Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s a cliché that may be true. But what if the eye of the beholder chops and changes what it sees and finds aesthetically pleasing over time and sometimes, within a lifetime?
The idea of what exactly beauty is has never been stagnant.
It moves with people, with politics, with culture, and with whatever is being pushed front and centre of public view at any given time. What one generation considers desirable can look dated, even strange, to the next.
“Society tends to go through these waves,” said psychologist and medical doctor Dr Jonathan Redelinghuys, and added how aesthetic ideals rise and fall alongside broader social climates. What is admired in one moment can fall out of favour in another, he said. It’s not because people suddenly changed their minds, but because the environment around them did.
Circumstances change the idea of beauty
Netnographer and cultural forecaster Carmen Murray said that, at times, it could be as simple as left- or right-wing politics, or more conservative politics, that play a part.
She said that some research suggested that during times of more conservative global political sentiment, women tend to cover up more, and the ideal of beauty is founded more in physical slimness as opposed to a fuller look under more left-leaning leadership.
Dr Redelinghuys said that these trends will always come and go.
“Those changes carry through more than how bodies are presented. It’s also about how faces are styled and what is considered desirable. The fuller figures once associated with wealth and fertility gave way to thinner silhouettes, which later made room for a more inclusive look. Each phase arrived with its own sense of certainty, yet none lasted.”
Perceptions of what is beautiful are the consequence of conditioning, said Dr Redelinghuys. “What people recognise as beautiful is built over time, shaped by what they see often enough for it to feel familiar. It’s all about repetition.
“The more a particular look is presented, the more it settles into public consciousness as a benchmark. Over time, it is a yardstick that becomes difficult to separate from what people believe is their own preference.”
People believe it’s their own preference
There are also cultural nuances that play a role in the definition of beauty. Dr Redelinghuys said that the big hoohaa made over exposing the female form is pretty much a Western notion.
“In some cultures, there’s never been a norm to cover breasts,” he said. “What is labelled provocative in one place may be entirely unremarkable in another. Ideas of modesty and beauty are shaped by history as much as they are by preference.”
The first sexual revolution, in the roaring twenties, the second at the tail end of the sixties and the sexual reawakening and inclusivity movement of the 2000’s all played a role in defining beauty standards.
The free the nipple movement changed silhouettes. There’s the girl next door, there’s the Chad. James Dean and Elvis defined masculinity before long hair and sensitive guy took over. It’s an unending cycle.
Unending cycle
Right now, said Murray, there is also a growing resistance to sameness in beauty.
“People are so tired of looking like a copy-paste version of someone else,” she said. “A Kardashian aesthetic. But now, too, people are going out of their way to be original,” she said and added that there is a clear move toward carving out authentic personal identity, rather than blending into a dominant look.
“Authentic is one of the biggest used words by Gen Z,” Murray said. The appetite for something real is growing, even as artificial versions of beauty continue to dominate screens.
Whatever the next trend is, it will be wedging itself into the collective consciousness of what becomes available in the public view. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, said Dr Redelinghuys, but the eye is not working alone.
