People tend to place a lot of importance on their appearance, which raises the issue of why someone's outlook is significant to them. In reality, people often unconsciously alter certain aspects of their appearance, such as clothing and makeup, to appear presentable in public. It is undeniable that a person's first perception has a significant impact on how their relationships with other people progress. People work extremely hard to look good at parties, business events, and other settings where they meet people for the first time because they only get one opportunity to make a good first impression. Women tend to exhibit a trend of striving to look good. However, it is essential to note that the society does not have express conditions for women to appear in a particular manner. Different countries, however, have canons that women ought to adhere to on matters dressing, but civilization has influenced them to depart from their traditions. For instance, girls in Asian countries try to meet the western standards of beauty (Gelles, 3). Different viewpoints tend to justify why beauty cannot be influenced by the changes of time. Scholars have persistently tried to establish a biological substantiation of beauty. However, these attempts by the scientists to explain beauty have been largely unsuccessful. For instance, it is generally observed that both the face and all parts of the human body must be perfectly symmetrical. The scientific justification for this sounds quite convincing, though the diseases and stresses suffered in childhood can gradually influence the development of the human body and lead to an imbalances. As such, one side of the body grows somewhat differently from the other. A slightly asymmetrical face should depict a person’s physical weakness, and gives them little attractiveness to a potential partner. Asian women are susceptible to modern beauty trends and conceptions and hence, tend to transform their bodies to suit modernity and notional attractiveness.
European standards and resemblance
People across the world are very concerned about their appearance. On the same note, groups of people have conceptualized the aspect of beauty in the sense that they have developed standards that define an individual’s attractiveness. For this reason, some individuals strive to meet those standards to be considered beautiful. Women are the main target audience of cosmetics manufacturers, marketers and plastic surgeons. Many Chinese women are undergoing body transformations in a bid to seek European resemblance. The women are in demand of the services of plastic surgeons as they can no longer withstand the notional social pressure of the need to become beautiful. Some of the adjustments that the Chinese women desire include widening their eyes, lengthening their noses, and tightening their cheekbones. Most of the Chinese women have a rich copper shade, although the native black breaks through in the area of the proverbial selection. As China actively approaches the West on social and economic issues, the Asian standards of beauty fall under the influence of Western and mutate. For instance, the field of show business demands individuals to be presentable so as to earn good ratings and win the public approval for them to be successful career wise. At world festivals and competitions actors and actresses pose on the red carpet in dresses of universal style- there are rarely any elements of something ethnic. National specificity disappears not only from the film industry, but also in the daily aspects of their lifestyle.
Snow-white skins
Another trend that attracts Asian women is the snow-white skin. Some standards of beauty in China are inspired by the images of the West, but others remind of the traditional East. In China, it is impossible to see a girl that buys a sunblock or sunbathing on the beach, except if she has spent a long time in the West. On the contrary, Chinese girls try to protect their skin as much as possible. For this reason, the Chinese often use umbrellas, jackets and sunscreen to protect their delicate skins. In light of this, the snow-white skin is one of the oldest Chinese canons of beauty. In ancient China, only the rich had light skin, because of the nature of their lifestyle favored them. For instance, the upper class Chinese families did not have to work in the fields as peasants. Their flawless cream skin was an indicator that they belonged to a different class. The phenomenon offers an explanation as to why, perhaps, most Chinese girls still want white smooth skin, like jade, so that they are not mistaken for the poor. The obsession of Chinese girls with snow-white skin is so strong that market is flooded with beauty products that are rare in the West. In China, skin moisturizers with a whitening effect are common, and tons of cosmetic products that will whiten women’s skin. The real test is to find something without bleaching.
Preferred Facial Shapes
The Chinese people have different types of faces that are determined by the shapes of their appearance. The most popular types are lemon seed and goose egg. However, not everyone is born with a face in the form of a lemon seed or goose egg. For this reason, many girls resort to plastic surgery as a corrective mechanism for their facial appearance. Chinese women dislike square-shaped faces as they are considered too manly. Instead, the girls prefer an oval-shaped face instead of a pronounced jaw, because they consider it more feminine, neat and pretty (Rowe n.p). As for the West, their ideal face shape is something quite different. Even if the oval is very popular, according to surgeons, the most attractive is a square one. The concerns of most Asian women who undergo transformation involve attempts to change the physical features of their face. To begin with, the women tend to be dissatisfied with the nature of their eyes, and hence attempt to enlarge them. They perceive girls with big eyes to be the most beautiful creatures on the planet, especially if they have a double eyelid. This Chinese trend proves once again their fascination with the West. Progressively more girls are running to the surgeons for facial adjustments.
