Beauty and Culture Essay

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Introduction

Beauty also called prettiness, loveliness or comeliness is a characteristic of a person or idea that provides a experience of pleasure or satisfaction. It is a function of a culture. Beauty can be seen everywhere from paintings to magazines and television. It is all about trying ideally (Lam 1).

Magazines have been used as a media of showing off beauty. In addition, a lot of spending goes in the so called beauty preparations. Hence, beauty and money are two inseparable aspects. Most people who deal with beauty products have been pinpointed as being extremely rich in this current society.

Varied Beauty Perspective in Spain, America and China

The essence of beauty is not similar for every culture. Different cultures have different perspectives of beauty. For the Americans, the ideal beauty and world’s highest models have been predictably white and blonde.

The white, blonde and blue –eyed look has been declining for some time as the cosmetic industry is adapting to the growing markets such as China and Latin America (Roncato 1). In the United States, to be beautiful is to be attractive, differential, unaggressive, emotional, nurturing and to be concerned with people and relationships. On the other hand, China describes beauty based on facial aspect.

China began appreciating western brands but has recently reverted to the local taste. Spain, on the other hand, has adapted the ultra option for the beauty scene just like in the U.S. They describe beauty for women by the so-called size-six appearance. This though has resulted into a saga as the government tried to prevent eating disorders by banning certain beauty focused advertisements. The US and Spanish criterion for beauty is thinness.

Beauty is a construct that varies from culture to culture and changes over time. In the U.S, beauty is constructed in terms of the bodily parts while in China beauty constitutes a pretty face. While Chinese are having their cosmetic industry growing, the U.S and Spain are concentrating on the fashion industry in terms of clothing. In china porcelain skin is valued while in America it’s more of the body parts, curves and the ultimate size and shape thing (Lam 1).

Beauty for sure varies from culture to culture. That is to say different countries use the so-called beautiful for different purposes. Most magazines in these two countries have demonstrated women’s role in the society as sexual objects rather than being given respect in the society as their male counterparts (Wood 1).

Although the men have also shown increasingly more attraction to exposing themselves in magazines, they are not as frequently as compared to the woman’s beauty exposure. On the other hand, Chinese beauty is not mainly for sexual pursuit but rather the women are represented as decorous and their clothing is always less sexually suggestive.

Conclusion

The constriction of beauty advertised in various magazines from various cultures shows variability among different cultures. However, the essence of globalization might change this perspective. As much as the media it trying to paint a good picture of the basic use of magazines in various countries, globalization tends to paint a wrong picture of the whole matter. Most people believe that the ideal nature of beauty is in the context of the U.S. This is not true.

Different cultures have their own representation of beauty. What is influencing the other non western culture is the issue of media globalization. This has attracted various forms of interaction that has influenced other cultures. Although this might be so for the present perspective, originality still counts. The preservation of culture is ideal for every group of people which helps to identify each culture by its uniqueness.

Works Cited

Lam, Derek. “Beauty in China”. Vogue Daily 9th Nov. 2010: Print.

Roncato, Stefano. “The Golden story”. Magazine for Fashion 28th Oct. 2011: 63. Print.

Wood, Zoe. “Changing Faces: Cosmetic Firms are Forced to Find a New Image as Beauty Truly Goes Global”. The Observer 3rd July 2011: Print.

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IvyPanda. (2018, December 27). Beauty and Culture. https://ivypanda.com/essays/beauty-and-culture/

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"Beauty and Culture." IvyPanda, 27 Dec. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/beauty-and-culture/.

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IvyPanda. (2018) 'Beauty and Culture'. 27 December.

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IvyPanda. 2018. "Beauty and Culture." December 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/beauty-and-culture/.

1. IvyPanda. "Beauty and Culture." December 27, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/beauty-and-culture/.


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