Buying Beauty

“It has been said that a pretty face is a passport.  But it’s not, it’s a visa and it runs out fast.”  Julie Burchill “Kiss and Tell”, 1988 (p.57)

Beauty is a commodity, like pork bellies and wheat, even though it’s not sold in bushels or barrels, and shares of it cannot be bought on the stock market.  We are all familiar with the chauvinistic process of boys labeling a girl a 5 or 8 or 10, which are numbers that have connotations and visual associations that we all recognize, even if the assignments of these scores varies a lot.  Each year, in thousands of beauty pageants around the world, numeric scores are assigned to the physical beauty of the contestants, who are all judged by rigorous and clearly-established standards, however whimsical and arbitrary they may seem.  Not only is beauty appraised at these events, the winner is given a prize that represents the value assessed for their beauty.

Certain men and women with particular physical attributes that are considered attractive are paid solely for their appearance to do modeling, acting, hosting, presenting, dressing, walking, attending or other activities.   The beauty they bring to that activity has value to the people that are requesting their presence at the activity, no differently than any celebrity might be paid for a performance.  No one would argue that if it cost them money to look that way it is well worth the investment, since they are reimbursed through some other means.  For these individuals, it is plainly profitable to be beautiful.  A pretty girl recently exclaimed to me, “Do you know how much it costs to stay beautiful?!"  The creation and maintenance of a particular look involves fixed and variable prices that include an extensive array of common things, like hair and nails, and luxury items such as cosmetic surgery.

We do place a precise monetary value on the expense to restore body parts that require cosmetic repair after an injury.  The Workman’s Compensation Board is very precise about the value of returning a fractured nose to the midline or revising a scar, as is any insurance company.  In this case, a payment has been made to restore the natural beauty.  The money paid for a cosmetic procedure that is intended to accomplish a similar improvement can be thought of with the same regard.  All plastic surgery procedures, facelifts, eyelids, breast augmentation, have assigned prices, and even though these vary from place to place, as does the price of gasoline.

While there is no absolute definition of beauty, it is characterized in most cases by the features of youth.  We all embrace the beauty of children, who are cosmetically pure and natural, since they have not been harmed by the ravages of time and the world around us.  This is not an abstract, amorphous guideline either; there are very singular physical traits that adults admire in young people.

(1) Pure smooth skin, without growths, marks, or other irregularities, such as wrinkles

(2) Lack of body hair.

(3) Small nose.  

Often people wish their nose looked as it did when they were 8 or 10, particularly in regard to its size.  In fact, there is a point in the growth of everyone’s nose when it is the size they desire.  The nose grows outward from the face over the first 15 or 20 years.  Children are never born with a large projecting nose; it is the relative overgrowth of the nose that people object to.

(4) Large eyes.  

Eyes appear large in small children because the remaining bone structure of the face continues to develop through teenage years.

(5) Full lips. 

The red part of the lip often shows more in youth, even though the size of the mouth may be small.  The skin of the lips stretches as people age, so the length increases and the red, lipstick area tends to roll under.

(6) Full face. 

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