What Is Beauty?

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a popular saying in modern times, but it certainly is not new. In Shakespeare's Love's Labours Lost the same idea is expressed in the line "Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye" (Act II, Scene I), and there are plenty of other references to this idea prior to the 21st century. The implication of this saying is that there are no universal or 'objective' standards for beauty. This seems to be endorsed by differences in tastes across time and across cultures.

I was struck by this when I was visiting a video store last week. A bunch of teenagers were also choosing films, and as they looked through the selections they made a lot of comments about different films. One of the teenagers picked up a copy of The Seven Year Itch starring Marilyn Monroe and asked laughing, "Oh man, what about this one?"

In response, another teenager shouted, "No way, have you noticed how fat she is?"

A third teenager added, "Yea, I heard she was a size sixteen or something!"

"Wow! What a whale!" The teenagers left the Marilyn Monroe section roaring with laughter.

I left the video store thinking about how much tastes seem to have changed. Marilyn Monroe was at one time the symbol of glamour and beauty, and now she is considered to be the wrong shape, and even a target of ridicule.

In many Eastern cultures the traditional preference persists for women to be shaped like Marilyn Monroe, rather than the 21st century heirs to Twiggy, the Gwyneth Paltrow types. The ideal 'belly dancer', for example, is full-bodied rather than skinny. A survey of traditional cultures in Asia and Africa reveals many examples of teenage girls being encouraged to eat well and to develop a full figure, so as to become more beautiful according to local tastes.