When technology and beauty intersect, interesting things happen. In this case, a group of software engineers has developed a technology that, among other effects, reveals quite a lot about how our biology affects how we perceive what is beautiful. Daniel Cohen-Or of the Blavatnik School of Computer Sciences at Tel Aviv University headed up a team that created a “beauty machine” that can take anyone’s face and, by applying a set of mathematical principles, supposedly make it more beautiful. You can read the story here.
“Beauty can be quantified by mathematical measurements and ratios,” says Cohen-Or. “It can be defined as average distances between features, which a majority of people agree are the most beautiful,” he said. “I don’t claim to know much about beauty. For us, every picture in this research project is just a collection of numbers.”
Reductive? Maybe, but there’s some truth to that statement, and let’s address. First of all, it’s true that humans are hard-wired to be attracted to certain physical qualities that suggest physical health and therefore the ability to either bear or father children. That’s “innate beauty,” the appreciation of certain characteristics that is woven into our DNA.
This computer software draws on that tendency by applying mathematical modeling to automatically adjust the distances between features like the mouth and the chin or the eyes and the nose. The result is greater facial symmetry, something humans are proven to find beautiful. So in a purely biological sense, it’s hard to deny that the faces shown in this story are more beautiful. We love symmetry.
We think this kind of thing is really cool. Its developers say that it could be useful to plastic surgeons by showing them the ways they can make their patients as attractive as possible. Now, before you tell us that computer modeling of the perfect face has all sorts of unhealthy implications, we know. After all, the core of the technology is changing the distance between facial features, and as far as we know, there’s no surgical technique that will allow a surgeon to move your eyes farther apart or widen the lower half your face. It’s true that we don’t want to promote the idea that one needs a perfect face to be truly beautiful; that’s antithetical to who we are as doctors and as women. But at the same time, it’s a good thing to be more aware of why certain qualities strike us as beautiful.
Gravity and trauma decrease symmetry and make us less attractive. Perhaps this technology can be used to help women experiencing reduced facial symmetry (for whatever reason) to work with their plastic surgeons to identify small changes that would help them increase their self-perception of their own beauty—and as we know, feeling beautiful is the most important part of being beautiful to others. We might not even be talking about surgical interventions here; as we age symmetry is decreased due to the reduced elasticity of the skin, and non-invasive procedures such as Thermage can improve that symmetry by tightening the underlying skin structures. But making important changes all starts with knowledge, and if this amazing software provides that knowledge, bravo to the engineers.
The key is to do the best we can with what we have and not become preoccupied with a “perfect” face that doesn’t exist and can’t exist. In the end, it doesn’t matter as much as we think: we (and you) know many women who are far from the beauty ideal who have paired off with partners who adore them for their total beauty—not just their face and body, but their kindness, intellect, wit, passion, sexiness, creativity, the whole package. Here’s hoping that this technology finds its rightful place in the beauty firmament: helping surgeons reconstruct severely damaged faces, guiding women toward small improvements that will enhance their lives, and teaching computer modeling to design, animation and special effects professionals, while letting the rest of us glory in our marvelous imperfection.
Here’s a shocking revelation: men like physically beautiful women. And if reinforcing one stereotype isn’t enough for you, here’s another: apparently, women are attracted to wealth. So says Indiana University cognitive scientist Peter Todd and colleagues from Germany, England and Scotland, who used a speed dating session in Germany to compare what men and women said they wanted in a mate with whom they actually chose. The results of the study will be published shortly in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Now, we’re not sure how scientific speed dating—where people have “mini dates” of 3 to 5 minutes with as many as 30 other singles—really is, and the sample size of only 46 people isn’t exactly conclusive, but the results are certainly in line with what we’ve said in our book, The Beauty Prescription. The researchers say that when they were surveyed before the speed dating, participants gave socially acceptable answers to what they wanted in a significant other—intellect, sense of humor, and so on. But when it came to selecting people in a face-to-face setting, the men went for physical attractiveness most often, and the women were drawn to material wealth and security.
This isn’t surprising to us. We’ve written about it, and the results of this study are in line with the predictions of evolutionary psychology, which say that based on our desire for survival, ancient men were attracted to clear skin, glossy hair and physical symmetry because women with those features were more likely to be healthy and thus more successfully bear lots of children. As for the women, who were physically weaker, they were drawn to men with a greater ability to provide, protect and provide security for the family. As Todd said, ancient males and females who chose mates in this way would have had a better chance of producing lots of offspring, giving them an evolutionary advantage.
