The truth about beauty marks

Whether your beauty mark is also a birthmark or not, romanticist William Shakespeare would’ve so been into it. 

Shakespearean expert and literary historian Stephen Greenblatt lectured students at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma on “Shakespearean Beauty Marks.” While much of the world in Shakespeare’s time was focused on “spotless beauty,” the poet and playwright found imperfection to be rather stunning. Much of Shakespeare’s work features “figures who are, in the perception of age, ‘stained,’ and yet whose stain is part of their irresistible, disturbing appeal,” according to Greenblatt. Innogen from the play “Cymbeline” proves this to be true as she just so happened to have a facial mole, or, beauty mark.

“Her mole is not part of any formal perfection, but it is also not an ornament,” Greenblatt explained. “It is a mark of all that Shakespeare found indelibly beautiful in singularity and all that we identify as indelibly singular and beautiful in his work,” the historian further added. That’s right ladies, moles are beautiful.