What is Beauty?

So, what is beauty? Many say it is a subjective experience and that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Others say that beauty scientifically can be defined numerically: - 1.6180339887. So how do we assess beauty? Does it change with time? Does it change with culture? Can we use this type of information to our benefit? Is beauty just a visual experience; representing features of the human face that excite aesthetic admiration, attraction, desire, or love or does it provide a perceptual experience to all the other senses: the ear, the intellect, the aesthetic faculty, or even the moral sense. Can we say that beauty is the characteristic of a person that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or are we being na?ve, failing to realise that it is just a principle of evolutionary biology representing fertility, health, and vitality, which ultimately is programmed to improve an individual’s chance of survival and reproduction.

The golden ratio

This figure 1.6180339887 is called the golden ratio, first described by Euclid and the Pythagorean mathematicians, and is present in many shapes that we find pleasing, be it in nature, people’s faces, or architecture. The golden ration shows that the distance between the navel and the foot to the height and the ratio of the distance from the top of the head to the fingers to the height are exact. Hence, this ratio represents balance and symmetry and the logical conclusion that within our species it most probably provides a perceptual experience of how to maximise reproductive fitness, hence improving the individual’s chance of survival and reproduction. Aldous Huxley stated, ‘beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder’, whereas Aristotle said, “Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.” Interestingly, he continued, “The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness” and further claimed that science proved this wherever you looked. He found great beauty in ‘the golden ratio’ mentioned above that mathematical formula found all over nature, such as the growing of shells and the human body. George B. Mere possibly came closer to beauty’s relevance to Aesthetic Medicine when he said, ‘Beauty is the first present nature gives to women and the first it takes away’. Men and women have developed different strategies to appear attractive and have different interests in identifying beauty in people.

For every historical period and human culture, people have had their own ideal of beauty. It has resulted in social and economic benefits to those who possess it, and that ideal has never been constant and is still subject to changes. Though we opened this chapter with the maxim “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, some qualities, features and proportions are universally esteemed. For instance, Pierre Fournier once told me ‘cuteness’ is a feature that is universally esteemed throughout the animal kingdom and in his mind, it was related to having ‘babylike’ features. The head forms a golden rectangle, and the mouth and nose are placed at golden sections of the distance between the eyes and the chin, and there are many others present and when we look at the human body. I gave a lecture on the concept of beauty to three hundred doctors at an aesthetic conference in the Royal Society of Medicine in 2017. Later that year, I won the 1st AIDA Award in Abu Dhabi for showing that the concept of beauty and symmetry remains constant across all cultures throughout the world. In this sense, symmetry?is universally regarded as a reflection of health, vitality, sexual allure and social appeal, and we use it as a primordial means of mate selection. Each succeeding finger bone is 1.618 times the length of the preceding one. The distance from elbow to wrist is 1.618 times the length of the wrist to the fingertip. When analysing an ECG, the distance between the last two peaks is 1.618 times that of the first two. This ratio remains the same across all cultural groups.

A set of youthful features and proportions (e.g., large forehead, wide set eyes, round cheeks, small, short nose, full lips, and smooth unblemished skin) appears to be attractive to in both males and female faces. Hence, women have used facial cosmetics for millennia. There is evidence that women used green malachite on their faces in Ancient Egypt in 4000 BC and lead was used on female skin in the Mycenean period 1944 BC. As late as 1300 BC, European women were using male urine as an exfoliant, and covered their faces in bat’s blood in the belief that is made their skin look healthier. This existence of infantile schema was first identified mammals (including homo sapiens) by Konrad Lorenz in 1939. Research shows that most people will infer positive characteristics when viewing a bilateral symmetrical face. In 1994, Watson and Thornhill in a review of symmetry in mate selection, researchers found that animals from scorpion flies to zebra finches showed a preference for symmetrical patterns and shapes and concluded that asymmetry is seen as a sign of weakness or disease. The same year, Perret, May, and Yoshikawa published a paper showing a study of American and Japanese observers of female attractiveness rated high cheekbones, large eyes, a short distance between the mouth and the chin (and the nose and mouth) and a thin lower jaw are preferred qualities in men’s and women’s faces alike.

