Photographs

Personal beauty first consists in the lack of a number of negative characters. It is lack of deformity. It is lack of visible weakness or sickness. It is lack of extreme thinness or obesity. It is lack of a slack-jawed or moronic appearance. It is lack of body or limb size wildly outside the norm. It is the lack of misplaced sexual characteristics -- femininity in men is undesirable, as is masculinity in women.

For the woman, stature and strength greater than her own rank high in her estimate of male beauty -- both signs of a man who can protect and provide. And the most attractive man for the future mother is usually one who is sufficiently young to have years of vigor ahead, so he will still be strong when the couple's offspring are almost grown -- even though his age may be considerably greater than the woman's in some cases.

For the future father, the woman's body is beautiful which has the harmonious swelling of the hips and breasts so much celebrated in art, and the perfect softness of the skin (which shows not too little nor too much underlying fatty tissue), the glowing complexion, and the vivacity and energy that together show a healthy ability to bear and nurture children. The greatest sexual beauty is found in the woman in her child-bearing years.

And there are a great many characters of beauty which apply to both sexes and all ages, as I mention in the Portraits section of this gallery. -- Kevin Alfred Strom