The Science of Sexuality

So Darwin had a point after all. Attraction is clearly based on far more than an average set of facial features and an average set of body dimensions. Just before the beginning of modern human history (about 10,000 years ago) at the end of the last Ice Age, being lean meant being cold and prone to starvation. So individuals who could store more calories in the form of fat reserves stayed warmer, resisted starvation and lived to produce offspring in the following spring. Clearly fat must at one time in our not so distant past have been beautiful, and indeed in Europe as recently as the Renaissance fat women were revered as being both beautiful and fertile. Looking at the other side of the coin, vast musculature looks impressive, and certainly helps a man (or woman) to compete for partners within a fiercely competitive human society. Like a deer’s antlers, muscle bulk helps a male to assert his sexual claims, but such great muscle bulk requires great energy expenditure to acquire, to maintain and to haul about, especially over long distances. In addition in hot climates great muscle mass makes it difficult to stay cool and to evade predators such as lions or tigers over distances. Unsurprisingly many African savannah tribes are lean and rangy. So big is not always beautiful, and great musculature may look sexier in cold climates. It is perhaps fair to say that although a perfect average is indeed beautiful, success is sexier still. A male or female who rises to affluence at the top of the social order is the most attractive, simply because at that time, and in that place the interaction of his or her genes with their environment and culture was most productive. However times change. Only a single generation ago people with computer-orientated lifestyles were sexually dismissed as “geeks” and “nerds”, universally ridiculed by Hollywood culture. Currently Bill Gates and the “nerd pack” reside at the top of the gene pool. Clearly, in terms of sex and reproduction, nothing is as attractive as success. There is clearly much, much more to sexuality and attraction than meets the eye...

The beauty of symmetry

The human face is surprisingly symmetrically, and as mathematicians love to point out achieves Michelangelo’s “Golden Ratio” of perfection (1:1.618). What does such golden symmetry tell us about the science of beauty? In a biological sense beauty and physical perfection serve the purpose of reproduction, and are therefore “sexy”. If we wish to pass on a part of ourselves beyond our short lifetimes we must find a mate with whom to reproduce, and in order to maximise the chances that our own offspring will also do the same, so we must aim high (or alternatively play the numbers game and become highly promiscuous). “Beauty” assists the mating game by providing an instant visual cue about which individuals carry genes that would compliment our own, and good bodies and attractive faces are therefore biologically sexy. The symmetry of a face is crucial as it indicates genetic fitness, just as physical shape and fitness suggests optimum health for raising and nurturing a child. Disease may disfigure and deform an individual during development, and so healthy symmetrical faces are believed to be very strong indicators of resistance to disease, itself a primary determinant of reproductive fitness. A strong correlation exists between facial and physical symmetry of an individual and his or her health, and so the more symmetrical an individual’s features, the more desirable they are sexually. This argument about disease resistance could be extended to human height, as the genetically most vigorous individuals thrive and grow very tall, but again symmetry weighs in, as tall people may not have a Golden hip-to-waist ratio, facial symmetry or high chest-to-waist ratios.

Symmetry is beauty in nature, and with our delicate sensibilities even the slightest imperfections are keenly sensed, albeit subconsciously. Symmetry is less common than one might think, and most right-handed people have a right foot slightly bigger than their left foot, and there is almost always a perceptible difference between the left side of your face and the right side of your face, hence the adage “best side”. People with more symmetrical faces are more likely to attract a sexual partner, and this is true throughout nature. Symmetry also relates to fitness. Animals which are physically symmetrical can run faster than those which are not, and symmetry is a good indicator of general health and strength, as well as of good development. Indeed symmetry is a measure of the quality of genes in their interaction with their environment during growth to sexual maturity. Individuals who have the best genetic constitution to successfully resist disease and to fight for resources with rivals develop the most fully and symmetrically, and by definition are the fittest. Women who suffer infectious diseases during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to asymmetrical babies, which will in turn be more likely to suffer more heart disease than their siblings.

