Beauty can be viewed as cultural or biological. Having read "The Biology of Beauty" by Geoffrey Cowley, I argue that beauty is biological.
In the article "The Biological Purpose of Beauty" by Michael Sones he writes, "The biological purpose of beauty is to attract for purposes of sex. The biological purpose of sex is not fun but reproduction." He also writes, "Beauty attracts. Youth and health in humans are attractive because they signify reproductive capacity." Geoffrey Cowley's article "The Biology of Beauty" supports this theory. He writes, "Studies have established that people everywhere-regardless of race, class or age-share a sense of what's attractive." According to the article, "One key to physical attractiveness is symmetry; humans, like other species, show a strong preference for individuals whose right and left sides are well matched." This proves that everyone is born with a sense of what is attractive, proving that beauty is biological. Geoffrey Cowley also writes about a biologist Randy Thornhill who had researched the daily struggles of scorpion flies. Through research Thornhill discovered that the female scorpion flies preferred symmetrical males which brought his attention to humans. Along with psychologist Steven Gangestad, Thornhill measured the body symmetry of college-age mean and women. According to Geoffrey Cowley, "By adding up right-left disparities in seven measurements-the breadth of feet, ankles, hands, wrists and elbows, as well as the breadth and length of the ears-the researchers scored each subjects overall body asymmetry." The researchers also had each participant fill out a very personal questionnaire. Cowley writes, "In a 1994 study, they found that the most symmetrical males had started having sex three to four years earlier than their most lopsided brethren. For both men and women, greater symmetry predicted a larger number of past sex partners.
