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The Evolution of Feminine Beauty

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Exploring Transdisciplinarity in Art and Sciences

Abstract

If you enter the word “beauty” in a search engine, almost all the pictures you will see appear on your computer screen are of attractive young women. In Western society, the concept of beauty is closely associated with physical attractiveness and especially feminine physical attractiveness. Beautiful women are everywhere: on the walls of our cities, on the screens of our movie theaters, on the glossy paper of our magazines. But is this phenomenon restricted to contemporary societies? It does not seem so, as women’s beauty has occupied the minds of painters, poets, philosophers, musicians, and writers for centuries. Indeed, in arts, depictions of idealized female beauty far outweigh those depicting ideals of male beauty. Why are human beings so fascinated by female attractiveness? The aim of this chapter is to show how evolutionary theory can help us to understand this passion for women’s bodies and their beauty, and explore what the arts can teach us about human beauty while addressing the question of its universality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Manufacture des Tabacs, 21 allée de Brienne, 31015, Toulouse, France

    Jeanne Bovet

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  1. Jeanne Bovet
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Correspondence to Jeanne Bovet .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Equipe IRIS, CNRS, University Paris-Descartes, Paris, France

    Zoï Kapoula

  2. ICM, INSERM & Sorbonne University, Paris, France

    Emmanuelle Volle

  3. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle, CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Julien Renoult

  4. IRCAM – CNRS – Sorbonne University / IRMA - GREAM - USIAS - University of Strasbourg, Paris, France

    Moreno Andreatta

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Bovet, J. (2018). The Evolution of Feminine Beauty. In: Kapoula, Z., Volle, E., Renoult, J., Andreatta, M. (eds) Exploring Transdisciplinarity in Art and Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76054-4_17

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