I'm a dark complexioned Indian and when I was younger ,colorism was so deeply ingrained , that some kids would say stuff like "Ohh you're dark you can't enter the class room until the fairer skinned girls enter" I was 5 and that was the first time I had even heard of such a thing and ever since then I kinda developed this inferiority complex about the color of my skin which took me a long time to overcome and thankfully a sickening cream called "Fair and Lovely" was finally banned in India
I’m also South Asian (from Nepal) and there are similar issues in my country. I’ve seen many of my cousins and aunts have skin whitening creams and lotions (such as “anti-tan” products) to try and fix their natural skin tones. The fear of dark skin is so deeply engrained in my culture I wonder if it’ll ever change how we see ourselves, much less the treatment of other races with dark skin (such as indigenous or black people). Other features such as curly/wavy hair are looked down upon too. It feels like everyone is trying so hard to be white and it makes me sad.
omg Fair and Lovely's advertisements are so retroactively racist hahaha! I remember those on TV in the 90s and early 2000s. Good to hear it's banned in India
It's not banned, they just started to write 'Glow and lovely' on the packets of 'Fair and lovely'. But in fact you'll find both the names written on the packet. So far from banned.
I had the exact same thing happen to me when I was a child and some other little girls wouldn’t let me under an umbrella because I’m black. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that and I hope we both can keep growing to love our skin ❤
I find the obsession with lighter skin disturbing. It not only common in Asia. If you watch TV in Mexico, lighter skinned people get the majority of good roles. You can get a role as a darker skinned actor if play a low life or an object of sympathy.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
It's racist. I remember when they had the multiple ugly Betty shows and they all had darker skin glasses,acne and curly hair. Definitely made me so insecure
This is because for thousands of years having white skin in China means you dont have to work in the fields under the sun which categorize you as rich. Opposite to Anglo-Saxons who wants tan skins which means you are able to travel to warm places which means you are rich also.
It honestly disturbs me how some of the beauty standards just feel like descriptions of little children. Small, Cute, big eyes, clean skin and of course also stuff like having no body hair and being obedient.
That’s a big factor, especially for the men, They want a girl like that and associate any asian girls with those features and fetishizing them. It’s funny because they only believe asia is Japan, korea, and china 😂
Whats crazy is that shes talking about the beauty standards and she meets all of them. Im not saying thats a bad thing but interesting to see how those beauty ideals have maybe inadvertently impacted her life.
I might be wrong... But I'm pretty sure she deliberately made her appearance conform to the norms discussed for the video (she looks pretty different in the ad section)
It doesn't seem weird to choose to look good for a video that you want people to take you seriously on. Plus, she doesn't meet the standards very well. She is somewhat thin, yes, but her skin is not the level of pale captured in these beauty standards as well as not the proper texture. Jaw is not pointed enough, her mouth would be considered a bit big and her cheeks are too pronounced. Her eyes are also not the desirable shape, which is the biggest part. These aren't bad things, like you said, after all she still looks great. I think just about everyone here would agree on that but if we measure her by beauty standards, especially Korean beauty, it's obvious she does not fit and is clearly not interested in fitting them.
i remember in elementary school my classmate would mock me and my skin because it was darker than theirs, those same girls would also complain about their own skin tone when the warmer months came around, about how they wish they were tanner, how pale they look, how dead they look due to lack of skin pigment, i remember i went to bathroom and a girl pulled me aside and asked how i got my skin tone ‘that color’, it made me so uncomfortable, i also remember in school once i put on too much chapstick so my lips looked rather glossy and the girls started making comments about how they would never wear that much makeup, i remember they also threw water at me because they were convinced i wore mascara, my eyelashes have been long my whole life, school and my peers really made me hate my appearance for a while, i love the content and glad someone is talking about it :) edit: this took place in america for those who were curious, also sorry for bad grammar
Most people are insulted and bullied at some point in school. If it isn't about appearance, it'll be about clothes, where you live, etc. Doesn't make it right but there aren't many people who don't get bullied about something.
