The Evolution of Beauty

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Author :
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385537220
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (855 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Beauty by : Richard O. Prum

Download or read book The Evolution of Beauty written by Richard O. Prum and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, SMITHSONIAN, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed "the taste for the beautiful"—create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. In the great halls of science, dogma holds that Darwin's theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really account for everything we see in nature? Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum—reviving Darwin's own views—thinks not. Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In thirty years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous display traits that seem disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for individual survival. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin's long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons—for the mere pleasure of it—is an independent engine of evolutionary change. Mate choice can drive ornamental traits from the constraints of adaptive evolution, allowing them to grow ever more elaborate. It also sets the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature's splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.

Animal Beauty

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Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 026203994X
Total Pages : 123 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Animal Beauty by : Christiane Nusslein-Volhard

Download or read book Animal Beauty written by Christiane Nusslein-Volhard and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated exploration of colors and patterns in the animal kingdom, what they communicate, and how they function in the social life of animals. Are animals able to appreciate what humans refer to as “beauty”? The term scarcely ever appears nowadays in a scientific description of living things, but we humans may nonetheless find the colors, patterns, and songs of animals to be beautiful in apparently the same way that we see beauty in works of art. In Animal Beauty, Nobel Prize–winning biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard describes how the colors and patterns displayed by animals arise, what they communicate, and how they function in the social life of animals. Watercolor drawings illustrate these amazing instances of animal beauty. Darwin addressed the topic of ornament in his 1871 book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, and did not hesitate to engage with criteria of beauty, convinced that animals experienced color and ornament as attractive and agreeable in the same way that we do, and that the role this played in mate choice pointed to a “sexual selection” distinct from natural selection. Nüsslein-Volhard examines key examples of ornament and sexual selection in the animal kingdom and lays the groundwork for biological aesthetics. Noting that color patterns have not been a research priority—perhaps because they appeared to be nonessential luxuries rather than functional necessities—Nüsslein-Volhard looks at recent scientific developments on the topic. In part because of Nüsslein-Volhard's own research on the zebrafish, it is now possible to decipher the molecular genetic mechanisms that lead to production of colors in animal skin and its appendages and control its pattern and distribution.

Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution

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Author :
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0060088818
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution by : Bobbi Brown

Download or read book Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution written by Bobbi Brown and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2002-10-15 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bobbi Brown, renowned beauty authority and author of two New York Times bestsellers, follows up with her most important book to date, Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution. A celebration of beauty across the generations, this positive-outlook guide for women of all ages reflects, as Bobbi says, "What happens to us as we make our way through life, and how we can continue making ourselves better." In Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution, Bobbi shares her candid views of her own beauty odyssey, as well as her formidable makeup expertise, to help women feel good about themselves at every age. Readers from their twenties to their seventies and beyond will experience a new appreciation of themselves through Bobbi's enriching book, and ultimately, even embrace -- yes, embrace -- the aging process. In the engaging, down-to-earth style that's pure Bobbi, she addresses the need-to-know issues we all face at one time or another -- from how to deal with changes in skin to what adjustments in makeup application are really necessary (and appropriate) as we age and everything in between. With more than 300 photographs specially commissioned for this book, Bobbi Brown Beauty Evolution includes the personal, heartfelt thoughts of real women from all walks of life -- all ages (from 20 to 101!), shapes, sizes, and ethnicities -- reflecting on what beauty means to them. Their words serve to underscore Bobbi's message that true beauty isn't something you're blessed with -- "it comes from having confidence and feeling good about who you are."

The Art Instinct

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199539421
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Art Instinct by : Denis Dutton

Download or read book The Art Instinct written by Denis Dutton and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2009 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dinka have a connoisseur's appreciation of the patterns and colours of the markings on their cattle. The Japanese tea ceremony is regarded as a performance art. Some cultures produce carving but no drawing; others specialize in poetry. Yet despite the rich variety of artistic expression to be found across many cultures, we all share a deep sense of aesthetic pleasure. The need to create art of some form is found in every human society.In The Art Instinct, Denis Dutton explores the idea that this need has an evolutionary basis: how the feelings that we all share when we see a wonderful landscape or a beautiful sunset evolved as a useful adaptation in our hunter-gather ancestors, and have been passed on to us today, manifest in our artistic natures. Why do people indulge in displaying their artistic skills? How can we understand artistic genius? Why do we value art, and what is it for? These questions have long been asked by scholars in the humanities and in literature, but this is the first book to consider the biological basis of this deep human need.This sparking and intelligent book looks at these deep and fundamental questions, and combines the science of evolutionary psychology with aesthetics, to shed new light on longstanding questions about the nature of art.

