The Perfect Face, part 4

The Perfect Face, part 4

Now that we have discussed facial symmetry, Golden Ratio proportions, and celebrity features, we will address what is probably the most loaded topic of our series.  How does “the perfect face” differ between cultures?

The plethora of countries, cultures, and ethnicities across the globe make this topic almost impossible to adequately cover.  I will, however, do my best to discuss the main ideas of beauty across cultural lines.

When we think in generalities about the face, we can perceive the differences in each individual that make us unique.  Similarly, we also perceive differences that give a face its ethnic identity.  But even though you can perceive the differences, how well can you describe them?

A picture is worth a thousand words:

This is Esther Honig is an independent journalist from Ohio, who created an “experiment” with her face and photo editors across the globe.  She sent an unedited, no-makeup, basic photo of her face to more than 50 photo editors in dozens of countries with one request: “make me beautiful.” What happened next was a very interesting study in how humans perceive beauty. She received many submissions of her new “beautiful” face and the results are discussion worthy.

After receiving numerous submissions from photo editors, Esther went through the photos and was amazed to discover how her face was changed.  Her skin was made lighter or darker.  Her eye color was changed.  Her eyebrows were made thicker or thinner.  Her eye tilt was changed.  Her lip or cheek structure was altered.  Initially, she could not identify any consistencies or patterns in the changes to her face across the countries and cultures that sent her submissions.

Here are just five examples of what she received:

Argentina

Germany

Greece

















Indonesia

Pakistan

What does this mean?  What does the study show?

Esther says that this project does not necessarily define beauty or determine what we consider “perfect” across the world.  This project helps start the conversation about beauty—something that is prevalent in our lives and something we think about often, but don’t truly know how to define.  Perhaps the inability to define beauty is exactly what creates beauty.

Esther’s study “Before and After” stimulates a great discussion on what we consider the perfect face.  Perhaps the perfect face is not something that can be defined, but rather interpreted differently across cultures, ethnicities, genders, and time.  That’s what makes the face truly beautiful. The idea that we can take something so intricate, complex, and abstract as the face and view it as perfect or beautiful without actually being able to describe it is what makes us human. This is also what makes the specialty of facial plastic surgery endlessly intriguing and challenging.

Think about your own background, ethnicity, and culture and then consider what you perceive to be beautiful. Can you identify your own influences? Those factors may help you better describe why you view a specific human face to be “perfect.”

Watch Buzzfeed’s compilation video on Esther’s photo submissions: https://youtu.be/RT9FmDBrewA

Watch Esther’s TEDx Vancouver talk here: https://youtu.be/WWRXOqYwRkM

And check out Esther Honig’s website here: http://www.estherhonig.com/

Here’s to the beautiful human face,

-Dr. Yamamoto