Breed standards must evolve with beauty perceptions

America’s perception of the ideal beauty has changed from a white woman such as Christie Brinkley in 1991 to a mixed race or darker woman such as Angelina Jolie today. This according to CNN’s final installment of its beauty series, published on April 6, 2012. The report looks at an Allure magazine survey of 2,000 respondents in 2011 that showed multiracial women are becoming those considered the most beautiful.

Allure executive editor Kristin Perrotta said the new poll results were “wildly different” from the 1991 poll.

Some experts believe increased diversity in the population is driving the shift in people’s perception of beauty while others think the shift is being driven by the media trying to sell products to a more diverse market and, thus, showing more variety in faces. The market indeed is more diverse, with more individuals identifying as multiracial than ever, the magazine says.

A photo that ran with the CNN piece included a quote by a psychologist who says more exposure leads to more acceptance. Sybil Geldart, associate professor of psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, says facial attractiveness is guided by experiences and familiarity. “The more we can boost exposure, the more we can find attractive,” she says. “My own view is that visual exposure will allow us to change our perceptions.”

In other words, the walls of divisiveness are eroding as diversity becomes more prevalent and people adapt, as they should. Everyone is becoming more accepting and broad-minded, one might say more evolved.

So what does that say about horse and dog breeders who are trying so incredibly hard to maintain breeds as “pure,” who refuse to let in outside genes and who define what every inch of that animal should look like to be considered “the right type” or “beautiful?”

For example, America’s Connemara breed society provides a measurement in inches for a Connemara’s cannon bone and describes the shape for other body parts such as the jaw, ears and back. And it states that some length of back is normal (likely because many breed officials had horses with long backs), yet most good horsemen will tell you that a short back is a better bet for athleticism and longevity, and a lengthy back is not ideal.

I have in my possession some letters between Connemara owners and officials in the 1970s over banning horses that had spots. One breeder wanted her spotted horses to be allowed to be registered, and others were against it. Ultimately, the breeder lost out. Her horses were ruled unacceptable. When I found these papers in the 1990s, my jaw dropped. I could not believe anyone would actually keep out an animal because some of its hair had a different colored pigment. But, there you have it. The fall of the color barrier in the 1960s for people still has not happened for Connemaras.

It’s just unfathomable in the 2000s that breed officials across the spectrum throw out the genes of good animals because the animal doesn’t fit some old ideal that was arbitrary to begin with.

These officials are averse to change and diversity. They see only one beauty, and it’s beauty as they define it.

Nothing else can be beautiful or acceptable.

According to these officials, quality animals cannot be interracial. No mixing bad genes with their breed’s good genes.

It sounds an awful lot like a certain dictator who altered the landscape of the world with his small-minded, divisive perception of beauty and good genes in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

But, this is not the world we live in today.

Dogs and horses must be allowed to evolve with people. They must be allowed to be multiracial, multicolored, multieverything.

As for breed standards, if beauty standards are shifting and evolving, shouldn’t breed standards shift and evolve, too? If you use current standards to set your so-called beauty standards, then the standard will be dated almost immediately.

Dogs and horses can’t be required to follow the requirements that a few people outline on paper on a certain day, while the rest of the world crosses such imaginary boundaries and evolves. “Mixed breed” can no longer be a derogatory term. It must become a term that celebrates a coming together of the best genes of all breeds.

“Pure” genes and breed standards must go the way of the eugenics movement and take their place in history as a black mark on evolution.