What is beauty?

What is beauty?

Images of beauty are plastered all around us: billboards, advertisements, in movies, magazines, on television, and on the internet. In ancient times, men loved healthy and vigorous women, because they can have children through them. Women like strong, muscular and healthy male specie that would be able to hunt for food and protect the family.

Among the Olmec Indians of Mesoamerica, women liked men with broad nostrils, thick lips and full cheek.

But for the ancient Egyptians, their ideals of beauty is similar to our modern Western culture – slim body, muscles an d broad shoulders for men; small waists, flat stomachs, and long thick hair for women. And in sixteenth century England, an ideal woman had snow white skin, red cheeks and lips. Women during those days applied a very white makeup to their faces and necks. But sad to say, women also did not take a bath very often!

In Myanmar, a beautiful woman is one with a very long neck. So as early as five or six years old girls wear metal rings around their necks to make them longer. As the neck grows longer, more rings are added.

In Asian cultures, small thin lips are considered attractive, but in Western cultures, large, full lips are preferred. Some movie stars and even models had resorted to cosmetic surgery to make their lips larger! But is physical beauty that important? Think about it.