“Be your own kind of beautiful.”
Have you ever think of yourself beautiful? With all these gorgeous models and celebrities we see on TV, it’s hard not to feel pressure on how we should think of ourselves. Peer pressure and what the society thinks about one’s beauty is something that changes our perceptions. What you don’t seem to find attractive might be different from other people. There is no definite answer to define female beauty in general. There will always be a different point of views about what makes one beautiful. Just like this list that will show you a different definition of beauty from other sides of the world.
France – “Natural beauty is the best kind of beauty”
French people like it all natural. They have this poise and class that makes them attractive. They don’t stress much about aging and they don’t diet instead they prefer to to work out through walking or just using the stairs instead of lift. Instead of putting layers of make up, they prefer to just highlight their features and not overdo it. They embrace their au naturel look including not shaving their armpits.
South Korea – “The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as it’s interpreter.”
Aside from KPOP, kimchi and K-dramas, South Korea is also known for it’s fashion and beauty trends. You can see a lot of beauty stores and plastic surgery clinics around the country. Here beauty standards are harsher than western countries. Being physically attractive is a must in order to have a better married life and better job.
In order to be beautiful, one must have double eyelids, fair skin, pointed nose and v-shaped face. Young people undergo double eyelid surgery which is sometimes serves as a graduation gift, a reward for their hard work. For them having a v-shaped face makes a person look younger and slimmer. Some went through the extremes by having jaw reduction surgery and cheekbone shaving to achieve the perfect v-shaped face.
Mauritania – “A big woman takes a big space in a man’s heart.”
In Mauritania, the bigger is better. Men find voluptuous women attractive. In a place with a history of starvation and drought, having a wife with bigger body is a sign of wealth. Because of this, families are forcing their young girls in a practice of leblouh or force feeding. As young as five years old, girls are obliged to eat excessively to make their body rounder. Parents even send their children to camps where older females can monitor their food intake. This is like a preparation for the young girls so they can marry easily when they reach the right age and the right size.
New Zealand – “Tattoos … are the stories in your heart, written on your skin.”
Maori is an indigenous people of New Zealand who practices Ta Moko, a Maori tattooing and considered highly sacred in Maori culture. It is a sign of social status and only those people who have rank or status are allowed to have tattoos. Men can have tattoos in any part of their faces while on women, have tattoos on their chin. For women having a blue lips and chin tattoo is a sign of beauty.
Burma – “Brass, stay down all summer.“
The women of Kayan people in Myanmar are well known for their neck rings made of brass coils to make their necks look longer. It is a sign of beauty to have a long neck in their culture. They can start wearing brass coils in their necks at age of five and will add more as they grow up. There’s also a legend that wearing these neck rings will protect the woman from tiger attacks since tigers attack victims from their neck.
Iran – “Keep your nose out of my business.”
In a country where most women are required to keep their arms, legs and hair covered in public, there’s this craze that made them emphasize more of what can be seen. Iranians feel like having small nose is beautiful and showing off this feature is cool. So cool that they are proud to let everyone know they did the procedure for it’s a sign of wealth according to them. Iran became the rhinoplasty capital of the world since this craze started. It is now common to see women and even men wearing bandages on their noses as a sign that they did a nose job even if they didn’t.
Kenya – “Keep your eyes and ears open, if you desire to get on in the world.”
For the Maasai tribe of Kenya, beauty is very important. It shows from the way the put their ornaments or accessories together. Even in participating in rituals that they considered a part of making them appealing. Men and women wearing heavy ornamental earrings that stretches their earlobes and see this as a sign of wisdom and beauty. They stretch their earlobes by dangling heavy items like elephant tusks, stones, bones or wood to loosen up the flesh and to make it wider and longer. Stretched lobes are often decorated with colorful bead bracelets or necklaces to also serve as a weight to make it more stretched.
China – “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.“
A tradition called Lotus feet or the altering of feet by binding was considered beautiful and became popular during the Song dynasty. It is a sign of beauty, wealth and for a woman to get married and have a better life. It is process of folding the four small toes under her feet and then wrapping the feet with bandages in a figure of eight pattern. They start this process as young as four years old and that can take two years to achieve the crescent moon shape feet.
Ethiopia/Sudan – “I find beauty in my scars.”
Scars are a sign of beauty for these tribes in Ethiopia and Sudan. A long and painful process of cutting the flesh using thorns and knife and creating a pattern like a form of art. It is a sign of social status in the tribe. For women, it’s like a transition to adulthood. Men in a tribe find women with scars sensual and attractive.
Japan – “Teeth are always in style.”
There was a trend in Japan called Yaeba which means multi layered or double tooth. Japanese men find crooked teeth in women attractive and childlike. There’s this procedure to get your own fake yaeba called tsuke yaeba or attached snaggle-tooth to achieve the “yaeba look” that will make you look more younger.
