When we search up “Beauty” on Google Image, images of beautiful women from different cultures and eras appear. What is more interesting about how Google determines what or who is beautiful is that once we look up “Beauty” and add an era after it, for instance— the 80s, the results that Google brings on change. The beautiful women that first appear in “Beauty” have been replaced with women with voluminously huge hair, sun-bathed skin, and crazily flashy eyeshadows. Once we replace “Beauty” with the word “Attractive”, the same group of women still appear in the search results, despite the specific indication of time.
This brief little exercise shows how beauty never changes—people are always eager to learn about and be captivated and attracted by beauty. However, the perception of beauty— more specifically female beauty— shifts over time as a result of film, television, music and more mass media prevalence as well as technological advancement in the cosmetic surgery industry. Before diving into how female beauty is influenced and perceived by the culture of its time, it is necessary to examine how female beauty and its counterpart attractiveness are defined.
As a result of flourishment in industries such as fashion, cosmetics, and plastic surgery, physical appearance became a dominant preoccupation that was increasingly normalized and standardized. However, what still remained unestablished and debatable was the definition and meaning of beauty. According to Kant, a German philosopher, “the judgment of beauty is different from cognitive or moral judgment because it is effected subjectively, that is, exclusively in reference to the person making the judgment” (Prum 89).
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On the other hand, Plato, one of the earliest philosophers that contemplated and attempted to define beauty, understood it as a “property intrinsic in objects” which could be measured in four aspects such as “purity, integrity, harmony, and perfection” (Prum 91). Proceeding to the 20th century, the meaning of beauty seems to be intertwined and understood as physical appearance and sexual attractiveness in the context of female physical beauty. In an essay written by Louis Wood in which she discusses perceptions of female beauty in the 20th century, she references three contemporary authors and their understanding of beauty and attractiveness. In The Beauty Trap, inherent personal traits outweighed physical look in Nancy Baker’s argument: “A truly beautiful woman makes the best of her physical assets but, more importantly, she also radiates a personal quality which is attractive” (Baker 2).
Lastly, In Beauty In History, Arthur Marwick attributes human physical beauty to sexual attractiveness: “The beautiful are those who are immediately exciting to almost all of the opposite sex” (Marwick 48). Physical attractiveness, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, is the degree to which a person’s physical features are considered aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. The term is often associated with sexual attractiveness or desirability and can be used both interchangeably and distinctly. However, attractiveness, or one’s attraction to another, can be attributed to many other factors such as mannerism, intelligence, personality, and more beyond physical appearance.
A woman’s physical attractiveness often is sought as visual signs of fertility and health. In a statistical study done by Ian Stephen and his team, the statistical model they built showed a positive correlation between facial shape variables and aspects of physiological health, including body fat and blood pressure, also influence observers’ perceptions of health. Their explanation for this finding is that from an evolutionary standpoint, when selecting partners, attending to these factors increases reproductive success, furthering the representation of one’s genes in the population. To narrow down the scope of defining beauty, research teams have conducted many surveys and experiments to find how humans objectively or scientifically are deemed beautiful as well as sexually and physically attractive.
Karl Grammer, professor of anthropology at the University of Vienna, and colleagues have pinpointed eight ‘pillars’ of beauty through multiple case studies: youthfulness, symmetry, averageness, sex-hormone markers, body odor, motion, skin complexion, and hair texture. Additionally, research has attempted to determine which facial features communicate attractiveness. After showing her interviewees multiple computer-generated female faces, Louann Brizendine and her team found that the faces that are found attractive all seem to have facial symmetry to some extent. They also have facial features such as full lips, high forehead, broad face, small chin, small nose, short and narrow jaw, high cheekbones, clear and smooth skin, and wide-set eyes, disregarding race and age.
A University of Toronto study in 2009 found correlations between facial measurements and attractiveness. Researchers presented test subjects photographs of the same woman but with varying distance between eyes and between eyes and mouth and asked the test subjects to evaluate each photograph. The ideal proportions shown below are perceived as attractive. What the research team also found is that the proportions between eyes and between eyes and mouth are almost the average of all female profiles. Additionally, a study in 2010 done at University of California at Irvine hypothesized that there is a positive correlation between dark limbal rings in eyes and attractiveness. The researchers showed volunteers eighty pairs of male and female faces.
Each pair of faces was identical except the eyes: one had dark limbal rings and the other had no limbal rings. The volunteers were asked to pick which face was more attractive and to indicate their degree of preference. The result was that women with thick, dark limbal rings in their eyes have also been found to be more attractive. The explanation given is that because the ring tends to fade with age and medical problems, a prominent limbal ring gives an honest indicator of youth. In a 1995 cross-cultural study that involved volunteers from Brazil, Russia, the US, a few countries in South America, more neotenized, or youthful looking, female faces were found to be most attractive to men while less neotenized female faces were found to be less attractive to men, regardless of the females’ actual age.
