Some field notes
Sarah and I have started the interview process. Interestingly, so far it seems that most of the answers we received are similar. There seems to be a “universal” opinion of beautiful features (such as long hair, brightly colored eyes, straight white teeth etc). An interesting note is also that our study focuses on physical beauty but some of our older participants discussed internal beauty and how a personality can affect one’s overall beauty. I am beginning to see a trend in the difference between how males and females answer our questions. I think the general opinion of beauty is the same but our males seem to stress body-types, while females mainly focus on the face. Also we have not yet detected a difference of opinion between people that live in the city and people who live in the suburbs. Most participants do not think that beauty has changed dramatically over the course of their lives, but rather their awareness has changed. [For example, maybe now they are more conscious of size, or height, or features than they were at a younger age.] The males seem to attribute this change to hormones or just maturity, and the women say that it is because of maturity.