Beauty: A combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.
When I originally began my web search, I googled the word beauty and my thought process was stopped in it’s tracks. “Beauty, a noun.” A noun…a ‘person, place, or thing. “How is beauty a solid thing?” I thought. As an American, I am very aware of what my culture views as ‘beauty,’ I (along with every American) am surrounded by pressure to conform to this standard every day. Having role models and people in our lives who dress and create a certain image for themselves teaches each generation what the ideal is. Fashion, along with wealthy and powerful people/industries mostly begin trends in modern day USA. Cultures outside of America have fashion and beauty ideals nonetheless; the qualities and standards, however, range from similar to extremely different from our ideas of beauty. After going through these images I realized that beauty is not as skin-deep as I viewed it to be originally. There is definitely a psychological aspect to our kind of beauty with connects to our self image and in some situations self worth. How can beauty standards be so drastically different in different cultures, yet vital to live by in order to be accepted into the society that you live in? Why is beauty of SO MUCH importance in America when there is no religious, spiritual, or moral underlying value to it? I found different fashion statements in multiple countries which helped me answer these questions:
Some Indigenous tribes of Africa (Southern Ethiopia, for example) Sudan, and countries in South America are in modern day taking part in what is called Lip Plating.
This sacred ritual has a few possible origins but the true beginning of this custom is unknown (to the internet world, anyways.) Some theories is that this custom made women and younger girls unattractive to their slave masters to prevent sexual advantages or violence. Another theory is the larger the lip plate the higher social class the women belongs to. This makes me wonder if there has been any issue with infection with this practice... but nonetheless this ritual is still practiced today.
Over-feeding in Mauritania is a custom to create the ideal woman
I imagine this is playing an extreme role in the health of women in Mauritania. Young girls are sent to a sort of 'summer camp' in which they are forced to eat insane amounts of food, way exceeding their healthy daily amount of fat, calories, etc. Although this custom seems to slowly be going out of style, the idea of "big is beautiful" has been the 'fashion' of this country for a very long time. Think about this the next time you are on a low-carb, low-cal, sugar free diet. Even though you're not binge eating... aren't you also harming your body in the name of beauty?
In Iran, the 'nose job capital', the increase in popularity has started a dangerous new threat of unlicensed surgeons.
Rhinoplasty surgery has become so much of a trend that women wear the white bandage (post-surgery bandage) on their noses even if they haven't had the surgery. The supply and demand for this surgery has become so huge that unlicensed surgeons are practicing on women with the appeal of a cheaper expense. Surgery of any kind must be performed through a professional to maintain a low risk factor. Is the possible danger this fashion trend has created in Iran worth the risk...? For women of lower class, the appeal of a cheap surgery that will make them 'beautiful' is probably very tempting.
American fashion is just as weird to other cultures as these above trends are to Americans.
Although the cast of Jersey Shore is NOT how all Americans look day-to-day, they do carry the traits we Americans find 'beautiful.' Tanned skin, for example, Koreans find extremely strangle. Korean culture is completely obsessed with pale white skin; the idea that we would want a tan is very foreign to them. The ideal body weight in American is also veery different than other cultures (Venezuela or Columbia, for example, idolize a much heavier body weight. China's ideal on the other hand is dangerously less than America's ideal weight).
Moral of the story:
Fashion is across the board extremely important in all cultures. Beauty is a noun; a thing present in every single society. Different physical trends will always be seen and ever-changing in our world, but it is important to remember that although being skinny, tan, and big lips are important to you and everyone around you... it is not make or break the person you are. Fashion is made up, ever-changing trends created by rich corporation that what to sell you a certain product or a rich celebrity who the rest of society wants to imitate to achieve 'beauty' which they have mastered. 'Beauty', in this case, can be whatever you wish it to be. If you lived in a different country your view of beauty would be different. This shows how loose the exact definition of 'beauty' really is.
With this in mind, fashion and beauty should not be taken so seriously. Twenty years from now, our kids are going to be embarrassed of how we dressed anyways. But, the importance of beauty will always be here. It will just look different. I hope that the next time you go shopping and you try on clothes that the model is wearing and you get down on yourself because it doesn't look right on you, you think about this article. The fashion industry can be fun, but right when you start comparing to bodies to your body and start to feel inadequate is when it becomes dangerous.
Beauty is a thing that YOU can define, the fashion industry does not define YOU.
