Beaut>- was a sign of health and reproductive capability; thus, a beautiful woman historically had wide hips (for childbearing), body symmetry (indicating no deformities), hair and teeth that weren’t falling out (indicating health). And she was young — at the beginning of her fertile years.
Society needed to reinforce men’s biological dependency on female beauty for the same reason it needed to make women dependent on male income: dependence created an incentive to marry. A man who was addicted to a woman’s beauty, youth and sex would temporarily "lose his mind" — he would make the irrational decision to support her for the rest of his life. Female beauty, then, can be thought of as nature’s marketing tool: the way of marketing a woman for the survival of her genes.42 Which is why female beauty is the world’s most potent drug.
The ideal beauty varied. . . but there was always an ideal of beauty. Throughout history, the only constant about female beauty and female sex was that they were more valued than male beauty and male sex. Especially in Stage I cultures. We have selected women who consciously or unconsciously learned that their beauty’ and their sex were worth a man’s labor, money, life. No, many men’s lives. Beauty power and sex power are parts of the female collective unconscious. Not every woman wants to give up these powers.