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Beauty is subjective.
I've never understood how anyone could hold the position that there exists objective standards of beauty. It should be obvious that this is false since people hold different opinions of beauty all the time. Different people can look at the same person, painting, sculpture etc. and have completely different opinions on its beauty. It's the exact same way different people find different foods or music to be pleasurable or not. Sensory input isn't interpreted the same way by all humans.
"But 99.99999% of humans would agree that a 22 year old supermodel is more attractive than a fat 97 year old woman"
This is what people get wrong about objectivity. 99% of people sharing the same opinion doesn't mean that the opinion is an objective fact. The reason that the overwhelming majority of people agree that a 22 year old supermodel is more beautiful than some old hag is because of instinct (i.e, humans finding youth more appealing as it indicates optimal reproductive capacity). Instincts vary across organisms and can determine people's biases and feelings so by definition, they're subjective.
"But mathematics proves objective standards of beauty because animal brains have a natural preference for symmetry, geometric simplicity and averages"
Again, the whole concept of beauty is based on perception. Anything solely based on perception is subjective by definition. If most people instinctually perceive symmetry and simplicity to be more attractive then that's their subjective view. Beauty is subjective.
I've never understood how anyone could hold the position that there exists objective standards of beauty. It should be obvious that this is false since people hold different opinions of beauty all the time. Different people can look at the same person, painting, sculpture etc. and have completely different opinions on its beauty. It's the exact same way different people find different foods or music to be pleasurable or not. Sensory input isn't interpreted the same way by all humans.
"But 99.99999% of humans would agree that a 22 year old supermodel is more attractive than a fat 97 year old woman"
This is what people get wrong about objectivity. 99% of people sharing the same opinion doesn't mean that the opinion is an objective fact. The reason that the overwhelming majority of people agree that a 22 year old supermodel is more beautiful than some old hag is because of instinct (i.e, humans finding youth more appealing as it indicates optimal reproductive capacity). Instincts vary across organisms and can determine people's biases and feelings so by definition, they're subjective.
"But mathematics proves objective standards of beauty because animal brains have a natural preference for symmetry, geometric simplicity and averages"
Again, the whole concept of beauty is based on perception. Anything solely based on perception is subjective by definition. If most people instinctually perceive symmetry and simplicity to be more attractive then that's their subjective view. Beauty is subjective.
