Scribes & Archers

Beauty standards have been a topic on my “to blog about” list for a long time now, and honestly a topic that has intimidated me, lol. But I reached a point in my worldbuilding book where I had to push past that fear and write about them anyway, so here is some of my advice for developing your fictional culture’s beauty standards (and a sort-of sneak peek at my book)!

(As a side note, I find it amusing that this ended up coming out so soon after the release of the new Uglies adaptation. That was not intentional, but it does seem oddly fitting.)

General Beauty Standards

Before getting into your culture’s specific beauty standards for characters, you should know a bit about their overall perception of beauty. Think about whether your culture prefers sleek, straight lines or swirling curves; think about whether they draw inspiration from the natural world or prefer for things to look man-made; think about whether they prefer minimalism or ornate detail. Where your culture falls on each of these “sliders” and how these interact with each other will help you to create a unique look and feel for your culture’s aesthetics—in areas beyond personal beauty, as well.

What resources, skills, and technology your culture has access to will help to shape the direction and scope of their design. This is true in areas like apparel and architecture, but also with personal beautification; a culture without ink won’t have tattoos, for example, regardless of any opinions for or against them.

It is also important to consider whether your culture prioritizes beauty or utility on the whole; a culture that values utility may stick to personal routines that are easy and practical without going out of its way to beautify things, but a culture which values beauty might encourage special effort to make one’s natural features more beautiful or to imitate neighboring cultures that they see as having a similar eye for beauty—or might encourage alterations for achieving their idea of beauty in otherwise impossible ways.

Natural Features

Think about what natural features, what overall colors and shapes, your culture generally finds attractive. Maybe they generally prefer fair coloring or dark coloring, or high-contrast coloring; specific hair colors, eye colors, skin tones. Maybe certain body types are considered more beautiful, whether those be bodies with high muscle tone, big bellies, or little by way of anything. Think about whether your culture prioritizes health, strength, diversity, indulgence, etc., as this will affect what body types are viewed positively.

These preferences will likely be guided primarily by what is common in this culture—whether they prefer the familiar or they prefer more foreign appearances. Perhaps they like the rounder eyes of their foreign neighbors because they are different, or perhaps they largely prefer fairer coloring because their own people are quite fair. This will reflect their values, whether they are proud of their own culture or whether they are adventurous and embrace other cultures, whether they are isolated or nomadic, etc.

Eye color and shape, as well as hair color and style, may be details to consider. Maybe they not only push for red hair, but red curly hair is considered the most beautiful. Or red hair worn long and braided. Think, too, about how standards may differ for men and women; perhaps long, braided hair is considered beautiful for women but distasteful on men who are considered more handsome with shorter hair, or vice versa. You could also push this further and think about unfair differences in how beauty standards are pushed on one gender over the other, if that is a theme you are interested in exploring, or how they might balance out as different areas are prioritized for different genders.

Think about how looking more feminine or masculine might influence whether you are thought to be beautiful/handsome. Think about whether your culture has a preference for feminine vs. masculine looks (i.e. is it beautiful to be masculine and handsome to be masculine, or the opposite) or whether they prefer men to be masculine and women to be feminine and beauty lies in embracing your given gender.

Body hair might also be a factor, from facial hair to leg hair. Your culture might believe that all natural hair should be left alone, that it should be groomed but kept, that some of it is private, that some of it (or all of it) is distasteful, etc. This, too, may differ between men and women.

Beauty Modifications

The first question when considering modifications to enhance beauty is whether modification as a whole is seen as acceptable in the first place or is viewed as a disservice to natural beauty. If this culture is one that believes only what can be accomplished naturally is beautiful, then piercings may be out of the question no matter how subtle or tasteful. Other cultures might not bat an eye at modifications for beautification.

If modifications are acceptable in this culture, then you can consider which specific modifications are acceptable and, beyond that, which are seen as enhancing one’s beauty. Perhaps tattoos are acceptable, but not seen as beautiful, or perhaps they are both. Perhaps it depends on the specific tattoo, its placement, or its color. Tattoos, piercings, makeup, etc. would all fall into this category to think about.

Even more specific than this would be those modifications that are specifically designed to push someone closer to a cultural beauty standard. For example, think about plastic surgery used to fill out areas that are considered more beautiful when more full, or to change the shape of facial features or body parts. In fictional worlds, perhaps there are products or magic tools that can be used to alter one’s appearance, and these are used to help characters better resemble the “beautiful” ideal. This may serve its intended function, making the characters appear more beautiful by their culture’s standards, or it may be seen as ugly and fake, a selling-out of one’s natural beauty. This may be a principled view, or a double-standard that says “this is what we think is beautiful, but only if you can attain it naturally; otherwise, tough luck.”

Modesty

Modesty may come into play in what is viewed as beautiful, as well. Think about whether modesty is perceived in this culture to add to one’s beauty or to cover it. This will reflect how your culture actually views modesty as a concept, and how much it follows its own rules. For example, do they harp on modesty but make modest dressers feel ugly? Or do they back up what they say they believe by viewing modesty as something beautiful?

In some cultures, function may supersede “modesty” and utilitarian beauty routines and clothing may be seen as more beautiful than what may be seen by other cultures as more modest routines and attire. Modesty may not be a factor in perceived beauty at all, in some cultures, but a secondary matter or a separate consideration altogether.

What is Ugly?

The natural counterpart of beauty standards is that there will be features that are considered ugly, those that are the opposite of “beauty.” If fair hair is considered beautiful, dark hair will be seen as ugly or at least undesirable. If you have to be plump to be considered beautiful, then those who are slim will be considered ugly. In some cases, these can also be independent of beauty standards; perhaps fair hair is considered beautiful, but red hair is even worse than dark hair because it is associated with an evil mythological figure or its infrequency has given it a reputation of being unnatural. (Sorry for picking on the redheads; I actually love red hair.)

These beauty standards will not only shape the appearance of characters apart from their clothes, nor affect only their accessories (in the case of piercings, etc.), but may also influence the design of clothing items. Garments might be designed to make characters look taller, shorter, slimmer, broader, long-necked, long-legged, etc. depending on what is considered beautiful. Even in cultures that look down upon physical modifications toward beauty standards, clothing is often a more subtle tool to similar effect, so keep these standards in mind as you develop your culture’s apparel.

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