Human physical appearance
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Variation in the physical appearance of humans is believed by anthropologists to be an important factor in the development of personality and social relations in particular physical attractiveness. There is a relatively low sexual dimorphism between human males and females in comparison with other mammals. However humans are acutely sensitive to variations in physical appearance, some theorize for reasons of evolution. Some differences in human appearance are genetic, others are the result of age or disease, and many are the result of personal adornment.
Some people have traditionally linked some differences in personal appearance such as skeletal shape with race, such as prognathism or elongated stride (but this is a controversial and sensitive matter). Different cultures place different degrees of emphasis on physical appearance and its importance to social status and other phenomena.
The concept of the dandy was prevalent in the Western world prior to the contemporary period--namely, a man who devotes particular attention to his physical appearance. The concept bears various similarities with that of the metrosexual in recent history.
See also
- Beauty
- Body image
- Clothing
- Common human variations
- Eigenface
- Erotic capital
- Face perception
- Facial symmetry
- Fashion
- Hair coloring
- Nudity
- Physical attractiveness
- Recognition of human individuals
- Sexual attraction
- Sexual selection
- Social aspects of clothing
- Social role of hair
- Somatotype
- Ugliness
- Vanity
