What one person calls beautiful, another may overlook—and that’s the magic of it all. The phrase “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, coined by Irish novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford in 1878, reminds us that beauty isn’t a fixed formula—it’s a personal feeling, shaped by culture, memory, and experience.
Let’s be real: no woman is ugly. Not in Lagos. Not in Tokyo. Not in New York. Not in Paris. Not in Delhi. Every woman carries her own kind of radiance, even if it doesn’t fit into someone else’s idea of what beauty should be.
How Beauty Has Changed Over Time
What we find beautiful today is not what was celebrated yesterday. And that’s good news.
In ancient Egypt, women painted their eyes with kohl, wore elaborate wigs, and prized full hips and rich skin as signs of health and prosperity. A woman with curves was a queen—literally.
Fast-forward to Renaissance Italy, where artists like Peter Paul Rubens painted full-bodied women with soft stomachs, wide hips, and heavy breasts. These weren’t just models—they were considered the ideal of feminine beauty.
In 19th-century China, small feet were prized, so much so that foot binding was common. Painful? Yes. But it was seen as elegant. Meanwhile, in Victorian England, women pinched their cheeks, bit their lips, and wore…
