Leading Women by Nancy D. O’Reilly

Author:Nancy D. O’Reilly [O’Reilly, Nancy D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Adams Media

The New Beauty Paradox

by Vivian Diller, PhD, with Michele Willens Authors of Face It: What Women Really Feel As Their Looks Change

“Attractiveness is about what is outside and inside, and what counts most is connecting the two.”

Is this what we fought for? Beauty is antithetical to our democratic ideals. It is distributed unfairly and unequally and this does not sit well with other values held by most evolved women. Consequently, many of us deal with the subject of beauty by dismissing it as antifeminist, unintellectual, and culturally induced. Others hold contempt for those who are blessed with great genes. Some just cope by using cognitive dissonance, a mental trick that allows us to feel more comfortable with a reality we cannot control: concluding, for example, that most beautiful women are stupid. Sure, we have occasionally heard of the brainy blonde but not nearly as often as her dumb counterpart.

In spite of these cognitive acrobatics and rationalizations, many of us continue to struggle in reconciling who we are with how we look. Why does our appearance matter to us even if our politics, beliefs, and intellect tell us it should not? To understand this dilemma, we have to recognize the biological and cultural roles beauty plays in our lives.

What has always been—and remains—true is that beauty, in its purest sense, is a universal staple of human experience. It plays a powerful and fundamental role in our personal and professional lives. It is a basic human pleasure that will never go away.

Scientific studies have been conducted to demonstrate that humans are hardwired to react to beauty. Recent research supports the belief that attractive physical features serve evolution, propelling the survival of our species. Psycho-sociologists examining the psychology of beauty infer that people who are commonly considered attractive seem to survive better than those who are not. Geoffrey Cowley reported in his Newsweek article “The Biology of Beauty” that this research has led psychosociologists to theorize that good-looking people may have stronger immune systems, more robust genes, and higher mate value. Other studies tell us that what is considered attractive is similar across varied and unrelated cultures. For example, Dario Maestripieri found that men generally are more attracted to women with large eyes and small noses set in round faces—features often associated with infants. Itzhak Aharon and others wrote in the journal Neuron that MRI and PET scans provide further evidence about the importance of beauty: Female brain activity has been shown to increase when women are told they are being admired by men. Male brains register more activity when viewing women they consider attractive.

Developmental research by C.A. Samuels and others reveals that newborns not only quickly recognize facial features but also demonstrate preference for faces independently rated as attractive. This natural bias for beauty evolves into deep-seated stereotypes that result in a psychological phenomenon called the “halo effect,” which determines that the quality of one trait is applied automatically to all parts of the object being observed. For example, Arthur Miller wrote

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