Saturday, December 27, 2008

Bishonen

Bishonen (美少年) means beautiful young man, and is a Japanese ideal of feminine features in a man. The ideal is an ancient one with homoerotic overtones and roots in Chinese and Indian culture, and is prominent in pop culture today with a strong following amongst young girls. The bishonen today has soft, delicate feminine features, a long hair style, which is upkept in a stylish layered cut, tight-fitting fashionable clothing and has no facial hair. He has manicured brows and a slim bone structure, and may also have feminine accessories such as a handbag, hairclip, or a lot of jewellery.
The images below show bisexual J-pop singer GACKT and Jin Akanishi who is a member of J-pop band KAT-TUN.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Moslem view of beauty through concealment using a veil

One interpretation of beauty in Islamic thought is related to concealment as a concept in viewing life and femininity. The body is interpreted not as part of the true self but as one of many obstacles to viewing the real self. As such it is concealed so that the inner self can be found and can become the woman's only public identity. The natural physical appearence along with all efforts to manipulate it, shape it, or improve upon it are seen to be curtains concealing the inner self. Through this view, the hajib is an attempt to bypass all these other veils by drawing yet another veil over it.

This speech on "the Beauty of Concealment" explains this view in more detail.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Maya

When babies were born, the Maya shaped their heads by tying boards to achieve a forehead that sloped backward. This was done for a few days, and because the bones were soft at this point, their heads were shaped like this for life. People are depicted in this manner in artwork, the exagerrated sloped forehead showing this physical manipulation or an idealised version. In depictions they are also represented with a slighly receding chin, and almond-shaped eyes. A large nose, extending from above the eyes is evident. Slightly crossed eyes were also considered beautiful and an object would be dangled in front of babies in order to try to achieve this look. The Maya would decorate their teeth by filing them to a point, or sometimes even a T-shape, and put jades in the holes. They also extensively practiced body painting. Headdresses were worn on ceremonial occasions. The Maya drawings below illustrate their concept of beauty.



The long heads and flowing hair of the Mayan ideal are thought to be mimicking the corn god, youthful and strong.

Costume is also important, with elaborate regalia worn by nobles.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Kalokagathia

Kalokagathia in ancient Greece was ideal physical and moral beauty. Coming from two words, kalos meaning beautiful(outward) and noble(inward), and agthos, meaning noble, courageous, worhty of admiration. It involves notions of symmetry important to Greeks. Plato believed that which is beautiful can only be good, and vice versa. Plotinus followed Plato's ideas and said that "beauty is that which irradiates symmetry rather than symmetry itself."


Below is a kouros, which is a statue of a youth that did not represent a particular person but the idea of youth. Made as dedications to the Gods or as graveside monuments, kouros were fashioned to be flawless representations of the "beautiful and good" ideal.



Friday, September 12, 2008

Nuba Scarification


The Nuba, a tribal group in Sudan, idealise scarification, dark skin and hairlessness. Scarification is considered a mark of beauty on women, and her first set of scars are cut from the naval to the breasts when her breasts first start to mature. On menses, more scars are cut on her body, and after weaning her child, a final set on her back, neck, arms, and legs. The raised scars are connected with sexual desire, and are said to create erotic sensations when touched.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Ancient Egypt


The Ancient Egyptians used an array of techniques with much in common with modern ones, such as cosmetics, tatooing and body creams, to achieve a stylised appearence. This body ideal can be seen in many pictorial records and is recorded in heiroglyphs.

Body hair removal was important to the Egyptians who believed hair was a sign of uncleanliness. The only exception were the goatee and mustache. Sometimes women even had their head shaved, however more often hair on the head was braided, shaved, cut in order to express individuality and fashion. Wigs were also used.

Oils were important in protecting against the sun, and Egyptians also adorned themselves with scents. Jewelery was also important with lapis lazuri imported from Afghanistan being one of the most important, while silver was sometimes regarded as more precious than gold due to its relative scarcity. Soaps were used from around 1500BC.

Green or black eye makeup was used to emphasise the eyeline and eyebrows and to decorate the eye. Henna was used for colouring the hair.

Concubines and dancers from the Middle Kingdom had geometric designs tatooed on their shoulders, chests and arms. In the New Kingdom dancers, musicians and servant girls had tatoos of the god Bes on their thighs.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Ideal Beauty in Goth, Alternative, or Indie subculture

In Goth, Alternative and Indie subculture in the West, is mainly present only in teenage and university age cultures and is mostly expressed by women. This ideal is of very pale skin, dark hair and dark eyes and lips, and allows almost any body type from very full-figured in a retro bodice to very thin and tall in a flowing lace blouse. Colours of clothing are dark or bright, such as black, red, burghandy, dark green, or mustard, as well as white and cream lace. Styles of clothing are almost always retro, with a basic preference for lace, bodices, transparent layers, flowing long skirts. The look has many variations, from a kind of bondage look to Shakespearean to Indian style to heavy metal to businesslike adaptations. However, what they all have in common is an attempt to convey depth, feeling, darkness, being misunderstood and being different from the majority standard. The image is of an intellectual in retreat from the everyday world, as well as expressions of many kinds of teenage rebelliousness. However, individuals who participate in it are overwhelmingly expressing cultural conformity to this sub-cultural ideal.

