#tw beauty standards

[clownrecess]

(tw for beauty standards, exclusion, etc.)

I want to talk about the modeling industry and its severe need for diversity.

I'm someone who really enjoys watching runway models on YouTube, I like seeing the different clothes, walks, models, etc. I also really like fashion in general. But, for many reasons, the modeling industry is obviously really really messed up. There is a reason that's a lot worse than this one, but I dont feel comfortable talking about it, and also this fits my blog better.

Representation matters. It's important for everyone to feel seen, valued, and included. When the majority of models we see on the runways are thin, tall, able bodied, and predominantly white, it sends really harmful messages to people who don't fit into these narrow categories. It reinforces unrealistic beauty ideals and erases the beauty of diversity that exists in our world. This lack of diversity not only affects aspiring models who don't fit into the industry's limited mold but also has a significant impact on the self-esteem and body image of people who consume fashion media. It perpetuates the idea that only a certain type of person is worthy of being considered beautiful, which can be incredibly damaging to people who don't fit those standards.

I LOVE seeing disabled models, POC models, fat models, models with scars, etc.

"The industry isn't meant for *insert description here* people. It just doesn't work!" No. That is not true in the slightest! I have seen many fantastic models who are fat, disabled, etc.

We all wear clothes. And those clothes look just as good on minorities as they do on people who fit the beauty standard.

ALSO THE POSSIBILITES?? Models who use mobility aids just have double the opportunity to make a unique look. I want to see a design that incorporates the models mobility aid into it, makes it part of the art. Imagine a fashion show where designers create stunning garments that not only complement the model's mobility aid but also make it an integral part of the overall artistic vision. A beautifully designed dress that flows around a wheelchair, or a pair of stylish crutches that are adorned with intricate patterns and colors. The possibilities are endless, and the results would be truly breathtaking.

[harleycao]

Curvy Girls Can Wear Regular Sizes, Too

I hate the way it feels like most people don't know you can even be curvy the way I am, because I'm not overweight. I'm a size medium! But I am curvy, too. I have thick(er) thighs and love handles and such.

But you don't hear about people looking like that.

And it's annoying af.

The worse part is that when you read (yes, I've actually been thinking of fanfic this whole time but it's not JUST with fanfics) about someone who's chubby or curvy, they're almost always written as being insecure. And I'm not.

Curvy is beautiful! Chubby is beautiful! (Though I personally dislike the word "chubby." Can't quite put my finger on why).

Beauty standards are ugly as fuck!!!

[wastemanjohn]

how is it that some days i feel like the hottest bitch alive but other days i feel like i should retire under a bridge with the other trolls

[mime-rodeo]

i fucking hate it when filters change my face shape and tries to make me look more conventionally attractive. and i'm not talking about beauty filters. sometimes i want to use a filter with freckles or colored eyes or devil's horns, and it fucking makes my nose slimmer and my skin smoother and my eyes bigger. i despise it so much. why is it so hard to exist online without changing every unique aspect of yourself? why are fun things slowly being turned into insecurities?

[friendofthecrows]

sometimes it's like "if only my skin was perfect then I'd be the prettiest guy in the world" and sometimes it's like "who cares if we have a few blemishes we're still the prettiest guy in the world" and sometimes it's like "what are you two on about we're like average at best. put a shirt on"

[silvandar]

The artist and youtuber Marc Brunet regularly uses female bodybuilders and gymnasts for his anatomy reference videos. He creates art like this:

Source

The amount of hate his pieces receive via IG and Twitter is staggering. Almost all of it is complaining that he draws "ugly" women.

Too many of these comments come from women as well :( the internalised misogyny is heartbreaking.

This tweet had me absolutely flabbergasted twice because I read this and I was like "Dame Aylin? The tall, blonde, supermodel demigoddess? How is she at all outside of the beauty standard? This is stupid" and then I scrolled down and there were a hundred replies by straight dudes who were calling her ugly and talking about anime women they prefer

[skyeconch]

Hi besti :3 how are you ? I hope you are well you are having a great day

I hope you don't mind but I had an idea for a Horangi scenario, starts in angst that ends with something cute.