Reductive? Sure, but it illustrates that at first glance, we’re still driven by our sense of innate beauty, that hard-wired ideal that’s a product of millennia of evolution. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s part of who and what we are as men and women. But the limit of studies like this is that we should take them at face value and no more, because they don’t measure the other aspect our beauty sense, evolving beauty. Speed dating is about instant impressions, and when we have nothing else to go on, it makes sense to choose the guy with the $3,000 Rolex or the woman with the great cheekbones and dazzling smile. What this study doesn’t do is follow up to see what happened after these men and women spent more time together, after they got to know each other and saw the more subtle aspects of each other’s beauty: wit, spirituality, sex appeal, physical surroundings, relationships, career and so on. Time changes how we perceive beauty, which is why women who are not supermodels usually find their own Prince Charmings. Once we start to see the entire person, not just the facsimile that we see in 3 to 5 minutes, we find that beauty exists at many subtle, intriguing levels, inside and out.
Something to be aware of if you ever decide to speed date. For our part, we’ll stick to the slow version.
It was way back in 1972 that an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution was proposed, guaranteeing equal treatment under the law for all persons regardless of gender. Sadly, the ERA was never ratified and probably never will be, but there’s another way to look at the matter. The fact is, women have made enormous strides in this country without a constutional mandate, and in a way that’s even more satisfying that if laws were in place forcing us to be treated on a level equal with me. Extraordinary women like those we met and saw at the 2008 Women’s Conference in Long Beach, California showed what’s possible with time, determination, brilliance and incredible talent. They showed us how far we’ve come, even if there’s still a long way to go.
This is a blog about beauty, so let’s get to the point right away: the women in the spotlight at this event were magnetic in the best Beauty Prescription tradition: accomplished, supremely confident and intelligent beyond words. We were dazzled by the array of women leaders and cultural icons who were in attendance: Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, journalist Christiane Amanpour, feminist legend Gloria Steinem, Cherie Blair, wife of the former British Prime Minister, supermodel and media mogul Heidi Klum, Chairman and CEO of PepsoCo Indra Nooyi, journalist Campbell Brown, Jennifer Lopez, California’s First Lady Maria Shriver, and many more. These were Beauty Buddies anyone would want. It was amazing to see all these women who are so different externally but are all beautiful in their own way. They all emphasized being part of both a local community and a global community, and agreed that the “glass ceiling” that Hillary Clinton spoke of so often was inevitably going to be shattered.
More than 14,000 people attended this year’s event, which was themed, “Be who you are. Feel it. Live it. Pass it on.” HIghlights included an exhibit floor filled with fascinating products and companies, a day’s worth of meetings and conversations, and the “Night at the Village” reception, which included book signings, networking and more. All in all, it was a fantastic opportunity for us to meet some incredible people and spread our message of inner and outer beauty and the Beauty-Brain Loop.
Shriver was especially moving. She spoke about facing your fears and shared her personal struggles watching her mom deteriorate and her uncle Ted Kennedy become ill. It was deeply personal and quite empowering and gave us both some added personal courage to face our own fears. She works all year on the conference as her personal project, and her daughters, who introduced her, have become part of it. That’s a woman who’s beautiful inside and out!
We also got the chance to spend dinner talking with Billie Jean King, which was a real thrill. Eva shares the same birthday with her, and we are so grateful for what she has done for women going all the way back to her “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match with Bobby Riggs to her being one of the first female athletes to proudly declare that she was a lesbian. As we’re both tennis players, it was a real high to talk to her. She
looked beautiful. She received the Minerva Award along with Hay House Publishing founder Louise Hay, Gloria Steinem, U2 singer and activist Bono and more.
A sign of the times, perhaps, was the prominence of men at the Conference. Years ago, men would have been the enemy at events like this; today, with the rising confidence and power of women it’s become more than OK to have men be part of the program. We all enjoyed the exchange between Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Warren Buffett, and Chris Matthews when Buffett asked Matthews, “If you could have changed your sex into that of a woman, would you have?” Buffett ducked the oddball question (he’s probably a little more focused on the economy these days), and Schwarzenegger came back with the quip “Here in California, they do have men that become women.”
