What is beauty? A cross-cultural comparison of children's ideas of feminine beauty and implications for art education

How children perceive and express their understanding of the world through drawings is of interest to art educators because it provides a basis for the practice of art pedagogy. To better understand effects and influences of culture and media in children's development in art and children's conceptions of feminine beauty, this study examines children's drawings of female human beauty and their verbally expressed ideas of feminine beauty in two culturally different but comparatively geographically isolated settings: Pandongkou (Hunan, China) and Orleans (Indiana, USA).;A mixed methodological approach was employed in this inquiry. One hundred first and third grade students (total) from one or two rural elementary schools in each of the sites were asked to draw a picture of what they consider to be a beautiful woman. Dennis' (1966) method of measuring differences in the graphic representations of human figure drawings and images was used to measure and analyze children's human figure drawings with respect to the pictorial drawing elements (i.e. shape of eyes, nose, mouth, hair style, body shape, distribution of decorative elements, size scaling of figure, and area of facial features). Also, field observation and in-depth interviews with children in both sites were conducted. These interview responses were analyzed using processes of content analysis described by Strauss and Corbin (1990) as a means of triangulating research results with the ones from quantitative treatment.;Results from the data analysis confirmed the artistic activities of children are affected by universal domains, but are even more strongly influenced by cultural domains. Children developed distinct imagery of elements and categories that represent feminine beauty based on their interaction with cultural values, observation, and imagination. Media was found to play a lesser role than culture, although media might influence children's drawings if ideas media present are not significantly different from those valued and appreciated by members of their local community. The more exposed and susceptible to cultural change a local community is, the more likely media is to affect change upon the ideas of the children in that community.