Ideal of beauty: innate or conditioned?

[Who is John Galt?]

Is one's ideal of beauty innate or is it the result of society's conditioning? For instance, I prefer blondes with blue eyes. Do I just happen to like them or is that a result of society telling us that they are the ideal, and consquently sort of a prize.

 

[USSOCOM]

You just happen to like them, I personally don't like blondes.

 

[mahon83050]

Society does always make it sound like the ideal women is blonde, blue eyes with a big chest and is model height. The ideal man is tall, dark haired and handsome. These are just stupid socities ideals that do not mean crap! Plenty of women like blonde men and plenty of men prefer darker women!

 

[Charm]

Attraction to women is biological, but the idea of beauty is a conditioned one. A child is taught beauty and ugly by those around them. The mind of a newborn baby is undifferentiating, meaning it does not seperate and label things in distinction.

 

[simplyme]

The perception of beauty follows an instinct, that is basically looking for health and good odds to survive.
That is, for example, why men in regions where food and water is rare prefer fat women.

 

[diplomatic_lies]

Back in the old days people liked fat chicks (or at least semi-fat chicks) simply because being fat represented wealth (most of the peasants have bodies even today's models are repulsed by).


Not sure what cavemen preferred, but I don't think they were that particular. They just wanted a healthy girl (even if she was ugly) to breed their gorilla-lookalikes.


Personally, I prefer brunettes.

 

[Lionheart]

Back in the old days people liked fat chicks (or at least semi-fat chicks) simply because being fat represented wealth (most of the peasants have bodies even today's models are repulsed by).

True, it represented health as back in the days there wasn't much food around, nowadays it's seen as repulsive.

Strange, that rarity seems to be an integral component of beauty, same with precious metals and jewels.
I guess the guy that wrote the rare commodity post in the DJ Bible was onto something.

There was a lot of classical and renassiance art based on fat women.

Here's a killer for you on the idea of beauty, aren't men supposed to be attracted to women who remind them of their mother?

*Pukes on Floor*

My Type : Cute, Short little Brunettes, with Brains and Sophistication.

I love foreign accents as well, especially Irish and French.

Lion.

 

[Ofus]

Originally posted by Who is John Galt?
Is one's ideal of beauty innate or is it the result of society's conditioning?

Both.

P. S. I'm really John Galt by the way

 

[Ronin]

Society may have conditioned us on certain aspects like fat chicks. When I think about it, I don't really know why Id on't like fat chicks. The only reason i can come up with is the fact that I have been influenced to think taht fat chicks are less 'sexy', or whatever.

Maybe its from watching TV as a kid where the hot girl was always skinney and always in demand, maybe it's because the fat guy in school was always teased. I don't know, I do believe that certain things like that we have have been conditioned to believe.

On the other hand, all guys have their different likes and dislikes in girls. I don't really have a prefrence. I like in shape blondes, i don't care about eye color, tanned etc. but I still find brunettes very attractive as well.

Tought topic to discuss...

 

[Shiftkey]

Supposedly we innately find symmetry beautiful. So a beautiful face is almost always going to be viewed as beautiful (to some point at least) by any human.

 

[Premier]

Society has a large role in conditioning people over what is and what is not attractive.

One example is the attractiveness of a hairy chest on a guy. Back in the days, hairy chest signified masculinity (e.g. Sean Connery as James Bond). Nowadays a hairy chest is seen as unattractive by women, mainly due to magazine ads that portray bare chested men lounging around in swimsuits. These ads tell readers (predominantly young female readers) that this is what an attractive man's chest should look like. Hence a pre-adolescent looking guy like Leonardo DiCaprio is now seen as a sex symbol.

While I won't say that the ideal of beauty is solely based on conditioning, it does play a strong part.

 

[Umbra]

I agree with Premier. I think beauty is mostly defined by society. That includes the society you currently live in, the societies you've left, and the subtle, societal influences of your cultural and ethnic background.

 

[Starman]

Premier,

despite all the ads of guys with bare chests..every girl Ive come across has told me they dont like bare chests..and it reminds them of a 12 year old.

The idea that we want women who are like our mothers is somewhat true. and women go for guys like their dads.

As sick as the thought of incest is..compare your own ideals in your perfect partner..to those attributes your mom had..(i.e. beauty, social grace, compassion, unselfishness etc..)

 

[icepick]

Dress all women in red, then society will ask:

Why are guys attracted to red?