Is the perception of women’s beauty distorted in Hong Kong?

Is the perception of women’s beauty distorted in Hong Kong?

What is beauty?

Beauty is probably one of the most primitive and universal desires endlessly pursued by people. It seems that nowadays a fixed perception of beauty is so collaboratively accepted that nothing besides perfectly white skin with invisible pores, eyes with long lashes, rosy cheeks, doll lips and a defined nose are regarded as beautiful here in Hong Kong. Let us be frank then: if all these are what beauty is, how many of us do successfully live up to such a standard? Does it simply mean the rest are ugly? And says who? The question to whether a person is beautiful or not is subjective; and yet, the abovementioned has become some sort of generally accepted rules of being beautiful. Is there any possibility that the way we perceive beauty is conformative and distorted?

The vast influence of media plays a dominant role in the formation of our perception of beauty today. The spread of information through media like TV and radio broadcasts are often massive and repetitive, thus influential to the receiver (Cheng, 2004). Take a look at all the advertisements about fitness and health products on magazines, TV commercials and light boxes in MTR stations. The models are more or less the same, with defined facial features and slim figures. This kind of promotion works like an osmotic process under which people believe the models are exactly the manifestation of beauty. Thus, many desire to shape their appearances and bodies according to what they see in advertisements. This is indeed reckless and might do harm to one’s health. Statistics from the National Eating Disorders Association has shown a horrible trend: 10 million women have developed eating disorders due to their wanting to reduce weight in 2012.

The effect social networks have on the perception of beauty is also great. Since social networking sites such as Facebook and platforms like Instagram offer convenient ways for uploading photos, people are paying more attention to how they look in pictures that are publicly viewed. Amanda Enayati (2012) once wrote in a feature article on CNN that people are very much affected by how others look because of the pictures shared on Facebook. This is more serious on fan’s pages of celebrities, where “impossibly perfect photos” of stars are constantly uploaded. She also noted that Facebook has already become “an encyclopedia of beauty and comparison.” In October it was reported that a 33-year-old L.A songwriter spent $100,000 on plastic surgery in order to look like Justin Bieber! What a comment by Malcolm X: “the media's the most powerful entity on earth because they control the minds of the masses.”

Another factor that contributes to a mutated thought towards beauty is globalization. What globalization means here is the dominant influence from western countries. Frazier (2006) once pointed out that western and western-looking models are always used to advertise cosmetics to non-western countries. Whiter skin tone is often the facial feature preferred by Asian females. Another example is plastic surgery, and this has even become a very prosperous industry, 14 millions of surgeries were performed in 2013 while 90% of the performed surgeries were done on women.

Indeed, it’s people’s freedom to do whatever they must to look beautiful. An archaic saying in Chinese “A girl will make herself up for someone who loves her”: it is perfectly fine if someone is unsatisfied with his or her appearance and seeks to change.

However, mass media has the responsibility to correct the concept held by the public. The major problem is that the media nowadays put too much emphasis on the idea that an ideal body figure must be a slim one. The most fundamental question is: what is beauty? Should the mass media intervened and define a liberal term like this? Indeed, the media should stop referring to slim as beautiful and fat ugly by redesigning advertisements and commercials on TV and magazines to avoid over-emphasizing the stereotype.

Apart from advertisements, netizens ought not to abuse online platforms such as Youtube and blogs to share with millions of people their views on commenting others’ appearances. Video clips like “world’s ugliest woman” for instance is humiliating and should not be uploaded in the first place, let alone discussed and freely attacked. Celebrity influence is also another key solution to uprooting the problem. Stars are role models. Very often the appearances of stars are regarded as trendy and will likely be followed by the public. Megan Fox was once commented to be too “skinny” because she lost a lot of weight to look good, and was fired from starring in “Transformers”. Yet, lots of people are trying to lose weight like her and keep on being slim, whether or not healthily. This influence from celebrities on correcting the perception of beauty is therefore vital. Of course, promotions on getting slim for health should also be banned. Instagram allows tags of “thinspo”, misleading people to believe that being slim equals to being healthy. Such tagging should be prohibited.

