Content: Physical Attractiveness of Celebrities
by
B. Freely

The Question

Is there a difference in the way the British see beauty compared to the US? Do both cultures have the same standard for their celebrities, or do the two countries have completely different taste? Does one country have a need to look at pretty people both on the screen and on television?

Methods/Results

To determine if a famous person was attractive, entertainment tabloid magazines were looked at. They poll the readers about who they think is the sexiest celebrities alive. Characteristics could then be compared of the people on the list. One of the most famous US polls is People Magazine’s 50 Sexiest People Alive. A British survey of the same content was not available. There weren’t any British lists available to look at to see who were the popular celebrities in the movies, and the ones that appeared in the magazines. A comparison was made to see if there were any similarities in the styles and to see if there were the same actors in the most popular movies in Britain compared with the States. Another method used was to see who’s style has been followed over the years.

Due to the inability to locate a list that would give what the people of Britain found to be attractive there couldn’t be a comparison done. Since most of the movies that are released in Britain are from American distributors the popularity of the attractive celebrities would be the same as the States. In music the most popular woman has been Madonna, who is from the States. The top Sexiest men in Hollywood over the past few years have been Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Tom Cruise, and this year People magazine picked Richard Gear at the "Sexiest Man Alive". Four out of the five were American.

The British seem to have the same need to idealize beauty as much as the Americans do. They do have many of the same sex symbols as the Americans, but they don’t have the competitiveness that there is in the States. In both countries there is not an absolute image of beauty. There isn’t one person or style that has everyone in love with. It seems that there is a group of people that have been the sex symbols over the years. It is not a fad that passes with the change in style. Since there wasn’t a list of attractive people was found in Britain, it says that they don’t idealize their celebrities the same way as Americans.

Conclusions

In both countries artists like the Back Street boys and Brittney Spears are very popular, Television shows like Friends and Baywatch are shown in both countries, and are well known for the attractive people on it. The British people do care about how they look as much as the Americans do, but they don’t put their attractive people on as big of pedestals as the media in the Sates does. To say that the British are happier because they don’t strive to obtain the looks of Pamela Anderson as much as the Americans is incorrect. So far the information is inconclusive to show if there is any psychological effects on the two cultures. The lack of a British list demonstrates that they are less concerned with what society as a whole thinks about their favorite celebrity.