The Female Form: Society's Expectations and Challenges - Essay Sample

Introduction

Insecurities and self-esteem issues are present in every community. Each person has their definition of what they associate with beauty. When it comes to the feminine gender, physical appearance tends to matter more to most people. Society expects how the ideal female body is supposed to be. When a woman does not have the perfect female shape, it becomes challenging for her in society. There is the general feminine body expectation, which is the same with each culture, but with each culture, they have different standards of the ideal body. In some places, a female with a curvy body physique is more appreciated than the one who doesn't. In some, female with a specific facial structure is more appreciated than the rest. For these reasons, people who do not meet these set standards find it difficult living a comfortable life. The ones that feel less valued try to find solutions that will help them fit in and be appreciated like the rest. Some go for plastic surgery, or cosmetics, or the gym, whatever they feel appropriate with. What is the ideal feminine body and Asia, and what is my take on it?

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In the seventh chapter of the book "Feminism & Foucault," the author talks about how different women are expected to act as compared with the males. Sandra Lee, the author of the book, explains how women are to do certain things to be seen a feminine. Sandra talks about how the ideal feminine body is expected to look like. She also talks about what the female is supposed to do to achieve the perfect body. Sandra says that the ideal feminine body is expected to be soft, young-looking, and unstressed. A woman is expected to maintain or boost her body to that level that is expected. Some of the things a woman should do to ensure she achieves the expected results are physical exercise, cosmetics and makeups, and other procedures, which include surgery. The woman is also likely to walk in a certain way that will make her look more feminine. She is expected to look more approachable and likable and fragile (Bartky, 1989).

After Sandra Lee has explained what a woman is expected to do to achieve the ideal feminine body, she adds that all that is part of how the perfect female body is constructed. Lee says, "part of the process by which the ideal feminity... the feminine body is constructed." (Bartky, 1989). By that statement, Sandra means that achieving the ideal feminine body needs a lot of work. In her account, she gives the impression that one is never born with the expected female body. Sandra believes that one has to work hard and try different things that will help achieve the ideal female body.

The same mentality with Sandra in her writing is prevalent in society. In places like Asia, a larger population believes in this. In Korea, plastic surgery is widespread. In Asia, they have a different definition of beauty; to them, perfection is critical. They all want to achieve perfection. The beauty standards are very high, and the pressure is too high. In a TED TALK video, a 14years old speaker from Korea talks about her experience in Korea. She speaks of how women want to achieve a specific look, and they do everything possible to make that. Sol Kim, the speaker, says that she was not comfortable growing up. Kim says that her friends are doing plastic surgery, and she had self-esteem issues growing up due to the beauty standards. Sol was never comfortable with how she looked; she thought her eyes were too small and that her walking style was not good enough. Sol wanted to do plastic surgery and get a perfect look that everyone else was going for. The ones that went for it made it look like it was very reasonable and easy (Kim, 2015).

In Asia, the people that have undergone facial plastic surgery tend to have the same facial features. In a modeling competition, all the contestants looked almost the same with the facial structure and the body as well (Pages, 2019). In a worldwide survey done in the year 2015 by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, it revealed that South Korea was in the top ten countries with the highest rate of cosmetic surgeries. Among the beauty standards in South Korea is that they prioritize specific facial features. Some of the prioritized features are a small face, small lips, flawless skin, v-shaped jaw, more enormous eyes, and a slim body figure.

The beauty standards for the eyes include aegyo-sal, which is some fatty flesh underneath the sights that make the eyes look puffy and smiling. The eyes also make one look youthful. There is also a surgery called the blepharoplasty in East Asia that is meant to create double eyelids. When both blepharoplasty and Aegyo-sal surgery is done on the eyes, the eyes look larger. The media have greatly influenced the beauty standards of South Korea, actors in movies, personalities in television, and K-pop stars. The K-pop physical appearance is a pale skin with a very slim body that looks childlike (Kim, n.d.).

In Asia, physical attractiveness is a degree to which a person's physical features are considered aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. In most cases, the term is used to imply sexual attractiveness or being desirable. The whole idea would come from the heterosexual men who objectify the female body and make all their judgments based on the physical appearance of the woman (Prasso, 2005). Some women like it when they are looked at by the men with lustful eyes because, to them, they translate that as beauty. They feel desired and wanted and appreciated when they are looked at in that way. Some women feel less desired when men do not look at them that way. The fact that women with an ideal attractive body seem to be very powerful and confident. The desired women put too much pressure on those that feel like they have not achieved the required standards to be desired. They feel like there is a need to do anything so that they can be desired, too, since society has made it look like men need to lust for you. It becomes more like a necessity and a significant achievement in life.

