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Secrets of the body

By: Roxana Rodríguez

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

http://www.somosjovenes.cu/mayo/paginas/secretos.htm 

We live in world of images and illustrations competing to draw our attention and try to reflect what we should be or hope to become. Our eyes never get tired of gazing at singular, beautiful torsos of youthful and graceful freshness which, for better or worse, reach us through many different ways. Our life is increasingly coming down to hailing bodily beauty and wondering whether or not we are attractive.

We all know physical beauty standards have changed according to time and culture. If we take a good look at the goddesses of Paleolithic or the nudes made by Rubens, Renoir and even Goya himself, we’ll see that the concept of attractiveness prevails, common as well to the rest of the human race.

Every minute of our lives we judge physical beauty from canons we are not even aware of, and always lying in wait for any no matter how tiny variation in our proportions and symmetry.

Present-day research has revealed that those individuals whose bilateral symmetry –parity between their left and right sides– is more accurate are deemed more attractive, stemming from the assertion that under normal and ideal growing conditions our body’s paired organs and members should be identical; however, if for any reason infection, disease or certain disorders occur, the organism’s harmonic development often falters and the least resistant will therefore become more asymmetric.

Symmetry vs. sexuality?

There is a startling relationship between body symmetry and sexual behavior. Some studies have confirmed the most symmetric to have had sexual relations earlier than those whose symmetry was less refined. Besides, not only do those with better proportioned bodies usually boast nice-looking faces, they also tend to be more high-spirited and athletic and have more dominant personalities.

 

For a number of biological reasons, both sexes decode from their opposite’s bodily features several factors of excitement that the other party finds appealing, even long before knowing who he/she really is.

Men and women alike find it essential to have a proper physique, although the former pay more attention to not so subtle detail. A strong, firm body indicates good health and, to males, a sign of a female’s capacity to successfully bring up offspring. On the other hand, a woman’s brain has for centuries processed multiple signals related to men’s ancient flair for maintaining a family and protecting it from strangers.

The reality of ideal beauty

There is widespread like-mindedness about the perfect woman’s pattern being a broad forehead, fleshy lips, narrow jaw and small chin, whereas model men have a big jaw, a wide chin and eyebrows markedly separated.

Men’s preference for small-jawed, fleshy-lipped women is due to the fact that they somehow ascertain the abundance of estrogens, which are directly proportional to a woman’s fertility.

"Zoologists believe that women’s lips evolved as a reflection of their genitalia, since they have similar size and thickness, and both expand when sexually aroused as a result of a rising flow of incoming blood. It is a very powerful signal for observant males, known as genital echo", Allen and Barbara Pease state in their book Why men lie and women cry.

Perhaps that explains why Egyptian women instinctively did their lips and mythical Cleopatra used lipstick, always a red tonality, in more than one occasion to win somebody’s heart.

As striking as they are to the ladies, men’s prominent jaws are a sign of that torrent of testosterone which makes the plainest of gentlemen look erotic.

The neck is a symbol of beauty in several cultures. Hence, ever since they are very young, Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa and Masai tribeswomen, based in eastern and southern Africa, start wearing silver rings around that part of the body, the size of which they keep changing along their lives till they reach adulthood. Consequently, their necks get outrageously long, and all we do from the perspective we have inherited from Western culture is refer to these unique ‘giraffe women’ as deformed and outlandish, even if a long, slender neck adorned with up-to-the-minute imitation jewelry is to us an earmark of healthy-looking femininity.

Another hint at female sensuality was for hundreds of years the length of a woman’s earlobes, still exhibited today in some regions of Africa, in Borneo and in tribes of Kelabit and Kenya. Maybe that is why modern women try to make a similar impact by wearing very long earrings for dissimilar activities and mainly when they’re really interested in seducing someone.

The fact that most Barbie dolls wear long hair is no coincidence. It’s very simple: since days of old, long hair has been a womanly image, while short hair labels a practical woman. Whatever the reason, long, shiny hair has usually dovetailed with a hearty, well-fed body whose owner is thus seen as having adequate hygienic and sanitary habits and being fit to give birth to equally wholesome children.

A man with a hair-covered head brings to mind his brute force, his ‘macho’ power. Remember what happened to Samson when Delilah cut his hair. Funny, though, that half the women prefer men to have full hair while the other half want them bald or shaven-headed. Why is that? Bald men produce many more male hormones than the rest and, by generating more testosterone, convey bigger power and sexuality.

Estimating bodily image too highly is leading us through unheard-of courses. Beyond merely showing off the body, such elaboration is stretching with mindless eagerness in pursuit of an uncalled-for veneration of ‘almost perfect’ beauties.

A lovely body is our best ‘letter of introduction’, yet let it be quite clear that the most authentic beauty is neither restricted to a set of symmetrical features nor to a number of physical elements that make us desirable to the opposite sex. It all boils down to understanding how genuine our personality is, because you don’t love a body but the person who carries it. However perfect a person’s eyes might be, what captivates is their look, capable of conveying all that is divine in their inner world.

The Greek appreciated beauty in earnest from every angle and standpoint. Their sense of Hellenic was, no doubt, unbounded, although to our knowledge they worshipped more than just shapes and perceived with extraordinary ability the secret connection between content and shape, between the body and its spiritual harmony.

Beauty in itself is purely subjective. It is not found in things, but in every one of us, in how we feel, think, and love. All epochs have witnessed a diversity of beauty-related models, for as human beings we have been unable to comprehend the world otherwise. Fortunately, we have not learned how to live without beauty, and rightly so, don’t you think?

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