#supervenus

“WARNING: This film is not for the weakhearted. It takes a tame sketch of a nude woman and cuts, tweaks and snips at it until it resembles a zombie-like figure. The plastic gloves, scalpel and precise trimming of body hair only up the ante of this strange and captivating commentary on the impossibility of female body expectations” (Brooks).

Work Cited:

I have included the video “Supervenus” made by the animator Frederic Doazan. Katherine Brooks of the Huffington Post describes the video as managing to “capture all the horror and grotesque idolatry wrapped up in Western beauty standards... in just under two and a half minutes” (Brooks). Her article was written in 2014 seven months after the short film was shown at festivals starting in February. This video illustrates the Western beauty standards as being an hour glass frame, large breasts, thin thighs and arms, blue eyes, no gray hair, and tall in stature. I needed to pull the ideas of Western beauty standards from this video because it is almost impossible to get a straight answer from Google, whether it be a general search or on their Google Scholar, about the definition of Western beauty standards.

I was also able to find an article from Buzzfeed featuring the venture of U.K. based online doctor service. They had taken a picture of a young woman of an average, healthy size and sent the photo to photoshop experts in 18 different countries. The adjusted photograph from America shows very similar results to the standards based on my observations from Doazan’s short film. This classic idea of Western beauty does not seem to have changed over the years, but there people challenging and investigating different beauty standards.

Grace Neutral has worked with i-D to investigate the beauty standards in Korea and Brazil. While in those countries, Neutral interviews people following those beauty standards and those who challenge those beauty standards for videos that are now posted on i-D’s YouTube channel. Neutral will also immerses herself into he beauty cultures of each country, even though she does not even fit in with Korea’s or Brazil’s beauty standards.

Beauty standards seem to all be derived off of the Western ideal based off of Neutral’s and i-D’s findings. It seems interesting that the beauty standards from around the world may be based on the standard of a country with people that look nothing like the locals. There are people that challenge the beauty standards, abroad and here in America, but this Western beauty standard has been around for years influencing generations. There is hope when people who look like Grace Neutral and redefine beauty like her become popular due to social media. Neutral is not the only person who looks different and has a large presence in media. Kat Von D from LA Ink is still a popular person in media and has had tattoos all over since she caught the attention of the public eye. Von D even has her own make-up line, creating her own definition of beauty for people to apply to their faces everyday.

Will Beauty standards change? Only time will tell.

Works Cited:

Brooks, Katherine. “Everything Wrong With Western Beauty Standards, In One Horrifying Animation (NSFW)”. The Huffington Post. N.p., 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.