Asian beauty standards are worshipping white features

[blueclover_.]

First of all, please read the whole post before accusing me of being every -ist there is. If you agree or disagree, feel free to leave some comments below so that we can have a polite and fruitful discussion about this topic.

Beauty standards were established in every country for different reasons. Historically, Asian countries have always deemed fair skin as a symbol of high status and wealth. But because of the European colonization, Asian countries even have more reasons now to justify their obsession with unnaturally fair skin tone in this modern age.

What attributes that exactly fit into the Asian beauty standards?

Fair skin, straight hair, large eyes, pointed/sharp noses, prominent chin, high cheekbones, and deep-socket/deep-set eyes, etc. Northern Europeans would easily fit into the Asian beauty standards since birth because those features are written on their DNAs.

Do Asians themselves consciously want to be European/White? No.

Asian people have been conditioned by the Asian & Pop Cultures to think that changing their ethnic features is an acceptable behavior in order to achieve upper social mobility within the Asian community itself. Asians don't want to change their features to look Europeans, Asians want to change their features in order to fit into the Asian beauty standards which in itself is heavily influenced by Eurocentric beauty standards. In other words, Asians don't even realize that their beauty standards are literally putting European features on a pedestal due to its long historical socio-cultural dynamics.

Why do you think so many people in South Korea want to get double-eyelids surgery despite having beautiful monolids? Because the Korean beauty standards itself promotes European features such as large blue eyes and blonde hair. South Korean people however do not realize that, in their minds they are only following SK's beauty standards. Historically Asian countries were heavily influenced by European colonization, and one of those impacts is the subtle white supremacy that is still prevalent 70+ years later in Asian beauty standards today. This happens all across East & Southeast Asia, while countries in other parts of Asia are not so heavily impacted socio-cultural wise.

Take a look at my country, Indonesia. Most Indonesians love white people despite everyone knowing that the Dutch exploited our lands for 350 years. We have a popular saying of 'Marrying a white person so that we can fix our offsprings'. Indonesians also put half-white kids on a pedestal as they are deemed more attractive and wealthier. If someone says, "You look kind of European," then that's literally a compliment.

The obsession of white people is crazy and saddening at the same time. Why do we have to look like Europeans in order to be 'beautiful'? Are our ancestors not beautiful enough? Yet this is the world we live in and not much will change during my life span. I simply wish people would start to admit that the Asian beauty standards are literally worshipping white features, and we should start to change the perception that a beautiful face must look a certain way. That way, we can slowly START making a change so that people will begin to appreciate and love their ethnic features more.

TL;DR: Asian beauty standards are putting white features on a pedestal. Asians themselves don't realize that by changing their ethnic features, they are unconsciously submitting themselves to the post-colonialism white supremacy by enabling the Eurocentric beauty standards to keep influencing Asian beauty standards. We need to start appreciating our ethnic features (e.g. brown skin, slanted eyes, curly hair, etc.) as just as beautiful as white features (e.g. blonde hair, fair skin, blue eyes, etc.). There should be nothing that is deemed inherently ugly about having a dark skin or slanted eyes. ALL FACIAL FEATURES ARE BEAUTIFUL NO MATTER WHAT THE BEAUTY STANDARDS ARE TRYING TELL YOU HOW 'BEAUTY' IS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE. PERIOD.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day

 

[DeutscheKartoffel]

As an Asian, I view people as individuals,
I am not a conventional, patriotic person and I don't believe a person has to be tied to
their country/race,
after all no one should be tied to something they could not dictate.

Why not just be happy,
follow your heart and do what makes you happy, u know?

It's make sense to like something,
but u have to know why u like it.

 

[blueclover_.]

As an Asian, I view people as individuals,
I am not a conventional, patriotic person and I don't believe a person has to be tied to
their country/race,
after all no one should be tied to something they cannot dictate.

Why not just be happy,
follow your heart and do what makes your happy, u know?