Research has showed that if a man's body is very symmetrical his sex life will commence earlier, he'll have more sexual partners, and become more skilled in attracting and keeping a mate. Symmetrical men are more likely to induce orgasm in women and more likely to achieve ejaculation at the same time as their female partners, increasing the likelihood of fertilisation. Asymmetry is most marked in secondary sexual characteristics, i.e. sexual organs and associated hair growth. For instance a woman's breasts can asymmetrically vary in circumference by as much as 30%, and there is a correlation between the number of children a woman has, and her breast symmetry. Women with more evenly-sized breasts are likely to have more children, although whether this is a feature of sexual attraction or altered fertility is less clear.

Sexual attraction to symmetry and beauty is innate. Babies stare significantly longer at faces which adults find attractive, whilst the mothers of "attractive" babies display more intense and intimate bonding behaviours. So whether an individual is a child, an infant or an adult, being beautiful suggests that an individual’s genes are more likely to be collectively nurtured, rewarded and groomed by the family groups and by society. Beauty Queens win cash prizes, free social invitations and gifts, beautiful babies get more attention, and attractive children are less likely to be excluded from activities in the playground or to be bullied. From beauty pageants to cover girls, beauty queens and male icons are revered and valued in society above all else. Whether this is because they are considered optimised breeding stock, a human equivalent of prize bulls, or whether they serve as guiding stars for the optimised evolution of genes for a generation is debatable. The legend of the Trojan War, however historically accurate, does emphasise the primary importance that society places upon icons of sexual selection. Irrespective of what function sexual icons serve in society, beauty may be its own reward.

Fat may also be beautiful. Men are drawn to women with a large hip-to-waist ratio, the ratio being far more important than the absolute measurement. This is known as “gynoid” fat distribution, where high oestrogen levels favour fat on the hips, breasts and buttocks, as apposed to male (android) fat distribution, where belly fat predominates. The hour glass figure is no accident of evolution, as women with broad hips allow babies to have larger brains at birth. A beautiful woman can always marry above her social station, as all families desire good genes to continue their genetic heritage.

Nature’s Call - that irresistible urge

“Science is always simple and always profound. It is only the half-truths that are dangerous” - G B Shaw

A woman’s commitment to child-bearing and reproduction is far greater than that of her partner, and nature has endowed men with the mixed blessing of being able to pass their genes on far more frequently than women. As the major investor in child rearing a woman carries more risk and is therefore more choosy. The Association of American Blood Banks reported that from 310,490 DNA tests made for paternity in 2001, that is of cases were paternity was unclear or disputed, "of the cases reported 90,227 were reported as exclusions”, which in English means a non-paternity rate of 29%. If we also take into account other cases where the "fact" that the partner is known privately not to be the biological father of his child; cases where non-paternity is known by the mother, and kept secret from her partner (who therefore does not contest paternity), and those cases where paternity is unknown by the mother and uncontested by her partner, then it is entirely probable that as many as 50-80% of couples may have one or more children of which the male husband or partner is not the biological father. As clandestine DNA testing is now currently illegal in both the United States and the UK, the true figure may never be known. Surprisingly this fits with models of primate society where alpha males father a disproportionately high proportion of offspring. Thus it appears that the irresistible attraction of a dominant partner overcomes all social and marital boundaries. Indeed 75% of tribal cultures are polygamous.

In contrast a man’s image of female beauty tends to be more one dimensional, focusing almost exclusively upon physical attraction. The primary drive is to select one (or more) women who are likely to successfully pass on his genes, and the younger the woman the more likely she is to be fertile and healthy and to successfully bear a child. Research suggests that men are attracted to women's faces which are smaller and rounder, and symmetry in a woman's facial and physical features are also important. Men are typically more aroused and attracted by a woman who is fertile and healthy, and by women who haven't been pregnant before. A woman's fertility is at its peak between twenty and twenty-four, but thereafter declines sharply. This explains biologically why men are most attracted to younger women at the peak of their fertility, and why women strive so hard to attempt to mimic the appearance of a woman in her late teens or early twenties. Ironically a man’s sexual attractiveness may increase in later life, whilst that of a woman almost invariably declines. Even with advances in expensive assisted fertility treatments, a woman's wealth is no substitute for the attractions of youth.