I don't know if they are any good but I'll share it with you anyway. (⁠;⁠;⁠;⁠・⁠_⁠・⁠)

In Korea they take very seriously what is the external appreciation in an unhealthy way so my idea was that YN at the beginning was looking for a bit of how is the Korean culture more than anything to be able to ask out Horangi and avoid some culture shock, the thing is that when YN discovers all this obsession that Koreans have for the physical appearance and that in Korean standards YN is unattractive which discourages them a lot, When Horangi realizes that he starts to avoid him one day he decides to confront him and ask him why he avoids him, to which YN responds with what he feels, at the end Horangi tells him that it is true that Koreans have very high standards of beauty but for YN he thinks it is very nice, he wants to have a date with them.

I hope you are having a great day and if you are having a bad time I hope tomorrow will be better. (⁠つ⁠✧⁠ω⁠✧⁠)⁠つ

Hello bestie 👋✨

I hope you���re having a good day/night ✨

Mine is well…average but good! ✨ thanks for asking🌸

Bestie your idea is amazing! Don’t feel discouraged from your mind bc I meant it✨💛

I’ll try to find a format similar and tweaks it a little bit to fits the scenario 👏✨

I hope you don’t mind waiting bc I don’t do well with pressure 😅 i apologize💛

I understand the beauty standards part tho 😔 it’s sad that we have to live up to these expectations everyday 🙃

I used to compare myself with them before but I realised that sometimes I don’t need to try so hard to meet that ✨expectations✨

I slowly learnt to be comfortable with who I am, with what I’ve given, and improve my life for my own future, not dependent by someone else’s choices or expectations 👏

It’s not easy for everyone, but I will keep pushing, and I hope everyone will find a reason to fight on as well! 👏🌻💛✨☀️

[artist-rat]

I feel your breath upon my neck / a soft caress as cold as death

[fumifooms]

do you happen to have that page that talks about the beauty standards of each race?

Yeah sure. While scavenging pics for this I found this neat reddit compilation & chart & theory talk too. I had um, way more to say than I anticipated (I know you only wanted the one page. I have nothing to say for myself. Like most topics in Dunmeshi things snowball because they’re so interconnected. Mercy…) so, many races and observations are only mentioned near the bottom.

Beauty standards and race in Dungeon Meshi

Not pictured there’s also how elven society is harsh on visibly disabled people, and how the demon took away Mithrun’s silver eyes and ears to take away his pride. There’s also how Senshi might have fit in with the orcs more easily because of the dwarven wide body shape, and how they tend to have more body hair too I suppose. In the extra on orcs we see Senshi living with the orcs and he gets judged because of the hierarchy rather than his looks.

What is fashionable also differs from culture to culture, and there’s how tattoos only seem common with elves, though dwarves and others do also sometimes have some. They seem to not raise much brows, which makes sense since for many essentially they’re for professional (magical) purposes especially with elves. Gender roles also differ in type and importance, but generally they are similar to irl ones for the races we see. Elven society seems to be the least gendered, which would be an unsurprising logical outcome of having lesser sexual dimorphism aka they look more androgynous. Comparing fashions and gender roles and how they affect beauty standards would be a whole other compilation and conversation. Kui has great worldbuilding partially because she’s got such a good grasp on sociopolitics and geopolitics. History affects cultures and beauty standards greatly. Kui’s oneshot Distant Utopia was very eye opening on her way to worldbuild and the consideration she gives these things, I do really recommend reading it.

Out of the big 5, we know the least about gnomes, but their sheet does say both culture and region are similar to dwarves’ and they end up being confused together often, so we can imagine the beauty standards are similar to dwarves’ as well.