It's make sense to like something,
but u have to know why u like it.

Yeah, it is wonderful to be individualistic. But societies are built on social groups, therefore adressing each ethnic social groups as equals is still crucial in diplomacy, especially in the matter of establishing peace between countries.

Individual choice is good, however, you are tied into the societal group that you were born with. Most people would fight for their group/'tribe', but i guess some people just don't care and prefer to walk off alone. But will other groups/'tribes' let you to walk alone, leaving your own group/'tribe'? If you were born as an Indian into an Indian community, no matter where you go you will always be Indian. This is just fate which we didn't get to choose and we can not change.

 

[DeutscheKartoffel]

Yeah, it is wonderful to be individualistic. But societies are built on social groups, therefore adressing each ethnic social groups as equals is still crucial in diplomacy, especially in the matter of establishing peace between countries.

Individual choice is good, however, you are tied into the societal group that you were born with. Most people would fight for their group/'tribe', but i guess some people just don't care and prefer to walk off alone. But will other groups/'tribes' let you to walk alone, leaving your own group/'tribe'? When you were born as race X in an X community, no matter where you go you will always be race X. That is just fate which we didn't ask for as we couldn't choose what kind of family we were born into.

Seems like in this day and age,
a lot of people are still affected by passive tribalism,
and the hypothetical fear of not being accepted.

A person who happens to be a somewhat serious believer of individualism, they tend to
have freed themselves from opinions of others.

The thing is,
people have beliefs which are deep ingrained and
although it seems hard to turn against what society norms conditioned you,
I suspect people don't do it because it's make them uncomfortable to venture outside.

 

[4eyebiped]

Lots of people find features of other races other than their own appealing. Others cultures are often considered exotic and various regions and cultures go through beauty standard phases. You have white women getting butt implants and trying to fatten their lips, both can often look very unnatural afterwards. I also know plenty of women hitting up tanning beds because they want darker skin, not lighter. People often post here in extremes. The whole world absolutely does not think white is the beauty standard and everyone doesn't want to look white but western media did take over the world first and yes that will have a large influence. I have seen phases of women chopping off labia, shrinking noses, chiseling chins, trying to get larger eyes and so forth. Some aren't even features of a race, just a look trying to be achieved because someone made it sound like the cool thing to do. Then you have other unique beauty standards like tribes chiseling their teeth, some stretching their lips, some crushing their feet and others elongating their necks. There is always some odd beauty phase/fad going on somewhere. Not sure why the phrase white supremacy had to be brought up.

The real actual issue, beyond deep ingrained existing cultural standards, is that most people are sheep. They follow fads, they listen to influencers, they try to mimic and look like whomever they follow, and they try to fit into whatever they think the cool flavor of the month is. They want to be accepted so they do silly misguided things to be so and usually end up regretting it when the fad changes again, they realize that change did not make them accepted, or they simply grow up. If you have to modify yourself to fit in then the people you are trying to fit in with aren't worth your time, find other people. Trust me there is variety and diversity outside your group you are following and there are plenty of people who think for themselves, find them. Just be yourself, stop hacking up your body and find people who appreciate you for being you. Buy things because they work and get the job done, not because of the logo on it or because someone popular uses it. Do things for you, not others. Think for yourself and not have others think for you. Question things and verify things.

Hugs for you all, I accept you as is.

 

[kiuya]

It's like they're forcing these ridiculous standards to sell plastic surgery! For real though, you can see this in every culture. Whites are trying to look more African-american, getting bbl and botox in their lips, getting tanned, etc. Blacks are straightening their hair. Someone said that I'm a closeted trans guy because I like trains and other traditionally masculine things, for real. It seems that you cannot anymore be comfortable in your own body. Especially social media is shilling this idea of being someone else, being it by changing your race, gender, sexuality or hobbies. Only way to combat this is to love yourself enough that you don't fall for these ridiculous ideas.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Reminds me of the subject of this thread from 4chan: https://boards.4channel.org/co/thread/128003242

I'm not an expert on beauty but I do know some stuff about animation. I do think it's kind of intriguing how many Asians these days seem to have issues with how they're depicted in cartoons. Drawing them realistically somehow becomes racist even though Chinese paintings from hundreds of years ago have single-line eyes and certain styles of facial hair and no one bats an eye.

