Does Looks Matter Part 4 March 13, 2008
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Part IV: What faces and fruit have in commonWhen you’re picking an apple at the grocery store, you go for one that is a pretty color, that has smooth skin with no bruises.
And so it is when you’re looking at faces. Symmetrical, young-looking faces are rated universally as more attractive, according to researcher Karl Grammer, who has a Web site that explains in fascinating detail the evolutionary psychology of beauty. Being attracted to pretty faces is like being attracted to disease-free fruit. What makes people beautiful, he argues, also makes them good candidates for reproduction.
It’s a point echoed in a book by Julian Robinson called The Quest for Human Beauty. Our interest in beauty is connected with human creativity. These forces combine to help us survive, both as individuals and as a species.
This seems pretty logical, doesn’t it?
Following fashion is another way of seeking beauty. Think you don’t care about fashion? Martha says: Think again.
It starts to get fascinating once people apply math and science to the equation. Take broad chins, for example. In eight cultures studied, broad chins were perceived to make a man look dominant. That men have broader chins than women is directly related to testosterone, which is a male sex hormone. Studies have shown that men with broader chins at West Point military academy rise to higher ranks than their narrow-chinned counterparts. Moreover, college students with broad chins have been found to have more girlfriends.
And that’s not all. In women, the most attractive ratio for the waist to the hips has been found to be .72, according to Grammer’s Web site. This means that your waist size should be 72 percent of your hip size.
Where this gets interesting is where it relates to reproduction. Research in Great Britain and Uganda shows that women with an optimal waist-to-hip ratio get pregnant faster through artificial insemination. So, even without knowing it, we’re attracted to what works for us as a species.
Even other things, such as hair preferences, are thought to relate to reproduction. Long hair in women is like a health record. It shows how healthy a woman has been, and how well she has eaten. Blonde hair shows up more in magazines because it is more rare, and Grammer thinks the preference exists for the more exotic color because of an underlying drive for a bigger gene pool.
This might explain why we think blondes have more fun, and why so many people go to all the trouble of highlighting their hair. And when you think about it, a little hair dye sure hurts less than pulling your earlobes down to your shoulders–and, unlike with the earlobes, you can always change it back.
Does Looks Matter Part 3 March 13, 2008
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Part III: Why we care about looks
Some people say they don’t care about looks, but if that’s true, they’re in the minority. Human beings have been grooming themselves for thousands of years–and not just by picking fleas out of each other’s hair. In addition to skull-binding the Egyptians also used makeup, perhaps as long ago as 2100 BC.
As a species, we’re obsessed with being beautiful. You don’t see cows getting udder implants, and you don’t see rhinos having rhinoplasty. Yet humans do the equivalent every day. It’s probably an oversimplification, but one reason we care about our looks–and one reason we do things to improve them–is that it separates us from the animals. (Although some of us do put leather jackets on dogs.)
But clothes and other adornments do more than separate us from the beasts. Clothing styles, tattoos, ritual scars, and other decorations tell people where we’re from. A kilt, for example, is a pretty good clue that the man wearing it is from Scotland.
Beauty rituals can also be protective. In the Dinka and Neur tribes of southern Sudan, most adults have their bottom teeth removed. Missing teeth are considered to be a sign of beauty, and when children turn 14, they have their teeth pulled. Some believe this ritual started when the people of southern Sudan were regularly captured as slaves. Missing teeth were a sign of disease–something that would make a person less desirable as a potential slave.
So something that started out as a survival mechanism came to be thought of as beautiful.
And this is what many scholars think is the underlying reason for our obsession with beauty: It protects us and preserves us.
In this way, a pretty face is like a nice apple. Don’t believe me? Read on.
Does Looks Matter Part 2 March 13, 2008
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Part II: Beauty, by design
For starters, let’s consider some of the things people all over the world have done in the name of beauty.
Black teeth are beautiful
Do you ever wish your teeth were whiter? Silly you. Truly beautiful teeth are black. In Vietnam and other Asian countries, teeth have been blackened and even filed down to make their owner seem more beautiful. Although dark teeth are commonly attributed to the chewing of betel nuts, there is actually a deliberate blackening process that many people have undergone. Betel nut chewing can preserve and enhance the black color, but true “tooth lacquering” requires a long process and a variety of chemical applications. Interestingly enough, researchers have found that lacquered teeth tend to last longer, so this beauty fad might have health benefits.
Love the double chin
Even though fat gets a bum rap in much of Western society, in many places it has been considered beautiful. In 17th-century Europe and China, for example, double chins were all the rage because they showed you could afford lots of food. Many cultures in Africa and elsewhere have fattening houses where they send young girls to gorge themselves into beauty.
Embrace your scars
Indiana Jones isn’t the only one who can wear a facial scar with flair. In Africa, the people of the Nuba tribe in Kau score themselves with dozens of cuts deliberately. Not only does this enhance the appeal of the people who are scarred, it is believed to have other benefits. The controversial German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl argued that the cuts let in bacteria and cause infections that eventually boost the immunity of their owners. The Mende also use scarification in beauty rituals.
Big ears and long heads are hot
Quit making fun of Prince Charles’s ears. In Tibet, stretched earlobes are considered a sign of wisdom. And in Borneo, earlobes that have been tugged down to the shoulders are thought to symbolize beauty. I, for one, can’t think of a health benefit to this, nor can I think of one for skull-shaping. But the ancient Maya bound the heads of infants, perhaps so that they would look like ears of corn as a tribute to the all-important corn god. The Egyptians bound skulls too–just to be more beautiful.
So, why would anyone go to such lengths to look better?