I think it’s interesting that a lot of the standards for women focus on being easier to control, ie being thin and less physically powerful as well as childlike looks and behavior associated with being impressionable
I can't imagine dating an obedient woman, that just sounds so boring. Especially since I love fucking around with people and testing them we'd be done within a week.
my brother and i were fostered by a traditionally chinese family for a little over a year when we were younger. i loved them so much. they never did try to enforce beauty standards, and praised us for looking the way we did, even if we werent really the prettiest kids. ive been around a lot of people who treat others different based on how well they fit the beauty standard, but my foster parents were the most caring and supportive people i have ever had the privilege of living with. i will always be thankful for their kindness and for not ridiculing me for being a bit chubby as a kid.
That's great to hear. The funny thing is, Chinese parents want their kids to be as chubby as possible, until they start growing up at which point they change their minds and suddenly want you to be thin. Even so, they don't ever stop over-feeding you. I'm convinced it's a form of slow torture.
@@DennisBLee That's what kinda confuses me with the beauty standards, most Chinese kids I've seen are more chubby. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, but is ironic compared to the beauty standard
Due to odd circumstances I got my US passport photo taken while I was living in Korea. Technically, I’m pretty sure those photos are not allowed to be retouched. It was four of us Americans that went together for the photos and we were all blown away by how good they looked. We just thought she was a good photographer at the time. I kind of suspected they were retouched for a while because I look SO good in the picture, but I wasn’t really sure until you brought up the Korean ID photo editing. Thanks for mentioning it! I’ve definitely experienced that first hand as my passport makes me look like a model version of me, she didn’t even ask or tell us it was going to be done, that’s how normal it is!
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
@@TheTimeWillPassAnyways wrong, she critiques the social culture of china never the gov and that is the strategy of the propaganda to make her come out as "one of us" that criticizes china so you dont see her as a propagandist threat and i mean it worked judging by the defensive response i got from you, how do you think she got so many views on 3 videos when other content creators that make the same exact style of content barley get any traction
Honestly, I find it disgusting how beauty standards change like fashion. Bodies are not clothes that you can easily change every few years/months. Different people have different body types (in terms of the skeleton), tastes, workout routines, ... Some want to be thin, some want to be athletic and some want to be a bit thicker. Not everybody should look the same.
a lot of it isn't a choice either. genetics does a LOT, just like any other feature. there's also factors like medications and possible conditions. the human body is not as customizable as corporations would love for us to believe.
Beauty standards don’t change. Trends may come and go but standards are biological. Such as symmetry for instance. No matter where you go regardless of time, a highly asymmetrical face will never be the beauty standard
@@harmonygibson3374uglyness can seep into your soul & how those people being treated by society Its a good indicator, doesn't mean give you a right to treat uglies badly, until they do something heinous anyway
I remembered something after watching your video. When I was little, my mom told me in chinese that have fair skin hide 3 flaws, but being "fat" destroy all, meaning that even if your face suits the beauty standard and you have pale skin, if you are "fat"/chubby, you would not be beautiful. The East Asian beauty standard is so toxic, people treat you so well if you are pretty, but will look down on you if not.
Hahaha, I'm half White half Taiwanese and that summed up my childhood! Pretty face but ugly body. I wasn't fat. But my frame was literally bigger from my White genetics, and I carried fat in my thighs the way Asian people don't. But back then I just thought I was super fat. I cried when I saw an old photo of me as a kid, because I was thin! I don't know why everyone called me fat and had me yo-yo dieting. No one ever bullied me for my weight when I moved to the US.
Z Z good to see a fellow half Taiwanese & half white person. I hope you’re doing a lot better now. I remember being glorified back in Taiwan as a little kid for being very pale skinned due to genetics. Now that I live in the U.S I’m more tan from doing labor work and it’s completely normal. I don’t get judged for anything and I’m just like everyone else. It’s nice that the U.S is much less extreme on this and being tanned is a positive.
I'm Indian, there's an obsession with "fair" skin here too. From what I saw when I was a kid and what I'm seeing now, things are getting a bit better these days. As a kid I was always "suggested" home remedies and all to get fair. I always felt the need to get fair skin as my mom and brother had fair skin colour. But seeing gorgeous gorgeous dark skinned people flaunting their skin colour heals me. I no longer feel the need to be more white.
Indians are so so so so so so so so pretty to me. Growing up, I couldn't follow standards, or trends and always question why or why not. Mom thinks I'm weird and embarrassing. But I later learned I am in the spectrum and people like me, always like what we like regardless of what society says. That's good and bad in its own way. I'm going on a tangent, but here are some of the things I like on people: many moles, Indians, fat people, big teeth, long eyelashes, thick lips, dangling earrings and when I can see the change in skin tone on people's palms.
