Evolution
By extension, the norms of a certain epoch as to what is or is not considered beautiful may be called a canon of beauty. These norms have varied over time and what is considered beautiful in one era may not necessarily be so in another. Canons of beauty follow the evolution of fashion and are dependent on the evolution of physical decoration techniques such as hairdressing or make up.
Under France's Ancien Régime, canons of beauty required a woman to have as white a skin as possible. This was achieved (sometimes to the danger of health) by rouge and face powders as well as 'mouches', fake moles made of black muslin glued onto the face or chest. Today, by contrast, such canons prefer a 'healthier' skin colour, sportiness, gait and so on.
According to the anthropologist Alfred-Louis Kroeber, the female silhouette regularly revolves through one of three basic shapes—bustle, scabbard, bell.
Read more about this topic: Aesthetic Canon
Famous quotes containing the word evolution:
“The more specific idea of evolution now reached is—a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.”
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)
“Analyze theory-building how we will, we all must start in the middle. Our conceptual firsts are middle-sized, middle-distanced objects, and our introduction to them and to everything comes midway in the cultural evolution of the race.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“By contrast with history, evolution is an unconscious process. Another, and perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say that evolution is a natural process, history a human one.... Insofar as we treat man as a part of nature—for instance in a biological survey of evolution—we are precisely not treating him as a historical being. As a historically developing being, he is set over against nature, both as a knower and as a doer.”
—Owen Barfield (b. 1898)