In your opinion, does Western society have too high beauty standards?

Question

This is something I noticed at least on GaG. Like, looks are most important thing to Westerners for everything.

Whereas in our (or any South Asian society: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc) society, the beauty standards are not as high as it is in Western society. Sure, fairness cream industry is big here. People just have pretty simple ideas :fair skin, not-out-of-shape body, decent physical features, no hair on armpit, legs and arms. When it comes to dating preference and such.

To look at West you see dating preference: no stretch marks, no hair anywhere except head and eyebrows, eyes of specific color, specific hair color, perky and perfect breasts, no frizzy hair and even thigh gap, even skin tone the list goes on.

So I want to know if it's exclusively GaG thing

Inspired by my answer to Cubstershura ' s question

Updates

+1 y

Update: I forgot to mention the standard for guys.
Westerners seem to preference towards muscular men.

Whereas women here (and presumably in rest of the south asia) prefer men that are lanky.

CubsterShura · Accepted Answer

Haha true, we have standards too but it's not as high as in the West.

Over here there is a preference for lighter skin, and us dark-skinned girls really have it hard. Literally my ex used to tell me I'd look prettier if I was pale, and his mother hates dark girls. -.-

But I can't imagine being picked on because of my body shape and stretch marks or cellulite. Your body is fine as long as you're not dangerously skinny or morbidly obese. The only thing that is a bit of a craze is hips (NOT butt).

Another thing that's a big fuss is height, like people have very specific height preferences and if you're taller or shorter than that then you'll be in big trouble.

People like long hair, that can be easily grown out although I wish people minded their own business than telling me not to cut my hair. :'( I just find long hair cumbersome.

No one cares about body hair except in armpit and pubes. That's a religion thing tho, because in Islam it is compulsory to remove or at least trim armpit hair and pubes, ideally every weekend.

We call light colored eyes cats eye and most people don't like them, but it's not a big fuss. Girls care about eye size more than guys do, at least in my observation. Lotsa girls envy my big eyes but I never saw guys judging a girl for small eyes, they do compliment mine decently.

In conclusion, if you are blessed with fair skin and a good height, you're good. If you're unfortunate in either of these, then life is gonna be a real hell. There are true stories of girls committing suicide because their in-laws always pointed on their dark skin or short height, and I've personally considered bleaching my skin too.

deraz24 · Accepted Answer

I think everyone's beauty standards seem different to other countries, bc they are. people do things according to the people of their location and what they're accustomed to. For some reason people wanna either look like dolls or get "thick" lol. Like people in america won't do what people in Tokyo, India, Africa, Italy, France etc will do. I think that's the beauty of it tho. This show called "states of undress" on Viceland explains this so well. This girl goes to diff countries and explores diff cultures on what they feel is beautiful, good show

SteppingOnRoses · Accepted Answer

hmm i think you are not having a realistic grasp of western culture... we are not that demanding

guys usually dont care about stretch marks...

also they dont mind if we have some hair on the arms.. even the genital are can have a bit of hair...

other than this i think the most important is being fit.

about eye colour hair colour etc... that depends on personal preference...

but i think it is not as demanding as you are thinking it is

where did you hear this from? mayb from internet or movies im guessing?

YourFutureEx · Accepted Answer

"People just have pretty simple ideas :fair skin, not-out-of-shape body, decent physical features, no hair on armpit, legs and arms. When it comes to dating preference and such."
HOLY FUCK!!! I AM DOOMED 😵 😲

"Whereas women here (and presumably in rest of the south asia) prefer men that are lanky."
OH MY GOD! I WANNA DIE!!! 😵 😲 (not literally, don't remove my opinion under 'suicidal tendencies', G@G :P )

____________________

No, it's just a G@G thing. Here, you'll have to "write" your preferences and when you do that, they sound hyperbolized. Like if someone asks me what do I like, I will easily reply "A 36 inched ass", but in reality, I have never been with such girl, in fact, they all had smaller booty than me ;_;

Plus, when you come online, you tend to speak up brutally and openly. But in reality, a lot of other factors play role when it comes to partner selection. We all tend to compromise for other qualities of the person.

Nonetheless, I must admit that they follow the stupid trends like fucking thigh gap and thick lips etc. much more than we do.

At least they care about the personality, while our parents only care about beauty, job, dowery & virginity while selecting a spouse for the child.

Decentguy · Accepted Answer

these days everyone has high beauty standards.
and i think its fair sometimes, because as now 4 years have passed since im working out in the gym and making all the sacrifices compromises and doing all the hard work, and busting my ass everyday in the gym every damn day, i think i have a total right to have beauty standards in the woman i want. because here i am, busting my ass everyday in the gym, killing my happiness of eating good food, so i can have a lean and shredded body, and so i can have abs, dealing wirh great and very painful soreness after every 2 or 4 days, dying in pain in the gym because of intense workouts in the gym and then when there's a woman who is fat, and out of shape and she think its unfair if a guy who is fit like me, won't accept her, then i'll say move your fat ass.

