Cultural Beauty Ideals As A Form Of Ethnic Body Policing : Origins And Effects On East Asian Women

The play focuses on three prominent stereotypical ideas that Western males hold concerning Eastern women: the submission of Asian women to Western males, knowledge in handling the female body, and their desires for masculine Western counterparts. Ultimately, M. Butterfly addresses culturally constructed stereotypes as powerful and limiting.

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

The foreign features of women have become more attractive to people in society. Many women have strived to look more than just tall blonde girl blue eyes. Society has just recently turned the tables making the foreign look more acceptable rather than opposing. Having the “look” that some strive for has given me more confidence and love in who I am.

Throughout the course of Western civilization and the colonization of the Americas, a particular set of ideologies and customs has evolved that holds a very Eurocentric and patriarchal perspective. This perspective continues to dominate the macroculture of the United States in the present day. These ideologies are constantly recycled and continuously influence social norms as they relate to our concepts of feminine beauty, acceptable gender roles, and many other aspects of modern society. It is easy to overlook these biases if we choose not to question the status quo. However, when examined further, such biases are detectable and in many cases are blatantly apparent. An investigation

attention is that it is a struggle to be an Asian in America due to the fact that Asians

The Western world’s conquest and domination of Asia is the driving source of sexual desire for East Asian women. To understand how the objectification and fetishization of East Asian women is harmful, one must traced it roots and understand how it began. The stereotypes assigned to East Asian women are rooted from the violence of wartime. The stereotypes live through the mass media’s re-imagination by books, movies, musicals and operas. East Asian women will find no peace for as long as these hyper-sexed stereotypes live.

In recent years, historians and scholars, specifically Susannah Walker, Noliwe Rooks, and Amoaba Gooden, have begun to assiduously examine African American beauty culture from a racial and gender perspective. Accordingly, these historians and scholars now suggest that African American beauty culture was profoundly influenced by the racial and gender politics of the early twentieth-century time period. For example, in her book titled Style & Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-1975, historian Susannah Walker asserts that African American beauty culture was distinctly unique from other forms of beauty culture because it “explicitly reflected and articulated twentieth-century racial politics in the United States.” Similarly, Amoaba Gooden, a pan-African studies professor at Kent State University, surmises that racialized notions of feminine

Asian stereotypes are a product of prevailing myths propagated by various media, from books, plays, movies, television, to even historical propaganda. Generally speaking, the stereotyping of Asian women often swing to extreme types: the docile, subservient sexual object, or the dragon lady. Asian Americans only make up a small percentage of the United States population and live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii. Consequently, the rest of the American population will most likely get their exposures to Asian Americans through television and movies. Popular media exposure to Asian Americans lacks one-on-one acquaintance with Asian Americans. It hinders the process

If Miner had come out and said that Americans viewed cultures that differed from their own in a way that was patronizing and small-minded, people would have become offended and wouldn’t have listened to what Miner had to say. Instead, Miner wrote the paper and portrayed the Nacirema as if it were a genuine Native American tribe. This technique not only draws the audience’s attention to the (in)accuracy of the assumptions they made while reading the article, but also informs the audience the ways American culture differs from the rest of the world. For example, Americans have an obsession with cleanliness compared to other countries. Another example is the Kayan Lahwi women who will wear brass rings around their necks, giving the impression of “neck stretching”. The longer their necks appear to be, the more beautiful they are considered. This standard of beauty seem strange and bizarre to Americans, but as the article demonstrates, our Eurocentric standard of beauty seems strange and bizarre to other cultures too.

As reported by (nick yee, 2003) homosexuality is a current western concept (Foucault,1980) different form the conception of male-male sexual bonds of other cultures in different ways. on the other hand homosexuality considers a lifelong predisposition, other cultures have temporary constructed male-male sexual bonds as phases, homosexuality is revealed in the western concept when it is contrasted with how romantic and male-male bonds were dealt in imperial China where some male emperors had male harems and favorite male mistress, also where male prostitution (for men) was common till the end of the Qing Dynasty. There was no word for homosexuality in chinese because it was not recognised as integral or defining as part of an individual’s identity.

It’s difficult to envision a world where idealized female imagery is not plastered everywhere, but our present circumstance is a relatively new occurrence. Before the mass media existed, our ideas of beauty were restricted to our own communities. Until the introduction of photography in 1839, people were not exposed to real-life images of faces and bodies. Most people did not even own mirrors. Today, however, we are more obsessed with our appearance than ever before. But the concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable given society’s standards. According to Jane Kilborne, “Every period of history has had its own standards of what is and is not beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the

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.

The definition of what makes a beautiful woman has been shown to change according to geographic location and the period of time. From the ancient world to modern day society there are many examples of how the perception of beauty has changed from ideals in times such as 25,000 B.C.E. The world has been known to judge women by expecting them to look or act a certain way, though some society’s definition of beauty is altered slightly. Several of these changing beauty ideals can be seen in the art for the different time periods. One country may have glorified slim women, while another may have valued heavier ones.

The custom of a culture changes as time passes, for example, males had short hairs in the pass in Asia, but nowadays a lot of males are wearing long hairs. According to Sullivan, who teaches sociology at Arizona State University, the change of the custom, or more precisely, the change of the body appearance symbolizes the change of the society, which can be evident by “Bodies, therefore, provide important clues to the mechanics of society.” (Sullivan, 542) Moreover, Sullivan suggests that the body custom, especially in the female perspectives, “can be a site for the expression of power in a culture.” (Sullivan, 542)

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.