I wanted to touch on this in a post eventually, but how one daydream hour page said half-foots tended to be curvaceous like in the artwork below puzzled me for a long time, all the half-foot characters we see during canon are rather slender and lanky after all, Chil’s succubi also being more curvy than plump. Economics are for sure a factor in that I imagine, the half-foots characters we see are all implied to be some flavor of poor or malnourished, as are half-foots depicted as empoverished oppressed minorities in general. Even comparing the artwork with the half-foot sheet’s depicted average half-foot, the ones on the left seem bigger. Wouldn’t it make sense though, if unlike dwarves half-foots don’t have similar naturally wide bodies, yet due to idolizing dwarves they work towards having a similar body shape/type to emulate them?

It’s said half-foots tend to stick to pretty ethnically homogeneous regions (aka half-foots-only communities) unless they move to the big city with ambition to try and make it big (like Chilchuck and his wife & kids did), and that’s interesting imo because then that would mean that in a ton of half-foot communities, they rarely see or interact with dwarves whom they try to emulate. Of course, one thing about beauty standards is that when they get adopted, at one point it stops being "this is how dwarves look and so this is how half-foots should look" and just becomes "this is how half-foots should look", most people feel as though beauty standards aren’t learned but innate, so I figure the half-foots wouldn’t have any problem still seeking dwarvish traits when there are no dwarves around.

There’s also stuff you can glean here and there if you want to extrapolate more. Like how in the race swap artworks, Mickbell is only smiling in the dwarf portrait, and Rin’s elven portrait looks very close to her elven one- Rin who is stated to be beautiful in her profile blurb. Benichidori’s extra does teach us tallmen can definitely have harsh beauty standards, but also since the text portrays her as very dysmorphic that’s likely reflected in her thoughts to a much more intense degree than is common, not an accurate strict baseline to go off. Ah, Kabru’s blue eyes are also why he and his mother lived a rough life in Kabru’s hometown, but that seems to be regional. Good post here on the topic of Kabru’s blue eyes and ties to irl history. There’s a lot to be said about Kabru being a man that in many ways is close to elven beauty standards, and how that might have affected or been affected by his upbringing with elves + his persona as someone that can effortlessly charm most people. Marcille’s section here in this essay also goes into Marcille’s struggles to fit in with the ideal image of an elf.

Looking human

Also notable are beastkins and demihumans: Demihumans are all dehumanized which makes people treat them worse. So if you differ from the visual idea of "human" (an in-world subjective categorization just as much as demihuman is) most people do judge you negatively. Elves and dwarves get to fight about which type of human is considered the prettiest, but demihumans are below tallmen and half-foots, they are considered as simply below the beauty contest, incompatible with it.

Onis are perhaps the demihuman people we know of with the least cultural influence on the dunmeshi world, and with the least intensely different appearance than other demihumans—they seem to be technically categorized as human to people not from the eastern archipelago?— but even them are treated as lesser than human, treated as beasts to slain for reputation points or useful strength to have around and command. It’s said their "magnificient horns" and fangs are often shaven off when the oni lives in tallman towns, so you could easily make the argument that onis are denied the right to have their own beauty standards, having to conform to other people’s and going through mutilation to take away features they might otherwise have taken pride in. Inutade was bought by the Nakamotos from a dangerous sumo fighting ring that got one of Inutade’s tooth broken on her first and only fight, and kept as a low ranking servant ever since. Remember when I said different fashions existed in dunmeshi and how those could also affect beauty standards? Like the elves, if you look at the portraits pages which include a lot of characters that aren’t in the story you can see distinct cultures within the same races, for example one young elf is bald which is in sharp contrast with the usual elven long luscious hairstyles, and that’s especially true for onis I think. Maybe not only from different regions but different eras as well… They have a bit of population in the very north of the western continent, so I like to think some of the ogres live in very cold, maybe even subarctic or arctic conditions. The point I’m getting at here is that within a race, culture/ethnicity like with Kabru will also influence them it isn’t just tallmen as a whole, different communities will have differing beauty standards. The oni history blurb and third row first collumn portrait remind me of Mongolia (which historically was a lot of different nomadic communities with different cultural identities as well. Something something, the oni empire experienced a decline and then tallmen overpowered them, and now they’re governed and split apart by stronger social classes & slavers and the richness of culture was hurt for it especially if they have no real community left of their own), but obviously many of them are dressed and look rather japanese, makes sense considering living in/close to Wa, and first row second collumn portrait reminds me of ainus which again would be logical considering geographical placement, though I’m far from an expert. Interestingly, ainus are indigenous people both in Japan and Russia- Perhaps the northern western continent ogres are meant to be closer to Russia than Canada like I imagined? Ok tangent over.

