both, Robert Campin. I can re-experience Giotto's innovations in debates over who painted what might be his earliest frescos. Now that I see Titian in light of his predecessors, I no longer write off his work as a lot of out-of-focus, overweight women. I can marvel that he somehow held in his hands both the grandeur of the High Renaissance and the subtle color and light of Venice.

Sometimes, deattributing an artwork does make it look a good deal worse—does entail serious value judgments as an essential critical role—and that can be good, too. Over and over, once a forgery is uncovered, we no longer understand how we were ever taken in. We suddenly see all those differences created by a lesser artist in our own time.

Letting beauty be strange

At other times, knowledge makes the things we enjoy look stranger—without our enjoying them any the less. A psychologist or historian of chivalry can say how childhood and culture determine who and how we love. A physicist or biologist can explain the emergence of life on a different level. Still, we are in love after all that, and explanations need not make us discount experience. We may see it as less innocent, but the change can be strengthening as well as chastening. Who said innocence is so great, especially in love?

When we let ourselves imagine a loss of beauty, we really are speaking about just that added strangeness, and art thrives on it. I have allowed myself to use beauty too complacently, as a catch-all for the pleasures we take in appearances, but it must be an unfamiliar kind of beauty indeed. Art does not pander to our preference for pretty pictures and tabloid shocks. That refusal is the explicit stance of much modern art; it is why we sometimes hear, misleadingly, that real art is ugly. Artists, however, have always looked without flinching at the banality of life and the terror of death. In his last years, Titian even imagined himself as the satyr Marsyas, being flayed alive by the gods.

Probably the need to work at understanding is most obvious in the older masters, which is why their galleries are visited so infrequently. Even a painting that seems to go down as easy as The Polish Rider poses an obvious problem. It might have been easier to decide who painted it if we could reach agreement on what exactly was painted. Whatever it was, it mattered enough to Rembrandt and his studio to inspire a great work, so I would not be too sure that it no longer matters for our admiration.

Because the ideas behind art of past centuries seem remote, they make us face how much we assume when we pretend today simply to look. The need to interpret contemporary works is just as pressing, precisely because their assumptions are so close to us as to be invisible. When we have achieved enough detachment to decide confidently when geometric abstraction or political art is more than a hoax, we can dispense with the arguments and books, but then we shall probably no longer need the art.

The need for interpretation is most severe of all for those decades in between the old masters and the art of today, when the art has become all too familiar. We enjoy Impressionism, but we can easily miss the powerful emotions that produced it, respected it, and denounced it—or the overwhelming effect it had on early Modernism. Those matters are mere history; they hinge on long-gone trends in genre, style, and technique, the society being depicted, and the politics of the French art world. But they led viewers to do more than hang reproductions over their sofas; they caused people to risk their careers. By rediscovering those issues, we can recover some of the emotional response that got Manet to be caricatured in newspapers or sent Cézanne back to contemplate his mountain year after year, and we also gain by learning about other artists, especially women artists, whom the easy stories long overlooked.

Seeing our stake in beauty

Naturally only the ideal scholar, free of economic motives, never lets attributions stand in the way of admiration for art. The Dutch Rembrandt committee is biased to keeping the artist a genius, and so it often tries to assign unsuccessful art to the workshop. But when the committee does better—as in deattributing a painting as popular as The Polish Rider—it can help us grow to enjoy lesser talents, where before we might have simply dismissed the works as bad Rembrandt.

But admirers of beauty for its own sake let their personal motives destroy art's emotional precision just as often. It is what we mean when we call something sentimental, and it is as reductive of art—as much an irritable reaching after certainty—as any scholarly thesis. Most of the time, when one side accuses the other of being anti-intellectual, while the other side complains about willful obscurity, both are correct.

We should value anyone who speaks about art simply and still says something. I myself would love to be clear and knowledgeable enough to reach both sides when I write, and I bet I lose both instead! For all that, however, we must learn to live with difficult ideas about art as well as direct expression. There is a time and a place for both.

I spent many years learning to read science and to look at painting because scientists and painters themselves had spent centuries refining their expression. Science and art needed that time, in order to make their point as richly and as economically as possible. We should not expect such marvelous languages to let themselves be spoken too harshly or too quickly.

In our time, the very distinction between supposed plainness and sublime difficulty has broken down. Modern art tries to be stripped down, but it still has many people puzzled. Scientists have an annoying habit of talking about simplicity, when they mean that matters boil down to two or three equations that plebeians cannot hope to understand. Words like plainness and simplicity may still have meaning, but life got complicated, and it necessarily became harder to say just who is conning whom. As so often in life, however, I believe that the con artist will generally be the one professing the greatest innocence.

Recovering beauty for ourselves

As philosophers have often stressed, there is no such thing as pure observation, free of exactly this kind of difficulty. Everything we are and everything we perceive is caught up in what we know—our cultures, our languages, our prejudices, our teachers, our hypotheses, and our love. I think that this is what makes art so important: when it most seems to copy nature, it in fact sees nature as something—and, when the artist is really moving to us, as something we had never fully known before.

In the end, scholarship cannot spoil our sense of beauty, because it is still up to our own sensibility to agree. Even critics have fragile moments. When a museum reframes an artist or the crossroads of Modernism, we can turn our backs. For what it may be worth, I do not like The Polish Rider quite as much as the Dutch committee—or, for that matter, the general public—but I think it is by Rembrandt.

Beauty and the intellect are inseparable, and art relies for its very mystery on a mixture of both. Along with Shelley, we owe a hymn to intellectual beauty.

John Haber is an editor and writer living in New York.

Reproduced with permission. Copyright (c) 2004 John Haber.

Home>>Collection>>In Praise of Intellectual Beauty

2000-01-29T07:11:00.000-08:00

Home>>Creative Arts>>The Rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art

The Rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art

Beauty, as personified by Venus or Aphrodite, has been in evidence as a core concern of human beings for tens of thousands of years, since the time of the glorious cave paintings and sculptures found in ancient Palaeolithic caves. Its celebration in modern times has been degraded and rejected, its application to creative works a term of devaluation causing suspicion and anxiety in audiences and artists alike. In her book, Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art, Wendy Steiner underlines the assertion that modern art is purposely ugly and attempts to trace the intellectual roots of this monstrosity through the philosophies of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke, early twentieth century arguments of the avant-garde and the movement to banish the feminine, the sentimental and the beautiful in striving to attain the shattering experience of the sublime. Steiner’s thesis throughout is that the result has been a “double dehumanising” and severe alienation of human interest. She provides an interesting account of what she perceives to be the inhumanity of modern art and its exorcism of women as objects of desire through a misogynistic attack on feminine beauty.

Steiner locates the avant-garde and modernist stance in Kant’s earlier distinction between the sublime and the merely beautiful. She idiosyncratically but deftly explores how philosophers at the height of the Classical Revival in the eighteenth century considered the problem of beauty in art. With reference to Kant’s Critique of Judgement of 1790, she explains how beauty came to be seen as having no function, whether spiritual, moral (or Sensual) or practical. Beauty, it was believed, could no longer find any definition in reason or laws, but could be produced only by genius, an intuitive faculty regarded as both innovative and unpredictable. Kant’s beauty not only looks different from Classical Beauty, it is different in kind: it is the sublime realisation of a state of mind, an intense awareness of life produced by aspects of nature that often lack rational form and threaten to engulf or destroy us. If beauty involves ease and idleness, the sublime involves difficulty and activity; if beauty grants repose and drowsiness, the sublime requires effort and tension. The sublime transcends everyday experience and is to be found in uncultivated nature, exotic strangeness and imagination pushed almost to the grotesque. Sublimity overpowers whereas beauty entices and embodies subservience.

Steiner invokes Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon as a clear example of what she hails the modernist adaptation of the sublime: “Why not journey to the very heart of impurity to bring back the formal treasure? The logic of the avant-garde led ineluctably to the obscene, the pornographic, the abject.” Brutal, fantastical and fragmented, Picasso’s depiction of prostitutes on display is charged with undermining conventional expectations of female beauty. It is intended to shatter what the modernist perceived to be complacent, comfortable social hypocrisies and, in so doing, “shock … both the senses and sensibilities of the general public.” Appreciation by the modernist audience par excellence required the viewer to be able to come face to face, through the mediation of the artist, with an otherwise inaccessible, frightening reality as an experience of the sublime. Steiner maintains that, ironically, this desire for art to reach beyond the limitations of human experience, to “demonstrate its transcendence by including, indeed celebrating, every form of transgression” often resulted in the evocation of something depressing rather than sublime.

Steiner observes moreover that the beauty of women is strictly the beauty of sex, and this is a beauty, disturbingly enough, that builds on weakness, smoothness, delicacy and inferiority. As the beautiful, charming and agreeable were expulsed from artistic endeavour, so the domesticating female associated with these qualities was similarly rejected. Whilst perhaps reducing the admittedly infamous sexism and contempt for women of modernist artists to lyrical rhetoric by her style of writing, Steiner’s general tenet is sound. She claims, “Eliminating [women] from art was the most programmatic way to reveal the logic of the sublime, to divorce avant-garde art from bourgeois values, and to dismantle the ideology of female value enshrined in chivalric romance.”

Steiner frames the modernist rejection of the female subject as an aesthetic symbol in an understanding of the experience of beauty as a form of communication, in which an appreciation of beauty in another or in an object leads the perceiver to recognise his or her own beauty. In this view, beauty is not an inherent property of an object, existing independently of the act of judgement. Rather, beauty forms an act of discovery and an exchange of power, “an opportunity for self-revelation rather than a defeat.” Steiner explains how modernism undermines this dynamic understanding of beauty. She describes a one-way model of power in which “the perceiver, perplexed and ungratified by such a work, had no choice but to see the artist as the real centre of attention.” In reading Steiner’s book it is clear that it takes social courage to express taste now. It is no longer a matter of individual preference, but something you can get badly wrong …

Steiner argues convincingly and provocatively that the modernist rejection of everyday experience in turn “perpetuated a cultural deprivation from which we are only now recovering.” She explains in detail how the success de scandale may at once claim to be the epitome of modernist artistic creation that liberates us from limitations but in actuality be only dehumanising and desolating, provoking widespread public repugnance. Reflecting on this paradox, Steiner writes, “The procedure has turned the reception history of modern art into a repetitive farce, each episode of which typically begins with outrage concerning some shocking subject matter packaged in unprecedented formal means, and ends with an act of aesthetic mystification: the taming, denaturing, and stilling of threat by the calming discovery of form.” More hopefully though, Steiner’s book also signals that the dismissal of the beautiful as an artistic subject, triggered by the favouring of the sublime over the sensual, may gradually be going into reversal. She proposes the choreography of Mark Morris, the paintings of Marlene Dumas and the novels of Penelope Fitzgerald as examples of a new trend towards “the reimagination of the female subject as an equal partner in aesthetic pleasure”. Furthermore, she contends that this development goes beyond a mere reinstatement of premodernist conventions of beauty: “beauty appears in a new perspective. A female subject may symbolize it, but so may one who is male.”

Steiner’s exploration is detailed and generously illustrated, albeit sometimes to the detriment of systematic development. Meanderings aside, Venus in Exile offers intriguing flashes of astute understanding into the apparent destruction of beauty and the rejection of the female subject as an aesthetic symbol in twentieth-century art. It is a powerful read for anyone interested in discovering the resurrection of beauty and aesthetic primacy as acceptable terms of judgement and evaluation.

References and Links

Steiner, W. (2001) Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Read Kant’s Critique of Judgement translated by James Creed Meredith.

Visit the website of the Musée National Picasso in Paris.

Home>>Creative Arts>>The Rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art

2000-01-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

Home>>Collection>>Physical beauty involves more than good looks

Physical beauty involves more than good looks

By Emily Carlson. First published April 15, 2004 in University Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

There is more to beauty than meets the stranger's eye, according to results from three studies examining the influence of non-physical traits on people's perception of physical attractiveness.

The results, which show that people perceive physical appeal differently when they look at those they know versus strangers, are published in the recently released March [2004] issue of Evolution and Human Behavior.

In many studies evaluating physical attractiveness, people are often shown an array of strangers' photos, computer-generated images or line drawings and asked to identify which ones, based on differences in physical features, are most attractive. Results from these studies suggest that physically attractive traits include high degrees of bilateral facial symmetries, such as eyes that are identical in shape and size, and waist-to-hip ratios of 0.7 for women and 0.9 for men.

"You can find study after study that focuses on which waist-to-hip ratios or particular facial features people find physically attractive, and these studies have captured popular attention," says Kevin Kniffin, an honorary fellow in the anthropology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an adjunct assistant professor at Binghamton University.

Kniffin co-authored the Evolution and Human Behavior paper with David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University.

While these past studies do show which features people find physically appealing after just a glance, they overlook the non-physical traits that may influence a person's perception of another's beauty over time. In other words, people may see physical attractiveness differently when they know that person's other qualities, usually invisible to strangers, says Kniffin.

Pressures selecting for the influence of non-physical traits on the perception of physical beauty have operated across millennia. According to evolutionary theory, many animals, including humans, are attracted to those who are likely to increase their own fitness -- the likelihood of surviving and reproducing.

In the case of humans, "the fitness value of potential social partners depends at least as much on non-physical traits -- whether they are cooperative, dependable, brave, hardworking, intelligent and so on -- as physical factors, such as smooth skin and symmetrical features," says Wilson. "It follows that non-physical factors should be included in the subconscious assessment of beauty."

To systematically consider the influence of non-physical traits on how people who are familiar with each other perceive physical appeal, Kniffin and Wilson conducted three studies of beauty involving people who know each other and people who don't. For all studies, the participants were asked to rate physical attractiveness and non-physical traits such as liking, respect and talent. Strangers rated only physical attractiveness.

In the first study, the participants rated people photographed in high school yearbooks, including one that belonged to each participant. In the second, members of a college sports team, as well as strangers, rated each team member. Finally, students in a summer archaeological excavation course rated each other on the first day of class and six weeks later at the end of the course.

"In each case, non-physical traits known only to familiars, such as how much the person was liked, respected and contributed to shared goals, had a large effect on the perception of physical attractiveness that was invisible to the strangers," says Wilson.

Each study provided an illustrative example of this finding. For instance, one middle-aged subject who had not seen the familiar person photographed in the yearbook for decades responded with absolute disgust when she recalled the person's character and described that person as ugly. In the sports team study, team members considered the slacker to be ugly and one of the leaders to be physically attractive, while strangers, blind to the members' relative contributions, rated them as equally attractive on the basis of photographs. And, after six weeks of working together on an archaeological dig, students' perception of physical attractiveness changed based on interactions during the course.

In a world where people are bombarded with messages about physical attractiveness from magazines, television and advertisements, the researchers say their results point to the influence of other traits on people's perception of physical beauty. Kniffin adds that he hopes these findings may encourage the consumers of this information to rethink the value of cosmetic surgery, especially if it involves risk.

