I don’t watch much TV, except once in awhile when something superb comes on!!
I’m watching Oprah’s replay interview with Jessica Simpson late night right now, and they discuss Jessica Simpson’s upcoming show that will air on VH1 “Beauty around the World: The Price of Beauty”. She travels to 7 different countries & meets with a Beauty Ambassador. She involves herself into the culture and learns what their perception of ‘Beauty’ is.
In Morocco, most of the population is Muslim, so women are covered up with only their eyes showing. Although there are many different colors and jewelries and music which make them just as beautiful. In Japan, woman get their toes sucked by dozens of fish in a pond, as their pedicure, to remove dead cells (I did this in Cambodia! It’s extremely tickly!) In a culture in India, women drink a bottle of cow urine to detox. In Paris, she meets a former model who is Anorexic down to 60 pounds, and leading a campaign against pressuring models to become so thin. She blames her former fashion designer. In Uganda, women are beautiful when they are fat.
Whoever the producer/writer is for this show, I think it’s a beautiful idea and I am sure it will be a hit. It’s extremely crucial to raise awareness to women around the world, that beauty, like everything else in life is relative to society and your surroundings.
Coming from my Asian background, I can say first hand that our ‘beauty values’ in many ways are quite opposite from American standards. For one, if you tell anyone in Asia that people in America pay to be tanned, they may just have a heart-attack! “Why the hell would you pay to get dark!?” The ancient old belief is that the lighter you are, the wealthier you are. Everything comes back to ‘wealth’. So they believe if one is wealthy, one would not have to work outside (say the farm or field) which would make one dark. Therefore, millions of skin-whitening tones that are sold in department stores for quite a hefty price! We’ll probably amount that to our subscriptions of Tanning salons.
And on that same note, when an Asian woman is dating a guy, if he is much darker, he may be considered ‘lower class’ according to the woman’s family.
The skinnier you are in Asia, and more fragile looking, once again, the ‘wealthier’ you look. No need to work out. Just eat in smaller amounts, make sure your mouth is closed, cover your mouth when you laugh, you are basically a doll.
An ancient tradition which is now banned in China is ‘foot-binding’. When females were barely old enough to walk, their mom’s would start binding their feet tight, so that their foot would not grow much. These feet will forever be bound tight throughout their life, which does not allow them to walk very sturdy, nor do much work. Therefore the richer families would have the woman with the smallest feet. On average, about a size 3 (when I was 7) in our sizes. There are still a few survivors in China in their 90′s and 100′s with bound foot. Xrays of those feet have shown how deformed and dangerous it really is.
I am considered fat in Asian culture, as I hear family and relatives say whenever I see them. So basically, I am ‘fat’ & too ‘dark’ looking like a peasant to them. Oh no, I guess I can’t find myself a nice Chinese man to bring home then!
We have the same issue in America, as much as many people may be shaking their head at this blog. Many woman going through eating disorders and heavy subscriptions to tanning salons to look like Celebrities. Or all the ridiculous diets we’ve tried.
I’m looking forward to this show & hope you all stay tuned!! We will all chat about it then. Tudalu, til next time!
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