I also think anime/manga is another symptom of this ongoing problem, to many people the big eyes and pale skin are considered infinitely more appealing than the reality of Asian appearances. The anime art style itself is derived from Donald Duck so even that isn't free from Western influence. Pretty sad but it is what it is I guess. This is just how many Asians want to look.

I'm Asian but I'm also heavily Americanized so I wonder if my opinion is ultimately invalid. I think where I live though, it's the opposite of what you've described though since many people I know (at least among the straight men) prefer Asian women way more than Caucasian ones to the point where some Californian women are doing the reverse of what you mentioned and are trying to apply Eastern beauty practices to themselves. I guess what this ultimately means is that attraction can be mainly about whatever is exotic and thus intriguing.

 

[Onthe29th]

I don't think so, I like kpop and jpop and I think their idols still look very Asian and they're fine with that. Yea there's the pale skin thing but I think that has something to do with their history. I could be wrong though and If so, forgive me.

 

[ArtsyDrawer]

Incidentally, europeans practically FETISHIZE Asians...

 

[Bleak]

I'm half white half asian and have definitely had these struggles in my own mind. But I guess even within homogenous societies there will always be ideal beauty standards that exclude a bunch of the population.

 

[Snake of Eden]

It sucks to be human and to have races, beauty and ugliness. It is all disgusting, everything about measuring yourself up with other races and other people for beauty, wealth and other stuff is just nauseating

 

[gigacel123]

Whites have the most universally attractive traits, both their men and women.

It's an unfortunate truth that ethnic/non-white males are seen as less human by women and normies. And ethnic women hate their own race more than white supremacists do. Said ethnic women and said white supremacists fetishize each other, leading to an infinite loop of narcissism, lust and vanity.

White privilege does exist, not because of some insane feminist's ramblings about the patriarchy, but because most white males have a strong halo effect with their looks. Any white male who is tall and handsome pretty much stands on top of society. People worship chads, and people worship women. Insane feminists want to sleep with white chad too, but conflate his privileges to all males stupidly even though most males under 6 ft, ugly and non-whites have zero power in society.

As an Asian, I view people as individuals,
I am not a conventional, patriotic person and I don't believe a person has to be tied to
their country/race,
after all no one should be tied to something they could not dictate.

Why not just be happy,
follow your heart and do what makes you happy, u know?

It's make sense to like something,
but u have to know why u like it.

It's a nice view to have but unfortunately people will always see you by your outward appearance. For example asian males will always be seen as strange and foreign, even if they lived in America their whole lives.

 

[Snake of Eden]

Whites have the most universally attractive traits, both their men and women.

It's an unfortunate truth that ethnic/non-white males are seen as less human by women and normies. And ethnic women hate their own race more than white supremacists do. Said ethnic women and said white supremacists fetishize each other, leading to an infinite loop of narcissism, lust and vanity.

White privilege does exist, not because of some insane feminist's ramblings about the patriarchy, but because most white males have a strong halo effect with their looks. Any white male who is tall and handsome pretty much stands on top of society. People worship chads, and people worship women. Insane feminists want to sleep with white chad too, but conflate his privileges to all males stupidly even though most males under 6 ft, ugly and non-whites have zero power in society.



It's a nice view to have but unfortunately people will always see you by your outward appearance. For example asian males will always be seen as strange and foreign, even if they lived in America their whole lives.

This.

I been saying the same thing only you worded it much better than I did. It is the truth and truth hurts yikes

 

[DeutscheKartoffel]

It's a nice view to have but unfortunately people will always see you by your outward appearance. For example asian males will always be seen as strange and foreign, even if they lived in America their whole lives.