At the end of their paper, the researchers offer this beauty tip: "If you want to enhance your physical attractiveness, become a valuable social partner."

Look at what that did for Abraham Lincoln.

"During his lifetime, he was regarded as so ugly that he once quipped, 'If I were two-faced, do you think I would be wearing this one?'" says Wilson. "Yet his physical features have become beloved, not because of their physical qualities per se, but because of what they stand for."

Emily Carlson is a Science and Research writer for University Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Reproduced with permission. Copyright (c) 2004 University Communications/Emily Carlson.

Home>>Collection>>Physical beauty involves more than good looks

2000-01-27T01:25:00.000-08:00

Home>>Collection>>Great Hair Days in Ancient Egypt

Great Hair Days in Ancient Egypt

By Ilene Springer. First published July 1, 2001 in Tour Egypt.

There was probably no better time for hair than in ancient Egypt. You could dye it, cut it, braid it, shave it, weave charms into it—and then there were the wigs—of countless designs. The ancient Egyptians-- both men and women--were known for hating facial and body hair and used all kinds of shaving implements to get rid of it. But hair on the head? They loved it—and had so many ways of showing it.

"Human hair was of great importance in ancient Egypt," writes Egyptologist Joann Fletcher, Ph.D., for Egypt Revealed magazine. "Rich or poor of both genders treated hair—their own or locks obtained elsewhere—as a highly pliable means of self-expression."

But hair styles were more than self-expression. Wigs, which the Egyptians were very fond of, not only allowed for ornate hair decorating, but also helped the ancient Egyptians with cleanliness, protected the (shaved) scalp from the sun and kept the head cool and also prevented that modern-day scourge—head lice, according to Fletcher. She writes, "Our research has turned up the world’s oldest head lice, which bedeviled an Egyptian from Abydos about 5000 years ago."

How do we know about ancient Egyptian hair? Egypt’s hot and dry conditions naturally preserved the soft tissues of the body after death, including the nails, skin and hair. This is true even of poor people who were simply buried in the sand and not mummified. From this process we have seen the many different ways the ancient Egyptians adorned their hair. There is archaeological evidence that hair extensions and dyes were used in Egypt at least as early as 3400 B.C.

We have also recovered many different tomb paintings and statues that show elaborate hair styles. A most interesting feature on many of the statues is the artistic rendering of a bit of the person’s natural hair peeking through under the wig, indicating that wigs were a desired form of hair ornament and were an obvious supplement to the hair—and not used to replace the natural hair.

It is the tomb paintings that show the hair in "motion." Many paintings show women with their ornate wigs topped by a perfumed cone, often worn during festive occasions, which melted and cascaded over the wig as the evening went on. The tomb paintings also show men and women getting their hair done by other individuals, probably servants. There is evidence that the Egyptians cut their hair with very sharp blades as early as 3000 B.C.

What is most intriguing, according to Fletcher, is that women’s wigs were less elaborate than those of men’s. Therefore, they may have appeared more natural looking. One exception was a female mummy discovered in the Valley of the Golden Mummies with a mask on her head with a unique hairstyle at the back arranged in a round cake-like shape, according to Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass.

For the most part, women used hair extensions to fill out thinning hair or just make regular tresses more luxuriant. Wigs and extensions were almost always made of human hair—either collected from the individual or bought or traded from someone else. Wigs and extensions were fashioned with a variety of clever weaves and knots that were secured into or onto the real hair (or scalp) with beeswax and resin. Many wigs had an internal padding of date-palm fiber that gave the wigs their famous fullness.

Braids were a favorite form of hair extension, and some were woven into intricate designs to give more length and greater style. According to Fletcher, a man buried at Mostagedda had used thread to fasten lengths of human hair to his own. The wavy brown hair of Queen Meryet-Amun had been filled out around the crown and temples with tapered braids. She was also buried, as many well-to-do women, with a duplicate set of braids.

The ancient Egyptians hated gray hair and would use a variety of methods to eliminate it. Sometimes the hair would be dyed after death. The dye of choice was vegetable henna, which, five thousand years later is still used by many native Egyptians (and people abroad) for the same purpose. In one mummy, the henna dyed the natural dark brown hair an auburn color, while turning the unpigmented white hairs a bright orange.

Art was a part of everyday life of the ancient Egyptians. And it is clear that they considered their hair as a supreme form of self-art which had endless possibilities. Again, we can thank the skill of these ancient artisans and the climate for allowing us to still enjoy what they did thousands of years ago.

Ilene Springer writes on ancient Egypt. She is a student of museum studies at Harvard University in Boston.

Reproduced with permission. Copyright (c) 2001 Tour Egypt/Ilene Springer.

Home>>Collection>>Great Hair Days in Ancient Egypt

2000-01-26T07:25:00.000-08:00

Home>>Collection>>The Psychoanalytic Construction of Beauty

The Psychoanalytic Construction of Beauty

By Donald Kuspit. First published July 23, 2002 in Artnet Magazine.

I think the best way of understanding the basic difference between the psychoanalytic approach to beauty and the traditional approach is by beginning with two quotations, one neatly summarizing the traditional approach, the other stating the essentials of the psychoanalytic approach. The first quotation is from an essay by the novelist, literary critic and philosopher William Gass, the second, as you might expect, is from Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Rather touchingly and defiantly in the present situation, in which art seems to have become the servant of ideology, at the expense of beauty, Gass, in an essay called "The Baby or the Botticelli" -- the original title "Goodness Knows Nothing of Beauty" is more to the point -- declares:

I think it is one of the artist's obligations to create as perfectly as he or she can, not regardless of all other consequences, but in full awareness, nevertheless, that in pursuing other values -- in championing Israel or fighting for the rights of women, or defending the faith, or exposing capitalism, supporting your sexual preferences or speaking for your race -- you may simply be putting on a saving scientific, religious, political mask to disguise your failure as an artist. Neither the world's truth nor a god's goodness will win you beauty's prize.
Finally, in a world which does not provide beauty for its own sake, but where the loveliness of flowers, landscapes, faces, trees and sky are adventitious and accidental, it is the artist's task to add to the world's objects and ideas those delineations, carvings, tales, fables and symphonic spells which ought to be there; to make things whose end is contemplation and appreciation; to give birth to beings whose qualities harm no one, yet reward even the most casual notice, and which therefore deserve to become the focus of a truly disinterested affection. [1]

Contrast this rather idealistic statement with Freud's more down-to-earth statement, in Civilization and Its Discontents (1929), in the context of a discussion of happiness:

...consider the interesting case in which happiness in life is predominantly sought in the enjoyment of beauty, wherever beauty presents itself to our senses and our judgment -- the beauty of human forms and gestures, of natural objects and landscapes and of artistic and even scientific creations. This esthetic attitude to the goal of life offers little protection against the threat of suffering, but it can compensate for a great deal. The enjoyment of beauty has a peculiar mildly intoxicating quality of feeling. Beauty has no obvious use; nor is there any cultural necessity for it. Yet civilization could not do without it. The science of esthetics investigates the conditions under which things are felt as beautiful, but it has been unable to give any explanation of the nature and origin of beauty, and, as usually happens, lack of success is concealed beneath a flood of resounding and empty words. Psychoanalysis, unfortunately, has scarcely anything to say about beauty either. All that seems certain is its derivation from the field of sexual feeling. The love of beauty seems a perfect example of an impulse inhibited in its aim. "Beauty" and "attraction" are originally attributes of the sexual object. It is worth remarking that the genitals themselves, the sight of which is always exciting, are nevertheless hardly ever judged to be beautiful; the quality of beauty seems, instead to match to certain secondary sexual characters. [2]

What Freud means by "secondary sexual characters" is clear from an earlier statement in "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" (1905). Remarking that "seeing . . . is ultimately derived from touching," Freud asserts:

Visual impressions remain the most frequent pathway along which libidinal excitation is aroused; indeed, natural selection counts upon the accessibility of this pathway -- if such a teleological form of statement is permissible -- when it encourages the development of beauty in the sexual object. The progressive concealment of the body which goes along with civilization keeps sexual curiosity awake. This curiosity seeks to complete the sexual object by revealing its hidden parts. It can, however, be diverted ('sublimated') in the direction of art, if its interest can be shifted away from the genitals on to the shape of the body as a whole. It is usual for most people to linger to some extent over the intermediate sexual aim of a looking that has a sexual tinge to it; indeed, this offers them a possibility of directing some proportion of their libido on to higher artistic aims. [3]

What Freud means by diverting sexual attention from the genitals to the body as a whole is quite clear when one studies the history of the representation of the female nude. From such ancient representations as the Venus de Milo, ca. 150 B.C., to such Renaissance representations as Botticelli's Birth of Venus, ca. 1482, and Titian's Venus of Urbino, 1538, the genitals of the goddess have remained hidden, whether by her hand or drapery. This apparent modesty is not what it seems, for it directs attention to the rest of her body, which becomes sexually charged. Even Titian, perhaps the greatest painter of female flesh, rarely reveals the genitals of Venus, however much he suggests them, which is what the fur hiding them in Venus with a Mirror, ca. 1555, does. When he does, as in Venus and the Lute Player, ca. 1555, he gives that flesh a kind of pudendal richness, in effect transferring the most visible aspect of the female genital to the female body as a whole, making it all the more seductive. Rubens carries this to greater extremes in his Venuses, which seem like fleshy vaginas turned inside out. In The Toilet of Venus, ca. 1613, the folds of the exaggerated flesh seem to follow the contours of the vagina, a no doubt all-too-speculative idea for art historians.

If interest is not shifted to body as a whole, but "restricted exclusively to the genitals," then, as Freud writes, "the pleasure in looking [scopophilia] becomes a perversion." [4] This seems to occur in Goya's Naked Maja, 1800, who brazenly puts her hands behind her head, making no attempt to hide her genital, thus calling attention to it. Marked by pubic hair, the Maja's genital is all the more perversely fascinating. Interestingly, one of the standing nudes in Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907, also puts her hands behind her head, but her genital remains draped -- none of the nudes has exposed genitals -- indicating that even in this perversely modern work traditional sublimation continues to operate. Clearly Goya was more daring than Picasso, as was Courbet in The Origin of the World, ca. 1867. Picasso remains bound by the idealistic tradition that declares the genitals can be suggested but not directly shown -- evoked, but never enough to provoke. As Otto Kernberg writes, "a naked body may be sexually stimulating, but a partially hidden body becomes much more so." [5] This is a form of "sexual teasing," typically linked to "exhibitionistic teasing," which is "frequently interwoven with the character style of women." If "the wish to tease and be teased is (a) central aspect of erotic desire," then Titian and Picasso, however unconsciously, reveal woman's desire, even as they consciously shown their own.

Now if one looks at Gass' statement from a historical perspective, one sees that what he calls the "truly disinterested affection" with which one regards beauty is essentially the same as what Kant calls "entirely disinterested satisfaction." Here is the full quotation, from the sixth section of the Critique of Judgment. Defending the assertion that "the beautiful is that which apart from concepts is represented as the object of a universal satisfaction," Kant states that "this explanation of the beautiful can be derived from the preceding explanation of it as the object of an entirely disinterested satisfaction." [6] The preceding explanation deals with taste, which Kant defines as "the faculty of judging of an object or a method of representing it by an entirely disinterested satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The object of such satisfaction is called beautiful." For Kant, disinterested satisfaction is always universal:

For the fact of which everyone is conscious, that the satisfaction is for him quite disinterested, implies in his judgment a ground of satisfaction for all men. For since it does not rest on any inclination of the subject (nor upon any other premeditated interest), but since the person who judges feels himself quite free as regards the satisfaction which he attaches to the object, he cannot find the ground of this satisfaction in any private conditions connected with his own subject, and hence it must be regarded as grounded on what he can presuppose in every other person. Consequently he must believe that he has reason for attributing a similar satisfaction to everyone. [7]

Kant is moving toward the idea that beauty is an objective rather than subjective quality, that is, a recognizable property of an object rather than the private taste of the individual. He distinguishes between "material esthetical judgments," which "assert pleasantness or unpleasantness," and are thus "judgments of sense," and pure or formal esthetical judgments, which "assert the beauty of an object or of the manner of representing it," and "are alone strictly judgments of taste." [8] Comparing the beautiful with the pleasant, he writes:

As regards the pleasant, everyone is content that his judgment, which he bases upon private feeling and by which he says an object pleases him, should be limited merely to his own person. . . The case is quite different with the beautiful. It would (on the contrary) be laughable if a man who imagined anything to his own taste thought to justify himself by saying: "This object (the house we see, the coat that person wears, the concert we hear, the poem submitted to our judgment) is beautiful for me." For he must not call it beautiful if it merely pleases him. Many things may have for him charm and pleasantness -- no one troubles himself at that -- but if he gives out anything as beautiful, he supposes in others the same satisfaction; he judges not merely for himself, but for everyone, and speaks of beauty as if it were a property of things. Hence he says "the thing is beautiful". . . Here, then, we cannot say that each man has his own particular taste. For this would be as much as to say there is no taste whatever, i.e., no esthetic judgment which can make a rightful claim upon everyone's assent. [9]

As he says, "the judgment of taste" postulates "a universal voice. . . and thus the possibility of an esthetical judgment that can. . . be regarded as valid for everyone." [10] Hammering home the difference between the judgment of taste and the pleasure of sensations, which have only "private validity," [11] Kant declares "that taste is always barbaric which needs a mixture of charms and emotions in order that there may be satisfaction, and still more so if it makes these the measure of its assent." [12] Kant lets the cat out of the bag, as it were, when he asserts that "In painting, sculpture and in all the formative arts -- in architecture and horticulture, so far as they are beautiful arts -- the delineation is the essential thing; and here it is not what gratifies in sensation but what pleases by means of its form that is fundamental for taste. The colors which light up the sketch belong to the charm; they may indeed enliven the object for sensation, but they cannot make it worthy of contemplation and beautiful." [13] Kant associates delineation with form and color with sensation, and argues that "we can abstract from the quality of that mode of sensation (abstract from the colors. . .)" to realize "pure" form, which is not "troubled and interrupted by. . . foreign sensation." [14] It is "a common error and one very prejudicial to genuine, uncorrupted, well-founded taste" to suppose that "the charm of the object" can augment "the beauty attributed to the object on account of its form." In the debate between line and color -- a debate which has now become academic -- Kant comes out on the side of line, and builds a whole theory to justify his taste.

