No, but they did see women of their own culture with facial structure similar to the blonde as attractive. And you’re talking about sex now. 
Yes, the show was The Human Face on TLC. Thanks.
The appeal of the ideal is not sexual. Not overtly, anyway.
Acceptable generalization follows ;
Most everybody likes attractive people more easily that they do ugly people. Handsome (pretty) men are more popular with other men as well as with women and children. Same goes with pretty (handsome) women.
When at a large gathering, with adults and kids, watch who the kids tend to gravitate toward. All other things being more or less equal, they’ll hang around the more attractive adults.
And yes, Ringo, I’ve become quite happy with the way I look. The disadvantage of being non-ideal turned out to be easy to overcome. My friends and lovers have been accomplishments. As in earned.
Wasn’t so easy, though, as a kid.
Interesting.
I must be a freak… I find most of the ‘attractive’ faces in those links to look relatively boring. But then I always did have a soft spot for the odd balls…
Forget the forkus calculations How about these faces:
At least within the cultural level, there seems to be a consistant trend of what is considered “beautiful”. You put a picture of Carman Electra or Jenifer Lopez on the cover, you are sure to sell magazines. Basically, you can’t go wrong with symetrical facial features, good hair, a thin waste and large breasts.
Forget the dorkus calculations How about these faces:
At least within the cultural level, there seems to be a consistant trend of what is considered “beautiful”. You put a picture of Carman Electra or Jenifer Lopez on the cover, you are sure to sell magazines. Basically, you can’t go wrong with symetrical facial features, good hair, a thin waste and large breasts.
Freudian slip?
Objectivity: judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices. [from dictionary.com]
Chocolate vs. vanilla is about preference, which is (I think) unavoidably subjective. If everybody liked chocolate better, it would be because people’s preferences (for whatever reason) were lined up to favor chocolate. That doesn’t make chocolate better, it makes it more popular.
I watched the Human Face, and I was really, really bothered by the fact that when they morphed the face from male to female, the female face was wearing makeup. In my opinion, that made the results worthless.
It really, really irked me. I mean, it’s a year later, and I’m still mad about it.
:eek:
No, same here. My husband used to get Maxim and still gets Stuff (it was free). Those models inside all look alike. Even he thinks it gets boring looking at so many women of such perfect shape that they all sort of blend into one another. In other words, their beauty doesn’t make them unique; it makes them average.
As long as they’re cute oddballs, I’ll bet. 
Have you ever compared your own face to those ideals?
Don’t you think that just maybe the men were also wearing makeup?
A few years ago, I worked with a woman who was hands-down the most attractive woman I have ever known. I came to be fairly good friends with her. She was just drop dead gorgeous. Over time, she showed herself to be an insecure, mean, jealous, unbalanced, lying freak. Toward the end of our friendship, I remember staring intently at her face, her hair, and wondering how had I ever thought she was so attractive because I SWEAR TO GOD, I couldn’t see it any more. It was a really odd experience.
Well, I know I’ve never dated a fellow that looks like any of those types all over magazine covers, and if one did approach me, unless he just had an amazing personality, I’d probably just yawn and send him off. I don’t want someone that looks like they got stamped out at the Cute Person factory.
Why would I compare my own face to those ideals?
I know that for me, whether I think a person is attractive or not really does depend on how I feel about them as a person… It sounds like touchy-feely crud, I know, but I have several very clear examples in my head. Some of these are people that I found attractive on first meeting, but who I now think are just plain ugly, due my disliking their personalities, and some of them people who I found funny looking when we met, but after getting to know them and enjoy their company, they appear physically attractive. This is true for men and women.
In fact, one young woman I spend a lot of time with lately seems to morph- on days when we get along, she seems quite pretty, but on days when she is picking fights, belittling people and generally acting like a mean drunk who isn’t taking her meds properly (which she is), I dislike the sight of her, and find her face and body disgusting as well as her personality.
What I am saying is that for me, physical attraction is all wrapped up in other aspects of interaction. I don’t know how common this is, but I have never been able to look at a picture of a person and really think that they are attractive.
On preview- this is what Sat On Cookie said, but for me it’s a lifelong pattern, not an oddity
http://www.beautycheck.de/english/
Those pictures creeped me out, they look dead. I think beauty is definitely subjective, even based purely on appearance. Those articles say that the ideal face is narrow and thin…I was recently looking at a city guide with a lot of pictures, and I noticed that all the faces I thought looked attractive were rounder. I thought the long, narrow faces just looked gaunt. Maybe there’s something about the way your parents look…??
Also, we tend to hold models as a standard of beauty, but I think models are more chosen on their ability to get attention…a distinctive (though probably symmetrical) appearance. I mean, when you really look at some models, they are just weird looking…huge foreheads, giant rubber-band lips, hollow cheeks…
I saw that TLC show and I thought it was interesting, but took it with a grain of salt…I think Elizabeth Hurley is more or less undeniably beautiful, but I think Catherine Zeta Jones with her round face is much more stunning. I guess I prefer to look at fuller faces, in both men and women–which is subjective.
jinwicked asks;
Oh, just out of curiosity. I have. Part of my imaginative personality I guess.
Not much resemblance.
I looked at your website. Artists I’ve known seem to have almost insatiable curiosity about shape and form, and the relationship of the ideal to the real. No harm intended, I assure you.
I agree about the importance of personality. No doubt about it, personality eventually wins out. Well, usually. That’s what I meant when I said that the disadvantage was easy to overcome.
I am impressed, though, by just how accurate the information on that show was. The advantage to those who fit that ideal is very real, and almost universally appreciated by others.
Not to fool us, though. We don’t fall for that pretty face.
BTW; it’s a mistake to say that pretty people are any less likeable than the “others”. That’s simply not true. One can be attractive and nice. Many are.
Maybe “subjective” was the wrong word. I got it from Biggirl’s thread.
I am what I am… I try to make the best of it, but I generally don’t compare myself to other people. (At least not in the physical sense.)