America is literally a migrant country. lol
People need to understand if u have a passport, you are a citizen.

To overly invest in others' opinion, who are technically on the same playing field, is extremely sad.

 

[motel rooms]

Said ethnic women and said white supremacists fetishize each other, leading to an infinite loop of narcissism, lust and vanity.

What does this even mean?

people worship women.

Nobody worships women who are considered unattractive.

 

[MindFrog]

It's pretty prominent but I'm sure asian people are aware of that beauty standard we put ourselves in, it's just that they don't see anything wrong with it. It's been the status quo.

Just the amount of skin whitening products advertised in asian countries is abysmal, even glutathione pills to achieve that fair white skin. (Sometimes even through IV)

You can't blame them tho. It's become an ingrained complex.

"If you have white skin, you're rich. "
"If you have dark skin, you do manual labor. You're poor."

You can trace back from olden times how asian people are shamed for their appearance much like black people. there's the media also.

It's a whole can of worms really.

 

[Chaestergram]

Back when I was still living in South Korea I asked this questions to some of my friends from Seoul and then Busan (as over there they are more "tan"), the one from Seoul didn't fully replied to my question as she was fantasizing about being a black womxn and as myself being one it was ULTRA cringe (guess my shock when she calls me the n-word) but to her the answer was kinda similar to what I think : white people throughout centuries had tried to forced their beauty standards upon all ethnicities, like first of all colonizing non white people wouldn't had been a thing otherwise.

Then the one from Busan told me about how the Korean society view white people and especially having the whitest skin, to her as she is pretty tan it is something that won't change any sooner but there is some change, some people like her start to slowly embrace their skin color and wearing foundations that are actually their natural tone.

For her what really helps her to accept that was social media, seeing other girls from other ethnicities preaching about it and sharing their own stories was truly helpful for her and to get off the mentally of « if this then I will get this job, if that then this will be easier for me to achieve »

But this is something that will take time to fully stop, it won't be an overnight process as old belief are hard to quit but then in the meantime let's just all focus on our self and embrace ourselves the way we are and if there's anything we don't like that can be change easily with dedication then go ahead.

 

[motel rooms]

Whites have the most universally attractive traits, both their men and women.

Do you honestly think that's an objective fact? Is it possible that you've never heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

Beauty standards are always changing. This was the feminine beauty ideal in Europe in the 17th century (fleshiness & cellulite, baby!) :

Incidentally, europeans practically FETISHIZE Asians...

That's a bit of an exaggeration , but there's definitely a significant number of European men who find petite Asian women with cute little noses very attractive.

 

[Snake of Eden]

Do you honestly think that's an objective fact? Is it possible that you've never heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

I really think so tbh. Even though beauty has a subjective large aspect to it but european looks are up the ladder universally to when it comes to what we as humans innately find attractive on average. Attributes like tall lean muscular looking bodies. The blush reddish skin are universally perceived as indicators of good health which evolutionary feels more attractive in mate selection mental process. I just Think it is our default settings to prefer those type of attributes. Thats not to say different attributes cant be appealing but our lizard brain has its own imprint of what it finds attractive. It is a convoluted subject. But yes I believe beauty in the eye of the beholder stands true but it is not the default setting. I could be wrong but thats what I feel is happening.

It also happens that men are the biggest winners/sufferers of this type of biological discrimination. I have interacted with many brown men especially from south asian origin and they cant help but feel they got the short end of the stick as no one see them as sexually attractive even within their respective racial backgrounds. To make matters worse that in those societies females are extremely marginalized, targeted and abused By men which adds even more hate towards the already unattractive males in their groups. It is a shitshow

If you think about it. Why the only culture that was so infatuated with the beauty physique to create such busts and scuplture of naked men and women only existed in Rome and renaissance europe. You dont find chinese, arabs or indians glorifying their beauty to the extent that they marvelled at creating such detailed statues and depictions to immortalize their beauty. Only europeans.