I will tell you in a moment why I have quoted so extensively from Kant, but first I want to note that the scientific, religious and political interests that art often serves, to the detriment of its beauty, and even to hide its lack of beauty, as Gass suggests, are, from a Kantian point of view, part of its charm, and as such have nothing to do with its form. They make it sensational, as it were, to the extent that we no longer bother to ask whether or not it is beautiful. The scientific, religious or political aspect of a work of art makes it interesting for people who are interested in science, religion and politics, but this does not mean that they find disinterested esthetic satisfaction in it -- that they appreciate and contemplate it as pure art. Indeed, to the extent art presents definite scientific, religious or political concepts, and thus takes a scientific, religious or political stand, it is not strictly speaking art. As Kant says, artistic representation involves "cognition in general," by which he means "the free play of the imagination and the understanding (so far as they agree with each other...)," rather than "definite concept(s)" that limit "the cognitive powers... to a definite rule of cognition." [15] If we understand a work of art in terms of the science, religion or politics implicit in it, and sometimes quite explicit and transparent, we limit our understanding of it as art, for we are seeing it an all too definite rather than imaginative way. If it is truly art, it is not making a scientific, religious or political statement, however much it seems to, but playing with a scientific, religious and political ideas to achieve a certain esthetic effect. It does not involve precise scientific, religious or political cognition, but general cognition of the world -- a certain imaginative sense of things, which involves the esthetic awareness of their forms -- which may have scientific, religious or political implications, or rather arouse scientific, religious or political "sensations."

Now for Freud this whole line of reasoning is beside the psychological point. For him there is no such thing as disinterested satisfaction. It is always sexually interested. Disinterested satisfaction is an illusion created by sublimation -- by the displacement of sexual curiosity from the genitals to the body as a whole. But even the contemplation of a beautiful body -- the body as pure form, as Kant would say -- does not afford disinterested satisfaction. Sexual satisfaction always lurks in pure form. Similarly, taste, however pure, always has a sexual aftertaste. Sexual excitement and pleasure are implicit in beauty, however unacknowledged, and however repressed by pure judgments of taste. They are never pure for Freud, but ingeniously impure, for they always involve infantile sexual feelings, however muted by sublimation. The taste for beauty is rooted in one's sexual tastes and wishes, which means in one's experience of one's body. Kant's theory of beauty is in effect a desperate attempt to play down the importance of sensing and feeling -- bodily sensation and sexual feeling -- in the experience of beauty. Indeed, for Kant the contemplation of beauty is not exactly an exciting experience. It is striking, at least from a Freudian point of view, that Kant never connects pleasure with sexuality -- never speaks of sexual pleasure, as though the pleasure of the senses have nothing to do with it. No doubt sexual sensations would be the most foreign, charming, corrupting, tasteless and barbaric of all for him -- especially because they are the most colorful and intense -- and as such irreconcilable with beauty. It is disembodied in principle for Kant, however much the material body may be its vehicle. All satisfaction has to do with the body, and it was the body and its libido that Kant got rid of with such abstractions as disinterested satisfaction, pure form and objective beauty.

These are supposedly conveyed by line. But for Kant the intellectual definiteness of line exists to suppress the emotional indefiniteness of color. It is all too charming for him -- too seductive and libidinous, and thus impure or foreign, and as such corrupting of beauty. We are not supposed to be attracted to beauty -- not supposed to desire it -- and yet, as Freud makes clear, it doesn't come into its own -- even truly exist -- without our desire for it. There is an ancient story of a young man so taken with the beauty of a statue of Venus that he kissed its buttocks. From a Kantian point of view this is a gross misunderstanding of it -- not exactly the right kind of appreciation. But perhaps the young man understood beauty better that Kant did -- understood it instinctively rather than intellectualized it away. He recognized that beauty was part of sexual foreplay, and as such had a polymorphous dimension to it, which seduced one for all one's pretense of contemplative detachment. Unless one is drawn to beauty, and takes deep pleasure in it, it has no point, except, no doubt, an abstract one. Beauty's place on the heights of thought is quite different from beauty's place in the lowdown senses.

In a sense, Freud restores everything that Kant denied, even trivialized -- certainly repressed -- in the contemplation of beauty, namely, sensation, the body, and above all sexual feeling, which Kant ignored altogether. It was taboo to connect beauty and sexuality, and it is exactly this taboo that Freud broke, and that makes his esthetics revolutionary. It is worth noting that Kant never spoke of the love of beauty. Indeed, the contemplation of beauty is the dispassionate antithesis of the passionate love of beauty. For Kant, contemplation replaces love, and is preferable to love, which supposedly is blind, that is, understands nothing about its object, in contrast to contemplation, which can understand it completely because it is entirely detached from it, that is, emotionally uninvolved with it. Kant could not imagine that emotional engagement with an object could give one a deeper understanding of it than abstract contemplation of it. It could be understood from the inside -- from its own point of view -- rather than the outside, from some general point of view. Kant did not realize that contemplation, because it was emotionally disengaged, was blind to the inner beauty of the object.

Even more important than Freud's remarks about the sexual etiology of beauty is the fact that they occur in the context of a discussion of happiness. For Freud the overriding issue is whether or not beauty makes us happy. His examination of happiness makes it clear that for him beauty only affords what might be called secondary happiness -- the happiness of compensation, that is, consolation for suffering or unhappiness, rather than the primary happiness that comes from sexuality. In other words, beauty is a rather minor, limited, even trivial happiness -- unless, of course, one is fixated upon it in contemplation, which is no longer happiness, but obsessional neurosis. Esthetic pleasure is poor compensation for living in a painful world, in which esthetics plays a superficial role. Indeed, it seems to mask scientific, religious and political interests, rather than the other way around, as Gass thinks. What is missing in the traditional theory of disinterested satisfaction advocated by Kant and Gass is acknowledgement of the dissatisfaction that life invariably brings. To acknowledge it would be to make beauty less transcendental than they think it is. Beauty is little more than a temporary respite from life's unhappiness -- a way of forgetting it for the moment, which is hardly the same as rising above it once and for all. Beauty is indeed skin-deep, as conventional wisdom insists. Beauty is an inadequate band-aid, covering the wounds life inflicts but hardly curing them. One bandages one's wounds to hide them from the world, and to make a proper social appearance, but the wounds remain and continue to fester. The world does little or nothing about them, because it is one of their causes. Freud writes:

One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be "happy" is not included in the plan of "Creation." What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree, and it is from its nature only possible as an episodic phenomenon. When any situation that is desired by the pleasure principle is prolonged, it only produces a feeling of mild contentment. (Or, in the case of the obsession with beauty -- an attempt to sustain contemplation beyond the point when it fades into mild contentment -- pathology.) We are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast and very little from a state of things. Thus our possibilities of happiness are already restricted by our constitution. Unhappiness is much less difficult to experience. We are threatened with suffering from three directions: from our own body, which is doomed to decay and dissolution and cannot even do without pain and anxiety as warning signals; from the external world, which may rage against us with overwhelming and merciless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations to other men. The suffering which comes from this last source is perhaps more painful to us than any other. We tend to regard it as a kind of gratuitous addition, although it cannot be any less fatefully inevitable than the suffering which comes from elsewhere. [16]
Clearly from Freud's psychoanalytic perspective, beauty is a small happiness indeed, although, no doubt, the happiness it affords can be sexually stimulating, and thus function as a fore-pleasure to a greater happiness -- a deeper satisfaction than disinterested satisfaction.

Freud's remarks are somewhat pessimistic, but later psychoanalysts are less pessimistic about beauty, and in fact think there is a deep emotional need for it, rooted in infantile experience. But for them it is not a matter of infantile sexuality, but of infantile relationships -- the most intimate of all relationships. Indeed, even Freud suggests as much, if Robert Fleiss is correct in stating that "Freud saw the origin of the experience of 'beauty' in the infant's perception of the milk overflowing the breast," [17] that is, in the infant's relationship to the mother at her most giving and nurturing and dependable -- the infant's experience of the bounty of the mother.

Certain poets have been aware of the fact that the sense of beauty originates in a loving relationship with a loving mother, as Mallarmé suggests in the last stanza of his poem The Windows. He writes: "And I die, and I love -- whether the glass be art or mysticism -- to be reborn, wearing my dream, like a diadem, in the earlier heaven where Beauty flowers." The "earlier heaven" is of course childhood, more precisely, infancy, the earliest heaven, as it were. Art and mysticism are ways of recovering it. Like Wordsworth, for Mallarmé poetry is childhood -- the beauty of childhood and the childhood where Beauty flowers, that is, where the mother's breast blossoms with milk -- recovered in mystical tranquility.

In mystical experience -- and artistic experience at its best is mysticism at one remove or mysticism in disguise -- one merges with the divine, that is, the mother of one's being. To be reborn thus means to become an innocent infant again -- an infant innocently and happily nursing at the beautiful breast of the divine mother. The good breast -- the nurturing, satisfying breast -- is the first object of beauty, as Melanie Klein suggests. It gives us our first idea of beauty. Perhaps even more than the mother's breast, her body is experienced as beautiful. Donald Meltzer and M. H. Williams think that "the infant's love for mother... is expressed by idealizing the surface of her body and, by introjection of the mother's love expressed in her idealizing the infant's body, by identifying with her in self-idealization. Such idealization would give rise to the earliest sense of esthetic value, of beauty." [18] When Mondrian insists that a straight line is preferable to a curved one -- he's even stricter than Kant, that is, more uptight or, if one wishes, austere -- he is trying to liberate himself from the mother's breast and body. In a sense, his abstract art is an attempt to prove that beauty can found in the straight lines of the grid -- most ambitiously in the late paintings he produced in New York, in which color and line fuse -- but the effort to do so seems forced, and in the end unconvincing, however subliminally dynamic. Gass, then, is clearly wrong from a pschoanalytic perspective: goodness and beauty are one, at least as long as they are one in the breast.

In short, Mallarmé yearns to be in heaven with the beautiful, divine, mothering breast, full of satisfying milk. Need one say that the mother is always beautiful and sacred -- they are in emotional effect one and the same -- to the infant? Mallarmé in effect infantilizes himself by writing poetry in order to restore a state of childhood intimacy with his mother. It is a happy state of pure being, just as his mother is the best of beings. Indeed, Mallarmé's famous ineffability and marvelous obscurity are infantile in import, if one recalls that the word "infant" means not to speak or to be unable to speak. Ironically, Mallarmé achieves the illusion of speechlessness by his sophisticated language -- a kind of speechifying which seems sophisticated but is primitive, for it involves the use of words as though they are concrete objects rather than symbols for them -- a further irony. [19] Clearly, art and mysticism are wish fulfillments -- dreams come emotionally true -- for Mallarmé.

Even when the mother is uncaring she remains beautiful, if also destructive -- terrifying. That is, her emotional absence or indifference or stupidity arouses terror -- the feeling of impending annihilation. The famous lines that begin the fifth of Rilke's Duino Elegies convey this annihilation anxiety: "For Beauty's nothing but beginning of Terror we're still just able to bear, and why we adore it so is because it serenely disdains to destroy us." And yet it is about to destroy us. Rilke's contradictory feelings about his mother -- she's beautiful but she's bad, she's a higher being but she's dangerous -- remind me of Fairbairn's remark that a child would rather stay with a mother who is bad than have a new mother however good, because the old mother will always be more beautiful than the new mother. This suggests that beauty involves a deep feeling of attachment, which precedes the feeling that the mother is good or bad, although it may be reinforced by the experience of her as good. Rilke's problems with his rather grandiose, controlling mother are brilliantly conveyed in an astonishingly direct poem, which is remarkable for its psychological insight and sophistication:

Alas, my mother will demolish me!
Stone after stone upon myself I'd lay,
and stood already like a little house round which the day
rolls boundlessly.
Now mother's coming to demolish me:
demolish me simply be being there.
That building's going on she's unaware.

The poem ends with the lines:

No warm wind ever blew to me from her.
She's not at home where breezes are astir.
In some heart-attic she is tucked away,
and Christ comes there to wash her every day.

Rilke's cold mother was too self-absorbed -- and there is corroborating evidence for her awesome narcissism -- to be much of a mother to him. Her milk was sour, to say the least, and Rilke never lost "his fundamental antagonism to her," as Donald Prater writes in his biography. [20] As Rilke wrote, she plucked all the flowers out of his life, in effect annihilating him. "Works of art," Rilke wrote, "are always the result of being at risk," and Rilke was clearly at great risk in his relationship with his mother. [21] Freud, in fact, in his obituary for Lou-Andreas Salome, who was involved with Rilke, noted his general helplessness in life, which Salome, a kind of surrogate mother, could not mitigate. As though to confirm Rilke's feeling of being annihilated by his mother, Melanie Klein notes that "one root of the constant concern of women (often so excessive) for their personal beauty" is their "dread that this. . . will be destroyed by the mother," along with their "capacity for motherhood." [22] Among other abuses, Rilke was treated and dressed as a little girl by his mother -- her first child, a girl, died at birth, and Rilke was a poor substitute for the lost child -- which is perhaps one reason why his father tried to make a man out of him by sending him to military school.

What post-Freudian thinking about beauty suggests is that it makes one feel good about life -- that it concentrates in itself a sense of the value of living and the goodness and happiness possible in living. It is the grand alternative to the feeling of being annihilated and humiliated -- belittled -- by life. I think the difference between the Freudian and post-Freudian approaches to beauty can be understood in the difference between Freud's and Klein's ideas about happiness. Freud writes: "The feeling of happiness derived from the satisfaction of a wild instinctual impulse untamed by the ego is incomparably more intense than that derived from sating an instinct that has been tamed. The irresistibility of perverse instincts, and perhaps the attraction in general of forbidden things, finds an economic explanation here." [23] In contrast, Klein writes:
the happiness experienced in infancy and the love for the good object which enriches the personality underlie the capacity for enjoyment and sublimation, and still make themselves felt in old age. When Goethe said, "He is happiest of men who can make the end of his life agree closely with the beginning," I would interpret "the beginning" as the early happy relation to the mother which throughout life mitigates hate and anxiety and still gives the old person support and contentment. An infant who has securely established the good object can also find compensation for loss and deprivation in adult life. [24]
Whether happiness comes from the mother's mirroring, as Kohut calls it, or the sense of value conferred upon one at birth, as Fairbairn describes it, or the experience of reciprocity with a good enough, facilitating mother, as Winnicott argues, the point is that one's sense of beauty derives from the goodness or badness of one's relationship with one's mother. That is, one's mother, in her good aspect, is beautiful, and in her bad aspect is ugly -- annihilative, more particularly, annihilative of one's sense of being and having a self. It is selfhood at its most integrated that the harmony of beauty conveys.

In fact, wherever there is beauty, there is ugliness. There is never one without the other, however hidden the other might be. A comprehensive psychoanalytic theory of beauty necessarily involves a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory of ugliness. In the end, it is their relationship that matters more than one or the other. If the beautiful object is narcissistically gratifying, as the post-Freudians think, as well as sexually gratifying, as Freud thought, then an object is ugly when it is narcissistically as well as sexually unsatisfying -- when it sabotages one's sense of self as well as one's sexual feelings. Ugliness is annihilative, indeed, it terrifies us because it represents annihilation of the self, and with it the loss of vitalizing libido, while beauty seems transcendental because it represents a self that is so well and seamlessly constructed -- so perfectly harmonious -- that it seems able to withstand any threat of annihilation, indeed, to be completely immune to death. It thus represents salvation and immortality, just as ugliness represents damnation and death. In other words, ugliness and beauty are manifestations of what Freud called the death and life instincts -- thanatos and eros. We want to possess beauty -- cathect it and unite with it, in a kind of erotic embrace -- while ugliness repels us, indicating its power to decathect, that is, its hateful anti-life character. The ugliness evident in so much modern art suggests its destructiveness, necrophilia and hatefulness -- and to regard the ugly as beautiful is a kind of perversion -- while the beauty that we find in traditional art is biophiliac, all the more so when it holds its own against ugliness. This is represented in the tension and final victory of the youthful St. George over the age-old Dragon or in the image of a beautiful woman terrorized by a dragon. (From a Kleinean point of view, beauty and the beast are opposite sides of the same coin, that is, a representation of the unresolved conflict between the good and bad mother in the infant's psyche.)

