Similar to today's male vision of the perfect woman, the ideals in the Heian period varied depending on the man. However, that being said, there are still common characteristics shared by every man's "perfect woman". In The Tale of Genji, author Murasaki Shikibu devotes almost an entire chapter to a conversation between four men, including the famous Genji, about their ideal woman. Tō no Chūjō, a guard captain in the tale, describes that even a seemingly perfect woman could be a disappointment. That so-called promising woman would be able to “write with a fluent hand, give you a perfectly acceptable poem, and all in all do enough credit to the rank they must maintain” (p. 20). The disappointment would be that, even if she can meet all the socially expected norms of a good woman, she is often "too satisfied with her own achievements, looks down on others, and so on" (p. 20). Therefore, his physical abilities and attributes are attractive, but his personality is not, thus tainting his perfection. In the Heian period, it wasn't just a matter of appearance, in fact, it was more the woman's abilities and personality that determined whether she was ideal or not. He then explains that a girl loved and protected by her parents must be, in a certain sense, sold by her parents to other men boasting of their daughter's qualities. She often simply does what she is told and learns "a pastime she has seen others enjoy" (p. 20). In other words, she is not herself and is instead a mere copy of an acceptable woman. Overall, Tō no Chūjō stated that “when a girl is of noble birth, everyone pampers her and much about her remains hidden, so that she naturally seems like an example. Those of middle birth are those who... are of middle birth... who serve the husband as the Chief Squire prefers, or the bourgeois and easily understood woman like Tō no Chūjō, or the woman who was well educated, creative and wealthy as the majority preferred in the Heian period. On the other hand, the perfect Heian man who is gifted in various arts such as poetry, painting, playing musical instruments is not always considered the “ideal man” in this society. In fact, most artists in recent times , sadly, isn't very successful unless he really stands out from the crowd If Genji lived in the twenty-first century, it would be a miracle if he made it very far because he would no longer be considered ideal and would fade away among the crowds of today's society. Works Cited Murasaki, Shikibu and Royall Tyler. The Tale of Genji. New York: Penguin Group, 2001.