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samboct -> RE: Intelligent and beautiful !! (6/8/2009 8:31:22 PM)
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"Have you taken into account the fact that it's hard enough getting people to agree on what's "beautiful" or "intelligent" individually to begin with? "
Actually, people have been doing some work as to what counts as beautiful, and it turns out that there are a few things that tend to be regarded as attractive in most cultures such as symmetrical features. High hip to waist ratios tend to be suggestive of sexual potency and I think long necks are also generally considered attractive. This isn't that surprising, we share genes with everybody else. I'm sure that some folks will point out the wide degree of variation in what cultures consider attractive, but I suspect that if you would poll 90% of the people on the planet, you'd find that a lot of the women that are found attractive in Western culture would be considered attractive elsewhere and vice versa. (Look at the women in Bollywood for example. Wouldn't most of them fit into Hollywood as well?)
Consider the situation with language and communication. Although human languages have a lot of variation, there are actually a restricted set of phonemes used for all languages and there are some universal rules that are followed. Also consider facial expression- a smile is a smile to all cultures- as are frowns.
So while its PC to say that everybody can be considered attractive- it's not very accurate.
In terms of intelligence- that's probably a bit easier to get people to agree on. It's a combination of problem solving ability* and education.
*Used in a very broad sense- as well as education. Either one on its own is a lot less useful.
Sam
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