As Ella Sharpe says, ugliness means "destroyed, arrhythmic, and [is] connected with painful tension" -- all rather unhappy phenomena. One might add it is the opposite of what Michael Balint calls the "harmonious mix-up" that occurs in love, that is, the sense of attunement and intermingling between the lovers. In contrast, Sharpe equates beauty "with the experiences of goodness in rhythmic sucking, satisfactory defecation and sexual intercourse." [25] For John Rickman, beauty equates with "the whole object" and ugliness with "the fragmented, destroyed one." [26] Indeed, since antiquity beauty has meant harmony and wholeness, and ugliness the complete absence of harmony and wholeness. This conception of beauty re-appears in modern science, as Heisenberg's essay on "The Meaning of Beauty in the Exact Sciences" indicates: "beauty is the proper conformity of the parts to one another and to the whole." [27] This is the sign of truth, as he says. A true theory is one whose complex parts form an exact and simple harmony. The reconciliation of truth, associated with the reality principle, and beauty, associated with the pleasure principle, is one of the great ambitions of civilization. One is gratified to know that science finds it immanent in being -- that it finds beauty hardwired into reality.

Hanna Segal, building on Sharpe and Rickman, writes that "ugliness is what expresses the state of the internal world in depression," while beauty conveys "an undisturbed rhythm in a composed whole [which] seems to correspond to the state in which our inner world is at peace." But for Segal the crucial point is that esthetic experience is not just the experience of beauty, but of the tense relationship between ugliness and beauty. Creativity consists in articulating this relationship, more particularly, in creating beauty that can contain ugliness -- that can balance ugliness with beauty. Taking classical tragedy as "a paradigm of creativity," she writes:
...the ugly is largely in the content. . . including [the] emotionally ugly -- hubris, treachery, parricide, matricide -- and the inevitable destruction and death of the participants. There is an unflinching facing of the forces of destruction; and there is beauty in the feeling of the inner consistency and psychological truth in the depiction of those destructive forces of conflict and their inevitable outcome. There is also a counterbalancing of the violence by its opposite in the form: the rhythm of the poetry and the Aristotelian unities give a harmonious and particularly strictly ordered form. This form contains feelings which might otherwise be uncontainable. [28]
Segal quotes Rodin, who says something samiliar:

What we call "ugly" in reality, in art can become great beauty. We call "ugly" that which is formless, unhealthy, which suggests illness, suffering, destruction, which is contrary to regularity -- the sign of health. . . We also call the ugly the immoral, the vicious, the criminal and all abnormality which brings evil -- the soul of parricide, the traitor, the self-seeker. . . But let a great artist get hold of this ugliness; immediately he transfigures it -- with a touch of his magic wand he makes into beauty. [29]

It is worth noting that Segal's account of the dialectic of beauty and ugliness can be found in St. Augustine. In Meyer Schapiro's words, Augustine held that "beauty is a compound of opposites, including ugliness and disorder," and that "God is an artist who employs antitheses of good and evil to form the beauty of the universe." [30]

What Segal calls "an unflinching facing of the forces of destruction" is the moment of creative inspiration, which is always a moment of courage. What Rodin calls the "magic wand" that "transfigures" ugliness into beauty is not only his artistic labor, as Segal says, but his identification with what Wilfried Bion calls the container-breast which transforms raw, concrete, primitive sensations and feelings (Bion calls them beta elements) into symbols so that they can be stored as memories (Bion calls them alpha elements) and eventually be understood. In other words, the artist identifies with the mother, and to identify with the mother is to wish to create life as she can, and even to be able to do so -- not literally, in the case of the artist, but symbolically. The artist becomes pregnant and gives birth, but at one remove, as it were. I think this is what Otto Rank means when he says that the artist "needs only to create and not to beget." [31] Also, when Rank writes that the artist's creativity begins "with the self-making of the personality into the artist" -- her first work is in effect herself as creative artist -- he neglects to say that this self "appointment to the genius-type," as Rank calls it, comes about through her identification with her mother, more particularly what Bion calls her ability to perform the alpha function. The artist's identification with her mother's capacity for containment makes her an artist. The artist's activity is one of creative containment -- of creating a form that is beautiful enough to contain an ugly content -- creating beauty that is strong enough to withstand, endure and finally neutralize and tame destructiveness.

The only philosopher I know who regards beauty as strength is Whitehead, and he neglects to say that it is the mother's strength, the strength to be able to contain without being destroyed by what she contains, which is what makes her sublimely good. More particularly, her goodness consists in her ability to encompass the destructively anxious self in a capacious womb of care, thus calming the self so that it can grow and develop and have its own strength. To be an artist is to be a good mother, and good mothers have been regarded as divine -- no doubt in part because they are relatively rare, as their idealization and apotheosis in myth suggests, and mothers are not always predictable in their goodness or good effect -- which is why artists have come to be thought of as peculiarly divine. They are adjuncts to the goddess -- the mothering muse. The mother is indeed the first and last divinity -- in the Christian legend, the entire existence of Christ is predicated on and contained by her presence, as the Nativity and Pieta indicate, implying that she is more sacred than he is. Indeed, she created him by containing him, from the beginning to the end of his life. The mother is always virginal to the infant, who in the unconscious is married to her for life, and continues to be after death, as her ascension into heaven -- Mallarmé's heaven -- suggests.

The distance from the traditional objective conception of beauty, as represented by Kant and Gass, to the revolutionary modern psychoanalytic conception, with its emphasis on the unconscious meaning of beauty -- the subjective reasons we experience an object as beautiful -- is enormous. It seems impossible to bridge the distance. And yet even in tradition there was a thinker who realized that something was amiss in beauty. When Francis Bacon declared that "there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion," he seemed, at least from a psychoanalytic perspective, to being calling attention to the fact that there is something uncanny about classical beauty -- something unclear and indistinct, or, as we might say, something unconscious and anxious in what seems so self-conscious and self-assured. It is this sense that beauty represses more than it expresses -- that there is something barely under control in what seems so controlled -- that is the link between the contradictory conceptions. Beauty becomes objective only when it satisfies subjective needs, especially the need for narcissistic gratification and for instinctive satisfaction. As Segal emphasizes, this means the satisfaction of destructive urges as well as sexual impulses. The feeling that there is something strange or peculiar about beauty is the unconscious recognition that it is informed by inescapable needs, and that it satisfies them, however indirectly. The strangeness that Bacon experienced in beauty is the strangeness of our own needs to ourselves, as they come back to us contained by beauty.

In short, the peculiar lack of proportion Bacon perceived in the harmony of beauty suggests that it is as inwardly troubled and precariously balanced as we are. It signifies the emotional ugliness and powerful sexuality we struggle to control and contain, but which make themselves unconsciously felt, making us feel strange. Indeed, it is the strangeness of the unconscious -- the unexpected presence of unconscious forces -- in our consciousness of beauty that Bacon is acknowledging, however unwittingly. He unconsciously realized that the disinterested satisfaction beauty affords is tainted by all kinds of emotional interests, which are as universal as beauty itself, and in fact may lend beauty its universality beyond its different cultural appearances. From a psychoanalytic point of view what Gass calls disinterested affection -- a contradiction in terms, suggesting ambivalence -- is sexual lust tamed into sentimental irrelevance. Similarly, what Kant intellectualizes as contemplation is containment of desire for the seductive object -- the object that promises complete satisfaction, and is thus strongly cathected. Bacon recognized, without understanding, the psychodynamic underpinning of beauty, which could not help make itself evident as a feeling of strangeness, that is, a kind of parapraxis and imperfection within the practice of perfect beauty.

DONALD KUSPIT is professor of art history and philosophy at SUNY Stony Brook and A.D. White professor at large at Cornell University.

NOTES
1 William H. Gass, Finding A Form (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), pp. 291-92
2 Sigmund Freud, "Civilization and Its Discontents" (1929), Standard Edition (London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1961), vol. 21, pp. 82-83
3. Sigmund Freud, "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" (1905), Standard Edition (London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1953), vol. 7, pp. 156-57
4. Ibid., p. 157
5 Otto F. Kernberg, Love Relations: Normality and Pathology (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), p. 27
6 Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment (New York: Hafner, 1951), p. 45
7 Ibid., pp. 45-46
8 Ibid., p. 59
9 Ibid., pp. 46-47
10 Ibid., p. 50
11 Ibid., p. 51
12 Ibid., p. 58
13 Ibid., p. 61
14 Ibid., p. 60
15 Ibid., p. 52
16 Freud, "Civilization and Its Discontents," pp. 76-77
17 Robert Fliess, Ego and Body Ego (New York: International Universities Press, 1961), p. 255
18 Kernberg, p. 25
19 Hanna Segal, Dream, Phantasy and Art (London and New York: Tavistock/Routledge, 1991), pp. 36-38 distinguishes between "concrete symbolization," in which no distinction is made between an object and a symbol, and "true symbolization," in which such a distinction is made, so that the symbol can be used independently of the object, for it is understood to be separate from it, that is, not the same as it. Mallarmé's poetry seems to be in a process of regression from true symbolization to concrete symbolization, that is, from exoteric language, publicly comprehensible and communicable, to the private use of an esoteric language. His poetry seems to construct a private language of reverie or self-communication out of a public language of communication to others, which in a sense is to deconstruct language. The move from a shared to an all but unshareable language is at the defensive core of modernist poetry. Ironically, it requires all one's imaginative sophistication to regress to a primitive state of self-identity or self-sufficiency, that is, a state in which one is totally identified with the mother, and thus deluded into believing that one is sufficient unto oneself.
20 Donald Prater, A Ringing Glass: The Life of Rainer Maria Rilke (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986) p. 5
21 Quoted in ibid., p. 148
22 Melanie Klein, Love, Guilt and Reparation And Other Works 1921-1945, (New York: Free Press, 1984), p. 194
23 Freud, "Civilization and Its Discontents," p. 79
24 Melanie Klein, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963 (New York: Free Press, 1984), pp. 203-204
25 Segal, p. 90
26 Ibid.
27 Quoted in S. Chandrasekhar, Truth and Beauty (London and Chicago: University of Chicago, 1990), p. 52
28 Hanna Segal, "A Psychoanalytic Approach to Esthetics," The Work of Hanna Segal (Northvale, NJ and London: Jason Aronson, 1981), pp. 200-201
29 Segal, Dream, Phantasy and Art, p. 90
30 Quoted in ibid.
31 Meyer Schapiro, "On the Esthetic Attitude in Romanesque Art" (1947), in Romanesque Art, Selected Papers (New York: George Braziller, 1997), vol. 1 p. 26, n. 10

Reproduced with permission. Copyright (c) 2002 Artnet/Donald Kuspit.

Home>>Collection>>The Psychoanalytic Construction of Beauty

2000-01-25T00:33:00.000-08:00

Home>>Collection>>Unhealthy U.S. body images affect worlds beauty standards

Unhealthy U.S. body images affect world beauty standards

By Andrea Falkenhagen. First published Wednesday, December 11, 2002 in The Daily Cardinal.

Last week, after tumultuous riots in Nigeria, Turkey's Azra Akin was crowned "Miss World" in front of a television audience of more than 1 billion viewers. Earlier in the month, CBS shocked television viewers by airing a parade of scantily clad models in the Victoria's Secret fashion show. While these events are really quite commonplace, they serve as excellent examples of the media images of beauty that bombard us on a daily basis.

The promoters of such events say they are just celebrating fashion and the beautiful female body--but what kind of beauty do they reward? How many women can hope to attain the standard of beauty these models set--and, really, why should they even try in the first place?

The standards of beauty from the fashion and pageant industries, as well as media, invalidate women's natural beauty and disrespect the diversity inherent in women of all shapes, colors and ages.

The weight standard these "beauties" set is getting increasingly harder to attain. According to a study done by the American Medical Association, contestants in the 1920s Miss America pageants had a Body Mass Index within the range that is now considered normal. However, this has declined over the years and more winners have BMIs that the World Health Organization considers malnourished. Some winners have even been well below this level. Why is our cultural standard of beauty that of starvation? When millions of people do not have enough to eat, why are we glorifying hunger?

To make women who do not fit this beauty ideal feel even worse, the newest spin on thinness is that it is really just "fitness." The Miss America Pageant covers up its sexualized judging of women's bodies under the guise of "lifestyle and fitness in a swimsuit."

Girls grow up idolizing these images of beauty. Is it any wonder that recent studies by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that as many as 50 to 75 percent of adolescent girls are dissatisfied with their weight and body image?

Even more upsetting is that through increasing globalization, our twisted cultural beauty ideal is being exported to other parts of the world, along with a subsequent increase in eating disorders.

A study by the Harvard Medical School found that the infusion of Western cultural images on TV changed the way young Fijian girls viewed their bodies. In a 1995 study, conducted just after TV was introduced to the island, only 3 percent of girls reported having vomited to control their weight. Three years later, that percentage rose to 15.

A study by Chinese University compared body images in rural Chinese villages, where residents had little contact with the West, to those in Hong Kong. The women in Hong Kong weighed less, dieted more and strove to be thinner. The study concluded that, in the minds of the women, modernization equates success with "young, slender, more glamorous women."

A recent New York Times article reported that, for 51 years, an African woman was never crowned as Miss World. Many ethnic groups in West and Central Africa consider bigger women to be beautiful--but these women were considered "fat" by Western standards. However, last year the Nigerian "Most Beautiful Girl" judges used the tactic of sending a skinny contestant to compete for the Miss World crown. Agbani Darego won, and is now a national hero. While older Nigerians find her unattractive, younger girls see her as a role model. According to the article, Nigerian films and music are now praising slim girls, and women are increasingly dieting and exercising.

These examples of the Western ideal woman being exported to other parts of the world are alarming. Such images will no doubt tear at women's self-esteem in Africa and Asia every bit as much as they do in the United States. As more and more women do not eat because they fear being ugly or unwanted, a new type of violence will permeate their lives. Some feminists refer to women who have starved or manipulated their bodies to conform to the ideal as "beauty survivors." Such women must deal with the physical effects such as osteoporosis, malnutrition or surgery scars. They also face some of the same symptoms of battery or rape survivors--difficulty having personal boundaries, disconnection from their own sense of body, difficulty believing in their own decision-making ability, emotional distance and lowered self-esteem.

