By: Farrah Bui Turcotte, Grade 9

I was intrigued at this topic the other day while channel surfing and finally found myself watching The Oprah Winfrey Show. Today’s society focuses so much on appearance and it’s different around the world. What we may think is beautiful here in Canada, may be totally the opposite in another country. Beauty truly and really is in the eye of the beholder.

In Japan, Japanese women view having flawless, smooth, and fair skin as beautiful. Some will go to amazing lengths to achieve this. They would drink collagen mixed with water (O_O), and it is offered in the food at certain restaurants. The Japanese have many different types of lotions and creams as well. Some Japanese women also mix collagen with soap and wash it on their faces. Where can you find collagen here in Canada? Well, you might know that Canadians sometimes have collagen injected into them, not physically eaten. We have collagen injections for the lips and also Botox. In Japan, if your skin is darker and you have acne it is seen as a turn off. Many of us have the occasional zit, and you might wonder how the heck the Japanese can keep their skin so flawless. A lot of Japanese women are trained at a very young age (as young as five) to drink and eat collagen. I hear it doesn’t exactly taste that great.

Heading off to Iran, women in Iran cover up most of their bodies, so the only visible part of them are their faces. Because of this, some Iranian women will go to the extreme to have a perfect nose on their face. The amount of rhinoplastic procedures (nose jobs) has skyrocketed in the last little while in Iran. Iranian women will sometimes judge each other based on if they’ve had a nose job or not. You are seen as classy and elegant if you’ve had this procedure done. One woman actually left her surgery bandages on for TWO YEARS (OMG!) after her nose job, just so that people could see she actually had one.

Now continuing on to Mauritania – what is seen as attractive over there is full-figured women and thin men. Being larger is embraced and encouraged. Some women will eat and eat and eat until they are so full, that they actually vomit. Then they’ll eat some more. Virtually all of the food there is greasy and fattening, so it’s rather difficult to eat healthy in Mauritania. But because of eating such a fattening diet and being overweight, many women in Mauritania face various health risks like high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Many women need medical attention and pay visits to the doctor on a regular basis because of their weight. However, they still continue on believing that being “curvier” is beautiful. If you are a female and you are on the slimmer side, you are seen as sick. But it’s nice to see at least they embrace something different: being curvier.

Anyway, you might sometimes wonder what’s beautiful and what’s not. Face it, at one point or another we sometimes may fuss over our appearance. But people, you need to understand that it’s not always about looking a certain way or trying to look like one of those airbrushed people in the magazines. Personally, I don’t have a definition for beauty. It varies for different people, as you can see from Japan, Iran, and Mauritania. HELLOOOO! Being beautiful is about being happy. It’s not about being a certain weight or having a certain haircut. It can be a good thing to care about your appearance as along as you’re happy and don’t take it too far (i.e. put your health at risk). Whatever is right for you and your happiness is all that matters. Long story short: Just chill out and love who you are. =)

Comments from the Word site:

Jessica Luu – Feb 9, 2009

I went to Japan during Spring break, and a lot of the girls there had a fake tan. I’m guessing that the traditional beauty lies with pale and clear complexions. But in modern days, using a tan spray is just another step forward with beauty (Although…I have to admit, they put WAY too much on, so it looked extremely weird).

Kitokito – Feb 11, 2009

Im Japan that overtaning and blonding/bleaching of the hair is a popular street style called ‘ganguro’, or something like that. They do that in order to try and pull off a cali girl look for whatever reason. =]
OH ! and I have a theory that light skin might be admirable or desired because it’s an easier pallet or canvas to pair colors with. Whereas when you’re darker you may have a harder time looking extremely good in a certain color.

But in the end ‘beauty’s in the eye of the beholder’

Jenn Lin – Feb 25, 2009

It’s funny when you mentioned the nose jobs in Iran… because in North America, especially if your name is Ashlee Simpson, once someone takes a closer look at your nose and sees you’ve had a nose job, it’s everywhere! Same thing if someone has had breast implants… you’re not considered ‘classy’ or ‘elegant.’