How Do Cultural Paradigms
Cultures and Paradigms (Chapter 9)
Knowledge Claim: How do cultural paradigms shape our concept of beauty?
Skill Sets: Personal Example, Current Events. Multicultural Examples Society makes us criticize ourselves and those around us harshly. If you’re not perceived as “average” or “pretty”, you’re deemed “friend zoned” by the person you are trying to attract. “Friend zoned” is a modern term for those that are uninterested for a relationship, but would still like to stay friends. Societies manipulate the perceptions of beauty in cultures to create paradigms of beauty. For example, Barbie dolls were set as the standard for girls to be slim, pretty, and lady-like. Personally, in the Chinese culture, there are standards for women and men
that haven’t changed. In order for a woman to be considered “beautiful” in Chinese society, she has to be of average height (5 feet 4 inches), petite, slim, and fair-skinned. She has to have big eyes, a tall nose, a small mouth, medium-thick eyebrows, and small feet and hands. My mom and grandma always try to make me petite and slim by drinking healthy soups and eating only vegetables with fish. They also dislike me playing sports because the sun makes me darker and I’m more toned and “masculine”. Men have to be tall, sharp features, and a nice toned body to be considered beautiful and handsome. My parents always try to get my brothers involved with sports to be toned and tan from the sun. These ideas of beauty are reflected in the celebrities that are widely known such as Raymond Lam and Charmaine Sheh. In American society, standards of beauty are changing frequently. For example, Barbie dolls were what caused a lot of young girls to starve themselves, believing it would make them similar to their favorite Barbie doll. Now, girls strive to be voluptuous, and curvaceous with big eyes, full lips, and a small nose. Men strive to be buff, tall, athletic, and strong with strong facial features and a good head of hair. Celebrities that are labeled as beautiful in American society that reflect those standards are Angelina Jolie, Beyonce, Channing Tatum, and Matt Bomer. Earlier this year in late June, a journalist named Esther Honig sent a photograph of herself simply asking the designers to make her look “beautiful” like in their own country’s fashion magazine. She sent this out to 23 different countries and the responses she got back are truly amazing. For example, Morroco added clothes and a hajib to her; United States totally warped her image by changing her hairstyle, and making her tanner with more eye makeup on her. This reflects their cultural paradigms shaping their concept of beauty because Morocco included a hajib, showing that religion is a very important aspect of life there. The United States of America put Esther’s hair down and to the side with blush and darker makeup on the eyes. To conclude, culture plays a major part in the paradigms that we have. Societies that are more modern and “unchanging” are more likely to change or alter their paradigm of beauty whereas more traditional societies like the Asian culture are less likely to change their concept of beauty. It’s what Asians are used to and what they think is still applicable to future generations. The American society is more modernized, and can easily alter the idea of beauty because the United States of America is so diverse and always changing. Esther Honig was a clever journalist that decided to take the initiative and see how each country would apply their paradigm of beauty to her. The results shocked her and people all around the world because the idea was so abstract and original; this also showed clearly the cultural differences between each country and their idea of beautiful.
Knowledge Claim: How do cultural paradigms shape our concept of beauty?
Skill Sets: Personal Example, Current Events. Multicultural Examples Society makes us criticize ourselves and those around us harshly. If you’re not perceived as “average” or “pretty”, you’re deemed “friend zoned” by the person you are trying to attract. “Friend zoned” is a modern term for those that are uninterested for a relationship, but would still like to stay friends. Societies manipulate the perceptions of beauty in cultures to create paradigms of beauty. For example, Barbie dolls were set as the standard for girls to be slim, pretty, and lady-like. Personally, in the Chinese culture, there are standards for women and men
that haven’t changed. In order for a woman to be considered “beautiful” in Chinese society, she has to be of average height (5 feet 4 inches), petite, slim, and fair-skinned. She has to have big eyes, a tall nose, a small mouth, medium-thick eyebrows, and small feet and hands. My mom and grandma always try to make me petite and slim by drinking healthy soups and eating only vegetables with fish. They also dislike me playing sports because the sun makes me darker and I’m more toned and “masculine”. Men have to be tall, sharp features, and a nice toned body to be considered beautiful and handsome. My parents always try to get my brothers involved with sports to be toned and tan from the sun. These ideas of beauty are reflected in the celebrities that are widely known such as Raymond Lam and Charmaine Sheh. In American society, standards of beauty are changing frequently. For example, Barbie dolls were what caused a lot of young girls to starve themselves, believing it would make them similar to their favorite Barbie doll. Now, girls strive to be voluptuous, and curvaceous with big eyes, full lips, and a small nose. Men strive to be buff, tall, athletic, and strong with strong facial features and a good head of hair. Celebrities that are labeled as beautiful in American society that reflect those standards are Angelina Jolie, Beyonce, Channing Tatum, and Matt Bomer. Earlier this year in late June, a journalist named Esther Honig sent a photograph of herself simply asking the designers to make her look “beautiful” like in their own country’s fashion magazine. She sent this out to 23 different countries and the responses she got back are truly amazing. For example, Morroco added clothes and a hajib to her; United States totally warped her image by changing her hairstyle, and making her tanner with more eye makeup on her. This reflects their cultural paradigms shaping their concept of beauty because Morocco included a hajib, showing that religion is a very important aspect of life there. The United States of America put Esther’s hair down and to the side with blush and darker makeup on the eyes. To conclude, culture plays a major part in the paradigms that we have. Societies that are more modern and “unchanging” are more likely to change or alter their paradigm of beauty whereas more traditional societies like the Asian culture are less likely to change their concept of beauty. It’s what Asians are used to and what they think is still applicable to future generations. The American society is more modernized, and can easily alter the idea of beauty because the United States of America is so diverse and always changing. Esther Honig was a clever journalist that decided to take the initiative and see how each country would apply their paradigm of beauty to her. The results shocked her and people all around the world because the idea was so abstract and original; this also showed clearly the cultural differences between each country and their idea of beautiful.