Thin bodies
Having a thin body is one of the most popular trends especially in Asia. Being thin is the dream of most girls in China. The girls would be considered cute depending on their weight and shape and as such, they girls starve in pursuit of a slender figure. The network has a lot of fads about how to check if you are slim enough: for example, compare your waist with a piece of paper or check if you can wrap your arm around your waist. That is the extent to which obsession with leanness in China. In the Western world, slender people are also considered attractive. However, the people with magnificent shapes also fit into our beauty standards, if their waist is thin. Chinese standards are very different from the Western ideals of female beauty. China and the West are converging and it is interesting to observe how the ideals of beauty will change.
Media Influence and Trends
Researchers came to the conclusion that women adhere to the beauty standards whose origin is non-existent. However, there are suggestions that the standard of beauty is created and maintained by men only, reflecting their version of attractiveness. The appearance of a woman that is the most attractive for men is created by marketers, and later men begin considering it as the real beauty. Nonetheless, various ideals of beauty are imposed to women throughout through media programs and advertisements. In this way, the mass media plays a significant role not only in creating this “ideal” version of beauty, but also in maintaining this standard in the daily lives of girls and women. It is common to find many men who make decisions about what images are created and sold. However, it is questionable whether they do it because of what they themselves consider attractive, or to make the girls “want to look like notable women”.
When thinking about how men and women perceive beauty, it is important not to consider the physical attractiveness of people as the only aspect in a human being. There are many factors in the society that affect what we consider attractive such as the media, marketing promotions are some of the channels that define the way the public other people. The mass media plays an integral role in imposing and championing the beauty trends. Television channels offer platforms for mostly beautiful, well-groomed and slender ladies, a trend that constantly urges the audience to embrace the looks and styles of the people who appear in the screens.
The beauty of the female body is assessed by the public in different ways. In the fashion world, fashion designers come up with clothes with patterns that suits people with particular shapes of bodies. However, models literally suffer in order to fit themselves in the outfits that are not necessarily designed for them. As the result, in order to meet the requirements of their careers and to please famous photographers and fashion designers, young girls change their diet at the expense of good health.
Health and Beauty Complexes
The complexes for excess weight and health management are a good stimulus for a person to start taking care of themselves, go to the gym, start eating properly and give up on all bad habits (Lupton). It is important that when a person opts to enroll for such programs and routines, they ought to exercise proportionately and not to overdo the procedures. However, most women fail to observe the limits especially when they chase after the highest standards of beauty. The negative side of such trends is that women get low self-esteem and various complexes. Self-esteem and complex are the concepts that are mutually subordinate. In fact, advertisements never explain to women that each of them should love themselves for whom they are, that they should strive to make themselves better and seek financial and spiritual enrichment. As such, the advertisements are only intended to influence the women to purchase a given line of products to influence their looks without a clear motive apart from dampening their self-esteem when their conscience tells them that they are not attractive.
Eye Incisions
For instance, Asian women often experience difficulties over the incision of the eyes and want to change it (Kim et al, 2). In modern medical centers, Asian blepharoplasty is carried out with cutting and without cutting. For each patient, the plastic surgeon usually chooses the most appropriate method for Asian blepharoplasty, which directly depends on the degree of difficulty of the problem. Before patient undergoes the plastic surgery of the Asian age, she must undergo thorough preparation. Consultation of a plastic surgeon is necessary first, so he or she will determine the nature of surgery and gives the patient directions to specialized specialists, for hardware diagnostics and laboratory examination.
Consultation of an ophthalmologist and therapist, as well as other specialists, for example, an oncologist, a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist that will give access to the operation. Passing tests and passing hardware diagnostics implies consulting of a plastic surgeon immediately before surgery. Before Asian blepharoplasty, as well as before any other plastic surgery, the patient must undergo a laboratory and hardware examination. This is done in order to check the state of human health and identify hidden forms of diseases that may be a contraindication to surgical intervention. Before blepharoplasty it is necessary to pass the following tests: clinical and biochemical blood test; blood tests for venereal and infectious diseases: HIV, RW, blood test for sugar, coagulogram; additional tests can be prescribed if there are grounds for this. Girls do not risk a lot, since the only drawback of this operation can be potential complications after the operation. There are a number of contraindications such as oncological and endocrine diseases, including diabetes mellitus and thyroid dysfunction; hypertension; diseases of the heart, blood vessels, lungs and other vital internal organs; increased eye pressure; blood diseases.
Empirical studies on health and beauty complexes
In his study, Kirkwood considered the problem of the body image, and established that the struggles individuals undergo to change the way, by which people look at themselves and others (2). When using the human body as an object, the author does not only consider the problem of aesthetic evaluation of the human appearance, but also deals with self-esteem, exploring the notion of beauty. However, the author noted that the human culture has become absorbed in the image of the body. Additionally, people allow the beauty industry to determine their attitude towards their and other people’s bodies, in order to influence their assessments, but as fact of judgment and interaction. Nonetheless, according to the author’s statements and conclusions, there are other ways to define beauty, but the society should learn to recognize that advertisements are not a part of reality. They should also start seeing healthy bodies as ideal. For this reason, it should be made clear that good health is not determined by size, but rather a state of physical, mental, and social well-being.