The kobold sheet says they’re especially sought after as slaves because they’re "adorable", but locally in the western continent they’re repeatedly said to be seen more as ferocious and dangerous. The dehumanization is most apparent in the first comic below. The language barrier and conflicts no doubt worsen this by a lot, but I think it’d be hard to deny that their canine appearance makes the dehumanization worse. "They’re ferocious beasts, they’re demihumans, they can’t be communicated with". Most characters in Dungeon Meshi’s world are desensitized to slavery and most characters are prejudiced one way or another. Point being, kobolds are fully removed from human beauty standards, but no doubt for kobolds, other kobolds are more beautiful than humans are. They’re assumed to be an uncivilized bunch, but just like any other people they like to adorn themselves with nice clothes and jewelry and keep themselves clean and groomed; they too take care of their appearance and take pride in it.

And the orcs! This one we have the most contact with in canon, with not only there being foreigner characters from the ethnicity or hearsay of their homelands and culture but full on contact with a community. We get to see up close what they’re like and what they think, and of course in turn they’re our introduction to how demihumans are harshly looked down upon and seen as inferior, less human and thus less worth valuing and less dignified. It’s text that orcs are ugly to most humans and humans are ugly to most orcs. Since I judged they didn’t need accompanying explanation the pictures showing this are in the pictures dump at the top.

God forbid you sell vegetables to orcs my god- but then again they do basically mandate adventurers to kill any orcs they come across so yeah the world isn’t above that even a little bit.

So yes, my main point here is simply that orcs are yet another evidence of the physical ideal of "human" being an important beauty standard for human societies globally.

Izutsumi is our glimpse at how beastkins are treated in the world, and in Wa at least that’s ending up being caged and mistreated as part of a freak show. Izutsumi hates her appearance and wishes she could leave the feline part of herself behind to only be human. Interestingly, not that we have a lot of info on them so this is very much a take with a grain of salt situation, but there seems to be less stigma around artificial beastmen, those who can shapeshift at will. The main difference is of course appearance, that most of the time they simply look like average tattooed humans. Artificially creating humans is an illegal practice, and no doubt it’s not well regarded, but being able to hide that makes them less likely to be discriminated at any moment, or even just discriminated less intensely. Again, looking human is important, not only for belonging but for safety’s sake. Beauty standards rule the world with harsh hands.

Mermaids and fishmen

Ok we’re done now right? Right-! But wait… Wait…! Mermaids and fishmen are said to be demihumans too, special separate cases to the main three demihuman species however, which is also represented by how mermaids and fishmen both are in the Adventurer’s Bible chapter Monsters meanwhile ogres, kobolds and orcs are in the chapter World. They’re an interesting topic because they directly tackle this topic, not only in a meta way for the readers but also making characters themselves struggle to quantify their humanity with the goal of knowing wether they should be eaten or not, especially Chilchuck. Chilchuck’s "is it really just a matter of feelings?" mini arc.