It's so interesting to listen about the beauty standards of other cultures. I'm from eu and it was the time of "slim-thick" beauty for some time + natural tan that all emphasized people were active, had money to go to the gym ect. Now I see a lot of teens prefering oversized clothes and are going for "kpop" standards - slimer body and you can see people are using uv creams more. Now it's like a battle between generations. In eu beauty standard for body type changes from more curvy to thin to curvy to extremly thin over and over again.. Here it's a game you cannot win unless you learn to love your body and just care for it without listening to what is "in fashion" this decade. Edit: spelling. English is not my first language so I apologize for the mistakes.
Just my opinion. Loads of guys don't care as much as girls probably do. Just my experience. Millions of guys so everyone is different. But just my observation. Tons of guys would be fine with that slim thick, slim, or maybe even just thick. They will probably take what they can get tbh. Just going off what I have seen. There definitely might be a trend that's popular. But most guys I think stick to what they like. Your right it's probably impossible to keep up with the trends. Just find what is comfortable and stick with it.
@@baronvonjo1929 yea, it really relates to that section of the video about self objectification and commoditisation of beauty images. It doesn't have to be 'for guys', as much as peer pressure and unrealistic comparisons to fake celebrities. I don't believe women style themselves for men as much as men might think, it's still sexualised and the media talks about it in that context, but internally it's more complex.
@@baronvonjo1929 : Why do Chinese women not want to get married. Why Chinese women don't want to get married. China doesn't like that I'm a single woman. By The New York Times February 2020 China's leftover women 剩女 。 By Vice October 5, 2018 . Since the socialist revolution, the rights of Chinese women have been written into the country's constitution. Under Mao, unprecedented numbers of women joined the workforce and they were celebrated as ""iron girls." But now, China is home to a fifth of the world's women whose status as equals is dwindling. Domestic violence rates in the country have soared, marital rape is not considered a crime, those who dare to call themselves feminist activists are being detained the government, and unmarried women older than 27 are commonly referred to as ""leftover women."" To find out what lies behind the drastic shift in women's social status in China, we track down feminist scholar and "iron girl"" Wang Zheng and spend a day with one of China's so-called leftover women. We also explore the extremes of China's wedding industry and its defectors before meeting Wei Tingting, one of the five women's rights activists detained for trying to start a campaign against sexual harassment on public transportation.
@@BobHannent Western Women Eastern Men | Wang Jia | TEDxErasmusUniversity. The romantic relationship imbalance between West and East has always puzzled him. In this speech, Wang Jia will use his personal experience and research to decode some of the mysteries. Originally from Beijing, Wang Jia, has lived in Europe for the past 14+ years. He obtained Ph.D. title from TU Delft, and now works as a business analyst.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
I taught English in Japan for a year about 5 years ago and I remember getting multiple compliments from my adult female students about my pale skin. As an American where tan skin is more the beauty norm this was the first time I’d ever been complimented on my paleness. It was sweet of them to compliment me, but I felt a little awkward knowing about these beauty standards and made sure to compliment their skin colors as well and casually mention how I think all skin colors are beautiful. I don’t think I changed anyone’s mind with one compliment, but I think it’s important to say these things out loud. All skin colors are beautiful and all body types are beautiful!
In Japan, there is a culture that says fair skin is beautiful before they met Caucasians. The Japanese beauty standard for fair-skinned people has a history of more than 1,000 years, and it is disrespectful to the Japanese people to say that Japanese fair-skinned culture is strange or discriminatory according to current Western values.
And you may not know this, but in Japan, non-pale women are considered beautiful too. For example, Japan's most famous female announcer, Maki okazoe, is very tanned but popular among the Japanese, and Okinawan women are considered beautiful, even though they are tanner than other Japanese women.
Both of my parents taught English in Japan in the late 80's. Most of the time, white folks were called gaijins by the locals. They thought all Americans were dirty and had AIDS (at the time). The homogeny of the culture (then) also made it weird for "average-looking" white folks. I mean anyone with brown hair and light skin...which like most white people. My mom often got asked if she was half Japanese half white because of it. She's not Japanese at all. But the locals didn't like that because of the idea of race mixing. And that was the thing, light skin is "good", but you can't be anything other than Japanese. My parents said there were a lot of good things, but that aspect was difficult.
