What is beauty?

As I want my portraits to start pushing the boundaries of what/ who makes a good model i.e - size, smile, face structure.. I want to take very different looking people and take their visual strengths and create a diverse series of portraits that show a range of beauty, thus exploring how beauty cannot be defined into one category.

To me, beauty comes in so many different shapes and sizes, colours and styles but I decided to do some research into this idea and to see what beauty is considered as in todays media.

I looked on Model Managements website where I came across a section about how to become a model and what you need to be successful. I looked into this and found an interesting quote from designer Vivienne Westwood, who went as far as to say that models were monsters. 'Beauty is so enigmatic and so compelling that it can be unfathomable in its magnetism and almost terrifying.'
This comment really made me realise the extent that models can have on the younger generation and how important it is to not categorise an unachievable beauty for both males and females.

Another interesting article I came across covers 5 problems with the social idea that 'Women are more Aesthetically Pleasing'
It states that contemporary art has far more nude women than men. It goes on to explain how peoples reason for this when asked why was because women are more pleasing to the eye. This is an issue that highlights how men and women are both objectified for their looks and how they should look/ who looks better to the eye. These are all things that have been conditioned in her by society and the culture we have lived in from a young age.

Though both these articles are on different subjects they're still addressing beauty and its different standards. I want to make sure that when I have shot my photographs the models I have chosen become a representation that beauty for both men and women is so diverse that it can not be categorised.