Another trait that added the attractiveness was a small jaw. In a study of Italian women who have won beauty competitions, it was found that their faces had more ‘babyish’, or pedomorphic, traits than those of the normal women used as a reference. The explanation is that reproductive ability is negatively correlated to their youth and physical attractiveness—that is, as women age, their chances of reproductive success decrease. Research has shown that most heterosexual men enjoy the sight of female breasts, although the preference for large or small breasts depends on region and culture.
Smaller breasts are widely associated with youthfulness, while larger breasts are associated with reproductivity and sexual. One explanation for why smaller breasts are deemed more attractive is that larger breasts tend to look droopy and saggy and indicate childbirth and older age—another indication of men’s preference for youthfulness. Body Mass Index (BMI) is an important determinant to the perception of beauty. The standard for BMI differs across culture—the Western ideal is a relatively lower BMI compared to cultures that prefer plumper women. East Asians have historically preferred women whose bodies had small and slim features. There are historical records that dated back to the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, women in Chinese harems wanted to have a thin body in order to be attractive for the Chinese emperor.
In the Chinese text Jeweled Chamber Secrets from the Six Dynasties period, the ideal woman was described as not being ‘large-boned’. More physical features that attribute to a woman’s physical attractiveness include long legs, long hair, and skin radiance. A study using a hundred Polish participants by Piotr Sorokowski found 5% longer legs than average person leg to body ratio for both on man and woman was considered most attractive. The presumption for this result is that preferences for longer leg might stem from the influence of leggy runway models and influences in fashion, film, and American culture where long legged women are portrayed as more attractive. The evolutionary psychology explanation behind why men prefer women with long hair is that malnutrition and deficiencies in minerals and vitamins cause loss of hair or hair changes. Hair is a good indicator of health and nutrition state during the last two to three years.
Lustrous hair is also associated with youthfulness and vitality because hair loss problem often comes with age and many severe diseases. Skin color preferences shift over time as darker skin tones were associated with sun-exposed manual labor of the lower-class until the mid-20th century when tanned, sun-kissed looks were sought after because it is considered healthier and more natural. East Asian countries historically have always deemed lighter-skinned women more attractive for the same reason. Despite all the different, skin color preferences, skin radiance or glowing skin is also an important attribute that adds to the beauty and physical attractiveness. Starting in the mid-20th century, cosmetic surgery became more available to people that sought to improve their looks. Medical breakthroughs in plastic surgery industry during post WWI era were the beginning to an upsurge of cosmetic surgery.
The origin of modern plastic surgery began with a New Zealand otolaryngologist that developed facial recovery techniques to help soldiers repair faces disfigured during the war. Plastic surgery now is a broad field and may be subdivided further. Aesthetic surgery, also known as cosmetic surgery, is a voluntary or elective surgery that is performed on normal parts of the body with the only purpose of improving a person’s appearance and/or removing signs of aging. In 2014, nearly 16 million cosmetic procedures were performed in the United States alone as reported in the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ annual report. The five most common surgeries were breast augmentation, liposuction, breast reduction, eyelid surgery, and abdominoplasty.
In Asia, cosmetic surgery has become more popular, and countries such as South Korea, China and India have become Asia’s biggest cosmetic surgery markets. South Korea is also rising in popularity due to their expertise in facial bone surgeries. After a brief overview of definitions of and ways to measure, approximate,and alter beauty, it is important to observe the evolution of how beauty is perceived starting in the 80s. The reason why is that cosmetic surgery became popular and available in the 80s as the techniques became mature and regulations permitted regular people that wanted to improve their physical appearance to pursue those procedures.
To examine how the beauty perception shifted with time, aspects such as beauty trends, beauty icons, and popular cosmetic surgical procedures will be compared across time. It is no secret that celebrity trends influence our everyday idea of beauty. With social media, TV, and advertising, we are bombarded with images of celebrities and the lavish and enviable way they live their lives. It is only natural to want to mimic the beautiful faces and forms we see reflected in our entertainment. The trends we see in the movies and beauty magazines get reflected in the popularity of the plastic surgery procedures of the time. Over the last 30 years, we have seen beauty ideals and the plastic surgery trends that support them change as different body types come in to and out of vogue.