In addition, concerns about weight and appearances will only serve to distract and hinder women from fighting for things they really need. In the United States, as well as abroad, women face discrimination, violence, a lack of health care, child care and education, just to name a few. All these forms of oppression are connected, and they are all more important than the size of a waistline. For this reason, it is imperative to challenge these negative images about women's natural bodies whether they occur in the media, on the street or in conversations with friends.

Reproduced with permission. Copyright (c) 2002 The Daily Cardinal/Andrea Falkenhagen.

Home>>Collection>>Unhealthy U.S. body images affect worlds beauty standards

2000-01-24T00:33:00.000-08:00

Home>>Collection

Collection

A collection of reprinted articles about different aspects of the nature and culture of beauty.

The Question of Beauty by Dr. Judith H. Langlois: Does children's facial attractiveness influence their peer relationships and popularity?

Physical beauty involves more than good looks by Emily Carlson: Research findings from studies of physical attractiveness suggest that there is more to beauty than meets the stranger's eye.

Great Hair Days in Ancient Egypt by Ilene Springer: The ancient Egyptians considered hair to be an important means of self-expression, and used wigs, braids, extensions and other adornments to create elaborate hairstyles.

In Praise of Intellectual Beauty by John Haber: Beauty and the intellect are inseparable and words can bring beauty alive for us. However, can scholarship also spoil our sense of beauty in the deattribution of a work of art?

The Psychoanalytic Construction of Beauty by Donald Kuspit: A detailed examination of the relationship between beauty and sexual desire from the perspective of a psychoanalytic conception of aesthetics.

Unhealthy U.S. body images affect world beauty standards by Andrea Falkenhagen: The globalisation of Western standards of beauty from the fashion and pageant industries has negative consequences for those who do not fit this beauty ideal.

Articles in this collection are all reprinted with permission. See individual articles for authorship and copyright information.

Home>>Collection

2000-01-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

Home>>Fashion>>Fashion Statements: Beauty and the Clothing Code

Fashion Statements: Beauty and the Clothing Code

The declaration that clothes say something about their wearer is perhaps undisputable. It is certainly neither novel nor shocking. Whether in contemporary Western societies or the traditional practices of other cultures, a person’s choice of clothing is loaded with details that both describe and define aspects of their life as diverse as status, religion and life-style attachments. Moreover, judgements of personality and even intelligence are often made about an individual on the basis of their clothing alone. Appearance matters and first impressions of tastes in fashion count. Whilst these judgements may be made intuitively however, it is more difficult to determine the exact play of elements that combine to make this language, or code of clothing. The meanings conveyed by different styles change across time and place so that definitions are unstable and contextually embedded. According to the sociologist James Laver, a costume that is ‘indecent’ this year may be seen as ‘smart’ in ten years time, ‘ridiculous’ in a further twenty years and ‘beautiful’ in the next century. How then do fashion and clothing achieve a symbolic communication of beauty both to wearers and their viewers?

Elements of the clothing code

The symbols that form the code of clothing are both tactile and visual. All clothing styles and fashions must express their meanings through various permutations and combinations of texture, fabric, colour, pattern, line, shape and form. However, the psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler attempted to centre fashion’s key terms on psychological complexes rather than on the materially expressive elements available in different cultures. In 1953, he wrote, ‘Stripped to its essentials, fashion is no more than a series of permutations of seven given themes, each...a part of the female body: the breasts (neckline), waist (abdomen), hips, buttock, legs, arms, and length (or circumference) of the body itself. Organs ‘appear’ and ‘disappear’ as the theme of fashion changes, and one and then another part of the body is emphasized by succeeding styles’. Whether through elements of design or psychology, it is clear nevertheless that the clothing code draws on greatly limited constituent resources in comparison with the rich semantic resources of speech and writing.

Ambiguity in expression

Such a restriction of key expressive terms both accounts for and necessitates a high level of ambiguity in the statements made by fashion and clothing styles. In Western society, the same constituent symbols that proclaim beauty one year may also declare unattractiveness the following year and impropriety in another culture. The anthropologist and linguist Edward Sapir noted, ‘The chief difficulty of understanding fashion in its apparent vagaries is the lack of exact knowledge of the unconscious symbolisms attaching to forms, colours, textures, postures, and other expressive elements of a given culture. The difficulty is appreciably increased by the fact that some of the expressive elements tend to have quite different symbolic references in different areas.’ If a wide and contradictory range of meanings is communicated by so few key terms, it is because the source of this ambiguity itself lies in the socially negotiated associations of symbolic references. In other words, searches to uncover the exact rules and taxonomy of the clothing code will always be thwarted by its continual shift of meanings within common cultural understandings.

Beauty through mutual differences and understandings

An ideal of beauty is therefore conveyed in clothing through linking the elements, or key terms of the clothing code, to prevailing concepts of beauty in a society or community. Furthermore, for fashion to ‘say’ the same thing to all wearers and viewers, everyone must share an appreciation or perception of the images invoked by different items and styles of clothing. This is not to imply that all members of a society have to ascribe to the same values in order to understand the statements made by fashion. Rather, meanings are conveyed through insight into the differences and similarities between the ideals held within a community. Whilst admitting that clothing styles display high social variability, the eloquent rebellions of the Beatniks and Teddy Boys in the 1940s, Mods and Rockers in the 1950s, Skinheads and Hippies in the 1960s and Punks in the 1970s could all be easily understood by those fluent in the vocabulary of alienation from mainstream values.

Links and References

Laver, J. (1945) Taste and Fashion, from the French Revolution to the Present Day. London: G.G. Harrap.

Bergler, E. (1953) Fashion and the Unconscious. New York: Robert Brunner.

An article about dress codes in the workplace and the statements made by different styles of clothing at work.

Visit Fashion-Era for detailed information about fashion, costume and social history.

Read An Analysis of Women’s Dress as Related to Ideals of Beauty and Social Status by Sarah Andrews.

Home>>Fashion>>Fashion Statements: Beauty and the Clothing Code

2000-01-22T04:28:00.000-08:00

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2000-01-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

Home>>Psychology>>The Red Queen and the Beauty Rat Race

The Red Queen and the Beauty Rat Race

Human culture is a product of human nature. The major studies of the evolutionary significance of beauty in human culture almost always begin with natural selection. However, the evolutionary biologist Leigh van Valen claimed that as different species living at each other's expense coevolve, they are engaged in a constant evolutionary struggle for a survival advantage: “for an evolutionary system, continuing development is needed just in order to maintain its fitness relative to the systems it is co-evolving with”. He named this the Red Queen Principle after a character in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" who has to keep running to stay in the same place (see extract). According to the Red Queen Principle, evolutionary systems need "all the running they can do" because the landscape around them is constantly changing. In terms of beauty, the Red Queen effect suggests that an enhancement that generates success will lose its advantage when too many people use it. New enhancements have to be made and the beauty rat race begins.

Beauty and Evolutionary Psychology

How can a biological basis, from which the Red Queen effect derives, be ascribed to beauty in culture? Darwin expressed natural selection as follows: “As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurrent struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected.” Richard Dawkins argued in the 1970s that the body is merely an evolutionary vehicle for our genes. In other words, genes force the body to do things to perpetuate them, and all human genes must confer reproductive success. An appreciation of attractiveness and beauty in culture is linked to high reproductive potential: women pay attention to cues of wealth and power, men pay attention to cues of health and youth. Harvard Psychologist, Nancy Etcoff argues that theories of cognitive science and evolutionary psychology explain how sexual preference is guided by common construction rules of features, averageness and symmetry that make us most attracted to those with whom we are most likely to reproduce. She suggests, “Beauty is a universal part of human experience that promotes pleasure, rivets attention and impels actions that ensure the survival of our genes. Our extreme sensitivity to beauty is hard-wired and governed by circuits in the brain shaped by natural selection. We love to look at smooth skin, curved waists and symmetrical bodies because in the course of evolution the people who noticed these signals and desired their possessors had more reproductive success”. In this view, beauty is an essential part of human nature that influences our perception, attitudes, and behavior toward others.

The Red Queen Effect in contemporary Western Societies

How then does the Red Queen effect explain aspects of cultural beauty in contemporary Western Societies? The hypothesis describes how, in a dynamically changing environment in which different species are co-evolving, improvement in one species becomes a competitive advantage over another species in its ability to capture the available resources. The only way that a species involved in a competition can maintain its fitness relative to the others is by in turn improving its design. The first important point here is that a race for beauty in terms of genetic variability alone is limited: by evolution, we cannot simply become increasingly beautiful because a high genetic variance is necessary for biological success. Similarly, a woman’s overall attractiveness is likely to be the factor limiting her access to potential mates. A perception of personal beauty then becomes crucial in the process of deciding whom to try to attract (Miller & Todd, 1998). Personal beauty can be enhanced artificially, however. All human cultures have used some form of paints, dyes, bleaches, wigs, body ornamentation or modification in an attempt to meet standards they considered to be beautiful. The Red Queen Principle suggests such artificial body enhancement is an instance of cultural developments outrunning biological adaptations.

Artificial adaptation and cosmetic surgery

The second important point is that the race or quest for more beauty does not stop once its biological limitations have been surpassed. The Red Queen effect states, “it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”. As new enhancements become commonplace through exposure in the media, it is perhaps unsurprising therefore to find cosmetic surgery and hormonal treatments playing an increasing role in contemporary societies. Surveys suggest that more than 800,000 American women have implants for breast augmentation and 60% of cases in which teenage girls have breast surgery are to remove any asymmetries rather than for medical reasons. The Red Queen effect in beauty both predicts and explains the fact that the field of cosmetic surgery is growing more in popularity and widespread acceptance than most if not all of the many advances made in twentieth century medical science. The frightening thought is that these trends in the beauty rat race are still continuing to co-evolve: will “all the running you can do” lead eventually to artificially adapted plastic people?

The dark side of the Red Queen effect

The third important point is that the Red Queen effect reveals a darker side to accounts of the social pressure on women to be attractive. Feminist approaches link the dissatisfaction of many women with their bodies, their struggle to achieve the slender, toned body shape associated with youth, and the emergence of their dissatisfaction in extreme forms such as anorexia and other eating disorders to the promotion of unrealistic standards of beauty by the beauty industry. They argue that when unreal prototypes of artificial beauty in the media raise cultural beauty standards, a woman’s expectations of her own beauty become similarly unrealistic in terms of what she believes men desire. However, the Red Queen effect instead puts the driving force behind this social pressure firmly at the door of women themselves. As controversial as this may sound, the Red Queen effect concludes that it is neither the desires of men nor the unrealistic beauty standards promoted in the media that really fuel the beauty rat race. The real source of the social pressure to be attractive lies in the rivalries between women themselves as they continue to compete with each other for the available resources in contemporary society.

Extract from Carroll, L., (1872) Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there, London: MacMillan, Chapter 2

Alice never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, how it was that they began: all she remembers is, that they were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her: and still the Queen kept crying `Faster! Faster!' but Alice felt she could not go faster, thought she had not breath left to say so.
The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and the other things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything. `I wonder if all the things move along with us?' thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen seemed to guess her thoughts, for she cried, `Faster! Don't try to talk!'
Not that Alice had any idea of doing that. She felt as if she would never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath: and still the Queen cried `Faster! Faster!' and dragged her along. `Are we nearly there?' Alice managed to pant out at last.
`Nearly there!' the Queen repeated. `Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster! And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whistling in Alice's ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.
`Now! Now!' cried the Queen. `Faster! Faster!' And they went so fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground, breathless and giddy.
The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, `You may rest a little now.'
Alice looked round her in great surprise. `Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!'
`Of course it is,' said the Queen, `what would you have it?'
`Well, in our country,' said Alice, still panting a little, `you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing.'
`A slow sort of country!' said the Queen. `Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!'

References and Links

Carroll, L., (1872) Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there, London: MacMillan.

Darwin, C., (1859) On the Origin of Species, London: John Murray.

Dawkins, R., (1976), The Selfish Gene, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Etcoff, N., (1999) Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty, New York: Doubleday.

Miller, G.F. & Todd, P.M., (1998) Mate choice turns cognitive, Trends in Cognitive Science, Vol. 2, No. 5.

van Valen, L., (1973), ‘A New Evolutionary Law’, Evolutionary Theory, 1: 1-30.

Read this detailed article about Sexual Selection and the Biology of Beauty.

Home>>Psychology>>The Red Queen and the Beauty Rat Race

2000-01-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

Home>>Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

Beauty Matters provides valuable sources of information for a range of classroom activities and project work from secondary level through to post-16 education. Units of work are provided as resources for cross-curricular planning and links to individual subject areas are indicated. These resources can also be used to address many of the non-statutory and statutory National Curriculum guidelines for the teaching of PSHE and Citizenship at Key Stages 3 and 4.

(Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to read documents in PDF format)

Online cross-curricular units of work

Relating the resources to the National Curriculum (PDF)

The following online resources are also available to download in PDF format:

Unit title: The Science and Politics of Cosmetic Surgery

Other teaching resources

How to Write a List of References: A quick reference to citing material from different sources, including the Internet, in a reference list. The American Psychological Association publication format is used.

Home>>Teaching Resources

2000-01-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

Home>>Teaching Resources>>How to Write a List of References

How to Write a List of References

This guide is a quick reference to citing material from different sources, including the Internet, in a reference list. The American Psychological Association publication format is used.

Books by a single author:

Bordo, S. (1993). Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.

Books by two authors:

Mulvey, K., & Richards, M. (1998) Decades of Beauty: The Changing Image of Women 1890s 1990s. New York: Checkmark Books.

Edited book:

Edut, O. (Ed.). (1998). Adios Barbie: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity. Seattle: Seal Press.

Article or chapter in an edited book:

Shilling, C. (1997) The Body and Difference. In K. Woodward (Ed.), Identity and Difference (pp. 63-107). London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Journal article:

Watson, P. J., & Thornhill, R. (1994). Fluctuating Assymetry and Sexual Selection. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 21-25.

Magazine article:

Betts, K. (1994, April). Body Language. Vogue, 184, 344-345.

Newspaper article:

My body is my own business. (1993, June 29). The Globe and Mail, p. A26.

World Wide Web site:

Pavati, L. (2003). How to Write a List of References [WWW document]. URL http://beautymatters.blogspot.com/2000_01_19_beautymatters_archive.html

Alternatively, you may choose to list the date a document was downloaded or viewed online. This is useful if you are concerned that the document is likely to expire.

Pavati, L. (2003). How to Write a List of References [WWW document]. URL http://beautymatters.blogspot.com/2000_01_19_beautymatters_archive.html (visited 2003, November 30).

Online documents that do not provide any information about the date they were created or last modified should be treated as republished versions of works with no date of initial publication. You should cite the year the document was retrieved.

