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Thesis About Yaeba

Decent Essays

Young Japanese women and girls are suffering from the Yaeba Complex. Unlike their counterparts in many other developed nations who view straight teeth as perfection, the Japanese are instead opting to undergo the expensive and painful procedure of creating crooked teeth. In this essay, through the lenses of the growing Yaeba trend, I will account for the reasons that contribute to this seemingly weird Japanese obsession of a preference for an imperfect smile, and study the possible societal issues that have resulted in the former's emergence. A cross-country analysis between Japan and America will also be briefly conducted to highlight the cultural similarities and differences between a highly Westernised Japan and the West itself. Yaeba …show more content…

This is in part due to numerous Japanese celebrities hopping onto the bandwagon of Yaeba procedures (Considine, 2011), playing an instrumental role in popularising and defining a new beauty fashion. Indeed, a quick search on the internet churns out dozens of websites highlighting numerous prominent Japanese celebrities proudly displaying their Yaeba, with the phrase 'cute', ubiquitous in the descriptions . Gathering from this popularised trend of Yaeba procedures in pursuit of cute beauty, I posit that there are two main social issues that can be drawn to conclusion. After all, a social trend highlights the underlying larger social issues. Firstly, I question if the Yaeba fascination points out to an underlying female subordination trend, where women are simply keen to please men. It has been suggested in various accounts that Japanese men swoon over women with a Yaeba smile (Didymus, 2013), as Yaeba is viewed as a child-like feature (Dumas, 2011). This possibly elevates the superiority of men as protectors and evokes a desire for men to protect women. Such an unhealthy obsession with women possessing child-like appearance also seems to be "sexualising women" (Considine, 2011) into symbols of possession, and belittling women as a weaker sex that is dependent on men for

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