Western Influence on Beauty
How do the Western standards of beauty define themselves and are possibly redefined in this text?
Western preferences and ideals have long held strong global impacts on many topics, and beauty is just one example. Ideals surrounding skin color, body shapes, the ways people dress, etc. are all heavily dependent on ones culture and personal preferences; however, can cultures be influenced by other cultures? When specifically addressing topics of skin color, there are endless examples of oppression and superiority complexes involved, and Montez's text illustrates some of this. She focuses on various preferences surrounding appearance, dedicating chapters to each topic; however, we identified a similar theme throughout. An emphasis on skin color.
Whiteness seems to be a larger focus with regards to beauty ideals. Although Montez discusses several section of ones body, coloring carried throughout. If lighter, whiter skin is the epitome of beauty, what is everything else? People, women more specifically, are pushed to go through every possible method in order to reach these set ideals, an example of this is skin bleaching. The lighter skin appeal created from Western standards of beauty has spread to globally, embedding itself within other cultures."The forehead white ... the neck should be white ... the whiteness and delicacy of its skin should ... go on improving to the bosom; the skin in general should be white, properly tinged with red, and a look of thriving health in it ... the arm should be white ... the bosom should be white" (Montez 21-22).
Similarly, Western ideals and standards of beauty are reinforced through magaznies and movies, and fashion and makeup, all illustrating an extremely specific body type. In this image above, although there may be a bit of diversity regarding skin color, their bodies are all pretty much identical. The perpetuation of Western ideals are carried through"The bosom should be white and charming, neither too large nor too small; the breasts equal in roundness and firmness, rising gently, and very distinctly separated ... the sides should be rather long and the hips wider than the shoulders, and go down rounding and lessening gradually to the knee" (Montez 22).