There is No Such Thing as a ‘Most Beautiful Person According To Science’
This claim is unwittingly part of an agenda to position Whiteness as the beauty standard
In early February 2020, various news outlets reported that the actor Robert Pattinson is the most beautiful man in the world ‘according to science/scientists’. This claim was brought forward by facial plastic surgeon, Dr. Julian De Silva, who used the “ Greek Golden Ratio of Beauty Phi” to crown Pattinson’s facial features most beautiful/handsome.
Dr. De Silva’s calculations have led to various White people being given the title of ‘most beautiful’ on more than one occasion: in 2016 Yahoo Style crowned Amber Heard the top in a list of 10 White women, with many other platforms echoing this list.
Both in 2016 and 2020, these lists were presented as ‘scientific’ findings. This has had the two-fold effect of positioning Whiteness as the beauty standard (although the 2020 list for men snuck in Idris Elba and Kanye West as numbers 8 and 9 respectively), and inadvertently casting all doubters as questioning science. I should know: despite being a Biochemist (with a PhD in Infection and Immunity), calling out these claims in 2017 landed me an accusation as a ‘lib who hates science’ in an article that further stated:
