THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IDEAL OF BEAUTY: ART, PHILOSOPHY, AND MEDICINE THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Abstract

This article discusses body beauty as a historical, cultural, and symbolic construction rather than a natural or universal attribute. Its objective was to analyze the evolution of beauty ideals throughout history, from symbolic and functional conceptions in ancient societies to the contemporary medicalization of the body. It is a theoretical-critical essay of a historical-philosophical nature, based on the interpretative analysis of works in philosophy, history, the arts, and scientific literature. The text demonstrates that different historical contexts have produced specific aesthetic standards, associated with relations of power, morality, and social normatization. It highlights the growing role of medicine, particularly from the nineteenth century onward, when the body began to be classified, measured, and corrected according to scientific parameters. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the influence of media, digital technologies, and aesthetic medicine consolidated the body as a performative project and symbolic capital, intensifying processes of medicalization and psychological suffering. From a bioethical perspective, the article problematizes the boundaries between care, enhancement, and aesthetic standardization, advocating for a critical and humanized medical practice committed to bodily diversity and human dignity.