Apart from the media, the government can contribute to stop the spreading of this false idea on beauty as well. It is meaningless to be beautiful without a healthy condition. The government can hold health campaigns to educate the general public on a correct perception of beauty and the consequences of having an unbalanced diet. A healthy life style can be promoted as well. The ultimate purpose is to redefine the concept among people.

On levels of society, the acceptance of figures other than slim ones is the main solution. The most vital part is that different body figures, as long as healthy, should also be welcomed and regarded as beautiful. If local TV shows like Miss Hong Kong can accept candidates other than slim ones, such idea will be corrected. However, in view of uprooting the problem, a new and correct definition on beauty is the key solution. Therefore, dealing with problems in the media should come first.

As a matter of fact, the over-emphasis on being “beautiful” has weakened many women’s self-confidence. Though it is hard to change such distorted perception at once, it is foreseen that people will begin to be aware of this issue. A philosophical idea by Zhuang Zi (an ancient Chinese philosopher in Warring states period) has it that “Everything has beauty which is beyond that can be described by words”. Beauty is more than skin deep, and being beautiful without being healthy and kind-hearted is like a hollow promise to women’s attraction. Who would we think is beautiful if the society doesn’t tell us who is?

References
1. Caroline Kogler, Lindsey Stevenson (2013). No Wonder Our Perception of Beauty is distorted. Retrieved from http://womensstudiesjmu.wikispaces.com/No+Wonder+Our+Perception+of+Beauty+is+Distorted%3F,+by+Caroline+Kogler+and+Lindsey+Stevenson

2. National Eating Disorders Association (2012). Get the Facts on Eating Disorders. Retrieved from http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-facts-eating-disorders

3. Cheng Bo Shuen (2004) <傳媒翻譯> 香港: 香港城市大學出版社, 2004

4. Christopher Frazier (2006). Dynamic Beauty: Cultural influences & Changing Perceptions-Becoming Prettier or Erasing One’s Own Culture?
Retrieved from http://hilo.hawaii.edu/academics/hohonu/documents/Vol04x02DynamicBeauty.pdf

5. Louise Wood (2000). Perceptions of Female Beauty in the 20^th Century. Retrieved form http://barneygrant.tripod.com/p-erceptions.htm

6. Amanda Enayati (2012). Facebook: The encyclopedia of beauty?
Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/16/living/beauty-social-networks/

7. Maura Judkis (2012). Instagram ban “Thinspiration”, pro eating disorder images.
Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/instagram-bans-thinspiration-pro-eating-disorder-images/2012/04/24/gIQAXLeaeT_blog.html

8. Sunny Pepper (2010). Megan Fox “too skinny” for movie. Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/megan-fox-too-skinny-for-movie-i-could-survive-a-week-without-eating-video-photos

9. Natacha Maheshe (2013). How Media Affects the Way Beauty is perceived. Retrieved from http://natachamah.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/how-media-affects-the-way-beauty-is-perceived/

10. Dr. Robert Tomambe (2010). Be Realistic! How Technology Affects Your Perception of Beauty. Retrieved from http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Your-Perception-of-Beauty-in-the-Digital-Age

11. Heebera, Doha, Qatar. Distorted Perception of Beauty. Retrieved from http://www.teenink.com/hot_topics/what_matters/article/404123/distorted

12. Operation Beautiful (2011). Beauty, Refined: How to Change Your Perception. Retrieved from

http://www.operationbeautiful.com/change-the-way-you-see/beauty-refined-how-to-change-your-perception/

13. Robert Tornambe, M.D. (2013). 5 Ways We Should Change Our Perception of Beauty as We Age. Retrieved from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-tornambe-md/perception-of-beauty_b_2883899.html

14. Video (2013). Girl voted “World’s Ugliest Woman”. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si_XuKnRcKM