How or why the association to handsome and beautiful became gender specific?

Question

For my theatre/English class for an online class for college I had to read plays and literature from Ancient Greece and Rome and other periods. What I noticed was that beautiful and handsome was used interchangeably between the sexes. There was a part where a woman's features were handsome and beautiful for man. But these were compliments, therefore, it seems that both meant good looking and weren't specific in the type of good looks. So it made me wonder what caused these terms to be associated as we do in modern times. For example, we associate beautiful with soft delicate, pretty, elegant features, therefore, this can be used for men, but mostly it's associated with women, since these adjectives sound feminine. And handsome is associated with good looks with symmetry, but stunning and attractive in a bolder way, or sublime beauty I guess. Since men have more prominent features, this term associates best with men and masculinity.

So what I wonder and ask is what era did this really start to come about with such associations, thus the terms beginning to become more gender specific? And is there a historical reason to why the perception came about and became ingrained to think or imagine things in such specific descriptions as opposed to just good looking whether it is soft, hard, graceful, prominent, etc? I’m just curious to how this came about or if there is a reason behind this relative to events during a certain time period that just carried over from there, thus becoming how we associate the terms in modern times. Just wondering if anyone knew and if not what your theories to this are or throw in thoughts or ideas to this at least.

Answer 1

I think up until woman wanted to be equal to men, they were percieved as beautiful and delicate etc... because they were homemakers who took care of the children and their man and the home which were delicate matters and the men worked and made the money and were considered strong and dominate or not as sensitive because they were more of the workers, providers and the woman were the caregivers...But once woman wanted equal rights it all went to hell and woman were or are now considered strong and dominate and theres no difference anymore....

Answer 2

men can be called beautiful too, no homo!
but i dont know why women arent called handsome.