I will give an example to illustrate my point here. Ibn Battuta who is ancient traveler historian (an arab) travelled to where the vikings were and he was the first historical and only reliable source who is qouted to this day about the details of vikings way of life. One of the things he stated that he found vikings men and women are extremely physically attractive. Even though their hygiene habits are so filthily disgusting. Why would he make this assertion and he is from a totally different culture and probably never seen a viking before in his life if it wasnt that he innately perceived these people as undeniably beautiful in appearance.

Regardless of this I think beauty has a universality and timeless aspect to it. We just know in majority when something is beautiful and our brains know that even across the time and geographical location

Edit: forgot to mention that sorry if I am interjecting between you too. I just wanted to give me 2 cents about this and I hope no one get offended

 

[motel rooms]

I really think so tbh. Even though beauty has a subjective large aspect to it but european looks are up the ladder universally to when it comes to what we as humans innately find attractive on average. Attributes like tall lean muscular looking bodies. The blush reddish skin are universally perceived as indicators of good health which evolutionary feels more attractive in mate selection mental process.

I don't really buy that. There are many non-European populations with tall, muscular bodies & clear skin. IINM, West African men are the most muscular. Also, I don't think that people from the tropics had the chance to interact with Europeans & find them attractive throughout our long evolutionary history.

Btw, I'm happy with my dark Mediterranean complexion. Not so long ago, Anglos wouldn't have considered me white even though I'm European. They can have their precious pale skin. Guess what? Super white cracks like a sonofabitch, bitches. Brownish not so much. Take that, Scandinavians, you don't get to have all the best things in life! Enjoy all the extra vitamin D you're able to produce in your wrinkles.

 

[Amumu]

I thought about that, I've seen a documentary which explained that Asian features probably came from people who deemed them very attractive since Asian features are not particularly an evolutionary asset (contrary to Black skin in sunny environments or white skin in cold climates for instance).

So I'm going to agree with @hotelbeneathground to a certain extent.

 

[Grey-zoner]

I think Europeans have in general a broader range of physical features (hair color and type, eye color, skin gradation), so this may play into things. I agree though with Hotelbeneathground that any assumption of a universal rule with beauty (even the routinely mentioned "symmetry is beauty" claim) has to be viewed with skepticism. It's a big claim, and historical evidence is not really that strong. How can I poll some Aztecs about beauty standards in Central Mexico c. 500 AD?
As for this pseudo-incel logic, that 6 ft blue-eyed white males have it best with women, as a former pretty boy who fits that description I can attest it's bullshit (maybe blame my social skills). Some of the most attractive women I've known dated men who were not that good-looking, but either had personality or status of some kind (musician, programmer, etc...).

 

[maakies]

Phew. This comes up a lot here. I'm a Westerner with Southeast Asian background with darker complexion.

Seems to me the more well-adjusted successful BIPOC stick to their own. I'm jealous of them, but I am so white brained. I work in media and everyone around me is white, and if they're Asian or Black they're mixed. It's essentially just a matter of preference and choice, but yes, usually people prioritize that aesthetic. What's happening is the media you consume either prioritizes beauty or does not include people that look like me and you. East Asian media tends to hate on people darker for reasons listed above. I was told to stay out of the sun. It's just how it goes.

I try not to watch any mainstream cinema and popular TV because of it. Just don't have time or care for it. There's a lot of directors, artists, and musicians that do good work addressing that stuff. You just have to sift through the shit to find the gold.

One more thing I will say. Westerners tend to have main character syndrome way more than anyone else in the world. This guy has good movies: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apichatpong_Weerasethakul

 

[Sherri]

I admire Asians very much, they age gracefully, have amazing skin, and amazing food. Koreans are big fans of cosmetic surgery which is fine by me, and they sure know how to party, I've had great nights in Hong Kong and Seoul.