Shut. up. "As an American where tan skin is more the beauty norm". I'm Cambodian South east asian living in america and your comment is so tone deaf. Being white in america your above all us dark people. America hate dark people yet you got the time lying like your pilgrim ancestors.
My ex step mom is black, and I remember when I was a kid, she used lightening cream to literally make her skin lighter (to which she was already on the lighter side naturally). She also hated being in the sun for to long as it would make her darker. As a kid, I never understood why, but as an adult, I’m like, “ohhhh fucked up beauty standards.” She also worked in the music, film and fashion industry so there was is EXTRA level of maintain beauty standards.
Well, that's fucked up. If that was me staying in the sun for too long, I'm the one who is suffering thanks to my sensitivity towards the sun. I remember I got sunburned as a child and I was crying in pain instead of screaming "Noooo I don't like black/tanned skin!!" Since then, I have been wearing sunscreen very often and wear darker clothes to protect my skin (I don't mind being white but what I hated the most is my hatred of photosensitivity, it made me not want to go out when the heat is at extreme temperature even at the mildest, those days are more torturous compared to seeing young girls crying about not fitting into beauty standards) I have my own ways of fitting into beauty standards, I may look ugly and all since my hands and feet doesn't look skinny (although they are smaller than the average people), and one of my friend mentioned I look more like a kid due to my short height (below 4'11, that made me more self conscious of my body instead of my body curves- His words hurt like a whale trying to commit suicide by exploding themselves- 💀) BITCH I'M ONLY 17 WHICH MAKES IT EVEN WORSE- (my juniors at my school looked at me for being like that, the nightmares of being called a kid in 12th grade is something I want to jump into a void right now) Sorry about that sudden outburst of venting~ My friend is such a jerk that I wished to slap him 1000 times
I traveled to Australia years ago on a Korean Air flight. A very nice, attractive, attentive flight attendant regularly came by to check if I needed anything. It was only near the end of the flight that I realized it wasn't actually the same woman, but that the attendants all looked so much alike that I just thought it was the same one. Passing by all of them while exiting the plane was a weird experience because they DID in fact all look exactly alike [same height, weight, hairstyle, facial features, everything]. I always think of that experience whenever the topic of "Asian beauty standards" comes up - or the latest "Asian woman" designed robot.
My man out here about to have a crisis because he had an experience that people who aren't willing to listen would immediately jump him for sharing his thoughts on.
Ive been on exchange in east Asia for half a year now, and I have to say the whole cute beauty standard fetishising youth feels borderline pedophilic at times
It’s not borderline. East Asian culture is a lot more tolerant of relationships between adult men and teenage girls. It’s not exactly common, but in contrast to Western countries, it is considered acceptable at least when the child’s parents consent.
@@beamyshark I wonder why theses sexpats consider SEA the place to go. Also "fetishise maturity"? you can't push away the blame while also implying that being attracted to adults is a fetish, that is a self report
@@zoikles1 ironic considering that many instances of paedos getting caught having child p8rnography on their PC are from the western hemisphere. and just FYI the so called "culture", which is non-existence in majority of east asian culture, is heavily looked down upon and condemned by many.
This is a fascinating watch. I’m from US, and while we have our own unattainable standards of beauty seeing a more in depth analysis of East Asian beauty standards is mind blowing to me. The moment you started speaking about the A4 paper trend, I could not help going to my printer and pulling out a sheet. I was expecting it to be jarring but after actually holding up that piece of paper I wanted to start crying. I’ve only known one person in my life to ever be that skinny and she had to go to rehab for her ED, so that’s terrifying to realize. I’m happy that you’re shedding more light on this topic up and noting clearly the severity of which it affects the mental well-being of so many people, especially young women.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
I did the same! I went for a paper as soon as she said it. My waist did disappear under it but I was like...So what now? It's a piece of paper. How can anyone define beauty by a piece of paper? It's ridiculous.
