And now for some brain balm

Perhaps some of us are. But the image I now have is of all of the paintings of women getting in on the feast.
YUMMY!

I find it amusing (in a sad way) how much the image of beauty in females has changed. What happened to the good old days where having a healthy amount of meat on your bones was celebrated?

In "the good old days", food was a bit more difficult to get a hold of. People who were thin were poor and starving. Having some meat on your bones meant you had some wealth.

Nowadays with food being more plentiful and more fattening, thinness is now a sign of wealth. One is able to spend money on exercise, a "proper" diet and surgery.

One must be carefun what one wishes for.

Not quite the same thing, but impressive nonetheless.

Come on, those are just stills from Terry Gilliam animations.

Fashion: doing what poor people can't.

John P. beat me to it. I thought PZ was referring to Women in Art. Don't miss it.

The fat vs thin changing fashion of being attractive is the same as the tan vs lily white skin one (except that one has flipped a couple of times). Originally only the wealthy wouldn't work outdoors and get sunburned. Then the industrial revolution made the workers the pasty ones while the rich could travel for a tan. Then everyone went on cheap holidays or used sunbeds and got skin cancer and pale has started to become chic again.

Then there's the Chinese foot binding ...

The spooky thing is that I was thinking of this stuff again just the other day (but had no reason much to type it anywhere) and now it comes up in PZ's blog comments.

It is very funny when translated by clicking the Bable
Fish option.

SEF: I think stuff like that is way cool, too. Cycles are interesting things and need to be appreciated to understand why 'now' is the way it is.

One of my favorite TV series of all times was 'Connections' by James Burke. He does a great job of elucidating how inventions, discoveries, gadgets and innovations have changed society's mores, fashion trends, religious beliefs, class structure, etc. over the centuries. How everything is connected to everything else. I think the series should be mandatory viewing in schools.

Yes, we are, thanks for noticing. :P

(Confession: Actually, I find zombies pretty.)

PZ, I give you one, two, and three examples of my favorite painter of human beauty (in these examples, women), Michelangello Merisi da Caravaggio. His St Catherine is even more marvelous (it's the same model) than his Mary Magdalene, but I couldn't find a decent, large enough, picture on the web.

Cool. But it's missing my fave, Sacred and Profane Love by Titian.

My, how dewey-cheeked and hairless many of those women appear. Glad you like the look, even if you are willing to mock Paris Hilton for her alleged tears over lack of access to beauty rituals.

For a different viewpoint on paintings of the feminine form:
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/06/11/women-in-art/

Frumious B: check the links I gave in my previous comment (#12). None can be said that represent the spirituous/angelical/delicate/weak/sentimental woman, specially link one. The St Catherine I mention in it has such an "in your face" attitude that it's amazing that she belongs in a representation of a traditional saint. I understande that most of Caravaggio's female models were courtesan friends of his.

Lovely.

Now if only we can all agree that plucking out all the eyebrow hairs and repainting a fake substitute as a thin line freakishly high on the forehead (re: Marlene and too many others to mention here) is hideously ugly, we might all reestablish our original standards for "beauty".

Towards this goal I propose that the vast majority of "beauty experts" in the cosmetics and fashion industries be shunned and bannished to a cold and dry place for messing with original work.

Mars is fine.