Dohnt and Tigemann conducted a study with girls aged 5-8 years old (5). The authors investigated the desire of girls to conform to the ideal of beauty that was promoted by the media and advertising. As a result, it was found out that most girls had a desire to reduce their weight, which was supplemented by a low level of sense of self-worth. Thus, it is evident that school-aged girls already live in a culture in which the media imposes a stereotype of attractiveness that adversely affects the development of their conception of body image and self-esteem. Already at this age, girls start following a particular diet in order to lose excess weight, a trend that could lead to various kinds of physiological changes in their health, many of which are irreversible. From the authors’ findings, the results are inconceivable that the affected girls are as young as 5 to 8 years old, yet they are determined to change their appearance. On the other hand, Singh stated that the overall physical attractiveness directly affects interpersonal relationships (3). Physically attractive women are admired and paid for their beauty as in the case of a model and a movie actress. They are accused of being responsible for popularizing diets, abnormally low weight and eating disorders.
A cross-cultural research that was conducted by Tove et al. in 2006 outlined comparison of the notions of beauty among the inhabitants of South Africa, where European advertising is virtually non-existent, and Great Britain, which live in the world of advertising and the media, there have been sustained differences (353-363). In the UK, beibng overweight is associated with disease and as a result, the body is estimated as not being beautiful, while in South Africa, on the contrary, attractive women are the overweight. Since body weight is an important factor in the perception of physical attractiveness, the authors wanted to determine whether the alleged revaluation of body weight affects the evaluation of the attractiveness of others. In their study, 204 women participated: 31 of those who lack appetite, 30 bulimia and 143 control groups who were supposed to evaluate their body weight, evaluate the body weight and attractiveness of the 25 girls depicted in the photographs. It turned out that women suffering from eating disorders were more often mistaken in assessing both their weight and those presented in the photographs. They were also rated as more attractive women with a lower weight.
In another study, Makino at al. examined the attitudes and stereotypes of students about eating and eating (111-117). The authors found that in recent years, the percentage of people who adhered to dietary nutrition, which sought to reduce weight, had increased. The trend was observed in young people especially girls who registered a higher percentage. Thus, they concluded that for Beijing, the beauty culture had begun to approach the “American” pattern, for which it is typical to idealize excessively lean figures with beauty. As the authors emphasize, this trend has been observed since the European advertising began to appear in Beijing.
Conclusion
From the arguments, it is evident that beauty is a relative concept. Nevertheless, people all over the world strive for popular global standards that define their understanding of attractiveness. The trend is not bizarre because marketers and manufacturers of cosmetics and clothing are working towards capitalizing on the gullibility of the people to reap profits out of their products. On the same note, entrepreneurs laud girls to subscribe to their analogy of ideal beauty standards with the aim of making sales for their products and services. The move by the young girls to procure the services of plastic surgeons and beauty products is ill-informed as it is only aimed at satisfying their conceptions about beauty but not adding value to their moral life.
Works Cited
Dohnt, H. The Contribution of Peer and Media Influences to the Development of Body Satisfaction and Self-Esteem in Young Girls: A Prospective Study. Developmental Psychology, v. 42(5), September 2006.
Gelles, Rebecca. Fair and Lovely: Standards of Beauty, Globalization, and the Modern Indian Woman. SIT Graduate Institute, 2011. http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2143&context=isp_collection. Accessed 2 November, 2017.
Kim, Y., Cho, B., Lo, L. Facial Contouring Surgery for Asians. Semin. Plast. Surg., February 2009, v. 23(1), pp. 22–31.
Kirkwood, L. An Artist’s Perspective on Body Image, the Media, and Contemporary Society. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, v. 37(2), December 2005.
Makino, M. Comparative study of attitudes to eating between male and female students in the People's Republic of China. Eating & Weight Disorders, v. 11. (3), 111-117, 2006.
Lupton, Deborah. What does fat discrimination look like? The Conversation, 2013. http://theconversation.com/what-does-fat-discrimination-look-like-10247. Accessed 2 November, 2017.
Pe, Roger. Yes, Asia is Obsessed with White Skin. Inquirer.net, 2016. http://business.inquirer.net/215898/yes-asia-is-obsessed-with-white-skin. Accessed 2 November, 2017.
Rowe, Nicola. Women with feminine features such as full cheeks and small jaws are ideal targets for men looking to have affairs. Daily Mail, 2013. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2345991/Women-feminine-features-cheeks-small-jaws-ideal-target-men-looking-affair.html. Accessed 2 November, 2017.
Singh, D. An evolutionary theory of female physical attractiveness. Psi Chi., v. 10(3), 2006.
Tove, M.J., V. Swami. Does hunger influence judgments of female physical attractiveness? British Journal of Psychology, v. 97(3), 353-363, 2006.