The party asking themselves "Should we eat this?" is very common, and often they end up playing a little loose on morality, like eating the red dragon’s meat despite it having digested Falin. Not unsimilarly Marcille freaks out a little over the vegetables they harvested having been grown with fertilizer, aka largely human poo. Half of the motivation of "should we eat this perhaps sentient creature" is out of consideration and compassion, but more strongly and more often, the characters struggle with a sense of taboo at eating something too closely related to humans. Even, feel uncomfortable because of the deepseated impression that eating it would dirty them in some way. Cannibalism is an interesting and relevant topic in many ways, but what I want to mention is how there’s the more or less universal belief that committing cannibalism inherently taints you as a person and turns you more monstrous, morally but also literally depending on some myths such as w*ndigos and onis in some cases, like in Touge Oni. Marcille and Izutsumi both express a fear of eating monsters turning them monstrous. Maybe this is part of what Laios was hoping for, honestly. There are two fears here, if eating a demihuman monster constitutes as cannibalism or not, and so, will eating it taint you because it’s a human, or will eating it taint you because it’s a monster? You are what you eat, until it’s a little too literal. You morally are the means by which you get your food, and you physically are the result of your nutrition. Dungeon meshi manages to mix an exploration of humanity with the theme of food because our relationship to food is very deep and complex, psychological as much as physiological.

In the end, the characters sort of shrug and accept that they’ll never quite understand the world of mermaids and fishmen and how they operate, and what that means about them. Laios is the one always challenging these notions other characters take for granted, it’s not obvious to Laios why people are softer on mammals than other animals and plants, it’s not obvious to Laios why people would be afraid of eating a monster just because it’s a monster, it’s not obvious to Laios why some food is gross to Marcille but not fish testicles, it’s not obvious to Laios why you should immediately regard orcs and kobolds badly.

"Cows are probably closer to humans [aka closer to being human] than fishmen, though they’re clearly intelligent", dehumanization to lessen empathy towards them to be able to eat them. Meanwhile, mermaids seemingly have a less noticeable "civilization" or intelligence, they hunt in groups like fishmen, but they don’t use tools and such, they feel more primal and similarly instinct driven, and yet… Do they attract sympathy more? Mammals, humans, is it because of their nature or because of their appearance?

Both the nature and appearance of fish are ones people don’t typically sympathize with. "Fish don’t feel pain", "goldfish only have 5 seconds of memory", "it’s okay to keep fish in completely empty bowls too small for them until they die from it", so many lies and misconceptions exist that make people less considerate of them. The average lifespan of a goldfish is 10-15 years, the record is 43, but they’re not seen as lives that really matter, so a lot of goldfish die in a few weeks of bad aquarium conditions. There’s a lot of research on animals evolving to look cute and appealing to make some predators want to kill them less and parents want to care for them more, including humans. First good google research result gave me this credible short article on the topic. In Chilchuck’s weighing wether a fishman is far enough from being human or not to eat, "face is 100% fish" is his biggest argument for it being more acceptable. The face, the most important thing for empathy and recognition. The face, the decapitated fishman one that falls into his hands next chapter.

To quote @room-surprise: "Chilchuck can't explain why it's wrong to eat the merpeople, even though it's NOT complicated. But the problem is Chilchuck would have to accept and acknowledge that the merpeople might be people? And that's outside of the worldview he passively believes, so he can't just say that, because he doesn't think that's true. But that IS why he "feels" it's wrong. And it's all you'd need to say for Laios to understand! But it would require acknowledging that maybe the way they're treating and talking about the merpeople is wrong."

The idea of Chil not being able to grapple with how maybe some monsters are more humans than they seem, him who had been an advocate of half-foots rights, half-foots who get undermined and treated as inconsequential sacrifices… Grappling with how he could relate to the merpeople’s situation almost, and pulling away because it’s so existentially horrifying. I do not want to see myself into an hostile fish-faced warrior I can’t communicate with. In a way this also relates to Chilchuck being the only party member who doesn’t see Izutsumi as a cat in the relationship chart, the only one to treat her with full human dignity. He knows the struggle to be taken seriously, he knows being infantilized and he knows what it’s like to be treated as less than human.