The Evolution of Beauty

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Author :
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0345804570
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (458 download)

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Book Synopsis The Evolution of Beauty by : Richard O. Prum

Download or read book The Evolution of Beauty written by Richard O. Prum and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed "the taste for the beautiful"—create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. "A delicious read, both seductive and mutinous.... Minutely detailed, exquisitely observant, deeply informed, and often tenderly sensual."—New York Times Book Review In the great halls of science, dogma holds that Darwin's theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really account for everything we see in nature? Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum—reviving Darwin's own views—thinks not. Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In thirty years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous display traits that seem disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for individual survival. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin's long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons—for the mere pleasure of it—is an independent engine of evolutionary change. Mate choice can drive ornamental traits from the constraints of adaptive evolution, allowing them to grow ever more elaborate. It also sets the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature's splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.

Survival of the Beautiful

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Author :
Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1408830566
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis Survival of the Beautiful by : David Rothenberg

Download or read book Survival of the Beautiful written by David Rothenberg and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The peacock's tail makes me sick!' said Charles Darwin. That's because the theory of evolution as adaptation can't explain why nature is so beautiful. It took the concept of sexual selection for Darwin to explain that, a process that has more to do with aesthetic taste than adaptive fitness. Survival of the Beautiful is a revolutionary new examination of the interplay of beauty, art, and culture in evolution. Taking inspiration from Darwin's observation that animals have a natural aesthetic sense, philosopher and musician David Rothenberg probes why animals, humans included, have an innate appreciation for beauty - and why nature is, indeed, beautiful.

Beauty and the Beasts

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Author :
Publisher : Soho Press
ISBN 13 : 9781569472958
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (729 download)

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Book Synopsis Beauty and the Beasts by : Carole Jahme

Download or read book Beauty and the Beasts written by Carole Jahme and published by Soho Press. This book was released on 2003-07 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are the majority of primatologists women? Mary Leakey, Dian Fossey, and Jane Goodall are among the women profiled as Carole Jahme explores the unusual bond between female primatologists and their simian subjects.

Beauty Imagined

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Author :
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191609617
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Beauty Imagined by : Geoffrey Jones

Download or read book Beauty Imagined written by Geoffrey Jones and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-02-25 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global beauty business permeates our lives, influencing how we perceive ourselves and what it is to be beautiful. The brands and firms which have shaped this industry, such as Avon, Coty, Estée Lauder, L'Oréal, and Shiseido, have imagined beauty for us. This book provides the first authoritative history of the global beauty industry from its emergence in the nineteenth century to the present day, exploring how today's global giants grew. It shows how successive generations of entrepreneurs built brands which shaped perceptions of beauty, and the business organizations needed to market them. They democratized access to beauty products, once the privilege of elites, but they also defined the gender and ethnic borders of beauty, and its association with a handful of cities, notably Paris and later New York. The result was a homogenization of beauty ideals throughout the world. Today globalization is changing the beauty industry again; its impact can be seen in a range of competing strategies. Global brands have swept into China, Russia, and India, but at the same time, these brands are having to respond to a far greater diversity of cultures and lifestyles as new markets are opened up worldwide. In the twenty first century, beauty is again being re-imagined anew.

Bobbi Brown Beauty

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Author :
Publisher : William Morrow Paperbacks
ISBN 13 : 9780060929763
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (297 download)

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Book Synopsis Bobbi Brown Beauty by : Bobbi Brown

Download or read book Bobbi Brown Beauty written by Bobbi Brown and published by William Morrow Paperbacks. This book was released on 1998-10-21 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrated makeup artist and the Today show beauty editor Bobbie Brown share the secretes that have made her one of the most sought-after names in makeup today. In this straightforward, refreshingly honest guide to makeup, no one "perfect" beauty standard is promoted; Bobbie knows that every woman has her own look, and her mission is to help readers maximize their individual potential. Learn the essential techniques necessary for any woman who wants to look and feel her best--day or night. Learning to appreciate your own beauty How to do makeup fast How to handle bad beauty days How to get out of a makeup rut How to make lipstick last How to wear foundation correctly With Bobbie Brown Beauty, women will quickly learn what makes their face unique and how to play up their particular strengths. Never before has a beauty book tackled the pressing concerns of a woman's everyday beauty routine--what every woman, fromm fifteen to seventy-five, really wants to know.

