Question

What standards help people to identify what is good, desirable, and beautiful?

Answer 1

The answer is Customs 

Answer 2

Culture and media do succeed at deciding what is or ought to be visually desirable, regardless of our own intuitive draw or what we really want or find attractive. Photoshop is magic. Magic appears real. We want it and will try almost anything to have the ideal. We will seek to buy it or diet in the hopes of having it. The only problem is that there is never an end point because the ideal is unattainable.  

So our media driven culture not only controls who is attractive, but also allows for insults to be hurled against anyone who it deems unattractive.