Below, you will see Chilchuck draws the line of where they become not okay to eat as when "they already look like mermaids". Above, there’s speculation that the algae hair is partly to mimic "the mermaids’ beautiful female form". Is it because mermaids are their enemies and the ambiguity might give them extra seconds to attack or flee? Is it to trick adventurers instead? It’s striking to me that this is what works, with the adventurers. Sure the fishmen are intelligent, but explicitly here, what makes them no longer acceptable prey to Chilchuck is that they look close enough to a mermaid, close enough to human. Mermaids who of course themselves have this form to entice and seduce and charm the adventurers they prey on. Chilchuck considers the intelligence due to the tridents, but most of his internal debate centers around their appearance, and the image of a fishman skewered sickens him. The power of mimicry… Mimic being a beautiful human woman. Mimic being cute, babies being wired to make us feel protective and softened. Half-foots, sometimes pretending to be children for scams or help or avoiding trouble.

The mermaids are only concerned by their differences and not their similarities, and have no trouble treating the fishmen as food rather than peers. To an outside perspective like us, the audience, all these categorization of "more human" and "less human" between onis and orcs and elves and tallmen etc seem stupid and unfounded, but to the people living in Dungeon Meshi’s world, elves may as well be mermaids while onis are fishmen, not alike at all, unworthy of empathy and thus fine to eat.

Ultimately, Dungeon Meshi promotes unity. It’s about seeking to understand the unknown and the misunderstood, the dehumanized and the inhuman. It shows the good that comes from seeking to understand what you do not, even when that’s one another.

[evanpeterswifeyyy]

“Pretty girls don’t eat”

Pretty girls eat whatever the fuck they want whenever the fuck they want and don’t give a shit about it.

Being pretty isn’t about the physical standard, it’s about confidence.

If you’re shallow and insecure, it radiates off of you. Pretty girls radiate confidence in themselves and their actions no matter what that is and uplift others in their looks instead of feeding into unhealthy habits and standards.

Respectfully, if you starve yourself, you’re ugly. And you’re even uglier if you perpetuate it onto others.

[accoffee7]

This post is really, really late on the subject but I wanna get it out of my drafts because it's still important. It's poorly written but my point stands. Sooo...

I dislike parts of art youtube for reasons such as this.

Example number one,

I have nothing to say about concord, I haven't been involved in the discussion. Maybe some designs are bad at communicating. However, I do take problems when people say, for example, "He is a healer, he runs around a lot, so let's make him skinnier." Which is what he said. You rely on harmful stereotypes for communication to other people who rely on harmful stereotypes, and dig your heels in when people try to break them. Fat people can be athletic and fast. They can be Doctors.

This is the kind of community and hate train you cultivate in your comment sections when saying such things.

Example number two.

When I saw this, I rolled my eyes because frankly I expected misogyny, fatphobia and racism sprinkled in through in that calm way these guys like to speak. So I decided to sit through the video just to make sure my assumptions were correct, which some of them were.

Apparently, women who don't fit in with cultural beauty standards, in his eyes, are "beat with the ugly stick" and therefore... who in their right minds would wish to play as that? How dare anyone try to shift the norm? How dare woman look more average. He says he doesn't want to play as somebody who looks average like him, but guess what? Buddy, the world does not have to revolve around you (even though it literally does.) Some of us like to play things that represent us, we are all different in what we like to see in media. You have...millions of things to consume and play with characters that fit exactly what you want, bro. You have so much media representing you, as well, while other minority groups have to fight tooth and nail for that.

He doesn't downright say anything fatphobic in the video (to my memory), but he'll heart suspicious comments like this.

You know exactly what stereotype they are applying to people with this wording. You know 100% that they believe fat people can't work out and look fat. (Crazy, those fat professional weight lifters must not work out, right?)

