Notes from the film “Survival of the Prettiest”

Answer the question as best as you can as you watch the film. We will discuss them in class.

What are the four pillars of beauty? What is the definition of each?

1.

2.

3.

4. 

What are the two advantages of beauty?

1.

2.

According to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, why is it okay to see women as sex objects?

What is your reaction to Hefner’s point-of-view?                                                                      

 In the movie industry, it is more acceptable to have                 without                        than 

                         without                      .

What happens to the male brain upon seeing a beautiful woman?                                     

What features make babies irresistible?                                                                                    

According to the film, beautiful babies get                                   from their mothers and mothers of beautiful babies play with them more.

The film says we are programmed to admire beauty. To demonstrate this point, the film noted that                   month old babies will respond to attractive faces by looking at them for                  seconds versus looking at unattractive faces for only                    seconds.

The film showed the face that 10,000 male internet users put together. This face has the mark of high                                      and low                                  .  What are some features of this face that were mentioned in the film?                                                                              

Sketch artist Karen Taylor demonstrated that the universal picture of beauty resembled which three celebrities?                            ,                                   ,                                    

For women, the                     hip to waist ratio emphasizes femininity and is a sign of fertility.

For men, the                                       hip to waist ration emphasizes sexual maturity.

According to Trish McDermott at Match.com, is it mostly men or women who is most interested in seeing a photo of a potential date?                        

According to Andrew Weil, we are using plastic surgery because we are dissatisfied with our body.  The root of this desire to change is our dissatisfaction with                                   

The film made the point that beauty is a source of power because we are programmed to admire beauty.  There tends to be a “halo effect” associated with physical beauty which results in beautiful people being treated better than others.  For example, in one experiment attractive people got a                        % cash return versus unattractive people who only got a                       cash return. Also, it has been found that attractive people get a                      sentence than unattractive people.

Women have more complex notions of beauty. For example, in terms of making judgments about beauty, the film mentioned that women               to make judgments when looking at pictures than men do.

Oftentimes, a woman may judge a man’s attractiveness by factors other than beauty. What are two of these?                         and                             .

Do dominant looking males do better in the military than submissive looking males?    

If beauty is something we have or don’t, why do we need a fashion industry? The fashion industry is selling us a               .

According the film, we should stop trying to figure out the who, what, and why of beauty and just                                             .

Provide a brief reaction to the film below:

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This page last updated August 21, 2007

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