Image:Miss Universe manitou2121.jpg

Composite images of Miss Universe contestants, 2005, by Manitou2121 (source)

In the author's own words:

These women do no exist.

This is the third of three images on attractiveness. Is there a universal standard of physical beauty? Is it only culture and fashion? Good skin and harmonious symmetrical features are indications of past and current health that should be attractive everywhere. On the other hand, when I look at portraits from previous centuries, the women in them do not look particularly "hot".

Miss Universe contestants owe their delegation to a mix of local and universal standards of beauty (or at least the pageant’s version of universal). I created multi-morph composites (see some details how here) for each continent from photos of the delegates.

The Americas composite most closely resembles the one from all delegates while the Europe composite more closely resembles the one from the finalists. Bias in the judging or in the standard? Who knows?

This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

This image was originally posted to Flickr by manitou2121 at http://flickr.com/photos/40702206@N00/146532562. It was reviewed on 06:55, 1 April 2008 (UTC) by FlickreviewR, and confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

• Averageness