Beauty (The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World 52-53)

"International beauty contests promote and export white, Western standard of
beauty. Globalization is accelerating the adoption of these standards around the
world." (52)

When I was younger, I used to watch the broadcast of beauty pageants like Miss World and Miss Universe with my mom. I would always end up wishing I looked like a pageant contestant and would find myself putting more effort into the way I looked in the days after watching these contests. Now that I think about it, I wonder why in the world I would go and do that. I bought into the ideas of beauty that I was watching on television! I wanted to be thinner, stand taller, have my hair done, bat the longest lashes I could, and pretty much look like the girls in the pageant. The media, world wide, portrays these kind of traits as desirable and then it becomes the norm when we think about beauty.

Standards exist everywhere. When I watch TFC (The Filipino Channel) with my mom at home, I can't help but notice the way the women are portrayed. All of the dramas on that channel show women who have long , shiny, straight hair, very fair skin and are thin. Many of the older women in my family tune into this channel and I've noticed how they view lighter skin and straight hair as more beautiful. I naturally have a darker skin tone and wavy hair but I find myself staying out of the sun when I can and straightening my hair so that they can view me as beautiful too. Then, it confuses me when people admire me for being tan and having wavier hair. Maybe it's just me, but I just can't help feeling like I can never keep up with these things.