What makes a man sexually attractive?

What are female preferences in selecting her partner(s)? Studies have indicated that women typically prefer male faces with sharp lines, and well-defined muscular bodies. Such features have been associated with health, wealth and power on the male's part. Such potentially successful and powerful mates are an attractive prospect as they indicate a partner who can furnish a nest well. Biologically the female body reaches sexual maturity before that of a male, and likewise this affects social behaviour, as younger women can select partners from amongst older (dominant) males. Among humans, the most attractive men are often dominant, more likely to succeed amongst their peers and to attain wealth. Men often attempt to appeal to women through displays of status and wealth, by their entourage, driving expensive cars, or by a display of expensive and stylish clothing or jewelry. Women valued wealth more than men in 97% of cultures studied, and likewise more highly valued personal ambition. Thus women focus not only on fertility, as men remain fertile and sexually active through most of their lives, but also as to whether a man’s social standing and resources will be likely to raise a vigorous and successful child.

So what make a man sexy? As always seems to happen in science, there is great debate about subtleties, and the basis of male attractiveness is no exception. Sir Ronald Fisher argues that women prefer beautiful males because their beauty will be inherited and passed onto their sons, who will themselves be more likely to attract partners. Alfred Wallace argues that women prefer beautiful men because beauty is a sign of eugenic (good genetic) qualities, especially parasite resistance. Mathematical modeling favours Fisher’s ideas, although no one really doubts the premise that women prefer beautiful men, although both these theories conveniently overlook the key issues of social ranking and wealth.

There is a theory, which has much backing, that suggests that many women who marry a less physically attractive husband because he is territorially dominant and affluent, often choose to have an affair with a more physically and facially attractive husband, and there is some biological evidence in support for the infamous "Madame Bovary". The amount of sperm retained within the vagina depends upon orgasm. Women have higher sperm retention during orgasm and therefore show higher fertility with attractive male lovers than with their husbands. Human females often have concealed ovulation, and this forces males to mate with them regularly and to show continued sexual interest. As a strategy this helps to prevent infanticide, as neither the husband nor any lovers knows if they are the biological father of the child.

Opinions vary tremendously as to whether women are attracted to men more for their personality and status than for their beauty or physique. One parameter that does appear to overshadow others is height, which is universally considered attractive by women. A man is almost always taller than his partner, and someone once calculated that on average one inch is worth $6000/year in salary. Women are impressed with symbols of status and wealth, especially sharp fashionable clothes, as this indicates a thriving, vigorous male.

What’s in a face?

"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong" - Richard Buckminster Fuller

Of course there is much more to beauty than just symmetry. The human face is a mass of information, from the complexion as an indicator of reproductive status (for example adolescence is signified by acne), vitality, health, skin quality, clear eyes, good muscle tone, animated facial expressions showing good mental health, and, of course, how recently someone has been out in the sunshine. Countless emotions are conveyed within facial expressions, some subtle, some dramatic, and people are usually considered more attractive when they smile. Apart from the visual system, other regions of the brain are specifically devoted to recognise and to respond to specific facial emotions, including the amygdala. In addition there are large differences in facial characteristics between men and women. Men's faces have larger and more pronounced jaw lines than do women's, men have narrower eyes, women have fuller lips, women softer faces, and men's eyebrows are located in a subtly different position, all features which help to encode gender within a face.

