Looking around on the Internet, I see a number of differences in what is considered "beautiful" in different cultures. I the Chinese culture, for example, a woman is only considered beautiful if she is very VERY thin. Although this is not much different than out culture (girls wanting to be "model skinny"), it does contradict the Latina culture, which believes that the more curvaceous a woman is, the better. Another aspect that is found beautiful in the Chinese culture is white skin. In the summer, the women wear loads of sunscreen and use umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun. Although this is essentially a healthy habit, it differs greatly from that of American culture. Americans seem to admire the "bronze goddesses", freshly baked from the tanning bed. It's extremely interesting to see the large number of differences in the concept of beauty across cultures.
Though there are some differences, in the book it says that generally, across a variety of cultures, people prefer average looking faces. I'm not sure if being skinny and white skinned, and having large eyes is average in China, but in my personal experience, I have found this concept to be true. In discussion we were shown pictures of non-average faces and gradually a number of faces were averaged together. As more and more faces were averaged, I thought the person became more and more attractive. Do you agree? The different ways beauty is perceived in different cultures may affirm the possibility that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Or is it that our cultures have shown us what is considered beautiful rather than allowing us to decide for ourselves?
The question of whether we have control over who we find attractive or if the media shapes attractiveness has been bugging me for a very long time. If you look at several hundred years ago, in Western European culture a woman was attractive if she was pasty white and voluptuous. This was probably because these physical traits showed she didn't need to work on the field all day, and displayed her wealth. But in present day, the opposite is true - women who are "bronze goddesses", as you said in your post, are now deemed incredibly attractive. Personally, I find a bronze, fit girl more attractive than a larger, ghostly white girl, but would my preferences be different if I lived several hundred years ago? It's haunting to think that your sexual preferences may have been influenced significantly by the media, that you don't have as much control over what you deem attractive as you thought.