Americans spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year on nose jobs, boob jobs, fake tans, pricey cosmetics, Botox... all in an attempt to improve their appearances and chase an ideal of sexual attractiveness. In this episode, we look at the complex biological and cultural factors behind sexual attraction and how the media has shaped our measure of who turns our heads.
Segment one: Beauty isn't in the eye of the beholder, it's in our genes
Madonna in her "Vogue" video; Cary Grant in Hitchcock's "Notorious"; Heidi Klum in, well, just about any swimsuit issue. These people are considered quintessentially attractive. But why?
Just as countless men lose the ability to breath when Tyra Banks struts her stuff on the Victoria's Secret runway, there must be some reason millions upon millions of women swoon when Brad Pitt appears onscreen. There is a reason, and Dr. Stephen Marquardt believes he has found it in mathematics.
"The definition of beauty is that quality or combination of qualities in an entity which evoke in the perceiver a high degree of attraction, and a positive emotional response," Marquardt says. "So when something is perceived -- either smelled or heard or seen or tasted or touched -- when the person who perceived or senses that entity feels a high degree of attraction to that entity, and has a positive emotional response, that's what we call something that is beautiful."
Realizing that geometry is an underlying principle to many relationships in the physical world, Marquardt measured one "beautiful" face after another to see what paradigms presented themselves. He discovered a simple reason why society deems Raquel Welch beautiful and Roseanne Barr not so Phi.
No, Phi is not an abbreviation of Philadelphia, but rather the mathematical relationship of a Phi triangle. "The Phi Ratio is a ratio of one to 1.618," Marquardt says. "So if you have a line, for example, you could cut it in one place where the ratio of the larger segment of the line is 1.618 times the ratio of the smaller segment. This is called the Phi Ratio. It's also called the Golden Section."
Guests
- Dr. Stephen Marquardt, Marquardt Beauty Analysis
- Jamie Mink, interior design consultant
- David Greenfield, Center of Internet Studies
Segment two: real vs. store bought
What if someone isn't happy with the fact that nature didn't bestow them with the "Golden Section?" They can create their own Phi triangle with the help of plastic surgery.
Christina is an attractive 22-year-old rapper who has decided to alter her natural frame by undergoing a high tech breast augmentation performed by Dr. Robert Rey of Beverly Hills. The proverbial "boob job" has been the cornerstone of a plastic surgery boom in the past several decades. Tremendous significance is placed upon what in actuality is really nothing more than strategically placed fat.
And though on the surface the male obsession with breasts may seem shallow and superficial, there is genetic validity to it. "Full breasts, big lips, those are all estrogen-related things that women in the prime of their sexual reproductivity have," Dr. Al Cooper says. "So men are probably somewhere programmed a little bit to look for what is going to be the most fertile women."
Naturally, this innate devotion to symmetry and physical cues holds true for females as well. In tests conducted at New Mexico State University, it became evident that women have a predilection to choose certain types of mates depending on varying facial characteristics, as well as certain points in their menstrual cycles.
"Some of those traits are physical traits that we call physical attractiveness," says evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller. "For males, height is important. Upper body muscles are important. Leanness is important, having the right amount of facial hair and body hair is important, having a nice symmetrical face, a large jaw, deep-set eyes... these are all indicators of your testosterone level."
However, not all our attraction impulses are visual. Some are olfactory.
It's long been known that animals utilize a scent to attract mates. Human beings are no different from the moth or the wolverine in this sense. The millions and millions of dollars spent on perfume attest to that.
But there's more to just smelling "pretty," as far as Dr. Winifred Cutler is concerned. In the mid-'80s, she conducted an experiment using the chemicals from sweat glands located in the armpits of attractive men and women. She discovered that people emit pheromones just like other animals.
