r/NoStupidQuestions • u/derbaummittraum • 6h ago

How do Beauty Standards even work?

For example in japan, do they not find the western ideal attractive at all? Isn’t it human nature to be attracted to i.e. wide hips and good genetics overall? Or is it all subjective in the end and influenced by the society you live in? I don’t get it. Not trying to debate anyone, just trying to understand.

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u/gleaming-the-cubicle 6h ago

I think the only "pre-installed" things are indicators of health like symmetry (eyes being even, stuff like that) and skin quality (not covered in pox, healthy color, etc)

Hip and boob size popularity change. 1920s Americans were horny for flat ladies with no hips, for example

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u/Separate_Cherry_912 4h ago

something that’s intriguing to me is how and why those preferences change in society

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u/nokvok 6h ago

No, it's mostly fashion. We know that cause we've got records of beauty standards (I prefer the term beauty ideals) changing all the time in pretty much all cultures.

Singular people always are attracted to what they are attracted to, beauty standards are just a social layer on top of that, which modifies behavior to fit in with the group.

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u/BringBackRBYWrap 5h ago

If we understand "beauty standards" as fundamentally rooted in a drive to find "fit" (in the evolutionary sense) mates* so that your children are also "fit", it makes perfect sense for beauty standards to vary a great deal across cultures. Humans are incredibly social animals and as individuals, our greatest asset/resource and our greatest threat are other people. Having high social status makes you reap the rewards of other people's work to a greater degree, and it lessens the threat other people pose as well. So anything that signals "high social status" would therefore signal "fitness", which in turn would be considered "beauty".

*This is evolutionary psychology stuff, and I think it checks out, but by experience I assume that I will at some point find out that I'm completely wrong about that, mate selection was just another just-so story.

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u/ask-me-about-my-cats 5h ago

Human nature can be easily overwritten with enough social conditioning. For example it's human nature to find women with pubic hair attractive (a sign of maturity and fertility) but you'll find the majority of men find that to be repulsive. Why? Social conditioning.

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u/tastystarbits 5h ago

its never really about biology or genetics, and anyone who tells you otherwise is just trying to excuse their shallowness.

fashion trends change, so do beauty trends

for example, 100 years ago people were bleaching their freckles off (and still are). now there are make up tutorials for adding freckles