Culture impacts beauty ideals greatly. A culture is heavily influenced by traditions from their ancestors and physical, feminine beauty practices that are made to achieve a certain ideal is no different. In regions like China, Africa, and Indonesia, practices are usually traditional and associated with dutiful participation. Failure to do so, in most cases, results in rejection from society and labeled quite harshly. In Westernized regions, plastic surgery is usually an independent choice in pursument of a more idealized image.
The feminine beauty practices can be connected to a woman’s value and self-worth as a prospective bride. A well-known beauty practice in China is the act of foot-binding. As told by the author, footbinding would demonstrate a woman’s personal discipline, obedience, and worth particularly for marriage (See, 2005). This written piece uses the interpretive theory as the story is told by the character and her own experience in this practice, including how it had been detrimental to females’ health. Feminine beauty practices can be very dangerous as one out of ten girls die from complications of footbinding in China (See, 2005). Many families still perform this practice as they fear to be considered poor and their daughters worthless. Families take on the risk of possible fatality in order to uphold the standard of beauty, worth, and marriageability. If footbinding was outlawed immediately, the worth of women would be changed in which females will not be able to show their strength and endurance with their footbinding as justification. A new practice may arise in order to show women’s endurance, strength, and marriageability. Abrupt outlaw will change perspective on women most definitely.
Feminine beauty practices can have connection to spiritual and religious ideals. In the case of Muslim females in West Java, female genital mutilation is a practice done right after birth. This is a common ritual in association with Muslims. A study showed that the heavier the population of Muslims in a region, the higher the rate of female circumcision where 94.7% of interviewed females were circumcised in a region with more Muslim conformity than the comparative 43.5% of interviewed females in a region with less Muslim conformity. Thus proving that this act is more common in the Muslim community as a physical indicator of Islamic faith on the body. In the region of West Java, female genital cutting is seen as a parental obligation as a way to physically permit Muslim parents to fulfill this responsibility in creating a moral person (Newland, 2006). In performing this circumcision, females will be cleansed before God/Allah and the materials used in the ritual circumcision will attract good spirits and repel bad spirits (Newland, 2006). The article uses the interpretive theory in explaining female circumcision as a way to allow children to be socially accepted, particularly being explained as a process of separation from the mother and into the Muslim community (Newland, 2006). Abrupt outlaw of this practice would leave Islamic communities in Indonesia very torn as this is a crucial way to initiate social inclusion in the Islamic community.
In Africa, there is also prevalence of the female genital mutilation having connection to the “feminine” and “masculine” ideals of a male or female. A West African ethnic group practices female genital mutilation to rid females of the “masculinity” they carry (Ahmadu, 2005). This article uses the feminine theory as most explanations in performing female circumcision is to control the female. Ahmadu attempts to give others who have experienced this ritual a voice and how they actually feel. In explaining many victims of this practice, stereotypes and myths like the fabrications that all circumcised women are sexually repressed and uncircumcised women are promiscuous (Ahmadu, 2005) is debunked in this article. Most beliefs about this practice were generally challenged as women are affected differently. Female circumcision was explained as deeply rooted with major influence from patriarchy and sexism fueling opposition against women on both sides of the spectrum – circumcised and not circumcised. Outlaw of this practice in Africa may take time to majorly eradicate, despite effort in awareness and eradication by anti-FGM campaigners.
While these feminine beauty practices being centered more around marriage, religion, or control, a more common idea in the Westernized world in altering feminine beauty is plastic surgery. Plastic surgery is the altering of one’s body part(s) through surgery usually done to enhance their appearance. There are different takes on this idea as some people feel as though they have to get plastic surgery in order to “fit in” or feel “normal” in society (Leach, 2009). There is some similarity as there is plastic surgery to alter the female genitals though it is in a less traditional sense. Plastic surgery is seen as a way for others to feel more comfortable in their own body and is done as an independent decision instead of having it be forced upon the woman as an obligation or duty associated with religion, marriage, etc. Though some women feel the need to get plastic surgery because they feel a sort of pressure from outwardly sources like the media, peers, etc. (Leach, 2009).The film is seen to use feminist theory/perspective as it focuses majorly on how women go through measures in order to attain or upkeep feminine beauty standards and how femininity and/or beauty is perceived in society.
Whether it be plastic surgery, female genital mutilation, or footbinding, there is always going to be some sort of pressure for women to look a certain way. These practices do have some similarity as they are ways in which women in particular societies achieve some sort of idealistic image. In abrupt outlaw of any of these practices, there would be refusal and shock to do so. Illegal procedures may ensue further risking the lives of women. Some of these feminine beauty ideals are embedded into cultures and religions very deeply, so it will be very difficult to achieve full eradication for any one of these beauty practices.
Ahmadu, F. “‘Ain’t I a Woman Too?’ Challenging Myths of Sexual Dysfunction in Circumcised Women.” 2005. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B9RweMkPHPY88QIOhBMzAbOBB0yLUcTI/view.
Leach, H. “The Perfect Vagina.” 2009. https://vimeo.com/groups/145051/videos/4704237.
Newland, L. “Female circumcision: Muslim identities and zero tolerance policies in rural West Java.” 2006. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Zvyan5wrgqTtCRdPWAJacmlsBdO_xR66.
See, L. Chapter 1 – “Footbinding.” Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. 2005. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UJC0aSu1iEUJZCSa8bCcMj1unY3Q4Wvx/view.
I think that you described each of these practices well, and I appreciate that you took the time to consider the pain that these women in various cultures are willing to endure in order to achieve their standard of beauty. When I was first reading about these practices, I could not fathom that women were willing to risk death even in order to be more “beautiful” than whoever she stands beside. I quickly learned, however, that I needed to understand these practices from the native perspectives. Female genital mutilation, for example, is culturally seen as necessary if a woman wants to be as feminine as possible. Because of this standard, many parents would never even think twice about performing this procedure on their daughter. I agree with your thought that abruptly outlawing any of these practices would not change the mentality of the native peoples. These things are deeply embedded into their culture, and so they will either find a way to secretly practice, such as many Chinese women after the legal termination of footbinding, or find a perhaps equally painful alternative.
I understand how you came to the conclusion that beauty standards in the West are motivated by individualistic choice, and how in other places beauty is based on tradition. It’s a bit more complicated than that, in the US we also follow traditional styles of beauty standards, but we don’t always see them for what they are. A good example of this is boy’s circumcision, a lot of times we do it because we think it’s healthier and because an uncut penis looks weird, but really it isn’t and penis’s look weird with or without the foreskin. We can also see individually motivated beauty standards in the East as well, in Korea plastic surgery is immensely popular, and in a lot of Asian countries skin bleaching or using skin whiteners is very common and it’s not necessarily motivated by tradition.