In addition we have (4) the factor of individual
taste, constituted by the special organization and the peculiar
experiences of the individual and inevitably affecting his ideal of
beauty. Often this individual factor is merged into collective shapes,
and in this way are constituted passing fashions in the matter of beauty,
certain influences which normally affect only the individual having become
potent enough to affect many individuals. Finally, in states of high
civilization and in individuals of that restless and nervous temperament
which is common in civilization, we have (5) a tendency to the appearance
of an exotic element in the ideal of beauty, and in place of admiring that
kind of beauty which most closely approximates to the type of their own
race men begin to be agreeably affected by types which more or less
deviate from that with which they are most familiar.
While we have these various and to some extent conflicting elements in a
man's ideal of feminine beauty, the question is still further complicated
by the fact that sexual selection in the human species is not merely the
choice of the woman by the man, but also the choice of the man by the
woman.
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