A man, Bono, even had the quote of the event: “Women care more because they bear more.” Amen to that.
All in all, it was a fabulous, enlightening day. If you couldn’t make it, try to be there in 2009.
We’re always on the lookout for interesting stories about the way that beauty, both inner and outer, impacts our lives, and boy did we find one recently. Seems that in Blackburn, England, there’s a place called the Evolve center where stabilized drug and alcohol addicts practice “beauty therapy” on each other. Basically, they give each other haircuts, massages and manicures under the supervision of a community support worker who has had training in “beauty therapy.” Finally, after years of us telling everyone how therapeutic a trip to the salon could be, someone comes up with a formal program and certification confirming it!
You can read more about this rather unique program here, but we’re less concerned with the novelty of it as we are with what such a thing says about our need to feel beautiful and help others feel the same way. Sure, there’s value in having recovering substance abusers do anything productive, but why not have them cleaning up trash on the side of the road, or helping out in a soup kitchen? Why beauty? As we’ve written in our book, feeling beautiful is fundamental to our sense of self-esteem, so much so that when we feel unkempt and unattractive, it exacerbates any feelings we have of being out of control and isolated. That’s why one of the most morale-boosting things that can be done for long-term hospital patients is to give them a shave, haircut or manicure. We feel better about ourselves and our ability to deal with adversity when we know we look our best.
This effect isn’t limited to the grim outer limits of substance abuse and addiction. We’ve done it; gotten dolled up when we knew we were going to give birth to our children. It’s not hard to find women who have gotten waxed or had their hair done the day before going in for a scheduled Cesearian section. Why bother when your baby, not you, is the star of the show? Because it feels good to look good. It makes us feel less like a patient and more like a person.
This dovetails perfectly with the concept of “Beauty 911″ that we talked about in our book. The idea is that during traumatic or stressful periods in our lives—illness, divorce, financial hardships—it’s especially important to take steps to look and feel beautiful because the simple act of caring for one’s beauty and health serves as a reminder that we’re still here. We’re still vital and one day, things will get better. Under such circumstances, beauty becomes much more important than it is when everything’s coming up roses in life—it becomes a kind of lifeline that affirms the belief that things can improve and addiction can be overcome. For the women in this program, who are passing through one of the darkest phases a person can experience, beauty treatments are a small reminder that recovery is possible.
So for these women battling drug and alcohol habits, the appeal of getting beautiful is simple: it’s an act of recapturing part of a normal life, an affirmation. When you can spend your time getting a great highlight job or having your cuticles trimmed, that implies that you’re NOT spending your time staring into a liquor bottle or finding ways to score prescription meds. It says, “I’m back.” Beauty, perhaps more than anything else we can do for ourselves, helps us define who we are. That’s why we treat it with such respect.
We’re getting ready to attend the 2008 Women’s Conference put on by WE Empower, an organization founded by California first lady Maria Shriver to bring women from all backgrounds together as forces for positive change in education, healthcare, leadership, sustainability, family and culture. It’s very exciting, as the Conference has grown from a small government initiative for working professionals to become, as the website reads, “a far-reaching organization, a life-changing experience, and an international network of women from all walks of life, backgrounds and perspectives.”
We expect to meet hundreds of fascinating women from all professions, hear women like Madeleine Albright and Condoleeza Rice speak, and discover what’s new in the world of women’s business, social activism and the fight to end poverty (a major initiative of the organization called WE Care). But for us, as doctors who address beauty from the inside out, this conference brings up a question as well: shouldn’t women be uniting to transform how our society decides what’s beautiful and perceives women of all ages? Just walking around the exhibit floor of this conference you’re likely to run into more women with MBAs, MDs, PhDs, EdDs, Pulitzer Prizes and awards of every stripe than you might meet in a year in the regular world. These are brilliant, accomplished, self-assured, powerful beings whose inner selves make them magnetic. Yet by and large, our society is more concerned with starlets and models and singers who contribute maybe 1% of what the ladies at the Women’s Conference bring to the evolution of our culture. There’s a disconnect there, don’t you think?
Beauty is as much about intelligence, creativity and passion as it is about the face or body. Maybe it’s time that women came together to demonstrate this—to show that the idea that power and influence are attractive isn’t an idea that applies only to men. It would be wonderful to focus some of the most educated, skilled and committed women on the planet on transforming the messages that we broadcast to young girls and to women who choose to engage in careers that have been dominated by men: that you can work hard and pursue knowledge or power and still be feminine and beautiful. The two are not (and have never been) mutually exclusive.
