Compare And Contrast American And Korean Beauty

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

A group of young adult Vietnamese women are interviewed in the documentary, all of which relate to being pushed to perfection by their parents; perfect bodies, perfect education, perfect everything. The psychologists and plastic surgeons interviewed in this documentary even mention how it is common for Asian women to request surgical procedures in pursuit of what they think is beauty in American culture. Specifically, they most commonly request the procedures that give them larger, more expressive eyes. However, even beyond Asian-American culture, many people in modern society view themselves through a looking glass of societal standards and find something they want to change. Normally, it is rare that people are satisfied with their innate self-image when it comes to physical beauty— though, this notion is even more amplified among Asian-American culture.

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

I collected data from a convenience sample of two interviews and ten surveys of women attending Yale University. I chose interviewees who were self-identified women-of-color in order to get an in-depth perspective on the processes of how beauty ideals affect women of color’s lived experiences. One of my interviewees, Laura, is a Black woman from suburban Southern California. The other, Abbie, is a biracial white and Korean woman who spent the majority of her life in Hong Kong. I chose women of color across ethnic groups and from both Western and non-Western countries in order to investigate potential differences or similarities across these groups and to explore the potential existence of Eurocentric beauty standards in non-Western countries where the majority of the population may not meet them.

Smith focuses on Koreans’ desire to achieve or acquire Caucasian like features. He examines South Korean history in order to uncover the reasons why plastic surgery became so important in South Korean culture. He also explains the benefits of having an attractive appearance not only for social purposes but also for work.

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.

• 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

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

All American females live in a society that puts undue pressure on women to accommodate an unreasonable ideal, and the Euro-American standard of beauty has dominated popular culture causing devastating economic, physical, and psychological effects, particularly on African American women, who should embrace their natural beauty. African American women make destructive changes to their body that will break down their bank accounts, and the woman's physical body appearance to the naked eye. Rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, and botulinum toxin are just some of the costly surgeries that have major changes and that can cost up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Physically, African American women begin

These modern day people feel the need to try and fit into the western culture, even Asian American, so desperate they are willing to go under a knife to fit into the mold. For example, in the New York Time, author Patricia Marx highlighted, “Many dispute the notion that Korean plastic surgery today emulates a Western aesthetic, pointing out, for example, that big eyes are universally considered appealing and that pale skin connotes affluence.” This is essential because western culture have a major impact on the Asian American community that brought the changes in cosmetic surgery to Korea influences the change among Asian to transform into “American” literally. Having blepharoplasty, rhinoplasty, shaving down their jaw lines just to name a few Asian American is doing this cosmetic surgery to become what Asian American community considered being a true American. Because within today society, everyone wants to fit it, and for Asian American to accomplish the western culture would be reconstructing their features to becoming a Western American so they can blend into American society.

The findings from the survey show that most cultures find other cultures more attractive, with an exception from Australian culture. As depicted in the above data (see Table 1 and Figure 1), the Australian culture finds Caucasian cultures more attractive. Research has been conducted on a similar topic of cultural differences and attractiveness. Rhodes investigated which faces- own race composites, mixed race composites (where the components are from two races) and other-race composites. To do this, college students were presented cards with faces on the cards and from the stack of cards, they were to take

People have contributed to the physical and cultural view of beauty in societies all around the world. Each country has different beauty standards that reflect off of each other to display diversity: “Beauty is informed by values, culture, religion, background and societal influence. Concepts of beauty has change over time depending on environment, culture, etc”. Through the different standards of other cultures, societies are able to learn that there is not only one form of beauty. The evolution of beauty around the world allows people to compare opinions with another to form individual perspectives of beauty.

Despite the claim that everyone is beautiful, barely 20% of the models in New York, London, Paris, and Milan for fashion week are people of color (Wilson, 2014). Eurocentric beauty standards have a negative impact on countless people around the world who do not fit into these set values. These standards are often times valued over non-European features, and this impacts children at a younger age than some may believe.

Plastic Surgery has become a worldwide epidemic in today’s world. The number of plastic surgeries continues to increase since 2010. In today’s day and age, plastic surgery is one of the most popular and requested procedures. Females are opting to have plastic surgery because they dislike their body image. Society has impacted many people by brain washing them to believe that a person’s body has to be perfect. In order for one to be considered beautiful, television and media influence people’s perceptions of beauty.