Is beauty only in the eye of the beholder?

It seems humans have a built in appreciation for certain shapes and relationships of objects and colour that we describe as beautiful and it's pretty universal, though on the surface can vary across cultures and time.

That's the objective beauty(in as much as that might be defined), subjective beauty can vary quite a bit. Both in art and design and nature. Like Graces example of the cat. Objectively cats are beautifully designed for purpose, but if you don't like cats you might not find them attractive subjectively.

Same very much goes regarding human beauty. There are a few pretty solid commonalities, but personal taste, the eye of the beholder comes into play. Look at the thread of the "most beautiful women in the world". I can't recall any women posted that aren't objectively beautiful, but I can think of a load that I wouldn't find attractive. And I'd not be alone in that. A thread on "most beautiful men in the world" would show the same thing.

foxy farmer wrote: »

I wonder how many of the women listed in the Most Beautiful Women In The World thread have launched even one ship or any vessel for that matter?

None that I know of. Maybe a yacht in Monaco, but that's about it. This woman has launched hundreds of the damn things, but... eh... OK...

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Helen of Troy's face launch'd a thousand ships.

so using the SI system we can rate beauty in mH, milliHelens

And she'd likely look a bit odd today.



Unibrows were a thing. As was white makeup with red dots painted on the cheeks and chin.



Fancy hairdos were "in" too. Though Helen was a Spartan so had way more freedom than say Athenian women. They were more cloistered than Saudi women today. The streets of Athens were almost exclusively a male preserve(save for children and whores). This Spartan freedom was considered scandalous by the Athenians. The idea that a woman could walk about the town in broad daylight, that she had a say in choice of marriage partner(and a bit of hanky panky before it) and she could own land? Gadzooks! :eek: Oh and they wore more revealing outfits. IIRC and I dunno if it was the Athenians, or some other Greek crowd but they called Spartan women "Leg women", because they wore dresses that were slashed to the waist. The brazen hussies!

Thin was in too. Funny and sadly enough the first reference to what we would term anorexia/eating disorders in women was reported by Greek doctors.

So yeah if you find an atomic powered DeLorean or a Tardis and have a hankering for the classical world head for Sparta rather than Athens. Either way if you're a bloke, you'd need to get your A game on in the gym. Greek men spent hours exercising and honing their bods to fit the Greek ideal. It's thought that a fair few of the Ancient Greek male statues were modelled, even cast from life. Maybe this is more advice to women out there who find an atomic powered DeLorean or a Tardis? Though defo head for Sparta. Bring the recipe for gunpowder and have the hunks line up. Though the Greeks also thought small willies were more aesthetically pleasing, so maybe not...