American Psychological Association (APA) (n.d./2003). Electronic References. [WWW document]. URL http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

Home>>Teaching Resources>>How to Write a List of References

2000-01-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular teaching resources>>The Science and Politics of Cosmetic Surgery

The Science and Politics of Cosmetic Surgery

Introduction

In this unit, students explore the conflicting rights and responsibilities involved in issues concerning cosmetic surgery, such as those of individuals and the interests of the wider public. They learn that views may conflict and that expert opinion cannot always arbitrate between them. They find out who is involved in making public policy decisions, and learn that these are sometimes taken in the absence of scientific certainty or where there is contradictory scientific evidence. Students also learn about the different ways the media covers issues and problems of cosmetic surgery, and the effect this can have on our understanding and opinion of them. They analyse information from a range of sources to identify key issues and events. They appreciate diversity and see matters from other people’s points of view

Vocabulary

Students will be able to understand, use and spell correctly vocabulary relating to:

Citizenship: rights, responsibilities, fact, opinion, media

Science of cosmetic surgery: clinical trials, implants, treatment, silicone, collagen, side-effects, public domain, scarring

Subject Areas

The teaching activities link with the following subjects:

Citizenship/PSHE

Geography

Science

English

ICT

Resources

the internet, including articles on the website, Beauty Matters

press and television news coverage

cards for sorting activity of facts and opinions

writing frames for a variety of genres

Learning Objectives

Students should learn:

to explore issues of cosmetic surgery and to share ideas and information

about the different ways in which the media covers situations, and the effect this can have on our understanding and opinion of events

that understanding contemporary events requires some knowledge of their political, social and economic context

about the different rights and responsibilities involved in the issues

about distinguishing fact from opinion

about the interplay between empirical questions, evidence and scientific explanations

how to use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain and interpret observations, measurements/other data and conclusions

about public policy decisions that are sometimes made in the absence of certainty

Teaching Activities

1. What is cosmetic surgery?

Students use their own knowledge and the website of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery to make a list of responses to the question, what is cosmetic surgery?

In pairs, students use a selection of recent newspapers to note the key issues reported in the media concerning cosmetic surgery for different parts of the body. These can be written as questions pointing to relevant parts on an outline of a body to provide a concise diagrammatic summary, eg Are silicone gel-filled breast implants safe and effective? (download Worksheet 1)

Group discussion of cosmetic surgery procedures. Students give their own opinions and experiences of cosmetic surgery and differing viewpoints are noted and added. From this introduction, make a list of key words: both citizenship words, eg fact, opinion, objective, subjective, controversial, and relevant science words, eg clinical trials, implants, treatment, silicone, collagen, side-effects, public domain, scarring. (download Worksheet 2)

2. What points of view are there about cosmetic surgery, and why?

As a class, list the parties affected by issues of cosmetic surgery, eg plastic surgeons, expert scientific advisors, other health professionals, regulatory panels, manufacturers, clients.

Students work in pairs using the website of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery to complete the following tasks:

Work out the viewpoint of each of the affected parties and write it down. For example, are people’s lives or employment directly affected? How? (download Worksheet 3)

Do the issues have political, social and/or economic dimensions?

How has the issue been portrayed in the press and on TV? Has this influenced public opinion and political response, eg images of scarring following cosmetic surgery procedures to lengthen limbs?

Identify rights and responsibilities, eg the right to individual choice as against the responsibility not to endanger the health of others.

Discuss answers as a class. Ask whether the differing viewpoints might be reconciled and, if so, how.

3. What are the key scientific aspects?

Ask students to recall relevant scientific ideas, eg What are the medical risks and side-effects of cosmetic surgery? How can clinical trials be used to provide empirical evidence of the safety of products used in cosmetic surgery? How can different treatments be compared for effectiveness? Why are some treatments prescription-only and not in the public domain?

Introduce one or more historical case studies to develop understanding of scientific and citizenship concepts. For example, a comparison of foot-binding in China with cosmetic foot surgery to fit feet into Choo shoes can identify medical complications and consider individual choice (download Worksheet 4). Relevant background reading includes articles and other features on the website of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society.

Use a card-sorting activity to help pairs of students to categorise statements about cosmetic surgery as ‘fact’, ‘opinion’ or ‘uncertain’. The statements could be from either a report in a recent newspaper or an article from a website used in earlier activities. Discuss as a class and encourage students to be critical of ‘fact’.(download Worksheet 5)

4. What should be done? How can we take responsible action?

Return to a structured class discussion of issues concerning cosmetic surgery by asking for specific reports from different groups of students. Each group should consider and agree on how they wish to communicate their findings to the audience. Encourage students to:

consider the evidence gathered (from media reports or elsewhere) by discussing questions such as: How have scientists gathered the evidence? Why might there be conflicting views among scientists? Why aren’t scientists certain about the issue? Ask students whether the case requires further scientific evidence and whether this is obtainable.

appreciate that, in a democracy, public policy should represent the interests of a majority of people, but this does not mean that everyone gets what they want.

appreciate that public policy needs to be developed even when the scientific case is uncertain, and that this requires political argument and sometimes compromise.

Ask students to consider how they could influence the debate or take action in some way. Students write a press release, design a campaign poster or write a report of their findings for publication on a website.

Learning Outcomes

Students:

identify features of media reporting, eg incomplete information, and learn to distinguish between opinion and fact

discuss the media coverage of a contemporary issue and summarise their views of a media report

know and describe the key points of the issue they are investigating

understand the need to balance competing rights and responsibilities

recognise the role of the media and its effect on public opinion

identify and understand the key scientific aspects of issues concerning cosmetic surgery

distinguish fact from opinion and know the importance of being critical of how ‘facts’ are presented

identify some of the processes by which scientific evidence is collected and evaluated

communicate their views to a chosen audience

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular teaching resources>>The Science and Politics of Cosmetic Surgery

2000-01-17T11:08:00.000-08:00

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular teaching resources>>Beauty in Contemporary Global Cultures

Beauty in Contemporary Global Cultures

Introduction

In this unit, students develop their understanding of the economic, social and political forces which shape all of our lives through a study of beauty in contemporary global cultures. They develop knowledge of the world as a global community, and the political, economic and social implications of this.

They investigate the interdependence between people, places and environments in the beauty industry and through this study begin to understand the concept of globalisation, ie how what happens in one part of the world affects people everywhere. They develop understanding of the key concepts of interdependence, globalisation, diversity, quality of life, social justice and equity.

Vocabulary

Students will be able to understand, use and spell correctly vocabulary relating to:

Global beauty culture

International trade development and industry

Subject Areas

The teaching activities link with the following subjects:

Geography

ICT

Citizenship/PSHE

English

Resources

the internet, including articles on the website Beauty Matters

recent issues of several magazines and newspapers

scissors and glue

cards for sorting activity of the advantages and disadvantages of the globalisation of beauty culture

writing frames for a variety of genres

dictionaries

Learning Objectives

Students should learn:

to think about issues of topical significance

to analyze and evaluate evidence and draw and justify conclusions

to select and use secondary sources of evidence, including the internet

to identify how people and places are interdependent

to use their imagination to consider other people’s experiences and to think about values and attitudes that are not their own

to identify factors that influence development and to consider the effects of differences in development on the quality of life of different groups of people

Teaching Activities

1. Starting with students’ own knowledge of global beauty culture

Students work in pairs to cut out pictures and words they associate with mainstream standards of beauty in magazines and newspapers. Encourage students to focus on mainstream perceptions of beauty in terms of race/ethnicity, skin tone, hair texture, facial features, height, weight, body adornments (jewelry, tattoos etc), body features (legs, bust, buttocks etc). Students use their cuttings to create a poster.

As a class, brainstorm students’ own knowledge of mainstream standards of beauty for males and females. Consider biases and stereotypes within Western constructions of beauty ideals.

Group discussion of ways in which science and technology enable people to change their appearance (cosmetic surgery, hair colouring etc). Complete a chart listing the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

2. Building and extending knowledge

Read Unhealthy US Body Images Affect World Beauty Standards. Other articles on the website, Beauty Matters also contain information that will be useful in answering the following questions:

How have standards of beauty varied from culture to culture? Compare the content of the articles reviewed with the posters created. What are some of the differences and similarities?

Who sets the standard of beauty experienced in Western society?

How has this standard influenced other parts of the world?

What are the political, economic and social implications of a global standard of beauty?

Discuss answers as a class. Introduce students to key concepts of interdependence, globalisation, diversity, quality of life, social justice and equity. Write up the results from this enquiry as a glossary of terms.

3. Problematising this knowledge by identifying an issue

Discuss with students the meaning of the term ‘globalisation’, ie. the creation of global systems where what happens in one part of the world affects people and places everywhere. Consider factors involved in the development of the process, eg result of migration, improvement in transport and communications technology, political and economic change.

Use a card-sorting activity to help pairs of students to identify advantages and disadvantages in the globalisation of beauty culture eg empowerment of women, ‘parade of nudity’ in beauty pageants, pressure to conform through cosmetic surgery procedures, development of trade and industry

Ask students to suggest questions for an enquiry into issues concerning the globalisation of beauty culture.

4. Gaining understanding of a variety of perspectives on the same issue

Split the class into groups of four students. Allocate an issue identified in the previous activity to each group as a topic for debate. Each student in the group prepares a speech according to whether they are to propose/second and are for/against the motion. Class presentation of group debates followed by questions and voting.

Students choose an issue highlighted in the class debating activity and write an article for a newspaper/website to publicise the issue they have just researched.

Learning Outcomes

Students:

identify elements of beauty culture and make connections between them

give and justify their own opinions about standards of beauty and ways of changing appearances

read critically and answer questions using a variety of sources

describe and explain patterns in cultural standards of beauty and the political, social and economic implications of these

correctly identify, spell and define key vocabulary in glossaries

identify how the pattern of beauty culture is changing as a result of many factors, including globalisation

identify how globalisation benefits some groups of people rather than others

use ICT to deliver an appropriate message to a specific audience

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular teaching resources>>Beauty in Contemporary Global Cultures

2000-01-16T11:08:00.000-08:00

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular teaching resources>>The Body as Image

The Body as Image

Introduction

In this unit, students explore their personal identity as a starting point to considering the images that others present. They consider how aspects of the body such as hair and clothing can influence the creation of an image through styling and fashion. They critically assess a range of written and visual information to investigate the use of the body as image in different times and cultures, and in contemporary photography and art. They create images that reflect their ideas of themselves and others, working from observation, memory and imagination. They have the opportunity to combine traditional and digital media. They learn about the ideas, methods and approaches used by other artists who have made images of themselves and/or portrayed others.

Vocabulary

Students will be able to understand, use and spell correctly vocabulary relating to:

body image: identity, distinguishing features, symbolism, attractiveness, portraiture, form, symmetry.

composition: viewpoints, text, images, cropping, overlay, composition, photo montage, digital imaging.

comparing images of the body from different times, places and cultures.

Subject Areas

The teaching activities link with the following subjects:

Art

English

History

Geography

PSHE/Citizenship

ICT

Resources

the internet, including articles on the website, Beauty Matters

portrait paintings and sculpted heads

library resources

dictionaries and thesaurus

writing frames for a variety of genres

magazine photographs of contemporary models and celebrities

computer with image manipulating software, printer

conventional camera and scanner, or digital camera

photocopier

a range of other art resources for practical work (paints, pencils, paper etc)

Learning Objectives

Students should learn:

to discuss and question critically a range of visual and other information to help them develop ideas for independent work

about codes and conventions and how these are used to represent ideas, beliefs and values in self-portraits

to select and use secondary sources of evidence, including the internet
to record and present information in different ways

Teaching Activities

1. What is image?

Class discussion of image and personality, eg Is your personality your image or is your image your personality? What image of you would a blind person have? Why can people look at their image in the mirror but cringe when they are shown a photo of themselves? How would you like to be seen by others? What powerful messages would you wish to communicate? Ask them how they might represent themselves, eg in words, in images, a combination of both? Other ways?

Students work in pairs to use a dictionary to define the word ‘image’ and a thesaurus to find other descriptive words for ‘image’. Group discussion to summarize responses.

Students write a short description of the image of a well known personality or celebrity. Students could read these descriptions aloud to the class without naming the person they are describing. Can other students identify the person from the description of their image?

Consider why certain celebrities, eg Michael Jackson and Madonna, have reinvented their image many times over many years.

Students prepare an Image Board related to the fashion items, styles, brands and logos of products preferred by themselves, a family member or a friend.

2. The body as image in different times and cultures

Students work in pairs to read The Body as an Object of Beauty on the Beauty Matters website and to look at self-portraits that show very different images of the self. They make notes about the messages they think the images are seeking to communicate about the person portrayed.

In a group, discuss selected images in detail, asking questions about the ways in which clothes, expression, gesture, foreground and background details are used to convey ideas about the person. Look at one artist’s work in detail, structuring a discussion under headings, eg:
- content – subject and ideas shown
- form – composition and arrangement
- how it is made – the materials, process, techniques used
- impact – what students think about the work and the effect on them

Read Fashion Statements: Beauty and the Clothing Code on the Beauty Matters website. The links featured at the end of the article will also be useful. Students work in pairs to make a list of the different ways in which clothing has been used to change the image presented by the body in different times and cultures. Record the findings on a timeline showing changing trends at different times and in different cultures.

Students represent themselves in a different historical, social or cultural context. They could research conventions in portraiture from different times, places or cultures, or a particular artist using library resources and the internet, and represent themselves in a chosen style, using traditional or digital media.

3. The body as image in contemporary photography and art

Consider how form and symmetry contribute to facial attractiveness. How can contemporary photography use these ideas to enhance their portrayal of the body as an image of beauty? The website Beauty Check provides some interesting information about morphing, or producing a composite image of different faces using photographic technology. Group discussion to consolidate and summarize students’ findings.

Students work in small groups to investigate the work of Ling Jian. Jian’s portraits can be compared with images of sculpted heads, eg work by Rodin, Moore, Gabo, Brancusi, Epstein and body sculptures, eg work by Anthony Gormley, Rodin, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo. Suggested resources include the library and the internet. How does Ling Jian use the body as an image to illustrate:
- the disappearance and dissolution of world cultures and their fusion to a new cultural form?
- his belief that individuals get lost in mass societies?
- his claim that the longing for immortality will be permanent and may become concrete in genetic manipulation and cloning?

Students write a report of their work on the body as image in either contemporary photography or art. This could be presented in the form of a magazine or website article, using traditional and digital media as illustrations.

Learning Outcomes

Students:

correctly identify, spell and define key vocabulary

compare and comment on ideas, methods and approaches used in images of the self and body

select and experiment with ideas, materials and information to represent themselves

read critically and answer questions using a variety of sources

use ICT to deliver an appropriate message to a specific audience

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular teaching resources>>The Body as Image

2000-01-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular teaching resources>>The Significance of the Media in Issues of Beauty Culture

The Significance of the Media in Issues of Beauty Culture

Introduction

This unit looks at the role and significance of the media in different local, national and international contexts of beauty culture. Students investigate how the media presents different issues and views; how it can be used to promote beauty standards; and its role in publicising other events, eg beauty pageants. Students consider questions such as how the media contributes to the creation of celebrities in beauty culture and whether these celebrities should have a right to privacy. Students have opportunities for group work, discussion, creativity and decision-making.

