Monday, May 03, 2010
The Price of Beauty
Has anyone watched Jessica Simpson's, The Price of Beauty? I found the episode filmed in Uganda particularly enlightening. In the village Simpson visits, fat is beautiful, and women are fattened up before their weddings. Of interest is not just the cultural acceptance/value of fat, but how hard women have to work to gain weight before they wed, the polar opposite of Western dieting culture. Check out clips from the episode here. Reactions?
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5 comments:
It's all about money. Obesity is a thing of the poor in America, wheras the destitute are starving in Africa and only the rich can afford so much food. Looking rich remains important in either culture
I've seen some of it, and the Uganda one seemed interesting--just like in the U.S. where some women diet to the point where they have to hurt themselves, this girl had to put on weight past the point where it was feasible. That is, it wasn't just about having fun and eating what she wanted--it was goal oriented. And having to drink all that calorie rich stuff looked really awful. I guess the beauty standard sucks no matter where you are if it's a standard--it's one thing if it's just something you can choose to do for fun.
I'm just going to second what Chuckles said. There are standards of beauty for women in every culture, and they all have to do with wealth and what is attainable only to the few.
I look forward to the day when womens' bodies are no longer commodities to be used in trade, as a sales pitch, or as something to be ogled by others. To a time when our bodies are our own, and no one else's business.
I second that of chuckelsmcgee and azusmom. While I appreciate Ms. Simpson's attempts to reveal the standards for beauty in other cultures, I'm not sure that they're much different than that of the US. It would be nice to see women of different color, size, stature, etc living in one place, and being happy with their bodies.
I have to say that Chuckles has a very keen observation about one reason for the pursuit of beauty. In my many travels I saw that south east asians, hispanics are peculiar with lighter and whiter skin because it represents airconditioned houses and white collar job. While whites are more concerned of getting a tan because it represents being well-traveled.
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