The golden ratio?

Not content with exploiting biology, now publicists are coming after mathematics.

Euclid of Alexandria (mid 3th century BC) was the first to discuss a golden ratio: “a straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the lesser.”

Figure. Euclid of Alexandria, in “The School of Athens,” a painting by Raphael.

From that dry, boring mathematical definition to the one that the cosmetic industry chose to use: “the Golden Ratio is a blueprint to the ideal harmony of proportions. Represented by the Greek number Phi, it has been used in art, design, and architecture to create some of the most beautiful objects in history.”

Of course, nature has no golden ratio.  This silly ratio comes from the feverish imagination of a publicist pressed for “new” ideas about how to con women out of their hard-earned money. I am a woman, and I hate that.

Worst of all, a silly company has decided that they can change the shape of your face using a cosmetic. That would be magic, finding a bacterial extract that can change the shape of your face and “protect skin stem cells from psychological stress.”

Beware of fake science. And fake prophets. And fake everything.

Hannah