Page:Personal Beauty and Racial Betterment.djvu/25

 Rh sort of negative condition is found in the negroid characters. Here, where the suggestion or indication is of an inferior race, the negative condition is especially important.

2. Signs of disease, deformity or weakness. Any indication, not merely of physical weakness, but even in some instances of mental or moral weakness or disease is of decided negative effect. One who looks like an imbecile or like a criminal is never beautiful; one who seems to have, or suggests, a deadly disease, is to that extent lacking in beauty. To a certain degree, these mental and moral standards are relative to the grade of the observer. A weak-minded person has not the objection to the weak-minded person of his own grade that the more normal person has, but I suspect that the person of low mental grade has a certain preference for the normal person. As regards disease and deformity, there is no question. A hunchbacked or an anemic man regards his characteristic as a decided bar to beauty.

3. Significant deviation from the average is a negative characteristic, even if the deviation cannot be classed as a “deformity.” Dwarfs and giants, exceedingly thin and unusually broad individuals; those whose legs are too long for their bodies, or vice versa; those whose ears are misplaced, or whose hair is of an unearthly shade, are ruled out by their oddity, regardless of what these