My tweets

[vovat]

• Wed, 13:10: Dalton Fink http://t.co/BB1HiBKH
• Wed, 13:29: "The World's Most Beautiful Woman" happens to be white, blonde, and blue-eyed. - melanist: Not to invoke... http://t.co/opyLa1Jn
• Wed, 13:52: RT @3x1minus1: Aww. Mitt Romney thinks he's people.
• Wed, 13:59: Photo: orioto: http://t.co/52S4uuZ0
• Wed, 17:13: No more moon base now, I guess. Maybe Romney will launch a space mission to Kolob to visit God.
• Wed, 18:47: Why Do They Hate Mona? http://t.co/Ph3irNxw
• Wed, 21:03: Photo: What a delightfully horrible pun. http://t.co/lc614WrQ
• Wed, 21:13: I've seen this basic idea before, but it's still funny. The Flying McCoys Comic Strip, April 24, 2012 http://t.co/u0FdmwmK
• Wed, 21:24: RT @Nintendo_Legend: How many pairs of overalls do you think Mario owns? Like, does he have a favorite one he just keeps washing, or doz ...
• Wed, 21:59: RT @fmarciuliano: Cap’n Crunch’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch. How he managed to commandeer a breakfast cereal remains a ...

• Wed, 22:04: Photo: siddman: “Doing business” always struck me as a bizarre euphemism. http://t.co/ZGlXESPz
• Wed, 23:15: RT @3x1minus1: Do you think Gwyneth Paltrow is totally mad at her mom for doing those commercials where she admits to having osteoporosi ...
• Wed, 23:39: Moderate and centrist are not the same thing. Also, pretty much everyone considers themselves moderate.
• Wed, 23:40: RT @Disalmanac: Today in 1874, Marconi was born. He invented radio; sadly, he didn't also invent a time machine to make Rush Limbaugh sh ...
• Thu, 00:02: Dalton and a Nu, from Chrono Trigger http://t.co/CZnhTKSa
• Thu, 00:08: RT @Disalmanac: UPDATE: Now that he's out of the presidential race, Newt Gingrich will pursue his dream: divorcing cancer-ridden women o ...
• Thu, 11:34: Did You Happen to See the Most Beautiful Girl in the World? http://t.co/FMW5jaSy
• Thu, 11:49: Photo: Well, the Tea Party DOES lack hearts, brains, and courage. http://t.co/fF3UmbUg
• Thu, 11:55: RT @JaredofMo: Go away, Tim Burton. No one likes you anymore. #SadToSay

Comments

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

That article you linked to on your tumblr (about the "most beautiful woman") is interesting, partly because of my fascination with these sorts of studies (the book "The Red Queen" about sexual selection is one of my favorites) and also because of how mad people are getting over it. I don't know how "accurate" the study really was, but in the brief summary, most of their criteria seemed to be based on symmetry, which I'd think is considered beautiful in any culture. The guy in the article didn't even say anything about blond/blue eyes, did he? The "fair complexion" thing seems to be what's the most contentious point, and the devil's advocate in me couldn't help but wonder if by "fair" he actually meant "ok," as in clear. But I guess he probably meant pale, which is going to make people angry, though I think many people are hard wired to like that. Maybe because it often goes along with blond hair. typically, for evolutionary reasons, men are supposed to be attracted to signs of youthfulness (so they can have more babies). Few people have blond hair in adulthood compared to childhood, so blond = young = hot. (and I guess blue eyes eyes tend to go along with the oh so desirable yellow hair. :p) I totally get why people are offended by the apparent whitewashing of this study when this is the girl that wins, but a lot of people would indeed find this girl very attractive. I would totally read a book on just this subject, no matter how much it offended me as a brown-haired, asymmetrically-eared female. :p

All that said - she does have very symmetrical features, which is rarer than people realize. Have you ever seen those pictures where they split someone's face into the two halves and mirror each one, and they end up looking like completely different people? It's crazy. I tend not to notice it, but my husband is really good at catching it (he informed me that he has one eye and one cheekbone lower than the other, and that even our dog has one eye that's droopier. That makes it sound like they're deformed, but it's so subtle that I look at them both every day and would have never seen it).

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I wrote a bit more about this on WordPress (http://vovatia.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/did-you-happen-to-see-the-most-beautiful-girl-in-the-world/), if you're interested. One thing I hadn't really considered but that might have been a factor was that this WAS the result of one particular contest, and maybe it was almost all white people who entered. I don't know. I think another issue with the blonde hair and blue eyes, in addition to their being young-looking, is that they're kind of rare. Not so rare that you don't come across them fairly often, but still much more rare than brown hair and eyes. I'll admit to having a particular fondness for blue eyes, but since I have them, that might be a bit narcissistic on my part.