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【英文原文】
Pots of Promise
中国有句老话：女为悦己者容。只要地球上男人和女人还得共存，美容业就一定会生生不息，财源滚滚。
Medieval noblewomen swallowed arsenic and dabbed on bats' blood to improve their complexions; 18th-century Americans prized the warm urine of young boys to erase their freckles; Victorian ladies removed their ribs to give themselves a wasp waist.1 The desire to be beautiful is as old as civilisation, as is the pain that it can cause.
The pain has not stopped the passion from creating a $160 billion-a-year global industry, encompassing make-up, skin and hair care, fragrances, cosmetic surgery, health clubs and diet pills. Americans spend more each year on beauty than they do on education. Such spending is not mere vanity. Being pretty -or just not ugly -confers enormous genetic and social advantages.2 Attractive people (both men and women) are judged to be more intelligent and sexy; they earn more, and they are more likely to marry.
Beauty matters most, though, for reproductive success.3 A study by an American scientist, logged the mating preferences of more than 10,000 people across 37 cultures4. It found that a woman's physical attractiveness came top or near top of every man's list. Nancy Etcoff, a psychologist and author of "Survival of the Prettiest", argues that "good looks are a woman's most fungible5 asset, exchangeable for social position, money, even love."
Beauty is something that we recognise instinctively.6 A baby of three months will smile longer at a face judged by adults to be "attractive". Such beauty signals health and fertility7. Long lustrous hair has always been a sign of good health; mascara makes eyes look bigger and younger; blusher and red lipstick mimic signs of sexual arousal.8 Whatever the culture, relatively light and flawless skin is seen as a testament9 to both youth and health.
