BEAUTY FROM TIME TO TIME

When talking about physical appearance, we can use some sayings that we are familiar with: “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” and “Beauty is a skin deep.” I’m sure there are many more adages that are related to beauty. Now what is beauty? According to the Webster’s New World Dictionary, beauty is the quality attributed to whatever pleases or satisfies the senses or mind, as by line, color, form, texture, proportion, rhythmic motion, tone etc., or by behavior, attitude etc. From this explanation, we can see that beauty is only in our mind. As long as something pleases us, we can consider it beauty.

Female beauty-I really don’t want to say people’s beauty because it’s awkward to think about men being beautiful- is not an absolute perspective. From time to time the definition of beauty changes, though some aspects remain the same. To give you a better understanding about beauty, here are some facts about beauty in the ancient times.

Egyptian Women

General Facts: Ancient Egyptian women did care about their weight, appearance, figure and breath. They compared their physical appearance with their friends’.

What a beautiful woman should have: a small waist, a flat stomach.

Make up: Egyptian women used a kind of formula to overcome their skin problems, especially wrinkles. They also used eye make up. This make up is not only for the sake of beauty. It also contained a disingectant which kept flies away.

Others: Egyprian women believed that cleanliness was next to godliness. Women associated unpleasant body odor with impurity. So, they tried their best to look good and to smell good. Even poor women paid a lot of attention to this matter.

Maya Women

Prologue: The Maya lived in the region that is now eastern and southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras. Their culture reached its highest peak from about 300 to 900 AD. They built massive stone pyramids, temples, and sculptures. They accomplished complex achievements in mathematics and astronomy.

General Facts: A beautiful Maya woman had high cheekbones, an aquiline nose and thin lips.

Fun Fact: The Maya found cross-eyed people attractive

Others: The Maya valued a certain kind of face shape. To have their children get that kind of shape, they bound their infants’ head between two boards. This was to elongate the head. With enough pressure this effort could successfully change the shape of a human skull.

Chinese Women

General Facts: Some time ago in China, beauty couldn’t be separated from foot binding. The feet binding became a symbol of chastity. It indicated social status.

Others: Women with bound feet had to walk with all of their weight on their heels. This was considered very charming. This pratice was also believed to strengthen women’s sex organs and, therefore, boost their sex performance.

(No) Fun Facts: There were times in China when foot binding was a prerequisite for a marriage. A men could call off the marriage if he found out that the woman he was going to marry was not foot bound.

Aztec Women

Prologue: The Aztec Empire was a Native American state that ruled much of what is now Mexico from about 1428 to 1521. At the height of their power, the Aztec controlled a region stretching from the Valley of Mexico, in Central Mexico, to the Gulf of Mexico in the east and to Guatemala in the south, its capital, Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), was founded by the Mexica, a Native American group. The Aztec civilization lasted until the Spanish conquered the empire in 1521 for its wealth.

General Facts: A man could have one main wife and a number of second-ary wives. Mature, married women wore their hair in two horn-like buns. Younger women often wore it straight and long, sometimes down to the waist.

What an Aztec woman should be: Not too thin

Make up: Most Aztec women did not wear make-up

Accessories: Ancient Aztec women used to wear garlands of pleasant smelling flowers around their nacks. They also decorated themselves with jewelry including shell, clay, precious metals, and feathers.

(NO) Fun Facts: Young women were told not to have bables too early because of what it would do to their figures.

Others: Like Egyptian women, Aztec women valued cleanliness highly.

What is considered beautiful in one place can be thought unfashionable in another place. The concept of beauty is ‘absolutely relative. It all depends on society and culture. Now you might might think that beautiful women are supposed to be slim, tall, and fair-skinned, but who knows your preferences will change in ten or twenty years from now. (C’nS Volume 3 No. 19)