#beauty-standards

#beauty-standards

My husband and I moved ourselves and our tween and teen daughters this fall, for work. This state is known for a religion we're not in, so I knew it would be a transition. What I didn't expect was the crazy beauty standards and how they would impact our kids. In our previous city, there was definitely an ideal to be thin to be "cool," but there seemed to be lots of subcultures in fashion and interests.

Seeing an attractive face activates the brain's reward and social circuits releasing the feelgood hormone dopamine, writes Laura Elin Pigott, a senior lecturer in neurosciences and neurorehabilitation at London South Bank University. This hormone is also released when we happen to live up to a specific beauty standard, making this feel biologically gratifying. All is not lost though our perceptions can be retrained, apparently. The science makes it clear: our brains respond to what they're fed.

Older women are increasingly embracing their age and caring less about societal expectations of beauty, as the trend reflects a shift in confidence and self-acceptance.

'Make-up free' can mean different things to different people. To me, it means looking in the mirror at pitiful eyebrows, pores you could store spuds in, stubby eyelashes and a decent whack of rosacea, which keeps me humble if nothing else.

Scientists from the American University of Beirut showed 200 people AI-generated pictures of a woman, whose lips had been adjusted in various ways. An analysis of their preferences revealed that the perfect pout features an upper-to-lower lip ratio (U/L) of between 0.618:1 and 1:1. Meanwhile, the most highly rated lips had an upper lip height of 25 percent of hemi-lip width.

Bianca and I had been eagerly waiting for our makeovers, or 'New Weave Day,' as we called it, from day one. 'You better be ready,' she told me. 'It's not just Black girls getting weaves anymore; they do them on white girls now too.'

"In an era of celebrity nudity, Elizabeth Hurley's recent birthday post raises questions about the pressures of beauty standards for older women in Hollywood."

Kylie Jenner's candid response to a bold inquiry about her breast surgery is seen as a pivotal moment in promoting transparency among celebrities regarding beauty enhancements.

"People filter things through their biases and bring their own subjectivity into these sorts of loaded questions. ChatGPT brings a level of objectivity you can't get in real life."

Since ChatGPT's launch in 2022, it's helped users write emails, resumes and meal plans - and now, glow-up guides.

Physical traits were often interpreted through moral and symbolic lenses, reflecting biases and aesthetic standards of the time, especially in depictions of historical figures.

Beauty is a cruel mistress, and it makes those who trade on it cruel, too. The models engage in a brutal game of sharing their worst job experiences, revealing a world distorted by objectification and hardship.

The term 'too muscular' often questions a woman's identity, implying she doesn't fit societal norms of femininity, beauty, and can even lead to accusations of cheating.

Alicia Davis highlights the challenges of being a beautiful prison guard, sharing experiences of unwanted attention from inmates and social judgments from their partners.

"Can I go somewhere where someone isn't shoving 'DONT YOU WANT TO BE BEAUTIFUL' down my throat?" they just seem to creep in when I'm trying to relax."