How have beauty standards changed across cultures and history?

The answer

Beauty standards are remarkably variable across time and culture. In Mauritania, larger body size in women has traditionally been so valued that the practice of leblouh (force-feeding girls) persists. Pale skin was prized in medieval Europe and classical East Asia as a sign of not laboring outdoors, while tanned skin became fashionable in the 20th-century West after Coco Chanel popularized it. The Kayan women of Myanmar elongate their necks with brass coils, while the Mursi women of Ethiopia wear lip plates as symbols of social maturity. In Edo-period Japan, women blackened their teeth (ohaguro) as a mark of beauty. Research published in evolution and psychology journals suggests that some preferences, such as facial symmetry and clear skin, appear cross-culturally, but most beauty standards are socially constructed and continually changing.