Perceptions of Beauty By: Kinsey Wilson

“Body Art as Visual Language”  Body art as a visual representation of beauty in different cultures  “Beautiful” has a different meaning in every culture  The extremes that some cultures will go to be considered attractive  Examples: tattoos and piercings shaping or plastic surgery.

“Leaky”  1990s more people were considered obese than malnourished, except for in Brazil.  Brazilian women took pills (as well as exercised and dieted) that caused fat to be “leaked” from their bodies  Money + appearances = importance  The whiter you are/more plastic surgery you have, the richer you are/seem  Being thin means you’re rich

Brazil  More plastic surgeons per capita  2001 – 35,000 cosmetic surgeries in a population of 170 million  60% of working population earns less than 150 U.S. dollars per month  “the power of scalpels”, “the magic of cosmetic surgeries”, and the “march toward scientific progress”  Popular magazines – Plastic Surgery and Beauty, and Plastic Surgery

Afghanistan  Burqa—a law!  Curves  Attractive face, long hair, jewelry, henna tattoos  Face more looked at than body Fiji  Eating disorders  Greeted with food as gifts  Existent pro-curves movements  Full bodies – symbols status and power

Jamaica  Curvy  Chicken pills given to skinny girls South Africa  Eating disorders (1990s)  Pro-body movements since 1990s

China  Forbidden to own hair brush during People’s Republic  Surgery for the rich  Miss Plastic Surgery beauty pageants Other Countries  Japan: Nightingale Droppings – beauty recipe tradition  Kayan tribe – heavy neck rings used to attract a husband  Neck rings: the more added, the more beautiful

India  Jewelry (worn at weddings especially)  Colorful Saris  Homemade remedies Ethiopia  Karo tribe: scars on stomach to attract husbands  Introduced in childhood  Once “completed”symbolizes ability to bear children and to get married

Western World  Dark-skinned  Skinny/fitness  Implants  Plastic surgery  Dieting  Cosmetics  Hair extensions/color/perf ection  Perfect, white, straight teeth  Fashion

Videos  Rudene: XJBXw XJBXw  Lip plates: EJ-4 EJ-4  Kayan Tribe: msA msA

Discussion Questions What makes someone “beautiful”? Is plastic surgery playing God?

Quotes  “What ever nature has not given, the knife can solve.”  “A 24 hour working lady if possible, who never complaints, who is up to date with the latest fashion trends, is a fighter, considers herself a “Superwoman” because she can achieve whatever she desires, all by herself.” world  “Using 15-year-old girls to represent the ideal woman makes me think that a woman of 25, 30, 40 years old looks at those billboards and at a magazine and is looking at girls … disguised as women promoting clothing for women, you can’t ever go back to being 15.” –Poran

Facts  The average woman is 5 foot 4 inches and 140 lbs compared to the average model being 5 foot 11 inches tall and 115 lbs making models being 98% thinner than American women  80% of women are unhappy with their appearances  91% of women through a survey on a college campus said they tried dieting to control their weight gain  25% of men and 45% of women are on diets  7 million girls/women and a million boys/men have eating disorders

More Quotes…  64% of the people that polled said that mixed races are the “epitome of beauty”. there-ever-again-be-an-all-american-beauty/  71% of women and 67% of men said that there’s no such thing as an All-American look  Blond-hair blue-eyed  Dark, sultry look in a time span of 20 years