Why *beauty* is in the eye of the beholder?

Last year, Esquire magazine picked Scarlett Johansson as their "sexiest woman alive". What criteria they may have used? I don't really know.

Last year, as well,  a study released in the journal psychological science shows that what we think attractive, beautiful or hot is what requires the least amount of effort. It's easy. The report says something about familiarity, similarity, prototypes and how each one of our brain functions and blah blah blah....

The boring stuff.

At one point during my college year, a professor teaching philosophy class asks, "what is beauty?"

Yeah....folks, what really is beauty?

Is there any criteria to judge what beauty is? How can you tell someone is more beautiful than another? Do you have any evidence to support your answer?

That's why during beauty pageant time; my brain doesn't seem to register the result well, especially Miss Universe one. How can one make a winner out off, say, Miss Jamaica and Miss Canada. Says who that Miss Japan is prettier than Miss Boswana? Who can play the judge?

Is it possible that cultural images influence our perception of attractiveness?