What Is Beauty ?

Images of beauty and style are all around us: in movies, on television, in magazines, and on the Internet. However, what's attractive changes over time and varies from culture to culture.

What is teh ideal body shape? In ancient Egypt, beautiful women were thin and had small waists. In Renaissance Europe (1300-1500), people thought plump women were very beautiful. And in many traditional Pacific Island cultures, men find estremely heavy women very attractive.

In sixteenth-century England, the ideal woman had snow-white skin, red cheeks, and red lips. To make themselves attractive, women wore very white makeup and painted their lips and cheeks bright red. In the nineteenth century, makeup. By the 1940s, makeup was back in fashion-but snow-white skin was out. Suntans were glamorous.

Some cultures have very special ideas of beauty. For the Padaug of Burma, a very long neck beautiful on woman. Girls from the age of five or six wear metal rings around their necks. As their necks grow, more rings are added.

In the traditional Maori cultures of New Zealend, tattons made a man attractive. Men tattoed their face and much of their bodies, the tattoos were "body art" and gave information about the man's family and position in society. Long, healthy hair on woman a man also made him handsome.

In western countries today, some people think tattoos and body piercings are attractive. While some men and women get small tattoos, others get tattoos all over their bodies. Pierching is also stylish, and not just on the ears. Some people have pierchings on their eyebrow, noses, lips, or tongues.

What do you think makes a person attractive?