Fat or Thin: What is beauty?

After reading these articles, it seems that white people are being seen as "normal". Women around the world have started looking at their bodies and comparing them to the "normal" body image. These women are looking at body image, such as weight and facial features. Black-skinned women are changing facial features such as their noses and lips. They seem to think that their noses are too wide and their lips are too large. Some women are resorting to plastic surgery in order to change their bodies. Asian women are having their eyelids changed so they seem more like Anglo features. "Asian American women, and growing numbers of men, pay for eyelid surgeries that add a crease to their eyelids to give them a more rounded appearance- more Western" (Hunter 56). In Hunter's article, she talks about how these women are changing their bodies to look more Western. But are these women actually trying to look more Western? Or do they just want to change their appearance for their own benefit to feel beautiful?

The same goes for women who are seen as overweight in society. In our current culture, women are viewed to be super-skinny with the perfect body. Women who don't have a skinny body are viewed as unhealthy and fat. But some people seem to believe that it's normal for African American and Latino women to be bigger than white women. Think about the typical stereotypes. Black and Latino women are known to have curves and to be more voluptuous. If white women were to have that kind of body then they would be viewed as fat and obese. Therefore, it would seem that more African American and Latino women would be more comfortable with their bodies than white women would. "Despite mainstream stigmatization of fat bodies, numerous studies done in the last twenty years suggest that African American girls are more content with their body weight and are less likely to diet than are white or Latino girls" (LeBesco 59). However, despite these stereotypes, women are still being degraded because of their bodies.

However, as time goes on I hope that more body types will be accepted. I think that women should be able to love their body for what it is and not what it could be. Recently a show was on TV starring Jessica Simpson in which she travels to other countries and see what beauty looks like to them. The show was called "The Price of Beauty". The one episode that I got to see was when Jessica Simpson and her friends go to Uganda and find out what beauty is there. Two months before these women get married they go live in a "fattening hut" where they drink milk all day long to make them fat. Men believe that fat is beautiful. The video is really interesting so I'm going to post it below. I highly suggest watching it! :)