In research done in the year 2002, it was recorded that Korean women spent more than half a billion dollars on cosmetics, half a million dollars on surgery, and one million on dieting. In the year 2007, around 40% of teenagers aspired to go for plastic surgery to get a European or White facial shape and appearance (Bissell and Chung, 2009). The Koreans idolize Whiteness, which is their motivation that pushes them to engage in body modification activities. Somebody would ask why the white, pale skin tone matters, why is it considered special.

The European colonization to the non-white countries (Asians, Indians, and Africans), elevated European history and culture. The fact that they colonized these other countries, it made them look more superior to all the other non-white countries they colonized. The European superiority appeared in their skin tone, and everything else generally. The Europeans at that time were at the top in the ranking of the global scale. They were at the head politically, economically, and in terms of their culture. Due to their superiority, some other cultures and races would think that maybe it is because of their light-colored hair, or maybe eyes and perhaps and, most importantly, their skin tone. To the Asians, the very light skin tone that looks pale signifies wealth and privilege. For that reason, Asians make whitening cream products, and most of them use the products to whiten their skin tone. The skin that is too light has no melanin that means it cannot work well in the sun for that reason; the light-skinned people stay indoors while the ones with a darker skin tone are hired to work and cultivate in the fields (Dave, Nishime and Oren, n.d.).

World War II brought about the introduction of capitalism and western culture, which spread in several decades. Capitalism and Western culture brought about a different perspective of cultural significance to light skin in Asian cultures. The culture, political, and economic lifestyle of the Europeans became an influence on most of the things other countries did. Political leaders, media products, celebrities, material goods, and appearances became the standards spired to among other races, including Asians (Ono and Pham, 2010).

At a TED TALK speech by Smith, she talks about sexism in film production. What we see and listen to influences our actions. In most Hollywood and film production, the female actors are meant to look perfect. The actresses are mostly sexualized; they tend to look very attractive and desirable. The desired women in the movies have a very skinny body with perfect feminine curves and a tiny waistline (Smith, 2017). When other females watch the film, they tend to think that that is how they are supposed to look like to be desired. The viewers who watch can believe that it is essential for them to have the exact features with the actresses in the movies. For that reason, some develop self-esteem issues, which lead to depression, while some decide to go for body modifications and the use of facial products.

Katie Chin, a girl from China, shares her experience living with critics. Very close people, relatives, mocked her on how she looked, they even advised her on getting help to get a better look. Her parents were very comfortable with her being criticized; her mother had gone through the same critics growing up and still is experiencing the same, getting a job in China as a girl requires one to send her facial picture. Looks matter so much in the Asian countries; the way a person looks can get you a job and even a boyfriend (Shamelessmag.com, 2019).

Asian beauty practices and inventions are redefining global beauty standards. Women from different races are turning to Asia for their new skin products. Plastic surgery in Asia seems reasonable and cheaper; for that reason, any person who wants to go under the knife in the name of beauty will prefer going to Asia. An individual will be more comfortable transitioning in Asia because they will feel less judged by society for having insecurities. Thanks to the new unique innovate beauty products in Asia, they have whitening products, injectable cosmetic treatments that contour and reshape the face. Most people from different financial levels can afford these products because they are in all qualities and prices. Asia is one of the best-selling beauty products in the world. Most of the beauty products that are used by both the low class and the middle-class people come from Asia (Huffingtonpost.ca, 2019).

Most people, especially teenagers, go for plastic surgery because they feel unworthy. The problem is far much deeper that even after an individual has spent tans of money might still not feel comfortable with themselves. Once a person has decided to get any kind of body modifications, the higher chances are that the individual might again go back to improve on something. The problem with wanting to achieve perfection is that one will never be satisfied in life; you can never achieve perfection. An individual might be too excited with the results that they want to keep feeling the same kind of excitement by going back for more procedures (Cho, 2019).

Whenever women go out for a special occasion like a dinner date or an office meeting, they are advised to put on a good-looking outfit and some makeup. While doing all that, it will make them look more presentable and approachable, especially by the men. They are also expected to put on a smile. A girl said that whenever she went outside without putting on makeup on her face, her friends told her that her face looked oily. Other people kept asking her why she didn't put on some makeup. Also, when a girl always applied makeup and had flawless skin and...