Our Instincts and Beauty
In my previous article, I mentioned that beauty is not an objective assessment, but a phenomenon that occurs in the viewer's brain. Now, I will go a little further and explain that beauty is also linked to the instincts it arouses in the other person.
The fundamental concepts that aid in the perception of beauty are sexual urges and the instinct to protect. For a man, a woman's sexuality plays a very important role in his perception of her beauty. A man's finding a woman beautiful is not dependent on the symmetry of proportions, but rather on whether all these physical characteristics suggest his potential sexual instincts. Egotistical feelings awakened by sexual urges in a man are transformed into aesthetic feelings; ultimately leading him to find the woman beautiful and attractive.
Another important element is the relationship between beauty and the child...
The reason for the attractiveness a person feels in a face is always the childlike expression they find in that face. Instinctively, everyone feels the attraction of a childlike face. Looking at a childlike face causes feelings associated with a spontaneous sense of protection. The instinct to protect contains signals that create sympathy and compassion.
The most prominent phenotypic characteristics of babies are their heads and foreheads, which are proportionally large compared to their bodies; their large eyes under their disproportionate foreheads; their prominent full cheeks; their firm, elastic, short, chubby legs and their clumsy movements. These characteristics are described as "sweet," "cute," and "beautiful." All of these are infantile characteristics and stimulate the feeling of protection. A child's face evokes associations of pure sparkle, affection, honesty, and vulnerability.
However, it is not possible to observe these reactions on an adult's face. As an adult ages, their face changes, their head structure flattens, their forehead becomes less prominent, their nose longer, and their cheeks more sunken, ultimately losing their charming, childlike expression. Compared to children, adults are characterized by corners and wrinkles replacing roundness. This expression, as in adult animals, can no longer evoke a protective instinct in humans. The contrast is astonishing. Those who best recognize these lines are very successful designers and artists who express this contrast in their art.
When we compare the two sexes regarding the loss of childhood roundness, we see that women retain their roundness, while men lose it. A good plastic surgeon, in their interventions, like a good sculptor, should strive to bring out the features that evoke interest, compassion, and a sense of protection, as in a baby: softness, roundness, and delicacy...
It seems that the image of beauty, in general, is achieved by the presence of childlike expressions on an adult face. The emotions created by some of Brigitte Bardot's childlike expressions were further amplified, especially by her famous spoiled childlike pout. Marilyn Monroe's and Audrey Hepburn's childlike facial expressions, whether used for good or ill, are symbols of their beauty. It is even said that Marilyn Monroe deliberately created a disheveled look to give the impression of a little girl who doesn't yet know how to be neat. Isn't it true that this legendary beauty would immediately mess up her carefully done hair after spending long hours at the hairdresser, to create the impression of a little girl with messy hair who has just come from playing?
Men do not feel protective towards women who do not have a childlike appearance and who wish to pressure men; instead, they tend to liken such women to their mothers rather than their wives.
Women who are more concerned with their beauty than with men consciously or unconsciously bring their childlike behaviors to the forefront. They adopt shy, sensitive, weak, innocent, pure, ignorant, bold, admiring, or curious personas. Some women even reveal their weaknesses to stimulate the protective instinct. However, what appears to be women's weaknesses are actually their strengths, and in reality, they are a method women use to make men find them beautiful, to trigger their protective instincts, and perhaps, to truly strike them at their hearts. Napoleon was likely not entirely wrong when he said, "Women have two weapons: their foundation and the tears of a small, helpless child."
Ultimately, the desire to be beautiful stems not from the desire to be admired for one's beauty, but rather from the desire to be loved for one's beauty. The message conveyed by those who are fond of aesthetics and beauty through these behaviors is, in fact, a desire to be loved more.
"Everyone loves children and wants to protect them. Can someone who wants to be like children to be loved more be criticized?"