Guests
- Dr. Al Cooper
- Dr. Winnie Cutler, co-discoverer of human pheromones
- Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist
Segment three: We may be shallow, but it's the media's fault
Every woman is 36-24-36 and every man is six foot two with washboard abs and bulletproof biceps. Absurd? Yes, but to a large extent that is how the mass media portrays people. "We are bombarded by hundreds or thousands of images of members of the opposite sex who are wildly attractive," Dr. David Buss says. "And there is some evidence that hyper exposure to these images decreases people's attraction to their regular mate."
Television, magazines, and film constantly barrage us with exquisitely beautiful physical specimens. The annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue consistently racks up huge sales, and virtually every other infomercial on late-night TV touts some piece of exercise equipment that you can use for all of 12 seconds but still get a rock hard body.
Says feminist scholar and author Camille Paglia, "I do feel that the media now is so eroticized that it's a kind of a feast for the senses, for adults. But it can be quite nightmarish for developing young women."
Can we really be blamed for being so preoccupied with beautiful people? "We're constantly exposed to models, Hollywood stars, TV actresses, who are the top thousandth of 1 percent in terms of physical attractiveness," Miller says. "And inevitably, if we're exposed to that as if it's normal, then we're going to end up thinking our own girlfriend or wife is some kind of bizarre, unhealthy mutant."
But the present mindset was the exact opposite not too long ago. Back in the day, "size" was desirable because only the rich could afford to be plump. "Fat was a wealth indicator. Wealth was hard to achieve. It required intelligence and diligence," Miller says.
It's been established that much of what fuels our collective perception of beauty is heavily influenced by external stimuli. It also changes over time and from place to place. "Plastic surgery has erased character from the faces of our best actors and actresses," Paglia says. "What it means is that our movies of the future will be shallow and depthless. And devoted only to people in their 20s."
Guests
- Justin, Jared, and Austin, fraternity brothers at Loyola Marymount
- Dr. Art Caplan, bioethicist
- Dr. David Buss, evolutionary psychologist
- Camille Paglia, author
Segment IV: Augment at your own risk
The number of plastic surgeries performed per year continue to climb above 5 million. People are comfortable with taking serious measures to ensure they appear "just so." But naturally, with any form of surgery, there are risks. "People who are undergoing cosmetic procedures have to realize that every time there's a surgical procedure there's a risk of death, infection, anesthesia causing respiratory failure," says Dr. CJ Scheiner.
Especially if someone undergoes a procedure with an underqualified doctor. As Dr. Robert Rey explains, American medicine faces a dire problem stemming from the fact that doctors in one field can very easily perform surgery in another that isn't their specialty.
"As the insurance reimbursement is getting tighter and tighter and tighter, doctors are having a very hard time making a living," he says. "We have dentists doing face-lifts. That is a very scary proposition. These are not trained people. They've frequently taken a weekend course and they're doing plastic surgery just to make a living.
"I do, unfortunately, see their work, their bad work," he adds. "One young lady went in to have calf implants. The unscrupulous doctor nicked both arteries, what we call the neurovascular bundle. He killed both arteries and nerves in both legs." She ultimately had to undergo amputations. "I mean that's a disaster... a young woman who just wanted to look prettier."
Yet even if the surgery goes through without a hitch, it's often possible for serious repercussions to occur down the road. One man who had implants inserted into his calves almost lost one of his legs when it became seriously infected and gangrene set in. Scores of women have had extensive problems with leaking breast implants. For that, Dow Corning had to pay millions in compensation and take the implants off the market.
Horror stories aside, what are some of the more intangible consequences that may plague our society as result of our "plastizing" ways?
"If our standards of beauty remain the same and permanent alteration becomes easier and easier to get, you're going to just have vast herds of Brad Pitts and Julia Robertses moving through cities, and they're all going to be the same," futurist Richard Kadrey says. "And ironically, what will probably happen at that point is, that's when the ugly people are going to take over."
Guests
- Dr. CJ Scheiner, professor of erotology
- Richard Kadrey, futurist and degenerate artist
- Dr. Robert Rey, plastic surgeon
