A Bitter Taste Of Beauty

A Bitter Taste of Beauty is a new six-part series exploring the modern obsession with the body beautiful.

Our society has become obsessed with diet tips, weight loss, perfect skin, six packs and celebrity status. Never before has there been such an emphasis on attaining the perfect body and the flawless face. Why is beauty seen as the preserve of the young and who are the beautiful people? And why are men increasingly becoming victims of an obsession which was seen solely the preserve of women?

These are just some of the questions that presenter Richard Beirne attempts to answer in this series. Other episodes will feature beauty as an illusion, beauty in art, beauty as a goal and beauty in death.

During the course of the programme, Beirne talks to body builders, models, philosophers, psychologists, young men and women, ballet dancers and also to various cultures such as African, Muslim, Chinese and our own Traveller Community on what their ideas of beauty are. 

The conclusions are fascinating, the stories intriguing.

Listen to the series.

Audio links to all the shows in the series.