@@VegaTakeOver CCP propagandist exist. This channel isn’t one. I’ve watched many many videos by Laowhy and Serpentza, from those info, I can use critical thinking to figure out that a channel just talking about China isn’t equivalent to CCP propaganda
I loved how you discussed the East Asian cultural roots behind the pale skin and wide eyes - so often people talk about how this is just comes from Western colonialism (not to discount that!), but it's often more than just "asians wanna be white". Obsessed with your channel!
Western progressives sometimes engage in a form of orientalism where they cast the blame solely on colonialism for the negative aspects of other cultures, like everyone was so pure and virtuous before they were corrupted by the evil white man. Some of the most absurd levels of this I've seen are claiming that the British introduced the caste system to India, or that antisemitism in the Muslim world is a product of Christianity.
I'd wager these days it's a combo of both. Also, being colorist based on class distinctions isn't exactly much better than the other reasoning of trying to look white.
Yes, it's very frustrating to hear such an oversimplification. I think, for example, the extreme emphasis on eye size does come from a European influence but it's still not the same as wanting to look white. That's something else that's often misrepresented. People need to learn that two things can be true at once. Colourism predates European colonialism in most places in fact, it was just made 10x worse after they showed up.
I have been saturated with Kpop in my early teen years. Slender arms, skinny legs, pale skin, all these standards were ingrained to me so much that I worked hard to have them all. I rarely go out, I exercised for two hours a day, I eat so little. I eventually developed an ED. My hair fell out so much, I get sick all the time, I lost my period for over a year. All these to say that these standards are so harmful. I wished I knew better then.
i love kpop but the standards they put them through are just..no like i feel so bad for the idols that have to be underweight to “look good”, (meaning like 95% of the industry) and im pretty sure the company knows that there’s many fans wants their strict diets to stop
Bruh i thought you developed ED as erectile disfunction not eating disorder, took a solid few seconds to recalibrate and realise that it was ED as in eating disorder
10:00 There’s also a Japanese term called “azatoi” (あざとい) which refers to people (often women) consciously acting cute to attract attention (often from men). It’s often used in a derogative way, sometimes in comparison to people who are “kawaii” or naturally cute without trying, but it can also be used positively, praising the effort that the person puts in to appear cute. Common mannerisms that would be called azatoi is wearing loose-fitting clothes especially with loose sleeves called “moe sode” that only show your fingertips, taking bouncy steps, pretending to be more scared than you are of bugs or ghost stories to feign vulnerability, etc…
@@normax304When you squeal is it really dramatic sounding? It could just be that your reaction seems a little overblown in comparison to what you’re reacting to. Especially if people normally perceive you as a very mature, “adult” person.
Wonderful conversation! Skin blurring and filters are a menace to society. When I started researching Korean skincare, I noticed that it was impossible to see unfiltered pictures of models' skin. Every ad had skin blurring on it. At first, I thought the products couldn't be that good if they won't show their bare face. It wasn't until I saw a few TH-camrs that I follow use Korean products that I tried them for myself. People don't know how real skin looks and appreciate our unique beauty.
I HATE when they use so much filters on very young idols (it's upsetting on older ones too but) if they cannot be allowed to be confident in their natural skin, who can?
@@tdelioncourt1268 So true! The only time that I get to see their beauty is when they appear in the foreign (Western) media. No filters or whitewashing. They look beautiful. Pores and all.
There is a really popular ad I get now (live in Korea) for a acne clearing face wash or stick treatment and it’s very clear that the “acne” is photoshopped on. None of it looks real, from the acne to the obvious filters on the skin. It makes me laugh and not want to use their product even more- even as someone not necessarily the target audience since I’m lucky to have fairly clear skin. It very much I think does target people more insecure and willing to try anything which sucks because how can you be trusted to know how it really does if you’re going to not even highlight the real cases of acne.
You're a lot smarter than I was, I was CONVINCED that those pictures/videos were all unedited and of the model's bare skin. Thankfully for me though I started hearing people like you point that out before I got too deep intp the self-hatred
I remember my family not chosing a guy for my sister who was well respected and had his own business because he had a darker skin. They were afraid that the baby might be also dark.
I am Irish, and even for someone from this cloudy rainy little island i am pretty pale. When I was 19 I went on a trip to China playing in a brass ensemble, and i got multiple compliments from people about how lovely and pale my skin was, whereas back home I was only ever made fun of for not going outside. It was a very odd experience at the time, I didn't really know how to react.