A Taste for the Beautiful

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Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691191395
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis A Taste for the Beautiful by : Michael J. Ryan

Download or read book A Taste for the Beautiful written by Michael J. Ryan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In A Taste for the Beautiful, Michael Ryan, one of the world's leading authorities on animal behavior, tells the remarkable story of how he and other scientists have taken up where Darwin left off, transforming our understanding of sexual selection and shedding new light on animal and human behavior. Drawing on cutting-edge science, Ryan explores the key questions: Why do animals perceive certain traits as beautiful and others not? Do animals have an inherent sexual aesthetic and, if so, where is it rooted? Ryan argues that the answers lie in the brain--particularly of females, who act as biological puppeteers, spurring the development of beautiful traits in males."--Back cover

The Biology of Wonder

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Author :
Publisher : New Society Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1550925946
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (59 download)

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Book Synopsis The Biology of Wonder by : Andreas Weber

Download or read book The Biology of Wonder written by Andreas Weber and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2016-02-01 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new way of understanding our place in the web of life from a scholar praised for his “graceful prose” (Publishers Weekly). The disconnection between humans and nature is perhaps one of the most fundamental problems faced by our species today. This schism is arguably the root cause of most of the environmental catastrophes unraveling around us. Until we come to terms with the depths of our alienation, we will continue to fail to understand that what happens to nature also happens to us. In The Biology of Wonder Andreas Weber proposes a new approach to the biological sciences that puts the human back in nature. He argues that feelings and emotions, far from being superfluous to the study of organisms, are the very foundation of life. From this basic premise flows the development of a "poetic ecology" which intimately connects our species to everything that surrounds us—showing that subjectivity and imagination are prerequisites of biological existence. Written by a leader in the emerging fields of biopoetics and biosemiotics, The Biology of Wonder demonstrates that there is no separation between us and the world we inhabit, and in so doing it validates the essence of our deep experience. By reconciling science with meaning, expression, and emotion, this landmark work brings us to a crucial understanding of our place in the rich and diverse framework of life—a revolution for biology as groundbreaking as the theory of relativity for physics. “Grounded in science, yet eloquently narrated, this is a groundbreaking book. Weber’s visionary work provides new insight into human/nature interconnectedness and the dire consequences we face by remaining disconnected.” —Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods

Time And Beauty: Why Time Flies And Beauty Never Dies

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Author :
Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 9811245487
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (112 download)

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Book Synopsis Time And Beauty: Why Time Flies And Beauty Never Dies by : Adrian Bejan

Download or read book Time And Beauty: Why Time Flies And Beauty Never Dies written by Adrian Bejan and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Time and beauty are two of our most visceral perceptions. Yet, their nature is seldom questioned. In this ground-breaking new work, Adrian Bejan — a true 'original' among physicists — explains, in a scholarly yet colorful style, the scientific basis for the perception of time and beauty.Organized into three main ideas, the book begins first with the perception of time. The author expounds on why we feel that time flies faster as we get older. Perceived time, also called 'mind time,' is different from clock time. In this context, time is another word for 'perceived change'. Next, readers will discover that beauty is appealing because beautifully-shaped images are scanned faster by two eyes. To observe our immediate surroundings and to understand them faster is highly advantageous to survival; hence, there is an underlying evolutionary advantage to our discernment for ideal ratios, shapes, and beauty at large. Finally, time and beauty are jointly understood to explain why the global pandemic had decelerated our mind time. This understanding arms us with techniques to slow down our mind time (which accelerates with age), and to create the conditions for living longer and more creatively.Scientists may have contemplated aspects of time and beauty separately. In contrast, the author submits an original and rewarding approach to understanding them together. In the process, key questions to our cognition are answered. Why does the mind 'try' to make sense of a new mental image? Why is there a natural tendency to organize a new input and mentally position it among past perceptions? Through physics, the book offers a general answer: to empower the individual with speed and clarity of thought, understanding, decision-making and movement. The same answer holds for the other disparate perceptions illustrated in this book, from time and beauty to ideas, message, shape, perspective, art, science, illusions, and dreams.

Here She Is

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Author :
Publisher : Beacon Press
ISBN 13 : 080708364X
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Here She Is by : Hilary Levey Friedman