Psychologists led by David Perrett manipulated photographs of Japanese and Scottish men and women to make them appear either more masculine or feminine, and showed these doctored facial images photos to test groups of Japanese and Scottish subjects. Nearly all subjects felt that the owner of a feminised face was more "honest, co-operative and emotional", and were almost all averse to masculinised faces which they considered too dominant, less likely to be a good parent, and even potentially dishonest. Both women and men favour feminised features, and this brings us to another fraught issue, female sexual preferences. It has been suggested that sexually active women selectively prefer dominant ‘alpha’ males with greater secondary sexual development (muscularity, masculinised features and genitalia) near to, or during ovulation, when their oestrogen levels rise dramatically, and in contrast prefer men with softer feminised features (i.e. beta males) after ovulation when conception may already have occurred. Thus alpha males may provide better genes and beta males may make better fathers, so it may be biologically advantageous for women to seek the best of both worlds. Whether these are solely visual cues, or whether pheromones are largely responsible is a topic of lively debate.

The heady scents of attraction – the lure of pheromones

Another key factor involved in subconscious human attraction is scent, and specifically pheromones. Individuals with a high degree of facial symmetry seem to release higher levels of pheromones, which also serve as unconscious indicators of a person's readiness and capacity to reproduce. Intriguingly, the level of a woman’s pheromone release seems to relate to her reproductive success rate.

Throughout history certain scents have long been held to be attractants or aphrodisiacs. In ancient Rome perfume jars were kept in bed chambers to increase sexual desire, Egyptians bathed with essential oils in preparation for sexual intercourse, and even the ancient Sumerians record how they seduced women with scents. Indeed almost all cultures have used perfume in their marriage ceremonies and reproductive rites. The perfume industry is today a multi-billion dollar business fuelled by vast research which seeks to bottle the elixir of instant love. Sigmund Freud recognised the importance of odours, suggesting that such scents are strong inducers of sexual desire. Being from the Victorian Age, he believed that the repression of smell sensations was necessary to civilization and civilised behaviour.

All animals from insects to mammals use the release of aerial attractants, or pheromones, to entice the opposite sex. Whilst the human olfactory system is a poor relation to that of a dog or a moth, whose pheromones can attract partners up to a mile away, odours are still an important part of our social biology. In humans there is a region of the brain near the top of the nose called the vomeronasal organ. It is this region where it is believed that human pheromones exert their attractive influence. When we are emotionally or sexually excited we sweat through apocrine glands which release steroids from the arm pits and genitalia which may act as pheromones. This may explain the erotic gesture of a woman who sighs and raises her arms to her head, a movement long considered to be sexually alluring. Odours are believed to play a key role in sexual excitation, since sniffing diverts blood and air to the nose and creates a turbulent air flow, maximising the availability of a scent. Women have a better sense of smell than men, and this sensory ability peaks during ovulation. The coincidence of these two peaks of ovulation and smell sensation aids the detection of airborne pheromones, key indicators of male attractiveness and fertility. This is not the only time that there is an enhanced sense of smell, which is also heightened during sexual activity in both sexes.

Human experimentation is perhaps as informative as it is controversial, and show how important social dominance hierarchies are to our behaviour and our chances or attracting and securing a mate. First observed in convents, women who move into all-female dormitory halls synchronize their ovulating cycles with that of the dominant, or alpha, female within two months. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Male college students were asked to evaluate pictures of women whilst wearing masks either laced with the theoretical female pheromone androsterone, or without pheromone, which resulted in significantly more favourable assessments by those wearing the scented masks. In another well known experiment, a possible male pheromone was placed under certain desks in a classroom and the seating preferences of male and female students were recorded on film. Female students subconsciously preferred to sit at or near desks where a theoretical male pheromone was placed. Pheromonal signals do not merely signify sexual attraction, but also sexual territory. In a men's college dormitory a theoretical male pheromone was placed underneath specific toilet stalls which were then largely avoided by the men. Indeed medical evidence associates odour and sexual health, with patients with olfactory dysfunctions (loss of sense of smell) being more likely to develop sexual dysfunctions. At the peak of ovulation women produce more estrogens, and this correlates to their attractiveness to males, which is believed to be communicated by pheromones. The brains of both men and women respond differently to two putative pheromones, which are closely related to the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen. When smelled by a male, an estrogen-like compound triggers increased blood flow to the hypothalamus in the brains of men, but not women. Of course by now if you're not convinced that pheromones exist then you must be a scientist….