We’ll bring you more from the Conference on October 22. It should be quite a ride, we’re thrilled that our literary agents, Jillian Manus and Dena Fischer, are joining us.
In The Beauty Prescription, we talk about the Dove ad campaign called Real Beauty that ran in 2007, showing how beautiful real women with curves and gray hair and non-model figures can be when they’re not made to be embarrassed about themselves. We loved this campaign and know lots of women who did, but it turns out that wasn’t the end of the story. Dove and its parent company, Unilever, have also been building something called the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, which intends to reach out to 5 million young women around the world by 2010. The goal is one we couldn’t support more enthusiastically: to help free young women from self-limiting beauty stereotypes that lead to low self-esteem, body dysmorphia, eating disorders and a generally negative self-image. So far, the program has reached more than 2 million young women around the globe and continues to raise money for its efforts.
This is exactly the kind of thing we support in our book, our medical careers and our private lives. We both have daughters, and we shudder to think of them growing up burdened by the same expectations of a perfect face and body that we’ve seen scar many of our patients. To combat this, Dove is doing things like creating online-only short films (one of which won two awards at Cannes) and partnering with organizations like the Girl Scouts to produce nearly 2,700 self-esteem building and educational events in the U.S., U.K. and around the world. Concerned moms can go to the Fund’s website and find all sorts of tools they can use with their own girls.
This is a cause not just worth supporting but worth emulating. It’s wonderful to see a corporation focus on using its influence to improve the lives of the people who it hopes will buy their products. Sure, they are doing it with a profit motive and trying to win hearts and minds, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Dove could have just done a public service announcement and called it a day, but they didn’t. They’re using their resources to make a positive difference, and for that they deserve to be lauded and supported.
When you think of cosmetics spokeswomen, odds are you think of Drew Barrymore, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford. You probably don’t think of tomboyish, openly gay talk show hosts. But that’s exactly what we think makes the selection of Ellen DeGeneres as the new Cover Girl celebrity spokesperson so wonderful. In our book, The Beauty Prescription, we center our message around the idea that beauty comes as much from within—from personal magnetism and self-love—as from the face or body. But that’s hard to swallow when you see the entertainment media all agog over the latest pretty face and sexy figure while ignoring women of real substance and intelligence.
Enter Ellen. Exit, at least for the time being, shallow perceptions of what makes a woman beautiful. Because by Hollywood’s typical standards, Ellen DeGeneres is not a glamour girl. She doesn’t have Kiera Knightley cheekbones or J-Lo curves. She wears mannish clothes and a boyish haircut. In fact, her new wife, Portia Di Rossi, fits the “beautiful” stereotype much better than Ellen. But it’s what Ellen does have that makes us so delighted with her Cover Girl selection: a tremendously likable quality—an inner beauty—that makes everyone, men and women, want to hug her and take her home to be our cool big sister. She has charisma and charm and humor and self-confidence in ample supply, and she comes across as someone who’s 100% real and happy with who and what she is. You know from watching her daytime talk show that she’s going to approach her Cover Girl gig the way she does everything else: with wit and self-deprecating humor and perspective.
Yes, Ellen DeGeneres is what we would call magnetic. She’s someone who attracts the attention of others not just based on how she looks but on who she is. She’s hysterically funny and genuine and down-to-earth and passionate and courageous (how many other celebrities would have “come out” while they had a TV series running, as she did a few years back?). As a result, we’re drawn to her total beauty. And it doesn’t hurt that she’s got great skin, too.
Does the selection of Ellen into the equivalent of the makeup Hall of Fame mean we’ve lost our cultural fascination with the perfect 10 face and figure? Hardly. It’s a momentary blip; we’re still hypnotized by raw physical beauty, especially in women. But it’s a hopeful sign that cosmetics companies, at the very least, are beginning to understand that their customers are by and large real women, not fantasy Barbie dolls, and that it’s OK for their spokeswomen to look real as well.
“Beauty can be quantified by mathematical measurements and ratios,” says Cohen-Or. “It can be defined as average distances between features, which a majority of people agree are the most beautiful,” he said. “I don’t claim to know much about beauty. For us, every picture in this research project is just a collection of numbers.”
