So, we need a definition of beauty.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

A request was made for a second thread, to cover the definition.

My personal opinion: 

Beauty:  Something or someone that I can look at that gives me pleasure by looking alone.  Alternately, a concept or other intangible that's damn near perfect.

Attractiveness:  As Garbo said, "fuckability".  I'm not visually-geared, so in THIS case, beauty is a combination of pheremones and what's in the person's head.

Western Standards of Beauty (female): 

1.  Emaciated woman that looks like someone stapled cantalopes to the chest of a 14 year old boy.  Not my thing, but there you have it...Or

2.  Rubenesque curves that are constantly 2-3% away from actually being fat.

3.  Perpetually 25 years old.

Western Standards of Beauty (male):

1.  Flat stomach that you could play the xylophone on.

2.  GI Joe face.

3.  Perpetually 30 years old.

In both cases, an impossible standard is set up.  It's just another trap for you to obsess over.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

While we pay lip service to the notion that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," it's pretty evident that society at large has decided it will tell us what is and is not beautiful, at least when it comes to the human form, and I think TGRMY's descriptions are spot-on about this decade's arbitrary definitions of beauty. But is there some kind of beauty in human form that transcends cultural definitions like these? Is there some shape that would be instantly recognized as "beautiful" by all people from all cultures in all eras?

I actually don't think there is, given the immense range of forms that are now and have historically been considered beautiful. Beyond the laughably obvious features that are common to all beautiful people ("is not dead," and "is not suffering from open infected sores on 90% of his/her body," etc.), I'd say our entire concept of what we find beautiful is completely programmable. This is confirmed by how easy it is to overcome your initial impression of someone's looks when you get to know them better: an apparently unattractive woman can become Venus with the right kind of smile or a tendency to laugh at the right kind of jokes, and a goddess whose hair glistens in the sunlight like she stepped out of a Tampax commercial can be transformed into a grunting troll with no more than a sneer.

Since beauty is programmable (and not only by culture, but by ourselves), I'd lump beauty in with other programmable perceptions like happiness and freedom, and I'd say it is our responsibility to recognize that and treat beauty or lack of beauty no more important a place in our criteria when judging others as any other attribute.

Sorry, kinda mixed the two threads here.

[Internet Jesus]

A request was made for a second thread, to cover the definition.

My personal opinion: 

Beauty:  Something or someone that I can look at that gives me pleasure by looking alone.  Alternately, a concept or other intangible that's damn near perfect.

Attractiveness:  As Garbo said, "fuckability".  I'm not visually-geared, so in THIS case, beauty is a combination of pheremones and what's in the person's head.

Western Standards of Beauty (female): 

1.  Emaciated woman that looks like someone stapled cantalopes to the chest of a 14 year old boy.  Not my thing, but there you have it...Or

2.  Rubenesque curves that are constantly 2-3% away from actually being fat.

3.  Perpetually 25 years old.

Western Standards of Beauty (male):

1.  Flat stomach that you could play the xylophone on.

2.  GI Joe face.

3.  Perpetually 30 years old.

In both cases, an impossible standard is set up.  It's just another trap for you to obsess over.

I'd stipulate to this, save for the age thing.  At least for males.  While there's plenty of evidence to be had for a female standard of beauty being pegged at a certain age, I'm not completely convinced that the male age requirements are set.  Look at some of the older gentlemen who are held out as standards of masculinity far beyond the 30 year mark.......

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'd stipulate to this, save for the age thing.  At least for males.  While there's plenty of evidence to be had for a female standard of beauty being pegged at a certain age, I'm not completely convinced that the male age requirements are set.  Look at some of the older gentlemen who are held out as standards of masculinity far beyond the 30 year mark.......

Sure, they have to market to the women who like the older guys.  But these days, almost every male shown in a movie or TV show is about 30.

Also, on this subject, ever notice a common thread in the pics of women that Hrap always posts?

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

A request was made for a second thread, to cover the definition.

My personal opinion: 

Beauty:  Something or someone that I can look at that gives me pleasure by looking alone.  Alternately, a concept or other intangible that's damn near perfect.

Attractiveness:  As Garbo said, "fuckability".  I'm not visually-geared, so in THIS case, beauty is a combination of pheremones and what's in the person's head.

Western Standards of Beauty (female): 

1.  Emaciated woman that looks like someone stapled cantalopes to the chest of a 14 year old boy.  Not my thing, but there you have it...Or

2.  Rubenesque curves that are constantly 2-3% away from actually being fat.

3.  Perpetually 25 years old.

Western Standards of Beauty (male):

1.  Flat stomach that you could play the xylophone on.

2.  GI Joe face.

3.  Perpetually 30 years old.

In both cases, an impossible standard is set up.  It's just another trap for you to obsess over.

