Culture and Beauty

In my two previous posts, I had written about fairness being used as a parameter of beauty and how it seems strange that such a belief still continues to thrive in a society such as South India.  However, as a young woman living not only in Bangalore, but also in a fast paced, globalized world, I have found that it becomes difficult to hold onto solely one’s  “traditional cultural roots” -  Almost like as if it is a small creeper caught in a cross wind of cultural influence.   The implications of this being, that all our notions of beauty, somehow, somewhere, are a mixture of the beliefs of the different cultures we are engaging in and engaging with. Whether it’s a pair of jeans or a streak of red in the hair but huge golden jhumkas in the earlobes, it’s a fascinating time to be growing up. While I do wholeheartedly believe in retaining a lot of traditional cultural values, I see no wrong in questioning some practices and even welcoming and embracing the multifarious cultural beliefs and practices that surround us – especially as Indians who are blessed to be constantly interacting with different people with different practices. This being said, it is important to remember and this wholly rests upon the head of the individual, to be responsible and respectful in this exercise of cultural give and take.

Older Generations however, complain that the younger generation is becoming extremely westernized -but being westernized is not a holistically negative thing. It has its positives and its negatives and depends almost entirely on subjectivity - as most things involving opinions do.  Even concepts of beauty have undergone so many generational changes. I cannot even count the number of times my grandparents have sat down to watch TV and  immediately extolled the beauty of Waheeda Rahman and Savitri or Saira Banu - extolling their grace and poise, which none of these “today’s actresses have”.

 Back in the day – women were plumper, curvier, fuller figured and beautiful. Actresses today are also beautiful, but the concept of what is beauty has changed.

Indians for example, traditionally hold that a nose piercing is a very integral part of an Indian woman’s beauty.  Interestingly, nose piercings and multiple ear piercings are very common today and are back in vogue in many parts of the world.  When I decided to get my nose pierced for example, my biggest fans and supporters were every individual I met, over the age of 65. To me, my nose stud held and still holds no traditional value but every single time an elderly Indian person notices it, I have constantly been complimented for retaining our cultural values.  Tattoos, haircuts, body size, skin and even appendages have been, for a long time caught in between the crossfire of culture and beauty.

This got me thinking about the many different but traditional notions of beauty and attractiveness and how cultures approached these practices of beauty.  Today, while the West looks at the beauty ideal as being slim, many African countries like Zambia, embrace being on the heavier side. For them, beauty comes from curves and curves are the ultimate mark of femininity.

Pa Dong woman with rings in place to elongate her neck

I read somewhere that a tribe known as Pa Dong tribe that live in Thailand and Burma, believe that beauty comes from possessing a long neck.  So what the women do is that they begin by circling their necks with rings usually one ring, made of brass and then just keep adding more to their necks over time. Apparently, the only time that these are removed is on the wedding night of the woman.

Certain tribes of Africa use extreme measures to beautify themselves

There are communities like the Maoris of New Zealand who tattoo their faces and even completely tattoo their lips to make them blue- a mark of ultimate beauty. Some tribes in Africa believe that big lips are beautiful. They even go to extreme measures such as making a hole in their lips and inserting plates into the whole, plates that are eventually replaced by those of a bigger size till they are satisfied with the size of their lips and the Masai tribe of Kenya do similar things to their earlobes to conform to their belief that big earlobes are pretty. In China, tiny feet were considered a beauty necessity and were bound tightly in ropes to keep them from increasing in size.  Sometimes, bones would have to be broken in order to perform this task.

Another interesting practice that I read about, was those of the women belonging to the Karo tribe in Ethiopia – where, they believe that scars are the mark of a woman, and start making scars on the woman from her childhood as a means of finding and attracting a husband.  The scars are usually made on their torsos.

Basically though, concepts of beauty are so culturally diverse, that if one looks deep we will find numerous such beliefs and practices. However, it is important to remember to respect different notions of beauty despite them seeming weird because these opinions go two ways - Some of these communities might just look at us and find our ideas of beauty strange.

PICTURE CREDITS

--http://goo.gl/x6lR5h

--http://goo.gl/CKRgX3

Avani Konduri