The changing face of history

Beauty and its perception has undeniably has changed with time, and differs widely between cultures. People in South and East Asia and North America show a strong preference for lighter skin, despite the diverse ethnic composition of these worlds, although the commercially idealised image of beauty does not mirror this diversity. Here the Aryan model of beauty dominates, with blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Some claim that culturally and historically fair skin has been associated with power and wealth from the European colonial era. However this is a relatively recent trend. Only five generations ago a darker complexion and a rounded physical appearance was the epitomy of feminine beauty within a woman in Indian society. This preference has shifted towards fairer skin, a svelte appearance and Caucasian facial features. There is a parallel in the New World. Historically in the United States dark skin was as synonymous with slavery, as light skin was with wealth and power. African-American slaves of lighter complexion often had higher rank than their darker contemporaries. If success is itself a biological attractant, then colour itself becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. We are now however witnessing the rise of the African-American gene pool in sport, entertainment and in business, a process that has taken many generations to achieve. There is even old money in black culture. Will Smith, Naomi Campbell, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Michael Jackson and countless other celebrities have achieved wealth, beauty and power, a trend which has already begun to dramatically change social perceptions of beauty and colour at the highest levels of American society.

Every singles column seeks primarily to define a person’s colour before all else, and such adverts contain familiar column strings of abbreviations such as "swf seeks swm". Sexual selection may well account for why this is. Many scholars believe that skin color changed as people populated the globe. To date scientists don't understand the cause of skin-color variation. It could be sexual, environmental, or even random, and it is even possible that white skin colour originated in North Africa. There is another possibility. Perhaps black and white skin colours are subconscious cues to a whole “pantheon” of genetic specializations which evolved over a hundred thousand years to optimise survival within a particular environment. White Caucasians evolved to survive cold weather climates with increased cold resistance, tolerance to limited winter food, reduced sunlight, more efficient fat storage, cave dwelling adaptations, and limited breeding seasons, whereas the dark-skinned people of Africa selectively evolved to cope with more predators, heat, humidity, intense sunlight, more diseases and parasites, and the greater need to perform physically to out-run predators. Therefore the significance of skin colour in attraction may just be the “call sign” for a whole range of genetic adaptations which evolved in response to a dramatically different climate with the advent of the last Ice Age. Thus skin colour is perhaps not just an issue of skin resistance to ultraviolet light, or to increase the amounts of vitamin D that are synthesised in response to sunlight. Perhaps these were the first steps on a long road to a climatically attuned divergence of the human species which, with modern international mixing of gene pools, was never completed.

Pop-Icon of sexual psychology Professor Nancy Etcoff argues, "Western cultures have been accused of placing extreme value on physical beauty, but . . . people in more than one third of the non-Western and non-North American countries placed more importance on the looks of their mate than did college students in the United States. . .prevalence of parasitic disease and not exposure to [media imagery] of supermodels was the key factor in determining how much a culture valued physical beauty, because beautiful features such as a glorious mane of hair, clear skin, and a lean muscular body are visual certificates of health."

However perceptions of beauty have changed dramatically with time, even in recent history. The Renaissance beauty was pale and pear-shaped, seen as ideal for child-bearing and raising. Women who would now be perceived as fat were in fact a social ideal, and the ability to look well fed when times were not always plentiful and plague was rife was an advantage, suggesting resistance to disease and a capacity to store surplus calories for lean winters and poor harvests. This makes biological sense, as does our social resentment in modern times of affluence and overpopulation for those who are greatly overweight, even though biologically it is in their genes. The biological pendulum has swung, paralleled by global changes in social perceptions of beauty.

