Apr 29, 2012 7:28PM

What’s a white knight? A white knight is a derogatory term used by some photographers to label other photographers for trying too hard to win favor of models whether they are attracted to them or want to “steal” them from a hotshot photographer’s entourage.

The average “white knight” looks like this loser.

Apr 29, 2012 7:25PM

What’s a GWC?  A guy with camera, a derogatory term used by some photographers to label other photographers as preverts whose sole purpose for picking up a camera was to photograph naked women.

The average GWC looks like this loser.

Apr 29, 2012 11:57AM

Pay attention to how Hollywood casts its leading ladies.  If you’re keen to it, there will always be a string of actors that bear the same looks.

Scarlett Johansson is a beauty.  But she looks a lot like Amber Heard.  However, Amber Heard does nudity and her typecast isn’t usually associated with “Disney Princesses”, in other words, she has the same look but will be used for more explicit depictions of sexuality.  Hollywood uses Scarlett Johansson for these kid-friendly comic book movies while still exploiting her sex appeal.  Get it? Two for one.

And then if you really want to target the tweens, you get Kristen Stewart. That’s how they roll.

Apr 29, 2012 1:37AM

I was hesistant. “Should I go there?” The hipsters don’t seem to like furries, but they sure are acknowledgable on the topic. Ah, what the hell.

Neteri doesn’t quite look like Zoe Saldana anymore, but this digital character still carries a lot of sex appeal.  Can you list the traits?

Apr 29, 2012 1:33AM

Because someone will say I’m only focusing on certain ethnicities, here’s Selma Hayek:

Apr 29, 2012 1:23AM

The second coming of Asian Dragon Lady, Joan Chen:

Mmm. Don’t blame ‘em.

Apr 29, 2012 1:22AM

Don’t pick on Taylor Swift.  Cute as a button, but, just don’t…

I’ll let Kayne do it for me.

Apr 29, 2012 1:19AM

Grace Jones, angry, savage black woman!

For me personally, I’d be more scared of a woman portrayed like this than be turned on (she literally kicks ass in the movie). But apparently, Grace Jones was the “it” woman at the time of the release of “Conan the Destroyer”.  Again, how does this affect minority women’s own self-image?  Do they want to be seen as a bad-ass warrior princess?  What if it matches her personality?

Apr 29, 2012 1:13AM

Here we go, a topic I don’t really want to touch: religion

The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ.  How many of you want to bet how she’s depicted throughout history affects standards in beauty?  It’s very easy to explain.  I’ll let a Neo-Freudist rant sometime.  Feel free to add your comments.

Apr 29, 2012 1:11AM

The affirmation of female sexual maturity: pubic hair

Some generic painting I found with Google Search for “Victorian Nudes”. Is depicting a woman with pubic hair important? Does it make it less or more beautiful? What say you?

Apr 29, 2012 1:06AM

Fertility statues. This particular one is called Woman of Willendorf.

Very famous.  Believed to have brought fertility to women struggling to bear children.

Would not be considered beautiful in modern definition, but it’s pretty clear that the female sex organs define it’s significance.  Were the sex organs missing, do you think scientists would be able to correlate the sculpture with mating or human reproduction?  Why is showing sexual organs of a female more effective at triggering primal attraction?  It’s built in there, isn’t it?

Apr 29, 2012 12:48AM

Anna May Wong was an Asian American actress.

Minority women were exotified, still are today, and I’m sure that helped a lot in her sex appeal back in those days.  But what I’m particularly interested in is looking for the common factor among these beauties.  It’s one thing to say that I’m personally picking them, but it’s another to be able to trace the history of aesthetic American beauty by doing simple research.  Does Anna May Wong and Josephine Baker start to look alike?  What does that mean?  Let’s say you want to succeed in the “image” industry, what could you deduce from these shared traits so that you could have the cutting edge?

Apr 29, 2012 12:43AM

Josephine Baker was a black beauty back in the 1920s.

Think about how taboo it must have been back then. People weren’t so open about their interracial lust.  Also, look at how much skin she’s showing!!!

And this one’s from Wikipedia! Can imagine now why so many men didn’t live past 30, they died of heart-attacks at these peepshows!

Apr 29, 2012 12:31AM

In the 1920s, the “Gibson Girl” was the personification of feminine beauty. Imagine that, some cartoonist made her up.  They sold a lot of pillow cases and merchandise.

More about the Gibson Girl at Wikipedia.

Apr 29, 2012 12:27AM

As long as I’m documenting what Americans have been teaching to their youths as history’s muses, here are some that have started wars:

Helen of Troy

I’m sure were she real, she probably wouldn’t look like Diane Kruger, but she’s not bad on the eyes.

Next is Cleopatra…

Americans got their definitive Elizabeth Taylor:

Angelina Jolie, oh my!

But my personal favorite was Leonor Varela on TV.

I’m sure there have been many other interpretations, but that’s up to you to post. ;)

Apr 29, 2012 12:17AM

The Venus de Milo

No one knows who sculpted it, but everyone wants to believe in it’s aesthetic value.

Apr 29, 2012 12:12AM

Leonardi Da Vinci unintentionally defined beauty for the ages with the Mona Lisa.

Of course, this was back in the day when the rendering of the hands was what was really appreciated. Nowadays, it would be considered a “fetish”. If you’re a model and can find a demographic that is looking for particular body parts, make sure you keep your body in good shape. There might be a paying customer looking for nude earlobes!

Apr 28, 2012 12:11AM

The first scanned “Internet” babe was Lena Sjooblom from Playboy.

So, this was in 1972. Have the beauty standards changed?

More on the history of the first digitized/scanned model here.