1. What is your definition of "beauty"? Has this changed over time?
Beauty can be many things.
It can be physical beauty. It's superficial, yes, but it's still beauty. Looking at Jennifer Garner, Michael Vartan, Matt Damon, Elijah Wood. Beauty....mmmmm.
It can be internal beauty. Something that is only noticed when you know the person, hear them speak, get a glimpse into their soul.
And yes, this has changed over time for me. I didn't think my husband was beautiful when I met him. Superficial me. Now, I see that his beauty is internal and external.
2. Who (famous or not famous) do you think is beautiful? Why?
See above. With famous folk, I don't know them well enough to know the internal beauty. But for external... ^__^
3. Is it possible to be both beautiful and ugly? How?
Yes. There are superficially beautiful people who may be ugly internally. And probably the reverse, but the superficial ugliness there is usually washed away by their internal beauty.
4. Why does society place so much emphasis on beauty? Will this ever change? Why or why not?
I don't see this changing in my lifetime, alas. An analogy would be why are diamonds so expensive? Because they look nice. They're sparkly. People value them for how they look.
But they aren't all that and a bag of chips. It's market, commodity. Just think back to the beauty of the 80's, the 70's. Times change what is beautiful, but the emphasis on what you see rather than what you are will never change.
5. How does beauty vary from culture to culture? Is there a particular culture's definition of beauty that you admire? Why?
I don't know a lot about other cultures standards of beauty, so I'm really not qualified to comment here.