The standards aren't arbitrary typically, iirc. "Beauty" at it's core is most often based on what our brain perceives to be "healthy," -and, often, fertile as well.
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Symmetry, smooth skin, shiny hair, tinted lips, slim or muscled silhouettes.
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We didn't reach the conclusion that these were beautiful arbitrarily. We reached it because our brains learned or decided that these traits are one of the first indicators of genetic factors that can be key to the difference between survival/reproduction and decay/death.
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That doesn't mean that everything that doesn't conform to that standard isn't necessarily healthy - or can't be beautiful. It just means humans reached these standards for fairly good reason evolutionarily/biologically/etc speaking
I remember reading a theory once (idr how much study went into it) that the reason so many young teenagers develop acne is because it helped deter sexual partners from seeking them out (and vice versa). According to the hypothesis, this visible deterrent likely saved many of the teens lives because the females at that age would have been very unlikely to survive childbirth.
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But, again, that was a theory from what I remember
Well not all "attractive" people are healthy, either, but it's literally just our brain's first lines of defence.
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We all may root for quasimodo and know he was a good person (Disney version, anyway), but the fact remains that if Esmeralda had settled down with him, there is a very decent chance their children would have ended up similar or worse off than he was. And in that time period, if we're being real, that likely could have been a death sentence -- possibly for her as well during childbirth.
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And yes, obviously, healthy children and women die during childbirth too, but iirc a baby with a twisted spine would be at much greater risk
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This is no way excuses people being dicks to other people because they look different, it just touches on WHY and how we classify things that way in the first place
.
Symmetry, smooth skin, shiny hair, tinted lips, slim or muscled silhouettes.
.
We didn't reach the conclusion that these were beautiful arbitrarily. We reached it because our brains learned or decided that these traits are one of the first indicators of genetic factors that can be key to the difference between survival/reproduction and decay/death.
.
That doesn't mean that everything that doesn't conform to that standard isn't necessarily healthy - or can't be beautiful. It just means humans reached these standards for fairly good reason evolutionarily/biologically/etc speaking
.
But, again, that was a theory from what I remember
.
We all may root for quasimodo and know he was a good person (Disney version, anyway), but the fact remains that if Esmeralda had settled down with him, there is a very decent chance their children would have ended up similar or worse off than he was. And in that time period, if we're being real, that likely could have been a death sentence -- possibly for her as well during childbirth.
.
And yes, obviously, healthy children and women die during childbirth too, but iirc a baby with a twisted spine would be at much greater risk
.
.
This is no way excuses people being dicks to other people because they look different, it just touches on WHY and how we classify things that way in the first place