Thursday, December 6, 2012

The Cover-Up


Humans, especially women, are always in the constant pursuit of beauty. And with the invention of makeup and cosmetics, many women are arriving at the destination of their pursuit.

There have been countless studies in which participants rate the attractiveness of faces, which has led researchers to conclude that beauty could be distilled to a mathematical formula -- we appreciate symmetrical faces, in which the nose is so many millimeters from the eyes, in which the lips are in the right spot between the nose and the chin. Makeup, then, researchers believe, is a way to highlight and amplify female features and youth.

Using makeup may be subliminal ways that women demonstrate their gender and their youth to potential partners. All of these cosmetics may be an evolutionary urge to show off our most feminine traits so that we can attain a universal beauty ideal.

Of course, while we might be born with innate beauty standards, beauty ideals are shaped by external forces such as advertising and pop culture. Would we care so much about the shape of our eyebrows if we didn't see certain starlets or models rake in millions for their appearances?





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