Perfection

Throughout history and even in our culture today, we are obsessed with appearances and becoming the ideal human being. In Greek art, the ideal man is depicted with a chiseled chest, muscular arms and legs, and a handsome face to top it off. Men also were depicted in the nude to help show masculinity. This is true in the statue of Polykleitos which depicts the ideal Greek man with a strong, muscular appearance. In today’s society these characteristics for the ideal man still remain the same. The ideal woman characteristics did not, however, stay the same. In Greek art women were not shown nude, but rather covered up with some sort of drapery, like in the metope of Athena, Herakles, and Atlas. This train of thought is still present today in many cultures. Although, women are allowed to choose how they wish to dress in many countries and therefore wear more revealing clothing. The idea of the perfect woman is always fluctuating over the years; whether it be from Marilynn Monroe’s voluptuous figure to Paris Hilton’s petite appearance. Despite male idealism staying the same and female idealism evolving, today there is censoring of full nudity from the general public. However, partial nudity is allowed in many forms of advertisement dealing with undergarments. In conclusion, the ideal man has not changed very much but the thought of the perfect female has evolved with women’s search for equality.