This is a really great video showing how mannequins are changing, along with Venezuelan women's ideas about their bodies, culminating in a trend of plastic surgery. I find it interesting how different the "perfect body" is in Venezuela compared to the U.S., but how similar the conception of needing to conform is.
While the Venezuelan ideal emphasizes large breasts and a big butt, boob jobs soar as women seek out larger and larger breasts (note the woman at the end, saying that she will probably get more than one surgery so that she can increase her breast size further) and more perfect bodies.
The man speaking in this video, who is part of the Miss Venezuela pageant, takes pride in the "perfect woman" rather than the natural one. It is not her inner beauty that matters- he says that inner beauty is merely something made up by ugly women to justify themselves. Nor is it her natural beauty- he talks about the need for women to conform to the ideal he's created and finds no benefit in staying natural; artificial is better if it makes the woman "perfect".
It's alarming to think that people like this can shape the concept of what an entire country of people view as beautiful. Indeed, the women in this video agree they need surgery. And looking in the U.S., it makes sense that boob jobs, liposuction, diets, waxing, threading, facials, manicures, implanted eyelashes and a million other beauty procedures exist to help us fulfill our ideal.
As an American, I think that we can never be thin enough (until we're too thin- "Oh, she needs help," says the person who told you you're fat six months ago), our breasts need to be large (this is inherently a contradiction, since breasts are composed of mostly fat), and our skin and hair care need to reflect our youth (brazilian waxes, flawless baby skin, long, fluttery eyelashes). Our concept of beauty is just as flawed and impossible to reach.
On the upside, looking at a similar problem elsewhere, though with a different vision of "perfect," emphasizes how subjective beauty really is. In the past, fat women were considered beautiful because it displayed their wealth (since they could eat enough and do very little physical labor). In Venezuela, the emphasis on a curvier woman contradicts the American dainty woman ideal. So if beauty is really subjective and cultural, we have the ability to recreate what we call beautiful, and that gives us all the power.
While the Venezuelan ideal emphasizes large breasts and a big butt, boob jobs soar as women seek out larger and larger breasts (note the woman at the end, saying that she will probably get more than one surgery so that she can increase her breast size further) and more perfect bodies.
The man speaking in this video, who is part of the Miss Venezuela pageant, takes pride in the "perfect woman" rather than the natural one. It is not her inner beauty that matters- he says that inner beauty is merely something made up by ugly women to justify themselves. Nor is it her natural beauty- he talks about the need for women to conform to the ideal he's created and finds no benefit in staying natural; artificial is better if it makes the woman "perfect".
It's alarming to think that people like this can shape the concept of what an entire country of people view as beautiful. Indeed, the women in this video agree they need surgery. And looking in the U.S., it makes sense that boob jobs, liposuction, diets, waxing, threading, facials, manicures, implanted eyelashes and a million other beauty procedures exist to help us fulfill our ideal.
As an American, I think that we can never be thin enough (until we're too thin- "Oh, she needs help," says the person who told you you're fat six months ago), our breasts need to be large (this is inherently a contradiction, since breasts are composed of mostly fat), and our skin and hair care need to reflect our youth (brazilian waxes, flawless baby skin, long, fluttery eyelashes). Our concept of beauty is just as flawed and impossible to reach.
On the upside, looking at a similar problem elsewhere, though with a different vision of "perfect," emphasizes how subjective beauty really is. In the past, fat women were considered beautiful because it displayed their wealth (since they could eat enough and do very little physical labor). In Venezuela, the emphasis on a curvier woman contradicts the American dainty woman ideal. So if beauty is really subjective and cultural, we have the ability to recreate what we call beautiful, and that gives us all the power.
Thanks to Upworthy for the reference!
Those mannequin boobs are awful.
ReplyDeletethis was very powerful to read
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