Download or read book Here She Is written by Hilary Levey Friedman and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh exploration of American feminist history told through the lens of the beauty pageant world. Many predicted that pageants would disappear by the 21st century. Yet they are thriving. America’s most enduring contest, Miss America, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2020. Why do they persist? In Here She Is, Hilary Levey Friedman reveals the surprising ways pageants have been an empowering feminist tradition. She traces the role of pageants in many of the feminist movement’s signature achievements, including bringing women into the public sphere, helping them become leaders in business and politics, providing increased educational opportunities, and giving them a voice in the age of #MeToo. Using her unique perspective as a NOW state president, daughter to Miss America 1970, sometimes pageant judge, and scholar, Friedman explores how pageants became so deeply embedded in American life from their origins as a P.T. Barnum spectacle at the birth of the suffrage movement, through Miss Universe’s bathing beauties to the talent- and achievement-based competitions of today. She looks at how pageantry has morphed into culture everywhere from The Bachelor and RuPaul’s Drag Race to cheer and specialized contests like those for children, Indigenous women, and contestants with disabilities. Friedman also acknowledges the damaging and unrealistic expectations pageants place on women in society and discusses the controversies, including Miss America’s ableist and racist history, Trump’s ownership of the Miss Universe Organization, and the death of child pageant-winner JonBenét Ramsey. Presenting a more complex narrative than what’s been previously portrayed, Here She Is shows that as American women continue to evolve, so too will beauty pageants.

Inventing Beauty

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Author :
Publisher : Broadway
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis Inventing Beauty by : Teresa Riordan

Download or read book Inventing Beauty written by Teresa Riordan and published by Broadway. This book was released on 2004 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines some of the early inventions and innovations used by women in their quest for beauty including bustles and brassieres, makeup to enhance the eyes and lips, treatments for the body and hair, and ways to flatter the hips and derriere.

Beauty and Unity in Creation

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781880971277
Total Pages : 139 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (712 download)

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Book Synopsis Beauty and Unity in Creation by : Gayle E. Woloschak

Download or read book Beauty and Unity in Creation written by Gayle E. Woloschak and published by . This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With insight into science and scientific approaches, Beauty and Unity in Creation brings the beauty of nature in focus, putting an Orthodox perspective on scientific exploration. While exploring the subject of evolution from an Orthodox perspective, this book actually locates the place of man in the universe and defines man's relationship with the rest of the living world.

Made Up

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1538138050
Total Pages : 301 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis Made Up by : Martha Laham

Download or read book Made Up written by Martha Laham and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-10-10 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Made Up exposes the multibillion-dollar beauty industry that promotes unrealistic beauty standards through a market basket of advertising tricks, techniques, and technologies. Cosmetics magnate Charles Revson, a founder of Revlon, was quoted as saying, "In the factory, we make cosmetics. In the store, we sell hope." This pioneering entrepreneur, who built an empire on the foundation of nail polish, captured the unvarnished truth about the beauty business in a single metaphor: hope in a jar. Made Up: How the Beauty Industry Manipulates Consumers, Preys on Women’s Insecurities, and Promotes Unattainable Beauty Standards is a thorough examination of innovative, and often controversial, advertising practices used by beauty companies to persuade consumers, mainly women, to buy discretionary goods like cosmetics and scents. These approaches are clearly working: the average American woman will spend around $300,000 on facial products alone during her lifetime. This revealing book traces the evolution of the global beauty industry, discovers what makes beauty consumers tick, explores the persistence and pervasiveness of the feminine beauty ideal, and investigates the myth-making power of beauty advertising. It also examines stereotypical portrayals of women in beauty ads, looks at celebrity beauty endorsements, and dissects the “looks industry.” Made Upuncovers the reality behind an Elysian world of fantasy and romance created by beauty brands that won’t tell women the truth about beauty.

Evolution

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Author :
Publisher : Del Rey
ISBN 13 : 0345457846
Total Pages : 635 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (454 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolution by : Stephen Baxter

Download or read book Evolution written by Stephen Baxter and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Magisterial and uplifting . . . A brilliant, grandscale sampling of sixty-five million years of human evolution . . . It shows the sweep and grandeur of life in its unrelenting course.” —The Denver Post Stretching from the distant past into the remote future, from primordial Earth to the stars, Evolution is a soaring symphony of struggle, extinction, and survival; a dazzling epic that combines a dozen scientific disciplines and a cast of unforgettable characters to convey the grand drama of evolution in all its awesome majesty and rigorous beauty. Sixty-five million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, there lived a small mammal, a proto-primate of the species Purgatorius. From this humble beginning, Baxter traces the human lineage forward through time. The adventure that unfolds is a gripping odyssey governed by chance and competition, a perilous journey to an uncertain destination along a route beset by sudden and catastrophic upheavals. It is a route that ends, for most species, in stagnation or extinction. Why should humanity escape this fate? Praise for Evolution “Spectacular.”—The New York Times Book Review “Strong imagination, a capacity for awe, and the ability to think rigorously about vast and final things abound in the work of Stephen Baxter. . . . [Evolution] leaves the reader with a haunting portrayal of the distant future.”—Times Literary Supplement “A breath of fresh air . . . The miracle of Evolution is that it makes the triumph of life, which is its story, sound like the real story.”—The Washington Post Book World