Beauty standards are constantly changing, and obviously everyone has different personal preferences, but there are some things that people find unattractive around the world that may surprise you. For example, plenty of Americans may think of having a tan as attractive (as long as you don't overdo it), but there are some places in the world where women try to avoid having a tan at all costs. From the dislike of thin eyebrows in Mexico to the eyelid surgery that is extremely popular in South Korea, let's take a look at some things that people find unattractive in different parts of the world.
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00:00Beauty is an aesthetic, a concept, a product, a tradition, and even a sport.
00:05It's always subjective, but one sure thing about beauty is that it changes drastically
00:09depending on geographic coordinates.
00:12Each culture has its own unique standard of beauty, and while some countries keep beauty
00:16practices minimal, others have a whole lot to say about what makes the perfect woman.
00:22Here's what people find unattractive in other parts of the world.
00:26No curves
00:27In Venezuela, beauty is a huge commodity.
00:30There's high pressure to have a very specific kind of figure, a big bust, tiny waist, and
00:35a plump backside.
00:36This ideal of the female form is in such high demand that women of this country often undergo
00:41multiple surgeries to fit their country's standard of beauty.
00:45A few years ago, the country's president Hugo Chavez publicly spoke out against these practices,
00:50saying that doctors,
00:51"...convince some women that if they don't have some big bosoms, they should feel bad."
00:55Still, these standards permeate retail.
00:58Vendors even display mannequins that reflect this particular shape because the more voluptuous
01:02form actually ups their sales.
01:04So, if you're flat-chested in Venezuela, you're practically a pariah.
01:15A tan
01:17While many Americans would kill to have the perfect bronze tan, that's not so for many
01:22Asian countries.
01:23In America, having a tan is a sign of beauty and social status because it signals that
01:27you have the luxury to be able to afford tanning or to go on a tropical vacation.
01:32But in places like China and Korea, having a tan is just the opposite.
01:36In these cultures, the darker a person's skin is, the lower their social class.
01:40It signifies that the person does a lot of outside, manual labor.
01:44By contrast, the lighter an Asian person's skin is, the higher their social class and
01:48the greater their beauty.
01:50Women will often go outside with parasols to keep their skin light, or will even go
01:54so far as to consider skin bleaching.
01:57Virgin skin
01:59In many countries, if you have a scar, people gape and ask what happened to you.
02:03But in Ethiopia, scars are a way of articulating beauty for women, as well as physical prowess
02:08for men.
02:09In the Karo tribe, for example, people routinely scar themselves to represent vitality and
02:14attractiveness.
02:15So, while Americans go to great pains to minimize and hide scars, other cultures willingly
02:19undergo scarification and celebrate it.
02:23The monolid
02:24In South Korea, the biggest plastic surgery trend is double eyelid surgery.
02:29It's not unusual for South Korean parents to offer their children double eyelid surgery
02:33as a gift.
02:34It all stems from the fact that many Asians have what is commonly referred to as a monolid,
02:39literally meaning one eyelid.
02:41It's the crease on the upper lid that's so common in the West that they're after.
02:46South Korean women largely think that the double eyelid is more attractive.
02:50But many cosmetic surgeons argue that South Korean women don't get the surgery to westernize
02:54themselves or reject their heritage, but rather to emphasize their facial features and emulate
02:59their favorite K-pop stars.
03:09It's widely known that South Korea's pop stars and celebrities opt for this kind of surgery
03:13and, as in most cultures, people like to emulate what they see famous, successful people doing.
03:19So while the double eyelid surgery is normalized within groups of family and friends, it is
03:23made even more desirable by the country's entertainment culture.
03:27Thin eyebrows
03:28Full eyebrows have been trending in the U.S. on and off since the 1940s, with thin eyebrows
03:34coming back in style here and there over the past century.
03:37But luscious brows are a beauty staple within the Mexican culture.
03:41For the better part of a century, the epitome of Mexican beauty has involved dark curls,
03:45red lipstick, and bold eyebrows.
03:47Dramatic, shapely brows are a defining facial feature that is specific to Mexican cultural
03:52history.
03:53While women today don't go as far as donning brows like those of famous artist Frida Kahlo,
03:58Mexican women still prefer dark and striking brows as opposed to thin ones.
04:03And it's starting to catch on in more European cultures, too.
04:06These ones are the… they're the ones that do all the work.
04:09They're it!
04:10I just say.
04:11The curious thing about beauty standards is that they only serve to point out how there's
04:14really no such thing as a standard for beauty.
04:17Beauty isn't uniform throughout the world, and not even uniform in any given room.
04:22Societies construct concepts and rules about what makes a woman beautiful, but that's all
04:27it is, a construction.
04:29Everyone is beautiful to someone, and hopefully, more importantly, beautiful to themselves.