First and Second Female Beauty Composites

These portraits depict computer-generated composite images of beauty standards over different decades. On the left, a composite of the faces of female celebrities from the 1940s and 50s; on the right, the so-called beauties of the 80s and 90s. While neither depicts a single individual, one notices many striking differences between the two: the angularity of the bone structure and shape of the face, the hairstyle, makeup application, and brow shape. An underlying similarity in the two images, one implicitly normative, is their whiteness. If this goes unnoticed initially it is because the current standard of beauty has been informed by the likenesses of the very individuals from whom these images were created. Burson’s portraits reflect the normalization not only of what is considered beautiful, but also of what is considered feminine, perhaps criticizing these functions by making them apparent. These composite photographs also speak to racialized histories of image construction as well as to unbalanced standards and expectations in today’s (highly visual) society.