Asian-American Beauty Standards

There were many instances where individuals have stated many negative and positive remarks about my bodily features that have both impacted me in various ways that stem from being, not only an Asian Canadian but in a more specific sense, a Korean Canadian phenomenon. In this paper, I will discuss where the judgements of ‘societal norms” come from, and how it relates to “me and my body in society” as a Korean Canadian. Through my convictions developed from vast amounts of past experiences of what people have stated, have also enlightened me, I have gained the body of knowledge as a result, through my personal experiences of which I will be discussing. I will be using western ideology and my experiences of being a Korean Canadian, how it particularly

As of recently, the media has been flooded with positive interpretations of beauty standards all over the world. According to various sources, beauty ideals, in women especially, are socially constructed in order to judge a person’s value based on physical attractiveness; therefore, it is highly encouraged that people pay attention to their looks and take care of themselves, in order for others to create a positive first impression of one’s character. It is no secret that beauty standards vary from one culture to the next and it is difficult to establish a universal principle of what is considered beautiful. Many countries’ ideals contrast one another and, as a result, allow for stereotypes to emerge. This is the case between American

In the article “A Chinese beauty story: how college women in China negotiate beauty, body image, and mass media,” the author, Meng Zhang, examines the perspective of college aged Chinese women, and how they deal with the current beauty standards and body image ideals, ways to attain it, as well as the impact the media has had over their views and life experiences. When it comes to the “ideal”, women are expected to possess both the traditional Chinese attributes, like fair skin and a slim body, as well as more Western appeals, such as big eyes and being tall. The article demonstrates that through the media’s constant attention, beauty soon became a vital role in the life of the everyday Chinese woman. With that new-found focus on beauty came

According to Beauty and Self-Image in American Culture, “In a society that equates the body with both self and moral worth, cultural meanings are attached to physical differences, so that the body provides a foundation for oppression based on gender, class, ethnicity, and age—all social characteristics that are deeply embodied.” (Gimlin 141) In the end,

Chang’s writing is focused upon from the view of a sociocultural standpoint, with discovering the internal ideas beneath beauty from the external appearance. It included an experiment with nearly 500 Asian American female participants who took part in a questionnaire package regarding both one’s personal beliefs as well as on social relations with Caucasian-American women. The results of this showed that, there are little to none ethnic group differences in the internalization of the dominant White beauty standards among Asian American women. Despite the lack in differences, the findings made contributions by showing the importance of racial identity and beauty standards in Asian American women’s body image development and psychological well-being.

African Americans have different beauty ideals than European aesthetic; women with extra weight are viewed as sexy, thick, stacked, and curvy. The idea of being thin is considered for White women (C.S.James, 2012; Awad, 2014; Taylor, 2013). Research showed that Black men have a preference for heavier women compared to White men, and Black womens’ ideal body weight is heavier than White womens’ prefered weight. However, African American women do not assess beauty primarily by weight, but by overall appearance, such as: how one carries themselves, hairstyles, makeup, and clothes. These characteristics are given more concern than traditional body image issues (Chithambo, 2012; Awad, 2014). With this high tolerant attitude towards weight, it puts African Americans at higher risks for obesity (Baturka, 2000).

• Absolutely, beauty is a cultural construction, on another essay on page 46 title “My hips, My Caderas” by Alisa Valde, she recalls some the struggles she faced as a half White and Cuban woman with the fuller feature, having one race praise her features while the other criticized. In the African American community, the woman who is “well endowed” for lack of words are praise and admired for their physic. A woman like Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj, and the most famous one off is Kim Kardashian, lately, they have been getting praised for their body figure and it’s about time, we

Although a great deal of early research on body image and eating disorders focused on upper/middle class Caucasians living in America or under the influence of Western ideals, many researchers are realizing that eating disorders are not isolated to this particular group. They are also realizing the differences in body image between occur in different races and genders (Pate, Pumariega, Hester 1992). Recently, several studies have shown that eating disorders transcend these specific guidelines, and increasingly, researchers are looking at male/female differences, cross-cultural variation and variation within cultures as well. It is impossible to broach the concept of body image without

Asian and Latino women, are also ethnic minorities who are predominately portrayed in mainstream media as sexualized and or exotic (Brooks, 2006). Particularly in film, Asian women are frequently represented as passive characters, whose sole purpose is to be of service to men, especially White men. Asian American’s have been described as being the ‘model minority,’ and are often portrayed as nerdy or associated with technology (Mastro, 2015). Once more, the racial representations of Asian Americans influence audiences’ perceptions and can take misinformation about the group or culture as the truth (Brooks, 2006).

