I know it sounds really "iffy" at first (I thought it was a load of bull at the beginning too), but it really has been like that for a very long time and continues to be so. It's not about "more appealing", it's about it being "appealing" in the first place, no matter what the degree. There is more and more research being put out everyday about how intangible universal aesthetic is when it comes to physical beauty (when metaphysical is /completely/ taken out of question). It's almost like its innately ingrained in our psyche. It's all in philosophy.
I do agree that personal preferences and cultural beauty standards can play a part in the presence of variations (for example, the preference of tan vs pale around the world), but even then people prefer the same pattern of facial characteristics and symmetry that have been present for decades (especially the latter). People, regardless of ethnicity, seem to lean towards a more conventional aesthetic. If you show a Chinese person a picture of Deepika Padukone and an average Indian woman, they will pick the former. If you show an Indian person a picture of Fan Bingbing and an average Chinese woman, they will pick the former. Even babies show a bias in this matter, and they are not old enough to be receptive to metaphysical characteristics.
People calling visuals like Minho and Yoona "plain" has less to do with the visuals' physical attractiveness and more to do with the psychological need of the person in question to overcome a personal complex by putting the physical beauty of that visual down. You can find other people more attractive, but saying someone is "unattractive" in the aesthetic sense when everything indicates otherwise like tricking yourself into believing it. I haven't studied psychology in depth so maybe someone else can explain it better.
Sorry for the essay, it's genuinely a very interesting topic to discuss.
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Date: 2015-10-08 11:21 pm (UTC)I do agree that personal preferences and cultural beauty standards can play a part in the presence of variations (for example, the preference of tan vs pale around the world), but even then people prefer the same pattern of facial characteristics and symmetry that have been present for decades (especially the latter). People, regardless of ethnicity, seem to lean towards a more conventional aesthetic. If you show a Chinese person a picture of Deepika Padukone and an average Indian woman, they will pick the former. If you show an Indian person a picture of Fan Bingbing and an average Chinese woman, they will pick the former. Even babies show a bias in this matter, and they are not old enough to be receptive to metaphysical characteristics.
People calling visuals like Minho and Yoona "plain" has less to do with the visuals' physical attractiveness and more to do with the psychological need of the person in question to overcome a personal complex by putting the physical beauty of that visual down. You can find other people more attractive, but saying someone is "unattractive" in the aesthetic sense when everything indicates otherwise like tricking yourself into believing it. I haven't studied psychology in depth so maybe someone else can explain it better.
Sorry for the essay, it's genuinely a very interesting topic to discuss.