You can still criticize a bad design without removing it's representation. People are trying to push the narrative that representation is what is making these designs bad. You don't care about these character designs, you just want to complain about the fact that these contain fat/black characters and characters that don't fit traditional Beauty standards. I'm not defending the character designs, I'm mad at people focusing on the wrong problems as a free pass to be bigoted.

[radykalny-feminizm]

Kpop fans need to be checked on bc they're arguing in the comments that this body is not normal and that she's fat 💀 I had to double-check if it's not some kind of satire bc wtf. But they're for real. I fucking hate it here

[neonhellscape]

yknow when you gotta jam that stupid little pin in that tiny slot in your phone to get the sim card out. he's doing that

[mascula-sappho]

does anyone just feel so ugly even though you know rationally you aren't? like I grew up hating my Jewish features and now with the amount of antisemitism online I see people saying how ugly we are with our acne and big noses ("beaks") and since I do have oily skin and my nose is aquiline and not small dainty delicate beauty standard nose some part of me just wonders if I should put a paper bag over my head to avoid the embarrassment. There has been such a campaign to recognize POC or disabled features as beautiful and I think that is great but I wish I was included. I'm not saying that we have it worse than any other minority but I wish I could see a Jewish model in Elle with my features, or my hair (tangly and in between blonde and brunette) or anything. I guess I can be happy I have at least naturally full lips.

[gemsofgreece]

Do you have any reliable sources about beauty in Ancient Greece that you can recommend? Something that would help a person draw mythological characters with more credibility?

For example, something that would help someone draw a character described as beautiful or very beautiful (Helena, Achilles, Penelope, Aphrodite, etc.) and actually look like they would be seen as beautiful or very beautiful in the context of the work. Or even clothes and accessories! The popular idea of Greek clothing is kind of generic (you know, that idea of "just put on soft-looking white fabrics, put a laurel wreath on their head and they'll look Greek enough" and even women, even high-class ones, having rather simple hairstyles.)

I don't intend to post, it's more for practice. So if the source you know is very dense, it's okay because, as it is an exercise, the study part is important. In case you respond, I would like to thank you in advance for giving me some of your time.

Do I count as a reliable source? XD It's just that all the knowledge I have about this comes from snippets of information throughout my life and not so much a targeted study, the sources of which I would have kept.

I would argue however that most of the information you can find on the Internet (apart from ones manipulated by political motives, both western appropriation of the Greek culture AND wokism) is fairly reliable, because thankfully it is based on the very scripts and statues of the Ancient Greeks, so it's hard to go that wrong. Those are the legit sources.

For example, Homer uses two epithets to characterize Greeks again and again; καλλικνήμιδες and ευπλόκαμοι. The former means "with beautiful legs" and the latter means "with beautiful long hair". Both were apparently beautiful features Greeks took pride in. The leg one is particularly used for warriors, which means they had toned, long, lean and strong legs. The hair is used for both sexes, as both sexes had very long hair until the classical period, often worn in many braids. In general, up to the Archaic period, the beauty standards weren't dissimilar to the ones of Minoan and Mycenaean times. The long hair Greek men had before the classical era (and beyond it for some Greeks, such as the Spartans) is rarely seen in modern representations. I don't know if it was the beauty standard or the universal truth but Ancient Greek depicted themselves almost always with wavy or curly hair, almost never straight or curly with very tight rings.

The skintone difference between men and women was also a totally legit beauty standard - handsome men were tanned, which was a sign they were roasting under the sun doing tough, manly things, warring, sailing, farming etc Beautiful women are constantly called λευκώλενος which means "with white arms, hands". Women showed their noble demeanour or descent by staying at home being dutiful wives, avoiding the harshness of the sun, dust and dirt. Being fair was the beauty standard for women. This differentiation between men and women was ongoing from Minoan up to Classical times, and most likely beyond this as well.

