#realsht

Perez, Andrew Joseph P.

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"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a very powerful statement and it is very true in our generation. In our world today, the definition of being considered beautiful varies between every person. People are influenced by what society describes as beautiful. The media today presents our society with models of unrealistic bodies. We spend so much of our money and time trying to satisfy what society wants that we start to see ourselves or others as what is presented to us physically rather than seeing what is beautiful inside. 

 In America, they see beauty in bronzed skin, long hair, and a face free of wrinkles. In other parts of the world, the opposite may be desirable. Just as the Americans have their own standards of beauty, countries all around the world have different ideas of what beauty is to them. 

 While people care too much on removing scars from their bodies, Ethiopia's Karo tribe creates them. For their eyes, beauty is literally skin deep. Their scars are seen as beautiful and attractive to their partners. For the Masai Tribe in Kenya, long and overstretched earlobes and shaved heads are what they see as beautiful. In Asian countries such as Japan, Thailand and China, pale skin is a sign of attractiveness. People try to avoid the sun at all costs in order to keep their pale complexion. Whitening products are also in the market for Asians. While the Americans perceive being thin as beautiful, there are people in this world who think not. Western African cultures find women who are overweight to be beautiful. To them, the more the stretch marks, the better. Instead of wearing extravagant jewelry to attract the attention of people, women from Indian use nose rings, bindis, and hennas to make themselves beautiful for celebrations or festivals. 

 We cannot deny that beauty is an obsession. Preach it as it may, beauty is not skin deep. No matter where you come from, appearance defines who we are and it shows that we, people who are desperate to meet the standards set by our society or be regarded as set apart, will go through any means necessary, whether it be painful or not, and deny who we truly are just so we can be accepted.

References: 

Smith. E, (n.d.) How Beauty Is Defined Around the World. Retrieved June 29, 2016, from