Hybrid is the New Beauty

{ May 8, 2007 @ 3:14 am } · { Aishwarya Rai, Angelina Jolie, Elsa Benitez, Halle Berry, Heidi KLum, Monica Bellucci, Most Beautiful Woman in the World, Plastic Surgery }

The other day in class we talked about the rise of the hybrid beauty and how the ambiguity of nationality adds to how some women are perceived as ‘exotic’ and ‘mysterious’. The mystery of it all comes from the way someone can look at another person and see elements of different cultures but can’t really pinpoint where that person is from (curiosity) – this is what being exotic is about; the notion that you do not look like others and that people have to keep guessing. Like Angelina Jolie – although she is french-canadian, she looks exotic and has elements to her look that make her stand out from the rest. However, we also talked about the concept of beauty and how there are only two accepted categories in society: hybrid and white – and you have to fit into one or the other to be considered ‘beautiful’… there is no grey area in between.

Another factor to consider when it comes down to what makes someone beautiful has to do with the symmetry of the face, after all, isn’t that what ‘perfect’ entails? Aishwarya Rai – a former Miss World has been voted by men and women from all over the world as the most beautiful woman in the world. The symmetry of her face and the ambiguity of her nationality (she is Indian but can certainly pass for others) gives her this exoticism. It seems dangerous to inquire, yet there’s something pleasant in the way she invokes curiosity.

Monica Bellucci is an Italian model and actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Persephone in ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ and ‘The Matrix Revolutions’, as well as Mary Magdelene in ‘The Passion of the Christ’. Bellucci in 2002 topped Askmen’s 100 Most Beautiful Women in the World list, just barely beating out Heidi Klum, Halle Berry, and Elsa Benitez… Klum is white, and the other two are ‘hybrids’.