There is also a central idea that the genetic make-up of a species drifts in a certain direction over time. For example if the climate continues to warm significantly there might be a selective trend towards leaner body forms, greater heat tolerance, and darker skin types. This is also true of other characteristics such as problem solving ability, communication and language skills. The human visual system is highly advanced and our perceptions are finely tuned to observe differences rather than similarities. For example if asked to describe differences between cultures, individuals or races, our minds generally function better than if asked to describe similarities, even though for example British and American cultures share many more commonalities than differences. So it is with physical attributes, which is why we are able to instantly discriminate between many thousands of individuals based on relatively small variations in eye colour, hair colour, facial symmetry and facial dimensions. We are naturally distortive in our perceptions of objects and events, and are brains are literally wired to see differences between our repertoire of experiences and new events or people, a fact exploited by many painters. A chimpanzee is not vaguely human in appearance, yet is genetically 98% identical to we humans. This is the outcome of a slow but dramatic genetic divergence from a common ancestor some six million years ago. Yet for all our genetic similarities we can perceive tiny variations in health and genetic fitness just by merely glancing at a person's body, posture and facial features. If a man stands 5 feet 7 inches tall he is usually described as being somewhat short, yet a man is considered quite tall at six feet. For all the dramatic importance of this qualitative assessment within the mating game, this corresponds to only a 7% difference in actual height. The man who wins the hundred metres races in 9.93 seconds may only be 0.1 seconds faster than the man who came fourth, but that 1% difference is the margin between reproductive success and failure. For instance high pronounced cheek bones are widely perceived as being a desirable feature in women, yet these represent only relatively tiny differences in skull dimensions, which nonetheless are highly perceptible to the human eye and which can be further enhanced by cosmetics. The difference between a glamour model and a supermodel is a matter of inches, but those inches are worth tens of millions in genetic currency.

There is another potential evolutionary reason for changes in perceptions of beauty over relatively recent history. In the 50’s and 60’s voluptuous forms were favoured as sexual icons, Doris Day, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Raquel Welsh and Marilyn Monroe to name but a recognisable few. In the 70’s thin was beautiful, with Twiggy, Britt Ekland and Maud Adams holding centre stage in the fashion and entertainment world. In the 80’s and 90’s beauty became more athletic, with Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Halle Berry, Victoria Silvstedt, and Claudia Schiffer ruling the roster. Lean, feminine curves are now in vogue. So why within two generations did the pendulum of popular perception swing dramatically from one extreme to another and then back again? The answer may lie in trying to maintain a broad gene pool reserve. If genes that encode extremes of femininity (for example bust size and hip-to-waist ratios) are favoured by the top alpha males of one generation, and then genes for muscular athleticism or svelte appearance by the next, then the capacity of a gene pool to swing one way or another in response to a sudden selective pressure (World War, ice age or rapid global warming) is actively maintained, purely directed by swings in the selective sexual preference of alpha males from one generation to the next.

In addition to body type and skin colour there is another aspect of beauty which has changed historically. Long shiny hair is not necessarily more attractive than short hair. Our innate preference for long shiny hair may have evolved when we were hunter-gatherers. At this time long and shiny hair indicated a healthy, well-nourished body, and the absence of parasites. Whilst popular throughout the history of feminine beauty, in men long hair came to indicate poor grooming and low social standing. However short hair has now become fashionable amongst women, especially amongst the new educated professional female elite, as short hair was more manageable and indicated that a women was well-educated, professional and wealthy. Thus hair length and style became yet another changing social marker for reproductive fitness.

