The Death of Objective Feminine Beauty
AT A GLANCE
• Historical beauty standards were tied to universal virtues.
• Modern art and culture challenge traditional feminine beauty ideals.
• Postmodernism and intersectional feminism promote relativism and identity politics.
• These shifts threaten cultural unity and timeless values.
Imagine yourself walking through your local botanical garden for the first time. You are inextricably drawn to the natural beauty surrounding you in its variegated colors and sylvan charm. In repose, you stroll through the vibrant hues of blooming flowers, where you meander downward to the trail’s end. Suddenly, you fall headfirst into a sobering sight. Like an ominous cloud before a storm, a black, monolithic statue casts an elongated shadow over you. The misshapen edifice evokes a sudden feeling of discomfort and surprise. You feel a little sense of loss for what was just taken away from you — a lovely evening among the flowers, now erased by a nightmarish effigy.
Upon further reflection, you may come to realize that whoever was responsible for erecting this piece of “art” had little to no consideration for the environment it would reside in. For an ornamental garden, something more akin to the Venus de Milo or even the Three Graces by Canova would have been a more appropriate installation, something in which the essence of feminine beauty is masterfully articulated from white marble into sensual coils of flesh and limb. Despite that, the curators of this garden settled for the dark statue before you, and you can’t help but think it was an entirely purposeful endeavor.
Situations like this are becoming common. Earlier this year, London officially unveiled a statue that will be built in 2026 on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. Tschabalala Self’s sculpture, titled “Lady in Blue,” depicts a bronze and blue “metropolitan woman of color.” A 10-foot-tall, dark female figure stands mid-stride, shrouded in a dress of lapis lazuli and wearing a pair of conspicuously large, blue high-heeled shoes. Her proportions are nothing short of a caricature from a Robert Crumb comic. However, instead of backlash, the sculpture received massive praise among the artistic elite class of London.
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