?Infantile Schemata

In 1995, Cunningham noted in a study utilizing Asian, Hispanic, and Caucasian judges, the most attractive had larger, wider-set eyes, smaller noses, larger lower lips, larger smiles, dilated pupils, and well-groomed fuller hair. Research by Dan Ariely (MIT School of Management) and Hans Brieter (Massachusetts General Hospital) published in the 2001 issue of the journal Nature, indicates that female beauty stimulates the same pleasure centres in the brain as cocaine. Characteristic features of an unsexy face include, wide facial shape, fat, bigger distance of eyes, low cheek bones, wide nose, eye bags, sunken nasolabial lines, thin lips and wrinkles. These are all the features that Aesthetic Medicine serves to change. Darker skin apparently looks more ‘unsexy’ on a male than a female, as is a weak lower jaw and lighter eyebrows. Jaw size is also important as vertically excessive or deficient prognathic (protruding), or retrusion of the upper and lower jaws affect our perceptions of facial beauty.

This existence of infantile schema was first identified mammals (including homo sapiens) by Konrad Lorenz in 1939. Research shows that most people will infer positive characteristics when viewing a bilateral symmetrical face. They include larger, wider-set eyes, smaller noses, larger lower lips, larger smiles, dilated pupils, and rounded cheekbones.

Facial Disfigurement

Facial disfigurement is the state of having one’s facial appearance harmed medically, either from a disease, birth defect or trauma. Although this perceived defect does not usually affect a patient’s health, the condition leads to social stigmatisation, isolation and incurs limitations of privileges and opportunities otherwise afforded to those without the problem. It is estimated that presently, there are about 40,000 adults and children in the UK (1 in 150 people) with significant facial disfigurements and 1 in 500 children is seriously affected by facial disfigurement to result in severe psychosocial problems, poor self-esteem, and depression. Studies have shown that the general population respond to people with a facial disfigurement with prejudice, intolerance, less trust, and respect and often try to avoid making contact or having to look at them. Although modern reconstructive surgery and medical treatments help in making some of the unusual features less noticeable, usually it does not remove them completely and the patients must employ coping strategies that include avoidance of social contact, alcohol misuse and aggression. For those affected, it can turn a simple social event into a major ordeal. The causes of facial disfigurements are highly variable.

At one end of the scale are patients who are born with significant craniofacial abnormalities such as Apert syndrome, while at the other, we have less aesthetically challenging problems secondary to skin conditions such as cystic acne, birthmarks or possibly vitiligo. In between, we have a myriad of cases secondary to diseases such as elephantiasis or leprosy or because of congenital disfigurements caused by conditions like neurofibromatosis. Weaved into this myriad of pathologies are those who have already suffered great emotional trauma because of benign or malignant facial cancers, scarring secondary to road traffic accidents or burns, etc. While skin conditions like acne into this myriad of pathologies are those who have already suffered great emotional trauma because of benign or malignant facial cancers, scarring secondary to road traffic accidents or burns, etc. While skin conditions like acne scarring or vitiligo may not immediately appear to be of major psychological concern, these patients often disguise their facial disfigurements through camouflage techniques and live a life behind a mask of coloured creams.

I personally witnessed this phenomenon treating one of the most famous faces in the world for vitiligo a few years ago. Whatever the cause, society presently dictates that people with a facial disfigurement are perceived to be less physically attractive, less socially desirable, and less likely to find an acceptable spouse. In this article, I will try and analyse what drives such a bias in every cultural society on earth, especially as it is guided towards people who already have been the victim of gross trauma or unfairness.

The extract above is taken from?Dr Patrick Treacy's book?'The Evolution of Aesthetic Medicine'?to be published in Feb 2022.?Dr Treacy was awarded the ‘Top Aesthetic Practitioner in the World and 'Aesthetic Doctor of the Year’ UK (Las Vegas 2019. He is recognised as one of the most influential aesthetic practitioners in the world being named amongst the?‘Ultimate 100 Global Aesthetic Leaders’ (2019, 2018, 2017).?His research has strongly influenced this specialist area. He has developed global protocols relating to dermal filler complications and wound healing, as well as pioneering techniques for HIV facial lipodystrophy facial end prostheses and radiosurgery venous thermocoagulation.?

Click here to purchase?'The Evolution of Aesthetic Medicine'

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