I was walking to work this morning, and a woman walked past and caught my eye. I had a discreet perv, and continued on my way. But as I strolled along, I started to think

What is it that makes us rate somebody as attractive? Can somebody just be easier on the eye than somebody else? Clearly, there are examples where it's easy to understand why somebody might not be so good to look at. But stuff like colour of hair, skin tone, hott nose etc. What makes us all agree what's 'attractive' and what's not?

The obvious answer would be the media, and what 'they' decide is attractive. We all obviously consume so much TV, film, print etc that we've simply just accepted that this is how beautiful people looked

But what happened before mass media? Surely certain people were still considered more beautiful than others? So do we then presumably have some kind of innate idea of how somebody should ideally look? If so, how fucked up is that?