Maxemeister · Answer

Not really. These are things like ten people liked and were loud about and then everyone started obsessing over. En realite, people are pretty fine with many people of a whole range of looks. In fact skin fairness isn't one of ours, either

We really don't look for much. We don't usually want fat (you can understand that, right?) We don't want disproportionate body parts (I hope you can understand.) A pretty face. Really, I think that's about where it ends for beauty. These other qualities you describe are personal preferences for different people.

genericname85 · Answer

you just asumed western beauty standards, inferring that what is shown in the media represents said western beauty standards, which i challange you to think about.

what we see in commercials and media is a highly processed fake or extremely exaggerated reality. not many people live in that reality and not many people "actually" have those standards. and if they have, they are probably immature and will grow out of that.

Shotgun · Answer

Yes, but only because of the dishonesty.
Fitness models of both genders are presented as avid supplement-takers and exercise enthusiasts. Although these may be true (the latter in particular), the truth is that most of them cycle steroids/PEDs to remain shredded year-round, PLUS are given perfect lighting, oils and even photo enhancement to make them look better.
Yet we're lied to and told "buy these gadgets and supplements and you can look like this too!" BS. It takes YEARS of very hard, intelligent training in basic, tried- and-true exercises, then a hormone-screwing caloric deficit diet to create the "shredded" look. And even then you probably won't look as hard and veiny as the model because you're not on drugs.
I'm all about having high standards, but only when the full truth is disclosed.

JohnDoe3000 · Answer

Half the things you list are imaginary: women get told they matter by other women (women project their own detailed laundry list onto men, they can't imagine men think differently) and the beauty industry but Western men actually couldn't give a damn about your eye color or a tigh gap.

Alex_988_2 · Answer

@cubstershura
i typed this for your Pakistani couple question, but couldnt post is so:
yeah. i know these two. actually they became friends on a facebook group. then after some time, this guys proposed this girl. the girl said i dont believe in love before marriage. im not getting into a bf-gf relationship because guys use woman and then they get bored and move on, so no.
then this dude said i really love you and ill marry you. he then asked his parents and they a first made fun of him (in Pakistani culture this is actually not very common so). then this guy didn't eat for two days! the parents took them serious and that's how they ended up marrying.

DonkeyRick69 · Answer

No. Western beauty standards are not high enough espicially considering how many are obese.

Kuraj · Answer

If there are too high beauty standards in the west then they surely aren't followed by anyone.
In US nearly 70% of women are overweight or worse, fat women are being put on covers of fitness magazines and borderline obesity has become the "look of a real woman".

If anything, the standards have become so high because the average is practically unacceptable.

thelastvalkyrie · Answer

I think both eastern and beauty standards are high in some aspects. I mean pale skin is seen as beautiful in the east but it's hard as hell to achieve pale skin when if live in a environment thats really sunny. Even people who work inside have to go out in the sun eventually.

In western culture women are still expected to have a small waist and big tits. Look at Hooters.

witherwing · Answer

That sounds more like the perception of a "perfect" partner, rather than the actual beauty standards, which are more forgiving. You don't date people because of their looks, but because of their personality anyway.

JayB88 · Answer

Not at all. I think women today have it easier than women in the east. I actually think men today have it harder!

sodaslut · Answer

it's not just western society where looks are everything. the whole world prioritises on looks. and, Asian and western beauty standards are equally high - just different kind of standards

Booguy · Answer

No. Half of the western people are fat, so what are you talking about?

skylimetoon · Answer

if you look online ofcourse you find too high standards. and in TV really any media real life Americans are pretty fat n don't care too much for specific looks

Anonymous · Answer

I don't think Western society as such has a high beauty standard, I think it has a western beauty standard and guys are also affected by that, you just gotta live with that so even you adopt it or reject it either way that's fine

Kiels01 · Answer

Its a social media thing, guys in real life aren't even as choosey about which woman they like as women are about then men they go for

Anonymous · Answer

I can't see how a preference for a fit body can be seen as unreasonable, if you can't get the basics down you really shouldn't be dabbling in the complexities.

avadavva · Answer

The beauty standards in america are intense, but I know more people that ignore them than I know that follow them

Anonymous · Answer

Online and Offline, too many attention getters in this day in society.

Glen68 · Answer

western society does have too high of beauty standards. that's why I ignore our society and have my own ideas of beauty

AleDeEurope · Answer

No, they should be higher.

In your opinion, does Western society have too high beauty standards?

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