Red cheeks ("like an apple") are considered the sign of a healthy baby, at least in Hungary and North China. Mother surely love to show off their cute babies to their friends.
Yes, and red cheeks are also associated with female beauty. Blushing itself may serve the purpose of altering the onlooker's psychological state in a difficult situation:
"the blush occurs in particular kinds of social situations, typically those that induce anxiety or shyness or where they could be the centre of attention. The blush is not described in terms of its unattractiveness but in terms of what it tells others about the blusher and the impression that it will give to other people. Its uncontrollability is a factor in its unpleasantness, it can catch the person unawares, cannot be guarded against. Yet there are few explicit references in
these contemporary accounts to blushing with modesty. This was listed as a cause of blushing by Darwin in his well-known chapter on the blush and is a principal reason to blush in accounts of modesty in nineteenth-century fiction (Yeazell, 1991): “The modest woman can be recognized by her downcast eyes, her head turned aside, and above all by the blush that suffuses her cheek – an “innocent paint” more attractive than any rouge, and mysterious proof that she has neither done nor thought anything for which she genuinely need blush” (p. 49). This links the transient reddening of the blush with the virtue associated with the rosy complexion."
Yes, but I was referring to the reddish cheeks of babies, so appreciated by European
mothers. Propaganda pictures of smiling 'Socialist" children in China show them with red cheeks. Apparently, the Chinese too perceive it as a sign of health.
Red cheeks ("like an apple") are considered the sign of a healthy baby, at least in Hungary and North China. Mother surely love to show off their cute babies to their friends.
Yes, and red cheeks are also associated with female beauty. Blushing itself may serve the purpose of altering the onlooker's psychological state in a difficult situation:
"the blush occurs in particular kinds of social situations, typically those that induce anxiety or shyness or where they could be the centre of attention. The blush is not described in terms of its unattractiveness but in terms of what it tells others about the blusher and the impression that it will give to other people. Its uncontrollability is a factor in its unpleasantness, it can catch the person unawares, cannot be guarded against. Yet there are few explicit references in
these contemporary accounts to blushing with modesty. This was listed as a cause of blushing by Darwin in his well-known chapter on the blush and is a principal reason to blush in accounts of modesty in nineteenth-century fiction (Yeazell, 1991): “The modest woman can be recognized by her downcast eyes, her head turned aside, and above all by the blush that suffuses her cheek – an “innocent paint” more attractive than any rouge, and mysterious proof that she has neither done nor thought anything for which she genuinely need blush” (p. 49). This links the transient reddening of the blush with the virtue associated with the rosy complexion."
https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/66867390/Perceptions_of_facial_blushing_Attractiv20210504-27511-1xho1yc.pdf?1620113489=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DPerceptions_of_facial_blushing_Attractiv.pdf&Expires=1721938626&Signature=UaTxwaSLVzHPBXDaiKw5A0cXUhLiLAFA61ebPCUwr2fyCXqmgpJzKgS0tsYiWK8cAChv~BsDu5yk1e92Up~x~31qLgTB8LTAxSRlIi3gJir8nctIMPxa8aMATjLeZs~r6fMuVNQGPwmaCYBdZu5muDh-ERz-BEj5OXR-yj~FPxPa7vH6xP46HUmB-WD~FNjVfetTcjeDny0BGe2n6yDEF54UUP88Zxx6Nzfx4rADIwXbo5jrUE5Q~kwzioGWrCrSIwEHNjOGjQ0gJFnV4-uHJAefg5y6wFLZVT8jDd-4lxRq474LW48K9r8YqziERn8nPa~B3IF2MPO-hLoS21ZwNQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
Yes, but I was referring to the reddish cheeks of babies, so appreciated by European
mothers. Propaganda pictures of smiling 'Socialist" children in China show them with red cheeks. Apparently, the Chinese too perceive it as a sign of health.