Beauty and Globalization

Allison Terlizzi

            The readings this week all discussed how the concept beauty has become globalized and universalized in today’s world. When we look at pageants and the markets for beautification products and surgeries, it shows us how obsessed we and all other cultures have become with making ourselves beautiful. What is even more surprising is that globally, all other cultures have subscribed to the Western conceptions of beauty. Most of the money for beautification is actually being spent on making women and men look more “Western” or white, and thus more beautiful.

            Evelyn Nakano Glenn’s article, “Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners” discusses the process of skin lightening used to make one more “desirable and attractive”, rather than “less intelligent, trustworthy and attractive”, attributes that darker skin tones transcribe (Glenn, 281). She says, “skin color is a form of symbolic capital that affects, if not determines one’s life chances (282). If you are born white, you have more capital and thus have more life chances, but this is entirely based on Western conceptions of beauty. It was interesting to learn about women in Japan, China, and Korea wore ‘white face’ as well as products that do not specify that they are whiteners, but are whitening products, in addition to the ones that are labeled as whitening products (292). Glenn says that skin lighteners attract women most acutely, because more it at stake for women because they are judged heavily on their appearance (282). The skin whitening industry is booming because the West promoted the “white is right mentality” and women have internalized it across the globe.

            Glenn’s article connected with the article, “China’s New Faces” by Atillio Jesus because women in China are getting cosmetic surgery to look less Chinese by putting a crease in the eyelids to make them seem rounder and getting leg lengthening surgery. One of the main differences between Western reasons for surgery and Chinese women’s is that they see this as an investment in their future by giving them an edge in the job market, or to find a more successful husband. We must look at where our definition of beauty comes from to determine what is beautiful.

            “Off Runway, Brazilian Beauty Goes Beyond Blond” by Alexei Barrionuevo writes about how models from Brazil are mostly of German and Italian decent and are light skinned. He says that the San Paolo Fashion Week was forced by local prosecutors to make sure 10% of models are of African decent. Because many Brazilian models are white, it creates a disconnect of what Brazilians consider beautiful and what they send overseas. Similarly in “Globalization of Beauty Makes Slimness Trendy”, Normitsu Onishi writes about the cultural shift in Nigeria that has accepted skinny women as beautiful. By sending a slim model, Ms. Darego, from Nigeria to the pageant, Most Beautiful Girl of 2001, the Western quality of beauty, “slimness” became an acceptable trait for Nigerian women to have. Women have aspired to become slim based on Western conceptions of what is beautiful.

            Lastly, the articles from “Making Miss India Miss World” by Susan Dewey discussed how women play in embodying national identity. These pageants show how women in the areas the contestants were from internalized the white is right mentality, as Glenn had examined as well. Additionally, just as Agbani Darego had gone to the pageant for Most Beautiful Girl as a standard of Western beauty, the contests have to conform to Western standards in order to win. Dewey states, “The concept of regularizing beauty is both frightening and fascinating, as it speaks to deep-seated concerns voided by critics of globalization (Dewey, 158). The reality is, if one does not conform to Western standards of beauty, one cannot win.