Is there anything wrong with simply saying “thank you” to that? They just liked your skin tone, and it doesn’t mean to me that they are being racists or any kind.
The geisha comment is technically true but misguided. While pale skin may be the beauty standard in Japan, geisha did not start painting their faces white for the look we associate them with today. They painted their faces white so that their faces would look bright under candlelight.
People need to see this :/ A lot of Japanese people have explained this gain and again. Good example would be Let’s ask Shogo Pale skin as beauty standard is correct, but there’s more logical reason why geisha used Oshiroi..
It was also in the Tang Dynasty that white skin looked pretty, so such makeup was popular, and it influenced Japan. In Korea, it was natural to whiten makeup from the past, and this was popular. Even in Korea, pale skin has long been regarded as a beauty. call name "sambeak(삼백: 三白)" The skin, teeth and hands must be white. Even today, in India, whtie skin is considered a standard of beauty.
I remember in school being called “kaali” which means dark in Hindi by a fellow classmate. I must be 10 at that time. It did hurt but it was said in the context of a “joke”. After that incident I started noticing things at home that I initially didn’t pay attention to. Like my mom making me eat specific items because it would make me fair or putting homemade masks. She used to always do it but after the incident at school I noticed these things at home. We are made to feel insecure by our family and peers only. I see so many videos where social media and influencer culture is blamed for toxic beauty standards but truly it begins at home. I am wheatish skin tone with a decent body weight and I do basic exercise and eat to my heart’s content. Happy with the way I am at this point. Thank you for the video. 💜
Amazing because in Hinduism the gods/goddesses depicted with Blue skin are understood to be extremely dark skinned- quite literally black in color. I think Kali is also a woman from the pantheon even tho I'm unsure of her role/personality or if she even indeed is apart of the pantheon - can't remember been a while). Do you think it is colonialistic influence, or the labor vs leisure skin tone associations?
Sis DON'T feel down because in Bengal KALI is a GODDESS a literal GODDESS WHO KILLED RAKTABEEJ BECAUSE THE SO CALLED MASCULINE GODS FAILED SHE'S LIKE I DON'T HAVE WORKDS TO PRAISE MAA KALI AND HER HUSBAND SHIV HAD TO STEP UNDER HER FEET TO EASE HER ANGER AND GO ON A KILLING RAMPANT AGAINST ALL ASUR BE PROUD TO BE CALLED KAALI THEY DON'T KNOW THAT THEY WERE ACTUALLY PRAISING YOU WHILE INTENTING TO HURT YOU
This may seem insignificant to point out but, thank you for showing that b roll of a very dark skinned black person with dreads Locs when you said “beautiful people”. That really mean a lot because for decades we were made to believe that people who looked like that weren’t beautiful ❤️
Oof this quote hits so hard - "any movement towards gender equality which threatens the patriarchy will inevitably be followed by a heightened emphasis on unrealistic beauty standards as well as increased pressure to meet these standards."
Possibly, but it is mostly women that care about and enforce these standards. They are the ones that buy the magazines. Women enforce unrealistic standards on men too, the most difficult being height. Most women will not date a man shorter than them.
The puffy under eye thing is blowing my mind as a white American. There are so many products to get rid of puffy under eyes. The photoshopping of IDs and the filters on the payment apps are also absolutely wild to me. I already struggle with the beauty standards here, I couldn’t imagine dealing with standards that intense. I’m so glad they’re are people like you bringing awareness to this issue.
@@mornen-bb Not really. I've seen Asian people who naturally have puffy under eyes and they look just as "tired" as any other race with that particular trait.
@@quiznak1003 they seem to do it to offset the more sharp eyes. under a round eye and under the corner of a more sharp eye makes a world of difference, especially for both eye corners
@@mornen-bb eye puff isn't bone structure, for one; east Asian don't suddenly lack the ability to develop it when tired. The cultural association is simply different.
In East Asia is normalize that random strangers can criticize or praise your weight and your body in general, the pressure of being skinny is constantly reinforce in everyday life even if you don't use much social media. Pale skin is not only associated with high socioeconomic class but also with purity so having freckles or moles is considered dirty or impure and many spend a lot of money to remove them with laser.
@@Naikomi603 It's just considered rude here in America even before we had a weight problem. You never ask someone their weight, age, or how much money they make. It's extremely weird and offensive. Ask an American any of those personal questions and watch them never speak to you again.
