What Is Beauty?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In 1878, when Margaret Wolfe Hungerford wrote, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", she argued that individual opinions varied about what accounted for beauty. Standards of beauty change across different times and different cultures. Traditions and fashions, like society itself, change and adapt with time. So it is reasonable that our perceptions of beauty change as well. In 19th century Europe, women used to wear corsets to achieve a body-shape that is no longer considered to be desirable. Men would wear woollen shawls across their shoulders. It is hard to imagine that they would be seen as attractive in the 21st century. Nowadays, it is estimated that in the Western world, one in every ten people have tattoos or a form of body art. In the past, some cultures use to mark criminals with tattoos, so that they could be easily identified and avoided, certainly not so that they would be admired!
vt. 使适应,改编
vi. 适应,适合