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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.