This ideal exists all over the Western world from Europe to the US and perhaps has done so for many centuries, although it remains a minority subculture in all areas where it appears.

The Ideal Beauty in Surfer and Beach Culture


In Surfer and Beach culture, the ideal is a tanned, slim and muscular athletic body. Hair is sun-streaked or, recently, artificially coloured with layered streaks of bleach. A somewhat angular torso with long limbs and broad shoulders is preferred, and broad shoulders are acceptable or somewhat idealised even on a girl. The body is somewhat angular, the male displaying beside the square shoulders, a long straight back and flat stomach and square hips. The female body is more triangular, often carrying sturdy shoulders and a wide upper torso which angles down to a small flat stomach, accompanied with angular hips. The legs on the girl can be somewhat short and sturdy in comparison to the general western slim ideal. In contrast to the general Western ideal, freckling is generally acceptable especially when it only covers the body and not the face, as long as the skin has tanned, and is idealised on childrens' faces. The ideal is very youthful and is usually portrayed in its teenaged or early-twenties stage.

This ideal dominates Australia generally, and many beachside areas of the US and New Zealand, as well as surfer and beach subculture internationally.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Hindi Traditional

Indian philosophy saw the cultivation of physical beauty as a positive ideal connected with inner beauty. The adornment of the Ideal Beauty in Hindi tradition has spiritual significance in the culture. The woman is adorned with sixteen ornaments (solah shringa), the number sixteen being significant as the "perfect age" and also the number of phases of the moon.

The Bindi is painted at the centre of the forhead, representing the third eye. Sindoor is red powder placed in the parting of the hair of married women. The red colour symbolises fertility and commitment to her husband.

The tika is a chain with a hook on one end and a pendant in the other. It symbolises her union with her husband.

Khol is used on the eyes and eyelashes, while a nose ring is worn. A necklace is worn, and flower earrings that symbolise the cycles of nature, the god Kama, and femininity.

Mehndi, or henna is applied on a bride's hands as a non-permanent tatoo. It is also used at other auspicious occasions by married women. It is a symbol of satisfaction and happiness.

Bangles on the wrists and armbands also associated with marriage. The Indian aesthetic considers adornment to define beauty. The arsi, a thumb ring with a mirror, brings special delight for this reason, and is worn particularly by married women.

Hair is oiled, ornamented, and decorated with flowers. Dividing the hair into three to form a braid is considered auspicious, as the three strands represent the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, or Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, or her father's house, in-laws' house and herself.

The kamarband is a band worn around the waist, passed down from mother to daughter. The tradition of many of these 16 ornaments goes back centuries or millenia, and the kamarband has been used continously from the at least the time of the Indus Valley civilization up to the modern day.

The foot is both the human pedestal in contact with the mother Earth and the humblest and most impure part of the body in Indian culture. Lovers would often be portrayed as falling at women's feet to show their respect. Adornment of the feet is therefore important, with the anklet (payal) and toe rings. Gold should not be used because it symbolises Lakshmi, the Godess of wealth.

Perfume is used discreetly and reflects the woman's character, and qualities of the seasons.

The Indian ideal of beauty has traditionally been voluptuous with a focus on the belly and hips.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Edo Japan



In the edo-period Japanese aesthetic, the eyes and the lips are exaggereatedly small and the nose is straight long and points downward. The face is white and long, the features small and gathered in the middle of the face. Their chins are large and their limbs thin.

One edo-period ideal expressed in these pictures was the concept of refinement (iki). Three elements withing iki were spirit (hari), allure (bitai) and urbanity (akanuke).

Courtesans with elaborate hairstyles and expensive kimono were an ideal emphasised in art from this era.

Top to Bottom Pictures by: Utagawa Toyoharu, Utagawa Toyokuni, Chobunsai Eishi



Yoruba Twin Carvings

The Yoruba who live in Nigeria and Benin carve sculptures upon the death of a twin. This region has one of the highest birth rate of twins in the world and they are thought to be a blessing to the family and to have special powers. This mainly describes male twins, who most the carvings are of. The carvings express an ideal and so they are of youths no matter the age of the twin at death. The heads are large and elongated, due to Yoruba belief that character and spirituality are centred in the head. The sexual characteristics are also emphasised. These carvings called Ibeji were passed down and cared for through generations, and through heavy handling gain their polished and smooth appearence.

Akua's Child

The Ideal Child is portrayed in the carvings of the Asante of Western Africa, shown with an enlarged forehead and head and a thin body and neck. The carving is commisioned by a pregnant woman in the hopes of having a healthy baby. Because Asante society is matrilineal, the carving is nearly always of a female, indicating the preference for a girl.

