Even the media can sometimes be surprisingly self aware of its role in the changing ideal of female beauty. In the Book of Beauty, published by Vogue Magazine in 1933, there is this telling little poem:

Beauty, in the old days,
Used to float into the world like
Botticelli's Venus on a shell,
Natural, breathtaking, divine.

Beauty, today, is made from

Baser metals by an astonishing
Alchemy really of our time.

The media, of course, has always been about advertising - about selling those alchemical potions and lotions supposed to create beauty. True natural beauty stands little chance against the combined forces of celebrity and advertising.

In a strange way, women have the chameleon ability to project themselves in the latest ideal of beauty. Back in the 30s and 40s, the wide publicity accorded the bust of Nefertiti created an ideal of beauty that cosmeticians and stylists worked feverishly to help their clients emulate. Movie stars were photographed in strong contrasting light and shadow, their profiles sharp and clear cut, their eyebrows arched, their foreheads wide and noble.

If Nefertiti and her clean cut profile were the ideal then, what is the ideal now? They stare at us from every magazine page and advertisement, always in the business of selling us a product - movie stars have joined a concerted rush to peddle their own perfumes, as if a spray from a bottle can magically endow us with their perfections.

Our only perception of beauty today is that it can be bought - that cosmetic companies, surgeons and innovations have found alchemical formulas that can make any of us beautiful. The current ideal of the very thin woman with very big breasts is largely an invention of cosmetic surgeons, who don't give a fig for symmetry and natural beauty as long as they can afford big houses, cars and an annual makeover for their (increasingly younger) wives.

The people paraded before us as `beautiful' wouldn't pass muster in the time alluded to by Vogue - when beauty floated into the world like Botticelli's Venus on a shell. Strip away their make up, makeovers, surgery and clothes and they are quite ordinary. In fact, the media regularly reminds us of the fact by showing photos of these women sans their expensive styling.

The idea is not actually to create an impossible ideal of beauty. It's a very possible ideal for anyone, if they have enough money to indulge in the kind of self pampering and self absorption required. You too can be a

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