Interesting article from Scientific American

[Guest aleon515]

Actually not really the article. I think it's a piece of the article. Anyway talks about facial perception. Apparently high contrast faces are seen as female and low contrast faces are seen as female. Someone might be able to use this info too.

http://www.ablueview.com/2009/10/why-women-wear-makeup-other-fascinating-facts-about-facial-perception.html

--Jay Jay

[Guest]

Hi Jay Jay,

I couldn't make the link work - perhaps one has to be a subscriber to see it.

I'm guessing that you say that softer (less contrast) features are feminine, while harsher (more contrast) features are male?

And those of us with soft-focus vision can even tell just by the contrasts. Sounds believable...

Love, Megan

[Guest Alder]

huh, very interesting. I didn't even really stop and think about complexion tint in relation to the hue of eyes and mouth.... Though, is it due to make-up that the contrast is perceived as fem or is it due to the contract that make-up was started.... -ponders-

[Guest angels wings]

Me too I can't get the link to work

[Guest Donna Jean]

.

Link doesn't load....I can't read it...

Dee Jay

[Guest Micha]

huh, very interesting. I didn't even really stop and think about complexion tint in relation to the hue of eyes and mouth.... Though, is it due to make-up that the contrast is perceived as fem or is it due to the contract that make-up was started.... -ponders-

Took the question straight outta my brain (so my mind is in Washington, no wonder I can't find it).

This is prolly true, and it makes sense of the whole make-up culture. . .but I'm feeling a bit mixed on this topic. I like what make-up can do to my face, but at the same time I'd like to think that people could love each other without having "being pretty" on their list of requirements. I'd also like everyone (myself included) to feel confident and comfortable enough to not depend on cosmetics or enhancers.

All in all though, I think this article is right, as far as social perceptions in general.

Link took a good couple of minutes to load for me, but eventually it did.

The Illusion of Sex, by Harvard psychologist Richard Russell, won Third Prize at the 2009 Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest. The two side-by-side faces are perceived as male (right) and female (left). However, both of them are versions of the same androgynous face. The two images are exactly identical, except that the contrast between the eyes and mouth and the rest of the face is higher for the face on the left than for the face on the right. This illusion shows that contrast is an important cue for determining the sex of a face, with low-contrast faces appearing male and high-contrast faces appearing female. And it may also explain why females in many cultures darken their eyes and mouths with make-up. A made-up face looks more feminine than a fresh[/indent]

[Guest aleon515]

Not sure why it is working for me (and some other people) and not others. I did buy an article from them once, but I don't know if that is true for everyone else. I don't need to login or anything. Sorry but I don't think there is anything wrong with the link. But I won't do a SA article again because it might be them.

--Jay Jay

[Guest Juniper Blue]

Can't get it to read either .. sigh ... but can the ideas be explained?? Maybe be we can still have the converstation without the actual link. It sounds very interesting.

[Guest aleon515]

Can't get it to read either .. sigh ... but can the ideas be explained?? Maybe be we can still have the converstation without the actual link. It sounds very interesting.

Ok, I can try. Basically they talk about how perception of tiny little things can make someone read as female or male. In this case, there are two faces. They look like a male and female but are actually the same androgynous face. However, one of them is highly contrasted and reads as female and the other is lower contrast and reads as male. (The male one also looks darker to me.) Anyway, they also talk about the use of make-up. Apparently anything that adds a lot of contrast to the face will make it look more "female', such as eye liner or lipstick.

Does this help anybody? You might be able to google it and get the image. I found the picture immediately when I googled (google images)

"androgynous face". It was the second image.

--Jay Jay

[Guest Micha]

I tried to share the images in the above quote, no go. Basically it was two pics, same face, one with make-up. Obviously people thought the one with make-up was female, but they thought the same face without was male. So it's basically about the dark eye/light cheeks contrast being equated to feminine, whereas all plain face is masculine.

Tha's what I got out of it anyways.