Vocabulary

Students will be able to understand, use and spell correctly vocabulary relating to:

The media in society: promotion, bias, campaign, privacy, celebrity

Issues of beauty culture: social codes, morality, ethical and medical concerns

Subject Areas

The teaching activities link with the following subjects:

Citizenship/PSHE

Geography

English

ICT

Resources

the internet, including articles on the website, Beauty Matters

local and national newspapers; articles about celebrities from magazines; clips from films or television programmes

information and resources from local/regional independent newspapers or radio stations

writing frames for a variety of genres

Learning Objectives

Students should learn:

to understand how media stories are tailored to an audience

to consider the effectiveness of different types of media for different audiences

to recognize both bias and objectivity in stories

to ask questions and to identify issues

to present a case persuasively, using selective arguments

to select and use secondary sources of evidence, including the internet

to record and present information in different ways

to use their imagination to consider other people’s experiences and to think about values and attitudes that are not their own

Teaching Activities

1. What makes a news story in beauty culture?

Students use a range of articles and news reports from a variety of media sources to select a current issue in beauty culture for further investigation, eg. the hijab and Islamic social codes; morality of beauty pageants; ethical and medical concerns in cosmetic surgery; masculinity and Metrosexuality.In small groups, they look at headlines from articles and news reports concerning the issue and discuss how these differ. (download Worksheet 1)

In pairs, students consider coverage of the issue in different media – television, radio, newspapers, magazines. How and why does coverage differ?

Group discussion of how different newspapers present an event or issue in different ways, and identify reasons why this might be so, eg the political views of the paper, the seriousness of the story. Students review the articles they identified in the first activity, considering questions such as:

What is the focus of the story?

How do the different newspaper stories compare in terms of length, language, style, use of terminology, presentation, use of images?

How easy is it to distinguish fact from opinion?

What is the proportion of fact to opinion?

Whose opinions are quoted?

Is it a one-sided view of the event/issue (ie one showing bias) or does it offer a balance of views?

Which story do I find most persuasive, and why?

What else do I want to know about the event/issue?

(download Worksheet 2)

2. How does the media promote beauty standards?

In small groups, students consider the images presented of beauty in photographs and other illustrations in the media. Using the images, they create a description of the type of person typically portrayed (body size, attributes, character, etc). A composite man and a composite woman can be created using bits and pieces of the people found in various adverts and photos. Students present their reports to the class.

Read Jumping Through Hoops. Group discussion of how the media can affect opinion, especially concerning the promotion of particular standards of beauty as ideal. Record the results of the discussion in a chart of both the positive and negative ways, eg raising public awareness, pressure to conform to ideal. (download Worksheet 3)

3. How does the media contribute to the creation of celebrities in beauty culture?

Read Heroes, villains and the cult of celebrity in the 20th century. Prejudice, distortion and the cult of celebrity and The Cult of Celebrity provide further discussion and extended readings of the relevant issues. Students work in pairs to list the ways in which the media contributes to the creation of celebrities in beauty culture. How can the creation of celebrities by the media be explained?

Using adverts in magazines create a poster of celebrity-endorsed beauty products. Consider whether these products are more popular among consumers than alternative products that are not associated with a celebrity. Students could conduct a survey and present their results in a graph.

4. Should celebrities in beauty culture have a right to privacy?

Group discussion of the interest of media companies in maximizing sales and profits. Why do stories about celebrities increase sales?

Split students into groups of three. Within each group, students role play a celebrity, a representative of a media company and a reader/fan of the celebrity. They should discuss the issue of privacy and its different effects on each person in the role-play. This could perhaps take the form of a scenario in which one person presents a complaint and the others try to resolve the issue with that person.

As a class, consider how people can complain about intrusion by the press. Introduce the roles of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and the ‘Right to respect for private and family life’ in the Humans Right Act 1998. Do celebrities have the same rights as other people?

Students produce a set of rules/code of practice for journalists and photographers in beauty culture, to ensure responsible behaviour by the media.

Learning Outcomes

Students:

realize that not all coverage of an issue will offer a balance of views and that coverage may contain bias

read critically and answer questions using a variety of sources

give and justify their own opinions

identify elements of the significance of the media in beauty culture and make connections between them

understand the role of the media in the creation of celebrities in beauty culture

recognize the effects of celebrity-endorsement on consumers of beauty products

learn that different members of society have competing rights and responsibilities

Home>>Teaching Resources>>Online cross-curricular teaching resources>>The Significance of the Media in Issues of Beauty Culture

2000-01-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home>>Feedback

Feedback

Home>>Feedback

2000-01-13T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home>>Psychology

Psychology

The Red Queen and the Beauty Rat Race: Can evolutionary psychology explain the biological basis of beauty, and how does the Red Queen effect account for social pressures on women to be attractive?

Browse the Collection for reprinted articles about beauty and psychology.

Home>>Psychology

2000-01-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home>>Cultures

Cultures

Chinese Beauty through the Changes of Time: The Chinese word 'beautiful' originally meant 'pleasant to sight' and is one of the earliest characters inscribed on oracle bones from 16-11 BC. However, standards of beauty have changed significantly throughout Chinese history. From slender to plump and frail to graceful, shifting ideals of feminine aestheticism in Imperial China can be traced through paintings, sculptures and contemporary accounts of women famous for their beauty.

Beauty Under Islam: When the Miss World Beauty Pageant was held in Nigeria in 2002 it led to rioting and over 200 deaths. Beauty and the role of women within Islam are controversial. Can Islamic ideas about beauty be reconciled with modern Western values or is the gulf just too great?

Zen and the Beauty of Japanese Gardening: Still practised today by Buddhist monks in Japan, beauty in Zen gardening is achieved through an aesthetic of simplicity and utility.

Nappy Hair: A Marker of Identity and Difference: Hair shapes both individual and cultural identities but if you are an Afro-American it also takes on a meaning within the historical context of slavery and the subsequent racism of American society.

Browse the Collection for reprinted articles about beauty and cultures.

Home>>Cultures

2000-01-11T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home>>Hair

Hair

Coming soon ...

Hair: The Long and the Short of it: What do hairstyles tell us about standards of beauty and attractiveness throughout history and in contemporary global societies?

Browse the Collection for reprinted articles about beauty and hair.

Home>>Hair

2000-01-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home>>Body

Body

The Body as an Object of Beauty: The body is at the core of human creativity and desire for its modification into an object of beauty is an essentially human creative practice.

Modifying the Body: Tattoos and Piercings: Body modification in the form of tattooing and piercing is traditionally viewed with reserve in contemporary Western societies. Those with tattoos or piercings are seen as rebellious and defiant of social conventions. However, body adornment in other non-Western cultures plays an expressive role in the articulation of cultural and religious values.

Browse the Collection for reprinted articles about beauty and the body.

Home>>Body

2000-01-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home>>Cosmetics

Cosmetics

Make-up in the Pursuit of Beauty: The technicolour world of cosmetics offers endless possibilities of enhancing (or disguising?) the canvas given by nature.

Browse the Collection for reprinted articles about beauty and cosmetics.

Home>>Cosmetics

2000-01-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home>>Fashion

Fashion

Fashion Statements: Beauty and the Clothing Code: Clothes speak symbolically to wearers and their viewers, but what is the nature of the meanings they communicate?

Browse the Collection for reprinted articles about beauty and fashion.

Home>>Fashion

2000-01-07T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home>>Creative Arts

Creative Arts

On the Origins of Beauty: Art in the Caves: The enigma of Upper Palaeolithic art raises many baffling questions for our understanding of the development of aesthetic sensibility.

Beauty in the Ear of the Beholder: What makes a piece of music beautiful, and can there be objective standards of criticism?

Female Beauty in Twentieth Century Poetry: A critical analysis of selected works reveals different underlying themes and portrayals.

The Body as an Object of Beauty: The body is at the core of human creativity and desire for its modification into an object of beauty is an essentially human creative practice. Representations of the body in painting and sculpture show changing attitudes to the concept of beauty as an aesthetic ideal.

The Rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art: The apparent destruction of beauty and the rejection of the female body as an aesthetic symbol in twentieth-century art is located in the philosophies of Kant and Burke, arguments of the avant-garde and the movement to banish the beautiful in striving to attain the sublime.

Browse the Collection for reprinted articles about beauty and creative arts.

Home>>Creative Arts

2000-01-06T09:01:00.000-08:00

Home>>Introduction and Reviews

Introduction and Reviews

Beauty is a distinctly human phenomenon, and the need to create objects of beauty has been a driving force throughout our cultural history. Since the earliest cave art and carvings of ancient man, beauty has been expressed by humans in poetry, music, paintings, sculpture and other creative forms. Through trends in fashion, cosmetics, body modification, alteration and beauty culture, the human body itself can also be expressed as an object of beauty.

This site is a personal exploration of these matters of beauty in an attempt to further our understanding of the cultural heritages of societies in different times and places. Written by a qualified teacher with degrees in Music and Psychology, Beauty Matters contains many original articles that yield insights into the nature of beauty.

Reviews

"An intelligently written, blog-driven site examining the nature of beauty."
Lucire

"Beauty Matters offers a range of articles and resources (including detailed lesson plans) about aspects of "beauty"- including material on body image, fashion and attraction. The text is short, concise and clearly-written and the site's subject matter fits quite neatly into different parts of the OCR (Individual and Society) and AQA (Health, Medicine and the Body) specifications. Content is largely aimed at a GCSE audience, but the teaching resources contain ideas that can be easily adapted for A-level students."
Sociology Central

Home>>Introduction and Reviews

2000-01-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

Home>>Creative Arts>>On the Origin of Beauty: Art in the Caves

On the Origin of Beauty: Art in the Caves

On 18 December 1994, Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel Deschamps and Christian Hillaire descended into the caves of Ardèche in Southern France. The three friends later described their discovery of a rich display of images painted and engraved on the subterranean walls and ceilings, vividly recalling how:

'Alone in that vastness, lit by the feeble beam of our lamps, we were seized by a strange feeling. Everything was so beautiful, so fresh, almost too much so. Time was abolished, as if the tens of thousands of years that separated us from the producers of those paintings no longer existed. It seemed as if they had just created these masterpieces. Suddenly we felt like intruders. Deeply impressed, we were weighed down by that feeling that we were not alone; the artists' souls and spirits surrounded us. We thought we could feel their presence; we were disturbing them.'

Controversial Antiquity

Chauvet and his friends had come face to face with the enigma of Upper Palaeolithic art and the many baffling questions it raises for our understanding of the development of humanity. When the first pieces of Stone Age art began to be unearthed in the 1830s, the antiquity of these engraved statuettes, pendants, spear-throwers, plaquettes and beads made from mammoth ivory, bone and antler was unrecognised and then fiercely disputed. Together with the discovery in 1879 of Palaeolithic paintings and engraved images on the walls and ceilings of the Altamira Cave on the northern Spanish coast, these pieces disturbingly upturned the comfortable notion that only the highest civilisations achieved artistic greatness. How could the earliest humans, the Magdalenans, Gravettians and Solutreans of the Upper Palaeolithic period from about 45,000 to 10,000 years ago, have produced such detailed representational imagery and transformed rock formations into visual depictions of animals, humans and geometric signs?

Symbolic Imagery and Mental Sophistication

Explanations to account for this art confront the origins of aesthetic sensibility itself. Whilst the antiquity and authenticity of Palaeolithic cave art may no longer be contested or denied, enduring notions of early human savagery and bestiality still require significant reworking. The very inaccessibility and dark underground conditions of many of the finest surviving paintings point to the illogicality of suggestions that the art was simply a leisure pursuit, and as such was produced purely for looking at. However, if the paintings and engravings are accepted as evidence of symbolic imagery in early humans, this implies a mental sophistication that exceeds their supposed primitive state. Whilst many researchers describe a sharp increase in the development of hunting strategies, the appearance of different tool types and an explosion in the use of body decoration during the period, these are not adequate in themselves to account for the making of images of animals and people. An understanding that an image is a visual representation of something else requires a different sort of mental ability from that which simply recognises the social distinction of a symbolic marking on the body. Does Palaeolithic art indicate the development of something akin to an innate aesthetic sense in humans at that time?

Imagery and Socialisation

However, it is necessary to look further than such individualistic explanations in attempting to understand the reasons behind the sudden emergence of art in the Upper Palaeolithic period. For marks to be representative of something else, they need to be recognised as such. The circles that depict a woolly bison must be able to produce the mental image of a woolly bison in other viewers if they are to be successful. Art making therefore both derives from and is contingent upon its social function, meaning and understanding. The imagery of Upper Palaeolithic art suggests a link therefore between the development of aesthetic sensibility and an increase in social diversity during the period. Within the prevailing social dynamics, image-making perhaps emerged as a means of establishing and defining social relationships.

Unanswered Questions

So it is that many questions remain unanswered today. Why did the people at that time penetrate deep into the caves of France and Spain to create paintings and images in complete darkness? What was the meaning of these images for the people who created them and to those who travelled to view them? And, perhaps most significantly, how did we become human and in doing so begin to create art?

Links

Visit the Chauvet Cave for a virtual tour, history and site information.

Enlarge photographs of Palaeolithic paintings from the Chauvet cave.

Visit this comprehensive website of information and illustrations of cave and rock art. The Chauvet pages include descriptions of visits to the cave and a gallery of the paintings with commentaries.

Information on caves for visitors and tourists.

Home>>Creative Arts>>On the Origin of Beauty: Art in the Caves

2000-01-04T07:49:00.000-08:00

Home>>Cultures>>Zen and the Beauty of Japanese Gardening

Zen and the Beauty of Japanese Gardening

As Buddhism spread to Japan in the sixth century, the Chinese practice of Zen blended easily with the ancient Japanese Shinto religion of nature. Shrines of natural beauty associated with the mountains, forests and the sea were already held to be places where the powers of kami, or the forces of nature, were most concentrated. When combined with the Buddhist practice of Zen meditation, the creation of gardens became an especially symbolic means of achieving self-knowledge and Enlightenment.

Zen Meditation

Unlike Western gardens that are designed for excitement and sensory stimulation, Zen gardening involves the creation of places where meditation and contemplation are both encouraged and enabled. They are soothing and reflective spaces that emphasize quietness and tranquillity. Buddha’s own search for the meaning of life and ultimate achievement of Enlightenment whilst seated under a tree are mirrored in the guiding principles of Zen gardening. Still practised today by Buddhist monks in Japan, gardening tasks are required to be performed with love and in mindfulness. Beauty is achieved through an aesthetic of simplicity and utility.

