fashionable bodies

No shoe was too bone breaking, nor corset too breathtaking, nor bodily alteration too excruciating fro man not to have tried it out in his continuing pursuit of the fashionable body.

The urge to alter his body is felt by man only; animals, enjoying the advantage of healthier instincts, do not share it. Although the human shape was designed by the greatest of artists, His taste does not necessarily coincide with ours;at no time did man accept the image in which he was created as final. He decided early that there was room for improvement.

Neither prehistoric cave dweller nor post-modern urban man considered the human body aesthetically satisfactory. The Aurignacians and Magdalenians practiced mutilation of their hands with the same confidence that modern man brings to crippling his feet. Uneducated and oversophisticated alike seem to act on an uncontrollable impulse to rearrange their anatomy; no part of the body is spared from more or less violent interference.

---Richard Avedon (1923~2004), the famous photographer, photographed Marilyn Monroe posing as four (4) of the 19th century `vamps`. This original painting by Cal Baily is of the photograph of Marilyn Monroe posing as Lillian Russell.---click image for source...

—Richard Avedon (1923~2004), the famous photographer, photographed Marilyn Monroe posing as four (4) of the 19th century `vamps`. —click image for source…

Whatever man’s reasons for wanting to change his physique, whatever the relevance of his narcissistic or autoerotic inclinations, the factor that goes farthest to account for this unholy obsession has to be boredom. Bored with the natural shape of his body, he delights in getting away from himself, and to judge from past and present performances, the resources at hand for making his escape are inexhaustible. Only rarely does he exercise self-restraint. To the ancient Greeks, for instance, the human body was inviolate, or almost: some plucked their pubic hair.

In the beginning, man himself was clay and canvas. Body painting and body sculpture were fused into a single production and thus accounted for a harmonious work of art. Indeed, we should not hesitate to regard them as the oldest form of art. At any rate, the use of the body as theartist’s medium rather than his inspiration antedates the more conventional categories of plastic art.

---La Venus de Milo Musée du Louvre Antiquités grecques et romaines. La Vénus de Milo à été découverte en avril 1820 par un paysan nommé Yorgos Kentrotas, près d’un théâtre antique sur l’île de Milo. Elle sera acquise par l’ambassadeur de France auprès du gouvernement turc, qui l’offre au roi Louis XVIII le 1er mars 1821. Celui-ci en fait aussitôt don au musée du Louvre.---click image for source...

—La Venus de Milo Musée du Louvre Antiquités grecques et romaines.
La Vénus de Milo à été découverte en avril 1820 par un paysan nommé Yorgos Kentrotas, près d’un théâtre antique sur l’île de Milo.
Elle sera acquise par l’ambassadeur de France auprès du gouvernement turc, qui l’offre au roi Louis XVIII le 1er mars 1821. Celui-ci en fait aussitôt don au musée du Louvre.—click image for source…

Works of art exist only in the minds of those who create them, and the so-called improvements perpetuated on our anatomy are no exception.ìt is certainly not true,” observed Charles Darwin, “that there is in the mind of man any universal standard of beauty with respect to the human body. It is however possible that certain tastes may be in the course of time become inherited….” ( to be continued)…

ADDENDUM:

(see link at end)…A “beauty spot”, wonky nose or a lopsided grin are a turnoff, according to a study published today that shows that symmetry is sexy.

Research to find whether symmetrical faces are more or less attractive in the UK and the Hadza of Tanzania, one of the last hunter gatherer cultures, has found that a symmetrical face is indeed a turn on, whatever your culture.
The find, resulting from presenting a series of faces for inspection by 80 Britons and 40 Hadza challenges feminist ideas, epitomised by the American writer Naomi Wolf, who argued that there is no

thing as a quality called beauty that “objectively and universally exists”.

---Esther at Her Toilet (ca. 1684), by the Dutch painter Aert de Gelder.---click image for source...

—Esther at Her Toilet (ca. 1684), by the Dutch painter Aert de Gelder.—click image for source…

Even the father of evolution, Charles Darwin was struck by cultural differences in attractiveness. He wrote: “It is certainly not true that there is in the mind of man any universal standards of beauty with respect to the human body.”
Today, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, research by Dr Anthony Little of the University of Stirling, working with colleagues Coren Apicella at Harvard University and Frank Marlowe Florida State University, shows that symmetry transcends racial and national boundaries: a lopsided face is less attractive to both Hadza and Britons, so that the age-old idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is a romantic myth.

This adds to mounting evidence that our appreciation of beauty has a deep-seated biological explanation: the attraction of a face gives a profound insight into whether our intended will efficiently pass our genes on to future generations. Read More:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3309983/Symmetry-really-is-sexy-say-scientists.html

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