Instarrian Beauty

Instarrians believe you can indeed measure beauty, and on a 50-point scale.

Beauty is distinct from clothing and makeup. Such things can enhance beauty, but not remove or excuse faults.

Beauty standards

The ideal of beauty developed as Offwhite City was built and is now codified; it's probably even printed in a book somewhere, although most people wouldn't go that far. You are just meant to know these things.

Beauty standards are unchanging and known by everyone. They are seen as natural law, unchanging and not societally imposed.

Beauty standards specify the general proportions that are most desirable for various heights and body types, and include many traits that are listed as faults. There is such thing as a flawlessly beautiful person -- indeed many, depending on height and body type.

There is still scope for changing fashions in among all this. For example, hair colour is not specified except that striation is a serious fault.

Beauty standards for couples

Couples have to match in a lot of ways. It's no use being stunningly beautiful and having a stunningly beautiful wife if she's a foot shorter than you. There is a particularly desirable height ratio for couples (the woman taller by a small amount, that amount increasing with their respective heights).

If you think all this removes a lot of the romance, you're right. You could follow a checklist to find a husband society would consider perfect, and indeed many women do use exactly that. You can buy them from any bookshop. Lots of different versions of them. (Guides marketed at the more romantic, peer-group-driven, less proactive male population don't sell as well.)

Children

Because the population of Offwhite City is carefully managed by the authorities, if you're pretty, you're licensed to have more children.

Ageing

It is usual for women to hide signs of ageing, whereas it is respectable for men to show their age (but never to be untidy or ungroomed).

Other

Beauty standards are not taken all that seriously out in the colonies, except by people who have newly moved there.