I've always wondered why people of mixed ethnicity were more pleasing to the eye than those of "pure breeds". Then I came across something called averageness, which states that the average of many faces yields a more attractive one. This is definitely interesting, but does anyone else know about it?

    As it turns out, someone knew about this at General Mills. Remember Betty Crocker -- the icon of a woman that held values similar to the Stepford Wives? Yes, Betty Crocker is a fictitious person, but more pertinently, she's been drawn using averageness.

Genetic factors towards beauty

    Physical attractiveness is based on genetics and also our perception of it on the unconscious level. Unconsciously, we attribute attractiveness to healthy genes. A person born with sinus problems may have an extruded nasal formation. Or one with a weak heart may have shorter limbs. We pick up on this in order to choose a suitable mate. While it's true that a good stock of genes exists within our individual immediate gene pool, good stocks of genes exists in other gene pools as well.

    By mixing enough genes, or widening the gene pool as much as possible, the amount of genetic defects will diminish and hence attractiveness increases by choice genes. In order to have these genes that aren't available to us locally, we may have to find them in other gene pools. When we select a mate based on attractiveness, gene selection is happening behind the scenes. Only recently has technology has shown us a way to create designer babies. While at first, it will be used to satisfy dire needs such as removing a predilection towards cancer, as the technology matures, it'll become more common place to have very beautiful people walking around with extraordinary abilities. It's amazing how great women in their forties and fifties look today, as fresh as the 30-year-old of thirty years ago. And indeed, genetic screening for babies has already begun.

Beauty through a lens

    As an amateur photographer, I have learned tricks that we can do with different lenses and poses to make people look better. A wide angle lens can make people look taller -- great for models and fashion photography. For portraits, a long lens or a telephoto lens tends to compress the composition, and thus makes people look slimmer. However, the best depiction from start to end of manufactured beauty is the video produced by Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. From start to end, hair, make-up, photography and computer manipulation can make anyone front page worthy. It was quite an eye opener for me to see the amount of alteration.

So what now?

   Even without technology, it's good to understand that genetics and averageness play a part behind the scenes as to what we find attractive. With computers and advanced cameras, we can extend beauty from reality into complete fiction. Plastic surgery in South Korea is a huge industry. Some girls who are barely able to understand trigonometry yet choose plastic surgery over developing themselves for happiness for a variety of reasons. Does this show that perhaps plastic surgery will be replaced by genetic manipulation? This may be true; it may not. But honestly, it reminds me of the quote:

 "I don't know what the key to success is. But the key to failure is trying to please everyone"
- Bill Cosby.