THE PHYSICAL SELF:

“In our culture not one part of a

woman’s body is left untouched,
unaltered . . . From head to toe,
every feature of a woman’s face,
every section of her body, is subject
to modification” (1974:113-114).
 The Science of Beauty
If beauty is
1. universal – according to evolutionary
psychologists, all culture have, more or less, the
same concept of what is beautiful
• Physical features that both men and women
are programmed to find beautiful.
– Clean, unblemished skin
– Thick shiny hair
– Symmetrical faces
Men are programmed to find women
attractive with
• high cheekbones,
• full lips and
• narrow jaws
signify low testosterone and high estrogen,
which are indications of fertility.
Women are thought to look for indicators of
high testosterone in men’s face
• strong jaws
• heavy brows
• thin lips
• broad cheekbones,
which indicate both good genes as well as the
propensity to attain high status.
• Golden Ration (Golden Section or Golden
mean) a mathematical concept by Greek
philosopher, Pythagorus, which provides the
mathematical model for the most beautiful
face.
• There is an ideal measurement for the space
between the eyes, the length of the chin, the
height of the eyes, the length and width of
the nose, and the width and shape of the
mouth.
2. Innate - Other scientists point to the other
fields of study to prove that the notion of
beauty is not just universal, but is innate.
• The idea that beauty is universal is
demonstrated in studies which show that men
and women of many different cultures tend to
assess the attractiveness of people in photos
very similarly.
• On the other hand, there is a tremendous variety
in the types of features that societies around the
world find beautiful. Indicating that beauty may
also be culturally constructed.
• For instance, in India, the traditional ideals of
beauty include cleanliness, the graceful use of
clothing, how a woman carries herself, whether
her skin and hair is well cared for, and the
wearing of the bindi in the forehead.
• In many African cultures, on the other
hand, unadorned skin is seen as
unattractive, and only a woman whose
body or face is marked through
scarification would be considered
beautiful – the scars are both beautiful to
touch and look at.
• Also popular in
some African
tribes were large
plates inserted
into the lower lip
(and sometimes
the upper as
well), which
made a woman
more beautiful
and
marriageable.
• For hundred years in Japan, the ideal
female beauty was symbolized by the
geisha, who wore thick white face
paint, shave their eyebrows, and
painted on both thick black eyebrows
and rosebud lips.
• Studies show that • Strangers are also
people view more likely to assist
unattractive people attractive people
unfavorably, while than non-attractive
people, and
attractive people are attractive people are
thought to be less likely to be
smarter, happier, arrested or
and better people. prosecuted for
crimes.
• “Halo effect” shows that, in general, beautiful
people are judged by others to be smarter,
more popular, and better adjusted; those with
beauty have a “halo” around them.
• This is also a function of what others call
“lookism:” where we judge other people by
their looks, and those who do not rate high on
the looks scale are treated with prejudice.
 Beautiful men
• According to evolutionary theory, women
judge men to be most attractive when they
have symmetrical faces, average facial
features, and signs of testosterone and thus
fertility: strong jaws, big muscles, and tall
stature.
• But women also select men with high status,
because for women, men who can provide for
their offspring are as important as men who
can provide good genes to those offspring.
• Women in many cultures, simply do not judge
men’s appearance as harshly as men judge
women’s appearance.
• Men can be valued for a great many
characteristics and achievements, while
women, no matter their achievements,
continue to be valued primarily for their
appearance.
The Importance of Female Beauty
• The reality is that the standards of beauty that
surround us today are unattainable by the vast
majority of women.
• That means that most women, no matter their
educational, occupational, or familiar
accomplishments, are failures in the one thing
– beauty – on which women are judged most
harshly.
• Beauty also has physical costs.
• Many women suffer (and some die) from their
attempts to achieve beauty.
• Yet to matter how much money, time, or
effort, that a woman spends on her
appearance, that effort must be concealed in
order to maintain the fantasy that her
appearance is “natural.”
• The psychological effects:
low self-esteem, negative body image,
eating disorders, stress, and anxiety.
Tummy tucks
Breast implants
Nose Job
Facelifts
Chin augmentations
• In almost all of these procedures, the aim is to
make the patient – usually female – appear
younger and slimmer, and therefore more
beautiful.
• For teenagers: nose jobs, liposuctions, ear
surgery, breast implants, and for men, breast
reductions.
• For seniors: eyelid surgery, facelift, dermabrasion,
rhinoplasty (nose reshaping), and forehead lifts.
Ear surgery
Ear surgery
Breast reduction
• Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a
psychological disorder in which an individual is
desperately unhappy with his or her own
body, patients cannot stop getting surgeries
because, regardless if the results, they are
never happy with their appearance.
 Fat and Thin Bodies

• Fat shaming is the action or practice of

humiliating someone judged to be fat or
overweight by making mocking or critical
comments about their size.
• The use of fat characters in literature, plays,
and film, too, illustrates the negative moral
attributes of the overweight and obese.
• Fat male characters are stupid, greedy, and
evil, while fat female characters are lazy,
overbearing, or desperate and needy.
 Eating Disorders
• Anorexia Nervosa
People with anorexia nervosa may see
themselves as overweight, even when they
are dangerously underweight. People with
anorexia nervosa typically weigh themselves
repeatedly, severely restrict the amount of
food they eat, and eat very small quantities of
only certain foods.
• Bulimia nervosa
People with bulimia nervosa have recurrent
and frequent episodes of eating unusually large
amounts of food and feeling a lack of control over
these episodes. This binge-eating is followed by
behavior that compensates for the overeating
such as forced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives
or diuretics, fasting, excessive exercise, or a
combination of these behaviors.
• Binge-eating disorder
People with binge-eating disorder lose
control over his or her eating. Unlike bulimia
nervosa, periods of binge-eating are not
followed by purging, excessive exercise, or
fasting. As a result, people with binge-eating
disorder often are overweight or obese.