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Q: Is the preception of beauty in China propagated or natural.
In my experience most local men have a common standard definition of beauty,
I realize that culture influences opinions but I feel that Chinese culture is defined more by what the media dictates as the perfect partner much more then western culture (I know this may be hard to believe).
What do you think?
10 years 10 weeks ago in Relationships - China
Can you cite *one* place where beauty is not a social construction ^^ Weight, silhouette, skin tan, etc. In society that favors conventions and visible conformity to them, beauty canons are narrowly defined.
That said, I met a fair number Chinese girls who hardly give a damn about the beauty canons, they just dress like they want, and won't sacrifice all things to keep a fair skin and a pre-pubescent silhouette. Those girls tends to be cool to hang out with ^^
Dude, Monkey. Isn't what you both are talking about, what is on top of beauty ? The thick layer of makeup that some perceive as beautiful and others not is surely a cultural phenomena, most likely dictated by the collective soul that is the media. I don't think there is much difference between parts of the world on this, what media portrays is different, but I've seen no signs the impact is different
It is possible to define what beauty is at a lover level, what makes a woman attractive. E.g. a symmetrical face versus a cross eyed, toothless face. As far as I know these lower traits of beauty is based on what nature tells us about breeding partners rather than anything else.
DrMonkey:
Yes, you have the darwinist point of view : we select traits in partners that are likely to increase the odds for our offspring. So for women, it includes a lot of traits about the ability to have children and raise them : markers of youth and fertility. Firm breast, youthful face, waist line, etc. (Imagine this said with the voice of Dr. Strangelove, it's great.)
But we also are social animals, so even if we stick to a purely evolutionary point of view, social constructions are part of the game. Typically, a higher social positions increases the odds of good things for your offsprings. So visible markers of high social positions are favored. In an agricultural society with people that have a strong reaction to tanning, that would include a fair skin, for instance ;) There's an equivalent to gene in social constructions : memes, studied in epigenetics.
Just like everything else, their tastes in beauty are usually a mix of rural obsessions any civilized country got rid of a few hundred years ago:
- white skin (because it means you aren't a farmer), chubby men (because it means wealth)
slowly fading behind the most idiotic stereotypes modern consumerist systems try to sell (notice the word sell, because it's effectively all for sale):
- big boobs, big lips, layers of make up they don't even know how to put on the right way, put on top of that fake eyelids, fake hair, fake everything you don't have money to scalp away...
Talk about natural.
Scandinavian:
Hey, there is NOTHING wrong with a set of big knockers !!!!
louischuahm:
Scan@ haven't you seen? Even knockers and booties are fake!
