Quote · Fin vs History
Big Botticelli Gyal (with Paddy Young!) | The History of Beauty Standards (Part 1)
Where this was said
He's A Polymath
At 38:28 · chapter starts 34:36
This is the episode's centrepiece. Fin walks through Galton's 1850s tour of Southern Africa: stunned by the proportions of indigenous Namibian women, unable to speak the local language, Galton hid at a distance and used a naval sextant to measure their buttocks. He then walked to the spot and used geographic distance instruments to calculate the exact proportions — the hosts marvel that pornography has robbed us of this level of dedicated ingenuity. Back in Britain, Galton invented an early pin-clicker to rate women on the streets of various cities as 'attractive', 'neutral', or 'repellent'. He never published the full map, but his diaries note London topped the rankings and Aberdeen was the most repellent. Inspired, the hosts break out calipers for the episode's first phrenology segment. Paddy Young's skull is measured: small forehead relative to his overall head size, meaning animalistic drive without great intellectual capacity. The diagnosis is delivered with solemnity: Paddy is a himbo — enthusiastic, puppyish, energetic, but not a scholar.
Victorian women swallowed tapeworm eggs in pill form to stay thin. They also used belladonna eye drops for a dreamy, dilated look — with side effects including hallucinations, diarrhoea, dementia, and potentially death. Heroin chic had nothing on this era.
Victorian women used belladonna (nightshade) eye drops to create a dreamy, dilated look, with side effects including extreme dryness, blurred vision, constipation, high body temperature, confusion, and hallucinations.
In the 1850s, Francis Galton travelled to what is now Namibia and was stunned by the indigenous women's proportions. Unable to speak the language, he hid at a distance and used a naval sextant to measure their buttocks, then walked to the spot to calculate exact dimensions. He then came home and built an attractiveness map of Britain.
Francis Galton covertly used a naval sextant to measure the buttocks of indigenous Namibian women from a distance in the 1850s, then walked to the spot to calculate exact proportions using geographical instruments.
Francis Galton walked the streets of British cities with an early clicker device, rating women as 'attractive', 'neutral', or 'repellent'. He concluded London was most attractive and Aberdeen most repellent, though he never published the full map.
Galton invented an early clicker device to covertly rate women on the streets of British cities as 'attractive', 'neutral', or 'repellent'. He never published the full map, but noted London topped the rankings and Aberdeen was the most repellent city in Britain.
In the spirit of their idol Francis Galton, the hosts produce calipers and measure Paddy Young's skull live. The verdict: small forehead, large overall head — meaning Paddy has an animalistic, puppyish drive but limited scholarly intellect. A himbo, in clinical terms.
