Welcome to the Eye of the Beholder project. Now, as we are all aware, there is far, far more to life than appearances. However, many people still fret over what looks good. There are also many occasions where you want to look your best anyway, for example at a party. What to wear, what makeup to use, how to avoid looking straight *... It can all get a bit confusing.

Books and magazines are of course no help, for two reasons. For one thing, they are written by professional beauticians, stylists, etc with absolutely no grasp of how actual human beings might dress, or what resources they have access to. Secondly, they are often written by people of the same sex as the target audience, which is illogical, since looking good is ultimately about making yourself pleasing to the eyes of the opposite sex *

That is the reason this project was started. What we do is get people to talk about what really makes the sex to which they are attracted actually look good, as opposed to what stylists and popular culture at large define to be attractive. So just join in the main thread with your own tips, or alternatively, start a new one.

The idea here is that submissions will be published regularly in the post. This project has not yet been put before the post team, as I want to get a fair bit of material first. For this reason, it is preferred that submissions be in column/article style, though we will accept anything, however long, provided it is reasonable and/or funny. You can write as much or as little as you like - either talk about the whole body in general terms, or go on at great length as to the ideal earring for the left ear at a formal dinner party with seven other guests and hosted by a woman named Jane. It's all good.

Preferably, when this thing starts being published, it will do male and female tips on alternate weeks. To start off, I would like to have a piece on general female beauty the first week, followed by a piece on general male beauty the next. So if you are a woman, please tell us what a man can do to look his best. Don't worry if you can't, as here, anything goes. There is also no problem with more than one person writing about the same thing - different points of view are, after all, what makes life worth living. *