Springfield, VA, USA. Society (the women and men around us) has always been more comfortable if its members fall within certain known, established patterns: this is how we dress, this is what we say, this is what we believe, this is how we look.

 

These are the standards by which a society defines itself and separates from the non-members (the other societies that may live around it — the proverbial they and them your mother warned you about).

 

Throughout human history, every society has had intrinsic cultural standards for beauty, especially beauty as it applies to women. Certain images are held up as examples of womanly perfection. Ancient Egypt, which placed a strong emphasis on images (statues, reliefs, wall paintings), provides hundreds, if not thousands of examples of their societal expectation for female beauty. [N1] Cultural emphasis on women's appearance is an ancient and ongoing story, perhaps one that is coded in our genes.

 

What is beauty? Like pornography, we know beauty when we see it but how shall we define it?

 

Attempts to reduce beauty down to binary data and mathematical models is nothing new. Two millennium ago, Pythagoras observed connections between math, geometry and beauty. He proposed that features of physical objects (e.g., women, buildings, etc) corresponding to the "golden ratio" were the most attractive.

 

Modern researchers, using a computer to processed and mapped the geometric shape of facial features mathematically, have discovered common patterns to societal expectations of beauty. [N2] Additional features such as face symmetry, smoothness of the skin and hair color were fed into the analysis. Based on human preferences, the machine "learned" the relation between facial features and attractiveness scores and was then put to the test on a fresh set of faces. The computer produced results similar to the rankings people gave.

 

Beauty appears to be in the symmetry reference of the beholder. Most everyone, however, agrees on whether a face is attractive — men and women, people from different cultures, newborn babies and sometimes even other species agree. How symmetrical a face is determines the degree of attraction.

 

One theory of our preference for symmetry is based on the structure and function of our brains. Perhaps symmetry puts less strain on the brain than something asymmetrical — there are fewer differences to identify and remember — making symmetrical faces easier to look at. This theory predicts that a human preference for symmetry extends beyond faces to everyday objects and decorative art where the more symmetrical object is most time preferred over the less symmetrical.

 

In any event, in addition to symmetry, beauty is also composed of averageness, femininity or masculinity, a pleasant expression, youthfulness and good grooming, all of which have standards of societal expectation. Venture too far outside the standards, society will notice, someone will probably say something, and everyone will take note of the difference.

 

Women have always used various methods to better meet the current standard of societal beauty. Hair removal, eyeliner, powder, and lip color are among the most common. Jewelry adorns woman’s body, her hair becomes a sign of her good health. Cosmetics are commonplace tools for dealing with an aging body and emphasize visual signifiers of youthful vigor and potential childbearing.

 

In the 21st Century of the Common Era, plastic surgeons are skilled at creating and restoring symmetry through increasingly popular procedures such as face-lifts, nasal refinements, eyelid lifts, collagen injections, liposuction, and cheek and breast implants. Some male to female HBS women may undergo facial feminization surgery (FFS) to better fit what they see as the societal ideal of womanly beauty and help them integrate socially as women. [N2] 

 

Women who seek FFS are no different than other members of society. Once reserved for the wealthy, plastic surgery now is fairly common for middle-class folks seeking to gain confidence and improve their career and romance prospects.

 

Physical symmetry is subconsciously perceived as a reflection of a person's youth, fertility, health and strength. Bilateral (left-right) symmetry has been a marker of good health and genes throughout human evolution. 

Women, whether they are women born HBS or women born women, share the some inner conflict over body image and how well their own body matches up to some societal cultural image of ideal beauty and womanhood. The prevalent culture, whether it be Western, Asian, or Islamic, socializes women with a constant propaganda stream that their bodies are inferior commodities if they do not perfectly meet the current cultural ideal.

 

From skin creams that don’t work to breast implants that may fail, most women spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to embody the cultural model of womanhood. Such time and effort is called being a “normal woman.” Doctor Freud would be proud.

 

Interestingly when HBS women exhibit the same body image problems as women born women (the non-HBS women), there is a school of thought that believes the HBS women are mentally ill (while at the same time believing that the non-HBS women are normal and mentally healthy). When an HBS woman displays the same psychology that is considered “normal” in non-HBS women, many therapists take it as confirmation that she really is mentally disturbed.

 

Why would this be so?

 

Perhaps it is because many of the male therapists and social researchers still cling to treating HBS women as if they were men. To many male therapists and analysts, who have been socialized in a patriarchal, male dominated profession, the penis is everything. They refuse to accept the growing body of scientific research that indicates HBS is a physical medical condition that occurs inside the womb prior to birth.

 

Male therapists and clinicians find it much easier to believe that the problem is in the HBS mind rather than accept the research strongly suggesting that something has gone wrong with a body that only appears to be male. The penis is everything and it distorts their psychological judgment. Doctors tend to treat what they are most comfortable with. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists do mind, not body.

 

Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) reassigns sex. Such surgery, however, is no longer the private preserve of HBS women. Women born women now have routine labiaplasties and customized vagina surgeries when they feel the need to beautify themselves. The difference is that no one requires the non-HBS women to go through the months of psychiatric evaluation and counseling that is required of HBS women.

 

Why the difference?

 

I thought that would be obvious. No psychiatrist or therapist castration fixation — the non-HBS women don’t have a penis for the shrinks to identify with. The non-HBS women are just women and of no particular concern to the patriarchy, but the HBS women are still thought of as “male” by that same patriarchy, despite the science, despite the research, despite the public rhetoric of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

 

What typical male bonding nonsense from the boys who give us the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Pretending they have a clue, when really its only the same old boys club making decisions on what they think is best for women.

 

[N1] Eqyptian women are stereotyped as "graceful and slim, with a small waist and small, firm breasts, a long neck, a pale skin, and blue-black hair.

[N2]  Computer Taught To Recognize Attractiveness In Women. TS-Si.org (10 April 2008).

[N3] Facial feminization surgery (FFS) refers to surgical procedures that alter the human face to bring its features closer in shape and size to those of an average human female. FFS includes various bony and soft tissue procedures though the term "FFS" is generally not regarded to include facial hair removal. FFS techniques are derived from maxillofacial and reconstructive surgery as well as general plastic and cosmetic surgery. There are only a small number of surgeons globally who specialise in FFS. While most FFS patients are HBS women, some non-HBS males who feel that their faces are too masculine will also undergo FFS. FFS is occasionally sought by other transgender people such as cross-dressers and drag queens.

[N4] Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty. Nancy Etcoff. New York: Anchor (July 11, 2000). ISBN-10: 0385479425; ISBN-13: 978-0385479424.

 

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