Some girls indicated that boys explicitly discuss media models such as Cindy Crawford, and/or insult girls who deviate from the unrealistic standards represented by sch models.” (Milkie). As pressure comes from both internal and external factors, it is difficult for women to ignore these beauty standards. Even though the minority group (specifically black girls) saw the same images, their response was quite different. These girls had a different response to these images because they weren’t able to relate to the beauty ideal, “the black girls indicated that they did not relate to the images and did not wish to emulate the rigid white beauty ideal.” (Milkie). If there were more images of women of color as “beauty ideals”, they would find it more relatable and might create their own beauty standard. Thus, these tan, toned, curvy girls might be the ideal shape for white women, but it cannot be said the same for the other cultures, and adds an extra pressure to these

The author gives cases of woman from different cultural backgrounds that are forced to accept the westernized beauty standard. She explains that a woman named Zahra Dhanani was pressured by her mother to be thin, because her mother thought that by being thin means beautiful, and it results Zahra to developed bulimia. According to one of the interviewee, Niva Piran, a clinical psychologist, explained that “The ideal of standard beauty is uniformed by the mass media, and attractiveness is often perceived as thin body figure, and light skinned”( McCelland,2013, paragraph 3,p.445). Thus, this component has contributed to people from different culture to develop body image anxiety which can lead to eating-disorder such as, anorexia and bulimia. The author also discuss the history aspect of body image; before the 19th century woman who are larger are consider as healthy and this idea was shifted after the industrialization, and woman are now pressured to accept that being thin is considered beautiful. The author also criticized that the media are constantly demanding light skinned and thin figured woman to be presented. The essay concluded that if the media and the society do not change the idea of accepting themselves, woman will continued to be pressured and scrutinized by the society and therefore feel pressured to look like a certain way.

Beauty standards are portrayed everywhere: on magazines, social media, ads, commercials, and even flaunted among peers. While the ideals are supposed to promote health awareness, fitness motivation, and self love, it unfortunately results in many unfavorable consequences. Women are constantly “penalized for not being beautiful and at the same time are stigmatized, even pathologized, for not feeling beautiful, for having low self-esteem, for engaging in behaviors like dieting and excessive exercising, or for having eating disorders” (Johnston and Taylor 954). Beauty standards are unrealistic and unhealthy to pursue, and misinforms the public on what true beauty is. While not all beauty image ideals promote negative feelings and dissatisfaction, many believe that the negative effects far outweighs any positive effects.

It 's not a mystery that society 's ideals of beauty have a drastic and frightening effect on women. Popular culture frequently tells society, what is supposed to recognize and accept as beauty, and even though beauty is a concept that differs on all cultures and modifies over time, society continues to set great importance on what beautiful means and the significance of achieving it; consequently, most women aspire to achieve beauty, occasionally without measuring the consequences on their emotional or physical being. Unrealistic beauty standards are causing tremendous damage to society, a growing crisis where popular culture conveys the message that external beauty is the most significant characteristic women can have. The approval of prototypes where women are presented as a beautiful object or the winner of a beauty contest by evaluating mostly their physical attractiveness creates a faulty society, causing numerous negative effects; however, some of the most apparent consequences young and adult women encounter by beauty standards, can manifest as body dissatisfaction, eating disorders that put women’s life in danger, professional disadvantage, and economic difficulty.

The media have constructed attractiveness for a long time many sociocultural standards of beauty and. Especially women’s body images have been a primary concern because the value of women has been measured how they look like. How women have similar body traits with the modern female body images has been a significant and essential issue, historically. The sociocultural standards of beauty which have been created by the greed of the media have dire impacts on young females. The current beauty level of the female body image in the media is thinness. In fact, the preferred female body images have been changed through the media. Throughout history, sometimes skinny women’s body images were loved, and sometimes over weighted women’s body images were preferred. Whenever the media have dictated the ideal female

In America, dominate ideas, or commonly held beliefs, regarding beauty consist mainly of the notion that there is a very narrow window of normality. The media advertises that in order to be attractive physically and socially you must be tall, thin, light skinned, well abled and sexually appealing to those of the opposite gender.