The health and fitness boom also has an enormous influence on 80s fashion, producing leotards, ra-ra skirts, leggings and tracksuits. The popularity of careerism and power-dressing in the 80s saw women adopting the dress codes of men in the workplace. The 80s equivalent to Grace Kelly was Princess Diana, who was even more demure, more sophisticated and more emulated than her 50s counterpart. Towards the end of the 80s, the underwear-as-outerwear look popularised by Madonna, Cher and Kylie Minogue found its way into mainstream fashion, where it would remain well into the 90s. Madonna symbolised the archetypal 80s woman: undeniably sexual and feminine, yet successful and in control.
Kylie, on the other hand, had to drop her girl-next-door image and transform herself into “sex-Kylie” before becoming a bona-fide icon. Big hair, a big bosom, and legs that stretched on for miles were the mark of a trendsetter in the 1980s. The 80s saw the rise of the supermodel. These Amazonian types were tall, leggy women representing the American ideal of feminine allure. Some of the most popular models and actresses of the time exemplified this new body type: Elle MacPherson, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Kathleen Turner.
The 1980s were also a time for fitness. Jogging and aerobics were the leaders of a new fitness craze. Women’s bodies were celebrated for being tall, athletic, slim, and still buxom rather than the waif-like, slim figures of the 60s and 70s. Plastic surgery also began to gain popularity as surgeons and advocates expanded public awareness. More information was available to consumers, who could now make fully informed decisions about using plastic surgery to help them achieve their beauty goals. Celebrities like Cher and Dolly Parton demonstrated that there was no shame in altering your appearance to look your best. Even Tori Spelling, at the age of sixteen, had her nose reshaped. The most popular plastic surgery procedures of the 1980s included breast augmentation, nose reshaping (rhinoplasty), and facelift (see figures below).
Just as crimped hair and lip liner five shades darker than your lipstick have faded with the fads of the 90s, so has the “heroin chic” look that typified the starlets of the day. Models and Hollywood stars’ bodies were too thin to be athletic like their predecessors from the 80s. Small waistlines coupled with petite androgynous body types ruled the day with stars such as Kate Moss, Winona Ryder, and Calista Flockhart. Plastic surgery continued to grow in the 90s however. During the 90s, plastic surgeons performed nearly 1 million cosmetic procedures, cementing plastic surgery’s place in shaping the bodies of our pop culture icons. The most popular plastic surgery procedures of the era included liposuction, eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty), breast augmentation.
Although the FDA restricted the use of silicone implants, millions of women still opted to enhance their figure with saline implants. Stars like Melanie Griffith and Pamela Anderson proved that a full figure was still sexy despite the dominant waif-like look of the era, which helped propel a more healthy ideal for women’s bodies in the next decade. The turn of the century saw the end of “heroin chic” and the return of fit, firm, and tan. Visible abs and strong arms were in and airbrushed tans helped show off healthy looking body contours without subjecting women to dangerous UV rays for tanning.
Hollywood actresses started hiring personal trainers to achieve the flat stomachs and rounded bottoms that met the current beauty standard set by women such as Giselle Bundchen, Megan Fox, and Angelina Jolie. To achieve these new standards, more women increasingly turned to plastic surgery procedures to perfect their flaws. Some of the most requested plastic surgery procedures of the 2000s were Botox injections, laser skin resurfacing, and liposuction. The FDA approved the use of silicone breast implants again in 2006. Many celebrities took the opportunity to enhance their figures with breast augmentation and other procedures. Heidi Montag opted to undergo 10 procedures in one day to achieve the look she wanted. Patricia Heaton underwent several procedures to correct sagging breasts and a stretched tummy, procedures now commonly grouped into a mommy makeover, to reclaim the more youthful look of her body after having four C-sections to give birth to her children.
The emergence of Internet-based social media has made it possible for one person to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of other people about products and the companies that provide them and for individuals to share and spread their values and opinions, including beauty trends. The trend halfway through this second decade of the century is focused on curves. Artists like Nicki Minaj and J. Lo have released tribute songs (“Anaconda” and “Booty”) to the large round female buttocks that their bodies helped to popularize. In addition to lifting and refining curves, the aging population of Hollywood is also turning to non-invasive procedures like Botox and dermal fillers to reverse the signs of aging and keep them looking as fresh and youthful as the hottest young stars of today, such as Kim Kardashian, Beyonce Knowles, and Scarlett Johansson.
The most popular plastic surgery procedures of today reflect the changing beauty ideals of our times are Brazilian butt lift, Botox injections, and liposuction. For today’s woman, plastic surgery is all about finding the look that you feel comfortable with. Ariel Winter just underwent a breast reduction, which would have been unthinkable to someone like Pamela Anderson in the 80s and early 90s. But other stars, like Iggy Azalea, are still opting for breast implants to fill out their figures. Over 1 million Botox injections are administered each year in the United States.
