• queermunist she/her
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    1 year ago

    I need to point out that all those humans lived in hierarchical class societies that had powerful groups that could dictate beauty standards, so the fact that people thousands of years ago wore makeup and jewelry doesn’t prove that it’s somehow inescapably human.

    … What actually proves it is jewelry being found that is so old it predates civilization. Archaeologists found a shell bead necklace that is at least 150,000 years old. Humans like to feel pretty when they’re around other humans, even under primitive communism.

    • Magician [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      But I think jewelry or aesthetics in general are different than say a society where kids are forced to undo dreads or cornrows because a different group of people thinks it’s bad or unhygienic.

      • queermunist she/her
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        1 year ago

        Beauty standards in class society are dictated by the ruling class, and because the ruling class is racist it sets anti-Black standards.

        I don’t think the concept of standards, themselves, are exclusive to class society. In primitive communism the beauty standards were set by nature, so sea shells would be fashionable by the sea shore while wooden beads would be fashionable by the forest.

        Would someone who moved from the sea to the forest keep their shells, or cast them off for beads? Or wear both? Dunno.

        This is all to say that, under communism, people will probably still work to maintain an aesthetic for people around them. It’ll just be set to a very broad communal standard rather than set by the narrow opinions of the ruling class.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Red ochre, too. If you’ve got humans, and there’s red ochre in the area, pretty good odds you’re going to find dead humans and red ochre in the same place.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Red ochre, too. If you’ve got humans, and there’s red ochre in the area, pretty good odds you’re going to find dead humans and red ochre in the same place.