The changing fashions of beauty

Beauty simply ensures that we are most attracted to those with whom we are most likely to successfully reproduce. Whilst beauty practices such as breast implants, cosmetic surgery and extreme diets are often dismissed as extreme vanity, even insanity, they do in fact make perfect biological sense in our personal struggle to ensure the survival and transmission of our genes. Beauty is a matter of human perception, and human perception is influenced by fashion, and a change of fashion is essentially a change of shape. All fashionable dresses, shoes, hats or jewelry serve to alter, shade or accentuate a feature of the body's natural outline. What is considered beautiful within the eyes of one race may be thought horrific in those of another. Fashion is form or shape, and shape is beauty.

In Western history the outlines of women's bodies were controlled by corsets and petticoats. However the restrictive lacing impeded movement, and even damaged internal organs and impaired health. Internal organs and ribs were literally forced out of position, gradually being displaced. The rib cage was often deformed, and women complained of a lack of energy and of having difficulty in breathing. Unsurprisingly in this day and age women prefer to correct any perceived shortcomings and excesses by cosmetic surgery with implants or by liposuction. Cosmetic surgery in the West began in the late 19th Century with the invention of local anaesthetics. The first face lift was performed in 1901 in Berlin and became an instant hit with wealthy women. Although in the 1920’s some women underwent breast reductions so they could wear the flat fashions of the day, full breasts were back in fashion by the 1930’s and expensive surgical enlargement was often performed for actresses who craved a fuller silhouette. Breast implantation is now very fashionable and more affordable, but is merely a single item on a long list of retail cosmetic surgery items which include liposuction, tummy tucks, nose alterations, lip enhancements and even bone reconstruction, all performed in pursuit of a fashionable ideal.

Other cultures went to even greater extremes to achieve perfect body form. Molding of the skull and “head flattening” was common in Mayan society and also in other cultures. The nose, ears and forehead were all flattened to conform to the cultural ideal of beauty. This was achieved by flattening the soft skull of new born infant's head between two wooden boards, held in place with bindings. There have been different traits favoured by other cultures, for instance a Congolese woman with an elongated head would be considered very beautiful. In Chad a woman has her lips supported and stretched by metal rings from childhood, her stretched lips expressing the ultimate in beauty. Western society currently favours collagen injections and implants to enlarge the lips, although we fall some way short of that extreme. Some tribal cultures still revere extreme fat distributions in women, and brides-to-be are often intentionally fattened, a paradox for modern Western brides who often starve to achieve a social ideal for their “Big Day”. In pre-Victorian times when food and comfort were the preserve of the wealthy, fat women were desired and painted as ideals by Titian and other artists, the photographers of their day. Now that advances in agriculture and food processing have made calories cheaply available to the masses, the wealthy may be distinguished by their access to expensive health clubs and farms, their ability to afford quality (healthy) foods, and an elitist culture of self-discipline and will. In Western culture emaciation has now become a symbol of achievement and affluence.

In Georgian high society fashion and beauty was the art of deception. Georgian women may have looked elegant in their finery but sanitation in their day was primitive, bathing was infrequent, and they immersed their clothes and bodies in scents and perfumes to disguise the fact. Their ill health was disguised by false teeth, wigs, bust enhancement, and false calves, and they used atropine to dilate their pupils to make themselves appear more alluring. In the Golden age of poisoning, intrigue wasn't their only deception. False hair was in great demand, as poor hygiene, poor hair care, and infestations of lice made their own looks unappealing.

When we glance at a person and judge them to be beautiful, a million cultural and genetic calculations are weighed subconsciously within an instant. The perception of beauty is no accident as this is the shop window of human biological inheritance – our genes. A top department store cuts no corners and spares no expense when presenting its wares in a shop window. Good genes are similarly cosmetically enhanced, displayed and presented within the reproductive shop windows of life – the human face and form. Whether it is at the beach, the opera or at the park, beautiful genes are an irresistible accompaniment to any social scene - the highest social standing a person may wear.