History of Beauty in Timeline

By Popular Timelines Editorial Team · Updated: July 11, 2025

Beauty is a quality that makes objects pleasurable to perceive, including landscapes, people, and art. It's a central concept in aesthetics, a branch of philosophy. Beauty is considered a positive aesthetic value, with ugliness as its opposite.

1998: Criticisms of Barbie and model diversity

As of 1998, criticisms of the lack of diversity in franchises like Barbie, led to dialogue on creating non-exclusive models of Western ideals in body type for young girls. Mattel responded to these criticisms.

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2003: Failure to define beauty

As of 2003, attempts to find a general definition of beauty have failed, leading some authors to claim that such laws cannot be formulated.

2004: Waist-hip ratio research

As of 2004, physiologists had shown that women with hourglass figures were more fertile than other women because of higher levels of certain female hormones, a fact that may subconsciously condition males choosing mates.

2004: Umberto Eco wrote 'On Beauty: A History of a Western Idea'

In 2004, Umberto Eco wrote "On Beauty: A History of a Western Idea".

On Beauty: A History of a Western Idea by Umberto Eco (2004-10-21)

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2006: Patton's Study on African-American Women's Stereotypes

According to Patton's 2006 study, the stereotype of African-American women's inferiority maintains a system of oppression based on race and gender that operates to the detriment of women of all races, and also black men.

2007: Umberto Eco wrote 'On Ugliness'

In 2007, Umberto Eco wrote "On Ugliness".

On Ugliness

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2008: Alternative views on waist-hip ratio

In 2008, commentators suggested that the preference for a waist-hip ratio of approximately 0.70 may not be universal, especially in non-Western cultures where women have to do work such as finding food.

2017: Study on Asian cultural idealization

A 2017 experimental study concluded that Asian cultural idealization of "fragile" girls was impacting Asian American women's lifestyle, eating, and appearance choices.