 

[nex]

There is something universal about colourism, at least in rural societies (which is what most of us come from). A lighter-skinned person who spends all their time indoors has higher status than a darker-skinned person working in the fields, and thus is more desirable.

But that only covers colourism within the same group of people. European beauty standards is where racism kicks in. There is nothing inherently more beautiful about European people, but they're worldwide associated with wealth and power, and therefore more desirable.

People make fun of Africans with their dark skin and large lips, yet European women do indoor tanning and lip surgery. They go to great lengths to have darker skin and fuller lips to be more beautiful. Something doesn't add up here.

Coming from a full-white background, in my white community pale skin is actually considered a sign of illness. Yet somehow, at the same time it is considered a beauty feature. It just doesn't add up.

Meanwhile, at early puberty, I looked at that one black girl in the class and thought she had beautiful skin. I had a crush on other girls, but the black girl was the only one that made me think she has beautiful skin. There is nothing universal about this, dark skin can be just as attractive as light skin. Now I'm very introspective and always try to be honest with myself, and I ask myself if I'm exoticising or fetishising. But after considering all of that, I believe no I'm not. Dark skin is a beauty feature you may or may not prefer, just like blonde or red hair, or like green or blue eyes.

TLDR, European beauty ideals are subjective BS. I know it's probably hard to ignore them since they dominate the world, but please just know they're BS.

 

[Snake of Eden]

Regardless on what we could disagree about specifics. Can we at least agree that there are certain features that are more desirable "on average" for us as species. All i am saying it is not as subjective as people make it out to be. There is a limit to where it becomes subjective in my view. I dont think it is just cultural. There is a reason why white european aesthetics prevailed and it is not forced conversions, colonialism and forced media propoganda. I think white beauty standard where always on par with what we deem as beautiful as species. I am not talking about skin color specifically as that is only a small aspect of the whole picture. Take Nefertittie bust for example, most historians agree her beauty is timeless and her features are the standard sharp cheekbones and jawline, sharp nose, Etc. who more than any race aesthetically are closer to possess such features that our brain can deem as average and mathematically appealing. those features exist mostly within european whote ethnicity. There are beautiful people in all races but some races have those beauty ideals more prelavent. Even though this is my view but I can say that beauty exists in all races and colors and it is not hard to truly see that.

To summarize my point there are more beautiful white people in numbers than any race and therefore they mathematically comprise that biggest weighted average in calculating what our brain perceive as average and thus beautiful so hence we view their features as to be more universally appealing

 

[nex]

I'm sorry but you have me at a loss at how the Nefertiti Bust is universally beautiful, no matter how many "historians agree". It is one beauty ideal, but if you're suggesting that's universal, then no I disagree. I don't see it.

Nor do I see how she's closer to a European woman than to, say, a Persian woman.

 

[Snake of Eden]

I'm sorry but you have me at a loss at how the Nefertiti Bust is universally beautiful, no matter how many "historians agree". It is one beauty ideal, but if you're suggesting that's universal, then no I disagree. I don't see it.

Nor do I see how she's closer to a European woman than to, say, a Persian woman.

Regardless if Nefertitti not looking european which is right if you say she doesnt represent that. My point is some features are universally found more averagely appealing like the golden ratio. There is science behind it. I am not making this up. And yes i still think those desirable traits are more prelavent in european aesthetics and are universal.

Edit: aside from facial features i think my point is more clear to when it comes to male physiques. I dont think it is hard to see that male body aesthetics are most idealized in European sculptures and frescos from roman, greek and reinssance era. I dont think anyone can claim there could be any subjectivity to finding that ideal as the best that exists for body representation across other cultures to this day

 

[little helpers]

you know what kickstarted Korea's plastic surgery industry?



thank you for coming to little helpers' history lesson.

 

[Snake of Eden]

you know what kickstarted Korea's plastic surgery industry?
View attachment 83130
View attachment 83126

thank you for coming to little helpers' history lesson.

I think they looked much better before the enhancement surgeries tbh