Unhealthy Perceptions of Beauty Around the World

Beauty is really in the eye of the beholder.  Around the world different cultures have different standards of beauty.  Some of these standards are considered weird or gross in other cultures but one thing remains common, women are expected to meet unhealthy standards of beauty.  Unfortunately there is a lot more to beauty that our eyes see, each of these women has gone through a great deal of physical or emotional pain to try to achieve the standard of beauty in their culture. Despite being painful many of them still occur in modern society.   

This image demonstrates the ugly side of foot binding.  Foot binding is an ancient Chinese tradition young girls were expected to go through.  Small feet were desirable centuries ago in China, it demonstrates beauty, elegance and delicateness that needed a man’s protection.  Foot binding would start as early as age 4 and it involves breaking the girls feet so the toes curl under the foot and tightly wrapping bandages around the feet so they cannot heal.  After they were broken the girls feet required a lot of attention with regular nail clippings, soakings to cause dead flesh to fall of and kneading to soften joints.  Each time the feet were unbound and manicured they would be rebound even tighter than before.  The risk of infection was extremely high and many lost toes on purpose to have smaller feet.  The colourful shoe is used to show how delicate and beautiful the feet are.  The beauty of the shoe is used to mask the grotesque foot.  This contrast shows that to achieve this standard of beauty women must suffer extreme pain for the majority of their life.  Most men wouldn’t even look at the woman’s bare foot because it would lose its aesthetic appeal. The use of jewelry shows that this culture enjoys to splurge on items that make them more attractive.  The older woman is wearing nice gold jewelry along with her beautiful shoes which shows that she was raised to be materialistic.  This practise went on for centuries and was only recently banned in 1912.  Until then Chinese women just accepted that their feet would be deformed and cause painful disabilities their whole lives.   

This image shows a young girl with an eating disorder with  all her desires cut into her skin.   In western culture women must be skinny to be considered beautiful.  Young girls are very impressionable and with the amount of media teenagers are exposed to these days, skinny may seem like the norm. Many models are naturally tall, thin and exercise properly with eating contributing to their desirable body shape.  They also get photo shopped to fix any imperfections.  This can leave teenage girls feeling bad about themselves and wanting to look better.  The majority of people do not have the genes of a model and will never be that body shape even if they eat well and exercise.  Feeling too fat young girls have bad relationships with food and can start binge eating or stop eating altogether.  The measuring tapes act as handcuffs which restrict the girl from eating.  They also cause her pain and make her bleed.  The measuring tapes show that girls obsess about their size and weight to an unhealthy level, to the girl in the image nothing else matters.  Eating disorders are extremely unhealthy and if not dealt with properly can lead to death.  The girl is going through physical and emotional pain over trying to achieve the standard of skinny.  Society has always placed a great importance on physical beauty of women and until it stops the negative consequences will continue.  

In this image a Padang girl wraps brass coils around her neck which pushes down on girls shoulders and ribcage creating the illusion of a longer neck.  In their culture a long neck is considered beautiful and the stretching starts when children are young. Imagine if everyday you had to carry an extra 10 kg of brass around your neck.  Not only is the brass heavy it also causes chafing and abrasions to the neck.  Women will wear these coils starting around age 5 and only take them off to put on a larger set.  Wearing the coils for a lifetime causes the collarbone and ribcage to become compressed and disfigured.  The facial posture of the young girl suggests that the brass rings cause pain and she is uncomfortable.  This is not something she choose to do it is just part of her culture and she is expected to participate in this practise.  The use of jewelry the child wears reveals that their culture places a higher importance in physical beauty than in something that humans need to live like shelter.  Jewelry is beautiful but it is always an extra expense that would be spent after all needs are looked after, this demonstrates that it is a very materialistic culture.  

The image to the left shows an Ethiopian woman that has the world record for the largest lip plate on record.  In this culture having a large lip plate is considered to be beautiful and the larger the lip plate, the more a bride can get for her dowry.  Having a lip plate this large would interfere with everyday actions like eating, drinking and talking.  Starting the hole for the lip plate is extremely painful since the bottom two or four teeth are removed as well as the lip is cut and stretched around a small plate.  As each new plate is put in it would become painful all over again.   Since she cannot smile or frown the only way to communicate is through her eyes.  This woman’s eyes reveal that she is uncomfortable with the plate but it cannot be removed because her lip will never return to normal.  She still looks sad in this image even though she has the world record and others in the village are very impressed.  The lip plate demonstrates that it is a very minimalist culture that places all their importance on appearance.  The woman does not even have enough to clothe herself but she has the money to afford the huge lip plate.  Though the lip plate is painful and an interference in daily life, the tradition continues because all the women accept that it happens and they don’t know any different.  

In conclusion, looking good makes us feel great but by placing such a great emphasis on physical beauty, women are expected to participate in unhealthy practises that can severely harm them in the future.  

Citations

Foot binding:
Mao, J. Elderly woman with bound feet. Ispub.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 June 2015.

Eating Disorder: 
“Anorexia.” Deviantart.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 June 2015.

Neck stretching:

“A Kayan Lahwi Girl.” Wikipedia.org. N.p., 27 Apr. 2015. Web. 7 June 2015

Lip plate: 
Joffe, Abrahem. Woman with the biggest lip plate in the world. Viralscape.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 June 2015.