The carvings, which are called Akua's Child (Akua'Ba) originate from the story of a woman called Akua, who was having trouble conceiving, and commisioned to have the carving made during her pregrancy after being instructed to do so by a priest. She was told to rock it to sleep, give it gifts such as necklaces, and carry it with her. All the villagers mocked her, but she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, and from then on women have had carvings of Akua'Ba made.

Left: Akua'ba by Osei Bonsu, Kumasi, ca. 1935. Right: Akua'ba, the Asante

Victorian Era

The ideal body type during this era in Europe and the US was a full body with large hips and bust and a very small waist. This body shape, of an impossibly small waist assisted by use of a corset, was popular in the 1800's. This was initially a fashion for the wealthy who did not have to work and the corset represented their luxurious lifestyle as well as their refinement. It spread down to middle and lower classes who imitated the look of the wealthy. Although one of its initial appeals was that it made the wearer obviously unfit for work, by the 1890's even when working in the fields or kitchen working class women wore loosely fitted corsets.

The corset also reflected Victorians' ideals about morality, with the inhibition of motion being linked to inhibition of desire and restraint.

The Long-Necked Karen

In many tribes of Karen people, in Burma and northern Thailand, long necks are seen as beautiful. The women wear rings around their neck from childhood, gradually adding more rings as they grow older. Adult women may have as many as 30 rings around their necks. Traditionally, Karen married women wear black and red, while unmarried girls wear white. Some groups of Karen also wear ivory tusks through their ears, which are inserted in childhood and are gradually replaced with large earrings as the earlobes elongate until they are finally about 4cm. Some groups of Karen do not traditionally wear the distinctive rings around their necks. Karen are generally matrilineal societies, so two adult women (eg. a mother and married daughter) will not live in the same house together. In some groups only certain people can wear the rings, for example, a girl born on a full moon on a Wednesday, who is highly valued.





Although the practice is often depicted as cruel or sexist, I am mainly interested in how other cultures see beauty including those that have quite different concepts to our own. Although it does result in physical alteration and impedes physical movement, the same could be said of breast implants which are far more physically invasive and becoming common in our own society.
Karen groups are persecuted by the government of Myanmar (Burma), which is displacing them and commiting a kind of genocide by destroying the areas where they live. They are also under threat in Thailand, where some Thai tour operators keep them in a compound. There they are a human zoo where Western tourists that do not understand their culture gawk at them and at the same time pity them.

The Ramayana- The Chapter of Beauty


This blog will focus on depictions of human beauty. I will begin with an extract from the Ramayana, a 3000 year old text from India, which had been passed down orally since pre-historical times. In its "Chapter of Beauty" (Sundra-Kanda) the ideal of beauty is manifested through the heroine Sita who, kidnapped by the demon Ravana is desolate in a garden guarded by his ogresses. She is described vividly in parallels to the natural world. The chanting of this chapter in this text of religious significance brings about a fulfillment of all wishes.


Here, the beauty of Sita is not simply the ideal beauty in a woman but symbolises ideal beauty in the world. I think this concept plays a part in ideal beauty in all cultures, the qualities they have show what is thought to be ideal in the world. Her inner beauty is the central image which these physical metaphors are used to describe.

‘Sita seemed to scorch the nearby vegetation with her deep sighs. Her beauty, now only faintly discernible, resembled a fire clouded by smoke. She was clad in a single yellow garment, resembling a pond without lotuses. Abashed and disconsolate, she was like the doe cut off from her herd and surrounded by a pack of hounds. Her hair was formed into a single braid (ek-veni), falling like a black serpent on her back. Seated on the ground like a branch fallen from a tree, she resembled a blurred memory or a fortune lost, a faith betrayed or a hope dashed, like a reputation lost due to false rumor.’
‘Looking here and there like a delicate fawn, Sita was barely discernible, like a Vedic text once learned by heart but now nearly lost through the lack of recitation. It was only with great difficulty that Hanuman was able to recognize her, because she was like a word whose meaning has changed due to inapt usage. Even then, keeping her faith, the firm lady looked no more agitated than the river Ganga, which however heavy the rainfall, never floods.’
‘Weighed down by grief, Sita was like a ship at sea burdened by heavy cargo. She resembled a star, whose positive karma now exhausted, had fallen down from heaven to the earth. Lacking in all ornaments, she was adorned only by the love for her husband. In the absence of her lord, she was rendered mute like an untouched vina.’
‘Her body was covered with dirt, however, she was adorned with her own physical beauty, thus, like a tender lotus stalk covered with mud she both lacked beauty and possessed it. She seemed to be a wave risen from the ocean of grief. Like a command disobeyed, or the skies aflame at the time of a catastrophe, she was like a river run dry. She resembled a pond ruined by elephants, its lotus blossoms and leaves torn up and the birds frightened away. This was the condition of Sita, like a little girl abandoned in the midst of desolate wilderness.’