Debutantes - Politics of Beauty

Just look at these luscious Viennese debutantes.  Every one of them is beautiful.  For that to happen is in itself a rare feat.  But imagine what the photographer had to go through.  The number of wealthy families who had eligible daughters was no doubt substantial in the city of Vienna, but there are only nine lovelies in this cabinet photo.  There must have been quite a few homely, fat or peculiar-looking young rich Austrian girls.  But such young ladies would have to be excluded from the photo session.  Maybe it was a secret shoot.  Of maybe the other families would not find out, at least before hand.  But once this photograph had circulated, and in a closed circle, like the elite of a 19th Century city, there would have been hell to pay.  Powerful parents would ask - 'Why was my daughter not in this picture.  Not pretty enough?'The photographer may have been to blame, but maybe the arrangement was made by another person with clout.  But, we get to experience the benefits of examining this collection of beauties, without the pain of local societal politics.