SURVIVAL OF THE PRETTIEST

Is beauty truth? Skin deep? A cultural relative? All of these possibilities and more are probed in this scholarly disquisition on the nature of beauty by a Harvard Medical School psychologist. The bottom line is that the idea of beauty is biologically based, and it’s all about sex. Across all cultures (and many species), the survival of one’s genes is dependent on choosing a partner who is fit—and looks it: a male who can provide superior sperm or a potential mama who can and will do well in the caretaking business. For men, the unbeatable combination in a female may be youthful looks, shining hair, pale unblemished cheeks that can blush with ease, up-pointing, rounded breasts, and an hourglass figure—all part of a gestalt read as nubile and not already saddled with offspring. If the face is also symmetrical, and does not deviate too far from average, it may be judged beautiful and complete the formula for the ideal mate. Rather than support one formula over another for ideal beauty, Etcoff says rhat their very existence points to the high regard cultures have paid to beauty. And pay they do: with surgery, scarification, tattoos, cosmetics, nose rings, earrings, and the rest. Indeed, “the rest” forms a sizable subtext of the book as Etcoff reviews the trends for body shaping, implants, wigs, crinolines, high heels, perfumes, and all manner of artful dodges designed to make the deceiver irresistible. How those trends play out in today’s world of maxi-thin, maxi-tall runway models, anorexic teenagers, and adults obsessed with obesity also come up for discussion. In the end Etcoff wisely suggests that to focus on beauty and to want to attain it is not a sin; we should relax and enjoy it as part of our genetic heritage. But perhaps even more wisely, she notes that that is not all there is to beauty. She ends with a comforting anecdote about George Eliot, whom Henry James described “magnificently ugly.”