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cultural beauty standards and mental health

3/8/2020

11 Comments

 
PicturePhoto by Gemma Chua-Tran on Unsplash

Growing up, the beauty “ideals” in my community were girls who were skinny, had clear skin or light skin tone. Girls who are of a darker skin toned and chubby were always considered ugly. I got to see this ideal further when I went to Vietnam in 2018. When I was there, my aunts would tell me that they would be happy to take me to put “powder” to make my skin “whiter” because it will make me prettier. They would also comment about my weight because I didn’t look like the girls there. They would say this to me a couple times making me feel self conscious about myself because skin color or weight shouldn’t determine how beautiful someone is.

Although I was born in the U.S, I grew up hearing about beauty standards of Southeast Asia. In Western culture, it is a common belief that “thinness is beauty” (Mills, Shannon, Hogue, 2017, p 146). Western culture depicts what the “perfect” body weight and shape on a women should like in the media. Women believe in these messages impacting what they think about themselves causing them to put themselves down. In Asia, dark skin is associated with working in the fields or poverty while pale skin is associated with living a life in doors away from the sun (Salvá, 2019). People with dark skin are viewed as ugly and are often made fun of. Like Western ideals of body image, in Asia, “the preference for white skin is reinforced via the media” and can be seen as skin whitening creams are available in pharmacies (Salvá, 2019).

The beauty standards for men and women are different. It's as if men can get away with more things such as appearance and personal hygiene whereas women are nitpicked for ever little thing. Women are often judged for their looks, weight, style, and many other factors. It seems that no matter what women do, they aren't good enough. Beauty standards are detrimental to mental health as it can cause people to develop eating disorders, anxiety, or depression as a result to be accepted. Lack of representation in social media of all beauty and body types influences how people see themselves. There needs to be more representation in the media of women of different body types to show girls and women around the world that there is not just one image of what a woman should look like. More representation can help women feel empowered and believe that they are perfect the way they are. ​
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​By: Selena  
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References:
Mills, J., Shannon, A., Hogue, J. (2017). Beauty, Body Image, and the Media. Perception of Beauty. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.68944

Salvá, A. (2019, December 2). Where Does the Asian Obsession With White Skin Come From? Retrieved from https://thediplomat.com/2019/12/where-does-the-asian-obsession-with-white-skin-come-from/



11 Comments
Stephanie Cruz
3/8/2020 05:20:55 pm

Hi Selena,

Great post, I agree with what you said on how women get more comments on appearance and tend to be judged more but i've noticed for men they just get judged on other things that are different then what women get judged for. I agree that beauty standards need to be changed and how hard it is to create change in this topic due to social media influencers but i remind myself everyday that we are the future and we are the people who can make a difference

Reply
Erica Nguyen
3/8/2020 07:16:56 pm

I definitely agree that beauty standards for men and women are different as well. However, I think women are held to a much higher standard - you have to have clear skin, a toned body, big boobs, big butt, etc. When you talked about how beauty standards were different between men and women, I was reminded of the makeup community. I've read articles where women didn't wear makeup to work and I believe Buzzfeed did a short video where all of the women staff didn't wear makeup to work and all the men were either incredibly shocked or were indifferent. It's crazy how much appearance is valued in women.

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Kathy Luangrath
3/9/2020 10:31:08 am

Hi Selena, I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I too, grew up hearing beauty standards of Southeast Asia. The popularity of milky, light skin is very alarming, in my opinion. When I visited Laos, I found that there were so many whitening/lightening products available. I find it very saddening how so many girls and women bleach their skin in order to fit in with the norm. As you mentioned, the lack of representation in media has only fueled the divide between beauty standards among men and women. The expectation held for women is appalling and quite disturbing. Though, I find that our society is becoming more and more accepting of different body types and characteristics!

