Culture, Darwinism and Sexuality: in Three Instalments.

The Afterbirth: Culture

Culture. It’s a living, growing, speeding organism. Like genetic material it evolves, it’s passed down generations and it is something stable in terms of concept. Our perceptions change, with knowledge comes paradigm shifts. for instance, our perception of beauty has evolved. From the voluptuous women of Peter Paul Rubens in the 1600’s to the slender, large breasted women in FHM today. Beauty and the way we view the body has certainly changed dramatically. “Beauty’s” popularity depends on the perceptions that are formulated at any given period in time. It is reliant on the predilection of the majority. There are those who favour the slender, those who prefer a larger build and those who seek non-mainstream beauty such as individuals with piercings or tattoos.




We adorn ourselves, paint ourselves, and even modify ourselves to either conform to the modern standard of beauty or to oppose it. The body, like art, is a means of conveying an idea. We do this in an attempt to inform strangers that we are who we are. Our minds are not what shape others’ views of us but our bodies. They cannot see our minds, only the shell that holds them. We portray our minds through our bodies to establish an identity. It is a dismal fact that there might be a beautiful mind that is never discovered or explored because it is hidden behind a too plain exterior. This is what is meant by the term “cultural trappings”.