Beautiful women are also described to have doe eyes or cattle eyes, meaning expressive and elongated almond eyes. Having quick-glancing, clever, shining eyes ("ελικώπις") was very valued too. Goddesses such as Athena are often called "γλαυκώπις" which means "bright, white eyed". Of course it doesn't literally mean "white", unless Athena was indeed imagined like that, but with bright, light eyes. Other than that, the eyecolour is not often mentioned. The majority obviously had brown and hazel eyes, however there were blue and green eyes, there is scant art about it. But it isn't clear what the beauty standard for eyecolour was - what interested the Greeks more was the shape, size and expression of the eye. They were charmed by spirited eyes. "The eye is the window to the soul" type of thing.

Being blonde was considered a sign of noble or even divine descent, therefore it was considered very beautiful and not very common. There are sources that Greek women in later antiquity died their hair with some dyes to make them appear a little lighter. So a beautiful Greek man or woman could be blonde, but not Scandinavian or grey blonde, more like dirty blonde, gold blonde, strawberry blonde.

Throughout all sources in existence, Greeks were very interested in the health and good physique. A handsome man had to be lean, strong and toned. I mean, there are countless six pack ancient statues at a time it was crazy hard to achieve this. Greeks weren't fond of the bear type of strong though, all male bodies in sculptures look lean, even the heracleian (herculian) ones which are sturdier are still lean compared to the modern very muscular or the bear type. Greeks also found proportions and symmetry very important.

On the other hand, according to statues of the Classical period and onwards a beautiful woman should have some fat on her, be juicy and soft, especially in the belly and the hips, signs of fertility. Nice arms were meaty and soft and nice breasts were perky and round. Legs were comparatively leaner and long, since as I said Greeks took pride in that. A beautiful woman could either be a little plump or toned, depending on the region again.

Based on the statues, ideal facial traits was a straight (not curvy), proportionate nose and medium or full curvy lips.

From the classical period onward it all became about the beard for men, in place of their earlier fascination with beautiful hair. A handsome mature man kept his hair neatly cut and had a strong, thick beard, not very long. Before a young man could grow a decent beard, the beauty standards for him were more feminine, with a boyish softer youthful charm (still ripped af though XD). Cheeks in young men and women are round, however the chin is usually well defined.

As for fashion. Fashion was indeed modest and somewhat plain after the archaic times, it is not a stereotype. What you could play with to make the outfit fancier is the accessories, jewellery, belts, pins etc. If you want something more special, draw early Archaic or Mycenean or Minoan women, whose clothing was very interesting and vibrant, with a lot of geometric cuts and bold colours.

Good make-up involved an emphasis in making the face appear whiter (chalk and lead hazard), charchoal for eye-liner and thickening of the eyebrows and red iron oxide for the lips.

Yes, please, skip on the excessive laurel wreath usage, not that it wasn't a thing but we can have enough of it.

Late Archaic kouros. Note the sixpack, the tall toned legs, the long braided hair.

Different skintone standards between men and women. Helen wears some fancy outfit here as well.

Large expressive almond eyes in a Minoan woman. Also the make-up. Minoans are pre-Greeks, but they had similar beauty standards and fashion sense with the Mycenaeans and then they mixed with them anyway.

Idea for elaborate Late Myceanean - Early Archaic fashion. Souce here, you're gonna like it.

The Caryatids in Amphipolis are IMO some of the prettiest female statues in Ancient Greek art. This is a relatively recent discovery and the monument has not yet opened to visitors.

Medici Aphrodite (Venus de Medici), Hellenistic era. Aphrodite was juicy.

You might as well reach fifty, the sixpack and v-line are ALWAYS there. Beauty wise, men might have actually had it harder than women in Ancient Greece XD

Ancient Greek jewellery with dates for reference.

The statue of Antinous in Delphi is a statue we definitely do not talk enough about. Even though the body is toned and the muscles are defined, a beautiful young man is portayed with cheeks and softer angles in the face.

This is what I know, I think it's a pretty safe summary, however any followers with specific sources can add them in the comments. Hopefully all this will help you out with your practice!

[tartagliatum]

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