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Raiye Abunie
3/9/2020 10:54:55 am

Hello Selena,

Great post! I first wanted to emphasize on a point which you made in your blog, "the beauty standards for men and women are different. It's as if men can get away with more things such as appearance and personal hygiene whereas women are nitpicked for ever little thing." Why I wanted to focus on this part of your blog was that it's just amazing to me how society has put the women's expectations higher than men. Making sure to have the perfect image has been an ideology thrown around to where it can have some detrimental psychological impacts on a person, physical as well. Being able to accept and value yourself in my opinion, is the true definition of beauty. As you mentioned, "perfect just the way they are."

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TJ Kapil
3/9/2020 11:05:22 pm

Hi Selena, I really enjoyed reading your post! My family members back in India also talk about how whiter skin is beautiful. I remember them trying all sorts of skin whiting creams to become whiter. I feel until we don't respect who we are and how we look we will never truly be happy. I guess the only thing men really get judged for is if they are fat and not fit or muscular. Women on the other hand are definitely judged for all sorts of things.

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Mariam Elias
3/10/2020 11:39:23 pm

Hi Selena,
I really liked your post and the way you addressed beauty. I agree that people still have some standards for beauty such as whiter, thinner, taller, etc. Which is totally wrong, because everyone is beautiful in their own way. I also agree that they look at women and some specific things in a woman and if she doesn't have those things, they consider her ugly or not beautiful enough to be called beautiful. It is just frustrating and unfair to a lot of unique women out there that are really beautiful.

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Honey Cin
3/10/2020 11:47:56 pm

Hi Selena,
Thank you for sharing the beauty standards in most parts of Asia. I agree with you that "In Asia, dark skin is associated with working in the fields of poverty while pale skin is associated with living a life indoors away from the sun." I remember many women and girls saved their money to buy a cream called "Fair & Lovely" to have fair skin. I agree with you that the media should present women of different body types and different skin colors to make us feel all of us are beautiful in our way.

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Jaya Cross
3/11/2020 11:10:56 am

Hi Selena,
Thank you for sharing! Im sorry that you had to feel self conscious about your beauty. Although the west influences the standards of beauty, eastern cultures do have some similar standards. I am glad that our society is making a shift in promoting a diverse range of women in advertising and modeling.

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Savannah Compton
3/12/2020 02:50:45 am

Hello Selena,
I totally agree with you. Society sets such high beauty standards for women and not for men. Women are judged so much more then men and it is sad to see. I know for me that my weight has been a hard issue on me mentally and i know that many other women face this issue. It is hard to see that people think to be beautiful that women have to be skinny. Also that skinnier women wear cuter clothes because they do not make alot of clothes for plus size women and the clothes that they do make are not affordable for them. Thank you for sharing i really liked your view on this issue.

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Will Shaw
3/14/2020 08:38:29 pm

Hey Selena,
I couldn't agree more on your post. I too grew up with the Western standards of beauty in comparison to Eastern standards of beauty. Like you said, I was told that white was considered more 'beautiful' than darker skin tones in Asia because back in the old days, the color of your skin tone would show what class you belonged in. Darker skin meant that your family name would be outside, work the fields or farming while lighter skin would be considered royalty, having the ability to stay inside out of the sun. I also grew up noticing how harsh some of my relatives or their friends would critique my female cousins more harsh and judgemental about their appearance while my brother and I would be off the hook.

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Joo Kang
3/19/2020 03:20:43 pm

Hello! I enjoyed your post because I was able to connect with my own personal experience as a girl growing up from South Korean culture. I guess many Asian culture have skinny/white skin is common beauty standard for them which I'm also not qualify and I do get a lot of common about my clothes (even sandals I wear), way I talk, they even talked about foundation color I put on! I do agree with you how not just one country society but many countries do need many other representation of different body and colors that. Nowadays I do see many representation from makeup brand, and underwear companies like Aeries advertise with models who are not made but natural just like us. I really enjoyed your topic and thank you for sharing with us!

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