I'd stipulate to this, save for the age thing.  At least for males.  While there's plenty of evidence to be had for a female standard of beauty being pegged at a certain age, I'm not completely convinced that the male age requirements are set.  Look at some of the older gentlemen who are held out as standards of masculinity far beyond the 30 year mark.......

People Magazine does that "World's Sexiest Man" thing every year. I think one year they picked Sean Connery...when he was about 80. 

[Internet Jesus]

I'd stipulate to this, save for the age thing.  At least for males.  While there's plenty of evidence to be had for a female standard of beauty being pegged at a certain age, I'm not completely convinced that the male age requirements are set.  Look at some of the older gentlemen who are held out as standards of masculinity far beyond the 30 year mark.......

Sure, they have to market to the women who like the older guys.  But these days, almost every male shown in a movie or TV show is about 30.

Also, on this subject, ever notice a common thread in the pics of women that Hrap always posts?

Titties.  There was that one time he did the worlds tallest supermodel, who had the visible outline of a penis in the picture.

I would, rather than focusing on TV shows for my data on this, instead look to people cast in commercials.  A TV character is who we would like to be, if we could lose ourselves in the fantasy.  A person on a commercial is who we see ourselves as (because then it's easier to get our money).

Neither is reflective of reality, but one is a more accurate assessment of where our heads actually are than the other.  Ultimately I'm driving at using both the TV characters and the guys in the Viagra/cialis ads as being what our standard for male beauty is.......  All just variations on the same theme of course.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'd stipulate to this, save for the age thing.  At least for males.  While there's plenty of evidence to be had for a female standard of beauty being pegged at a certain age, I'm not completely convinced that the male age requirements are set.  Look at some of the older gentlemen who are held out as standards of masculinity far beyond the 30 year mark.......

Sure, they have to market to the women who like the older guys.  But these days, almost every male shown in a movie or TV show is about 30.

Also, on this subject, ever notice a common thread in the pics of women that Hrap always posts?

Titties. 

Nope.  They're all about 19 years old.

[Internet Jesus]

I'd stipulate to this, save for the age thing.  At least for males.  While there's plenty of evidence to be had for a female standard of beauty being pegged at a certain age, I'm not completely convinced that the male age requirements are set.  Look at some of the older gentlemen who are held out as standards of masculinity far beyond the 30 year mark.......

Sure, they have to market to the women who like the older guys.  But these days, almost every male shown in a movie or TV show is about 30.

Also, on this subject, ever notice a common thread in the pics of women that Hrap always posts?

Titties. 

Nope.  They're all about 19 years old.

I never really noticed that.  But then again I never really paid that much attention to Rap. He just always struck me as the guy who tries to play the dozens, but fucks it up horribly.  No one calls him on it, because no one really wants to get into it with him, and they need him around for something.

I'd trade him for Huey any day of the week, but that's because I happen to like Huey.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'd stipulate to this, save for the age thing.  At least for males.  While there's plenty of evidence to be had for a female standard of beauty being pegged at a certain age, I'm not completely convinced that the male age requirements are set.  Look at some of the older gentlemen who are held out as standards of masculinity far beyond the 30 year mark.......

Sure, they have to market to the women who like the older guys.  But these days, almost every male shown in a movie or TV show is about 30.

Also, on this subject, ever notice a common thread in the pics of women that Hrap always posts?

Titties. 

Nope.  They're all about 19 years old.

I never really noticed that.  But then again I never really paid that much attention to Rap. He just always struck me as the guy who tries to play the dozens, but fucks it up horribly.  No one calls him on it, because no one really wants to get into it with him, and they need him around for something.

I'd trade him for Huey any day of the week, but that's because I happen to like Huey.

Huey's his son, right?  He hasn't been on the board in ages.

[Internet Jesus]

That's the story we've been told.  And Tiamat is Huey's wife.  Honestly though I'm not sure how much of that is truth and how much of it is something else.  As with most of the stories were told about the posters there.....

[Juana]

Hrap? Someone at CG?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hrap? Someone at CG?

Yep.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Why I bothered posting the OP is beyond me.  Slow learner, I guess.

[Internet Jesus]

Hrap? Someone at CG?

Yes.  Sorry to get so inside baseball here.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Hrap? Someone at CG?

Yes.  Sorry to get so inside baseball here.

May as well use the thread for something.   

It's not like Garbo was gonna comment on the OP.  I'm "part of the problem", you see.