Growth of Symbolism

Zen gardens are created through the use of features in a symbolic way to portray natural scenes embodying balance and harmony. The design of every element, whether rock, sand, gravel, water, plant, or ornament, is carefully considered as a means of visually showing the place of ordinary people in the natural order of the earth. The importance of this symbolism lies behind the unique essence of Zen gardens, although its roots reach back to the earlier period of Japanese history when Shinto was the prevailing religion.

Myths and legends reveal the extent to which the symbolism woven into Zen gardening had already been part of the fabric of daily Japanese life long before the introduction of Buddhism. The islands, fertile mountains and clear, flowing streams of Japan play significant roles in many fables and are central to the religious beliefs of Shintoism.

Links

Visit the historic gardens of Kyoto for a virtual tour and history.

Find out more at the Japanese Garden Database

The book Japanese Touch for your Garden is described as “quite simply the best guidebook for the amateur of the Japanese garden who wishes to try out the concepts at home.”

Home>>Cultures>>Zen and the Beauty of Japanese Gardening

2000-01-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Home>>Body>>The Body as an Object of Beauty
Home>>Creative Arts>>The Body as an Object of Beauty

The Body as an Object of Beauty

It is impossible to conceive of beauty in the absence of the body and its perception or sensation of the beautiful. Whether in Enlightenment definitions of beauty as mental harmony or in postmodernist repressions of the body in encountering the sublime, the body and beauty are inseparable. If beauty is concerned with transformations occurring within the body, it is also the body itself that is necessarily the closest site of the desire for beauty. Furthermore, the link between certain types of bodies and the feelings they arouse is central to the experience of beauty. The body is therefore at the core of human creativity and desire for its modification into an object of beauty is an essentially human creative practice.

The Beauty of the Body in Classical Sculpture

From the time of the Ancient Greeks in the fifth century BC, when Sophocles wrote ‘Wonders are there many none more wonderful than man’, the human form and appearance has been considered as a proper and predominant subject matter of the artist. Portrayals of idealized beauty in the image of man were associated with the Greek discovery of individual value and divinity in every ordinary, mortal human. The development of the human figure in Greek sculpture shows a progression from the stiff, archaic kourai to the freedom of the Kritios Boy in the early classical period and the unrestrained, thunderbolt-throwing beauty of the bronze Zeus of Artemiseion. The bronze sculpture of the Discobolus by the Greek sculptor, Myron (c. 450 BC) is exemplary as an early object of beauty encapsulated in the perfect balance of human proportions and representation of the body.

Renaissance Bodies of Beauty

A moral sense of the goodness of beauty streams from the artwork of the most celebrated artists of the sixteenth-century Renaissance in Italy. The triumph of the nobility of human nature in the form of a beautiful goddess contrasts sharply with the bestiality of the slavish half-animal she holds by its tangled hair in Boticelli’s painting, Pallas and the Centaur. Similarly, the statue of David by Michelangelo displays his concern to emphasize the beauty of the human form on a grandiose proportion. Inspired by the Renaissance model, the English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of 1848 took up the theme of the body as an object of beauty. Rossetti’s obsessive depiction of languorous women clothed in the drapes of mediaeval gowns, with swollen lips, serpentine necks and long, luxurious hair unpinned and flowing freely, achieved notoriety against the contemporary backdrop of Victorian rigidity and convention. Burne-Jones provides a portrayal in excess of these bodies of beauty in his depiction of eighteen such identical women in the painting, The Golden Stairs (1880).

Contemporary Art Scene

The advent of modernism saw the rejection of the body as an object of beauty in Western art. Considered an outsider and largely abandoned in favour of pure form and sublime vision, beauty as an aesthetic ideal became a pejorative word in art throughout the twentieth-century. Pablo Picasso’s paintings of distorted female nudes and Lucian Freud’s stark depictions of male obesity exemplify the modernist repression of the body as beautiful. However, critics are beginning to signal that the tides are now turning. Influential thinkers such as Arthur Danto, Dave Hickey and Peter Schjeldahl are putting forward new conceptions of beauty, and artists themselves are speaking about their unease and disenchantment with the formalist dogma of the 1950s onwards. Louise Bourgeois invites consideration of the body’s ability to seduce as well as repel in her rounded stone sculptures of human folds. Outsized shop window mannequins by Charles Ray and satirical fashion photographs by Sherman suggest that new technologies in the media combined with an emphasis on fashion and style in contemporary culture are also influential players in the reinstatement of the body as an object of beauty.

Culture of the Beautiful Body

If the body is re-emerging as an object of beauty in the fine arts, then this trend is already securely established on the mainstream high street. In the current culture of the body, desire for beauty is paraded everywhere in fashion, aesthetic surgery, body art and modification. Direct action on the body through piercing, tattooing and surgery serves as individualisation in the quest to be beautiful. A proliferation of eating disorders marks the extreme end of this culture of the beautiful body as an ultimate proof of individual worth and value in an arena of hyper-individuality. If the desire to be beautiful is epitomic of human desire and pervasive in modern life, the pathology of conditions such as dysmorphophobia is brought into question. Perhaps above all, the present climate reveals how cultural ideals of racial and gendered bodies inflect the very laws of beauty themselves.

Links

Greek Landscapes includes thoughts and pictures from the natural and cultural landscapes of Greece. There are photos and further information about Ancient Greek sculptures.

A website devoted to the life and works of Michelangelo.

Indecent Images is a gallery of evocative pre-Raphaelite paintings, with commentary and background by Steven William Rimmer.

Enlarge photographs of the sculptures of Louise Bourgeois.

This site is devoted to the mutual appreciation of the human form as a work of art across cultural, international and intellectual boundaries.

Home>>Body>>The Body as an Object of Beauty
Home>>Creative Arts>>The Body as an Object of Beauty

2000-01-02T01:21:00.000-08:00

Home>>Creative Arts>>Beauty in the Ear of the Beholder

Beauty in the Ear of the Beholder

"If the contemplation of something beautiful arouses pleasurable feelings, this effect is distinct from the beautiful as such. I may, indeed, place a beautiful object before an observer with the avowed purpose of giving him pleasure, but this purpose in no way affects the beauty of the object. The beautiful is and remains beautiful though it arouse no emotion whatever, and though there be no one to look at it. In other words, although the beautiful exists for the gratification of an observer, it is independent of him."

So claimed the music critic, Eduard Hanslick in 1854. Writing at a time when the opposing schools of Brahms and Wagner dominated the music scene, Hanslick’s attempt to formulate an objective evaluation of what is musically beautiful was reactionary. His insistence that human emotions cannot be used in making a judgement of beauty in music flew in the face of the prevailing expressive values of late nineteenth-century Romanticism. Whilst admitting that beautiful music may move the listener deeply, Hanslick believed that this emotional response was no more than a side-effect. The true beauty of the music was to be found within the music itself. Perhaps even more controversially at the time, Hanslick claimed further that beautiful music could never be written as a narrative representation of an event or other specific content: ‘a musician cannot but find this method hazardous from the very start, since it demonstrates that music is only the afterthought. First place is taken by the poetical material; the music is a kind of brilliantly illustrated marginal notation.’

Beauty and the music of Wagner

Hanslick followed his beliefs about musical beauty in levelling extensive criticism against the composer, Wagner. Wagner aimed to combine art and literature with music in his operas, and famously developed the use of the ‘leitmotiv’ or musical theme to represent different characters on the stage. In his review of Wagner’s opera Lohengrin in 1858, Hanslick wrote that its enthusiastic reception ‘would be more readily understood by a deaf person, subject only to the impression of the stage sets, the processions, the groupings, the miming of the principals, than by someone who knew nothing of Lohengrin but the music.’ In contrast, Hanslick writes with enthusiasm about the music of Brahms, a contemporary composer writing non-programmatic symphonies and chamber music. He claimed that this music ‘has the virtue of not seeking effects at the cost of intelligibility’ and that ‘there is no seeking after applause in Brahms’ music, no narcissistic affectation.’ Brahms’ approach to composition obviously satisfied Hanslick’s view that ‘music demands once and for all to be grasped as music’.

Musical beauty in early twentieth-century France

Hanslick’s conviction of the autonomous beauty of music foreshadows the development of ideas about musical beauty by composers in the twentieth –century. In France, the poet Jean Cocteau launched an attack against the influences of both Wagner and Impressionism in Le Coq et l’Arlequin, whilst the composer, Albert Roussel advocated ‘a music satisfying in itself, a music which seeks to eliminate all picturesque and descriptive elements.’
The Austrian composer, Schoenberg also concluded that ‘by producing comprehensibility, form produces beauty’. These aesthetic principles lie at the heart of the philosopher Susanne Langer’s later theory of musical appreciation. In Feeling and Form (1953) and Problems of Art (1957) she suggested that music’s power to interest stems from its formal relations to the patterns of human feeling. Furthermore, she used music as an example of a symbol system whose symbols are not necessarily descriptive, evocative or expressive.

Objective guidelines for musical beauty

Hanslick’s analysis of musical beauty as being independent of human beings lays the foundation for objective standards of criticism about beauty in music. The nature of objectivity implies the comparison of a work to an ideal or absolute truth. The eighteenth-century philosopher, Immanuel Kant recognized ‘objective’ principles as those considered to be applicable to the whole or to everyone. Similarly, the nineteenth-century physiologist, Claude Bernard believed that subjective ideas are interior and bring the subject an impression of the truth, whilst objective ideas are exterior and are based on observation and experimentation. Can there be agreement about an objective standard of ideal beauty in music however, or does the essentially personal experience of musical beauty always escape such generalisation?

Attempts to define beauty in music

One writer who attempts to answer this question is Lewis Rowell. He included a proposal of guidelines for musical excellence in his book, Thinking about Music (1983). Although he recognized the controversy surrounding the judgement of value in a composition, he believed that a work would be more likely to ‘deserve a rating’ if it conformed to the criteria he suggested. He described pieces that fail through their lack of a ‘unified, coherent structure’ or their inability to ‘strike an appropriate balance’ between the criteria he proposed. However, his statements show a tendency to indicate the causes of failure in a piece of music rather than to pinpoint exactly the essential ingredient that brings successful beauty to a composition.

Musical beauty evades definition

An ideal of beauty in music appears to be elusive despite wide-ranging debate on the subject. As a result, guidelines for critical evaluation are generally based on previous successes in music rather than on an absolute ideal. Attempts to set out objective standards of criticism for beauty in music are therefore concerned primarily with outlining reasons for the failure of a composition to be beautiful. A reversal of these explanations is then allowed to stand as an explanation of musical beauty. Whilst the first of these processes has relevance in practice, the second is a misguided fallacy. Many successful pieces of music bear no relation to the guidelines suggested by philosophers. The inescapable conclusion is that a personal appreciation of beauty in music may ultimately resist any objective definition.

Links and References

Eduard Hanslick. (1854/1885) Vom Musikalisch-Schönen. Translated in 1891 by Gustav Cohen as: The Beautiful in Music. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1957.

Rowell, Lewis (1983) Thinking About Music: An Introduction to The Philosophy of Music. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press.

An outline of Hanslick’s theory of beauty in music.

Visit The Music Chamber for an introduction to the major periods and composers in music history. Includes RealAudio performances of 15 greatest works.

Information and illustrations about early twentieth-century music in France.

Home>>Creative Arts>>Beauty in the Ear of the Beholder

2000-01-01T00:31:00.000-08:00

Home>>Cosmetics>>Make-up in the Pursuit of Beauty

Make-up in the Pursuit of Beauty

The technicolour world of cosmetics offers endless possibilities of enhancing (or disguising?) the canvas given by nature. Although glossy lipsticks, shimmering powders and creamy potions are now a billion-dollar global industry in the twenty-first-century, the opportunities they offer for changing appearance have been exploited by both men and women throughout history. It is perhaps less obvious why make-up is believed to have the power of conferring beauty on its wearer, however. Fashionable trends in cosmetic application show great variability across time, and what may once have been seen to enhance natural beauty often causes revulsion in later generations.

Make-up in Ancient Civilisations

The majority of cosmetic products and treatments used today would not have been unfamiliar to the Ancient Egyptians. Sweet-scented oils, rouges for lips and coloured powders find their modern equivalence in perfumes, lipsticks and eyeshadows. The roots of the beauty industry can also be traced back to the time of the Pharaohs, around 3000 BC. Cosmetic makers sold palettes of coloured pigments, yellow and orange ochre, green eyeshadow made of verdigris, and kohl made of galena. Many products were expensive and make-up was therefore regarded as a privilege or indulgence of the wealthy classes in Egyptian society. Jars of cosmetics formed part of the royal funerary equipment and examples were discovered in the tombs of three ladies of the court of Tuthmosis III, buried around 1400 BC.

Different trends in changing social and economic contexts

From the black kohl-eyed look of Cleopatra in Egypt to the white arsenic-faced look of Elizabethan courtiers in England, the use of cosmetics has a long association with wealth and power. It is striking that changes in the prevailing social and economic contexts lead the way for similar changes in the styles of make-up application considered to enhance beauty. For example, whilst a pale complexion provided evidence to an Elizabethan audience that a person was wealthy enough to stay indoors, tanned complexions in the late twentieth-century gave a ‘just-returned-from-holiday-in-the-Med’ look. Social and economic circumstances seem therefore to have a significant effect on the way in which make-up is fashionably applied. An appearance of beauty is closely linked to social distinction, prestige and power.

Make-up as liberation and escapism

However, trends in the application of make-up are influenced by more factors than simply those of wealth. In the late Victorian era, cosmetics were considered the mark of a licentious lifestyle and were shunned by all but the strippers and prostitutes. Against this puritan background, the stage was set for the re-emergence of make-up as a gesture of women’s liberation from the 1920s onwards. Blood red lipstick and painted nails no longer signalled a ‘painted woman’. Furthermore, in a proliferation of mass-marketing and advertising, female beauty was perceived through the lens of the cinema camera. With the rise of the celebrity, icons such as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich set the standard of a glamorous existence far away from the mundane realities of everyday life. Make-up quickly developed as a form of escapism, with women using products such as Starlet Shadow and Cinema Sable in their aspirations to emulate their Hollywood role models.

Psychological benefits of make-up

Whilst make-up plays a role in the perceptions we make of another person’s socio-economic status therefore, it can also be used as an expression of our own identity. With gold nail varnish by Esteé Lauder, blue eyeshadow by Mary Quant, kohl eyeliner, caked blusher and cherry-flavoured roll-on lip gloss, 1960s’ girls used the contents of their vanity cases as membership badges of a youthful, mini-skirted rebellion. Trends in cosmetic use are imbued with social contextual cues that help to construct a sense of the person we would like to be. As a sign of social identity, make-up expresses group affiliations and connections with a subculture. As a sign of personal identity, make-up symbolizes a person’s character and personality through signifying their core values, qualities and attributes.

Links

Visit this website for detailed information and illustrations of cosmetics in Ancient Egypt.

An article from Lucire in which the make-up secrets of celebrities are revealed.

Read this article about cosmetics and the growth of the global beauty industry.

Home>>Cosmetics>>Make-up in the Pursuit of Beauty