@@tellallyourfriends27 sweetheart, it's not about asking about weight.. it's about telling all those fat snowflakes that what they are doing is not healthy.
Considering that east asians generally emphasize collectivism in society, there are some social pressure to fullfill the standard that is even unattainable.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
@@VegaTakeOver With her content, it's more likely that she's paid by the CIA or another pro-American organization. I'm aware of this risk but the content's interesting for now. If it gets too preachy about "China bad" I'll tap out.
It's always what you don't have. Here in Denmark (Scandinavia) everyone is pale, but being tan is seen as 'prettier' as it implies you’ve been traveling/been on vacation
I think it's interesting how thin the line between health and beauty is. A few months ago I finally did the jump to improve my health. As a person who spends most of their day in front of a computer I knew that my body needs more movement and I also can't just eat whatever I want if I want my body to last. So I signed up for a gym and got a dietary advisor to improve my life. While this all sounds great I felt very called out when you talked about body surveillance. On one hand this is a great way to track progress for me but honestly I do not know where this ends. I have no clue what physique I am even trying to achieve and what is possible. I can easily see how someone would slowly care more about reaching some unattainable beauty standard given how hard it is to see health. I think "seeing health" is where a lot of these problems come from. You can't really and thus we come up with some correlations and then push them to an (unhealthy) extreme.
Hello, dietiTian here. Achieving society's beauty standards (male or female) does not automatically mean healthy. For example, people can have abs but also have high cholesterol levels, putting them at high risk for heart disease. Also, health is not just physical, but mental as well. If you live your life worrying about every food you put in your body, that is not healthy, that is disordered eating.
For me it helps to not track and just do. It helps me focus on the health instead of the look. Also I try to sway bad body image days into neutral days by just stop thinking about the topic, acknowledging it as a bad day, or stop surveying.
Exactly. If you're naturally pale, it's healthy to use sun protection (albeit, using sun protection is good for all races) to decrease the risk of skin cancer. If you're naturally darker, bleaching your skin is not healthful. Everyone has their own benchmarks for health
You gotta admit, its pretty funny how gen z, the most liberal generation, is so obsessed with Korea and Japan when those two countries are, by Gen Z's standards, extremely problematic and racist, fatphobic, etc lol
people are obsessed with Japanese and Korean culture because of j-pop, anime, k-dramas, k-pop and other cultural exports, that doesn't mean they don't recognize these things. I'm not trying to be rude but this comment did upset me because it just assumes so much 😭like people are allowed to enjoy anime etc that doesn't mean they are okay with colorism, fatphobia, and the pressure to conform the beauty standards. these problems exist all over the world it just takes different forms and there are different beauty standards. its not hypocritical to enjoy things from a country with issues ?? it's like saying "its funny how chinese people like american shows even though america is so racist" (edit: im sorry if this comes across as rude! im not trying to start a comment section fight or anything i just meant like, i dont think it's fair to make this assessment, I guess I understand where you were coming from though)
totally agree with your video but just a side note for 0:58, geisha, geiko, maiko, etc everyone under the geisha umbrella painted their faces white because before there were lights as we have today, their performances in the evening were only illuminated by candles so the white face paint helped to make them seen more clearly or another reason why they painted their faces white is to hide their true feelings and facial expressions so they could be portrayed through dance instead
I'm a light tan kind of person, but when I go out in the sun, I become tan easily, Honestly I used to hate it because people always used to tell me.. ''Ohh.. You're so dark now, It's because you always play outside!!'' Which made me stay indoors instead because I felt like I'd be less pretty, But Idk it's kind of pretty to me now, Like a golden touch from the sun, Looks more healthy, No wonder why some Australians or Americans tan themselves. I was always very confused as to why, But now I know why, It's a pretty skin color.
Seeing idols in ultra slender bodies (bordering prepubescent) doing aegyo disturbs me. Other girls think it's feminine and cute, but I can only think of the men behind the scenes. The producers, directors, photographers, CEOs. I can't help but think *they* were the ones who shaped the industry to be like this. It's sleazy, perverted and highkey pedophilic. It seems like they are obsessed with having frail, virginal, pretty little dolls acting all cute and sexy for them.
Same =_= as someone living in Europe this is very concerning, I believe that girls both in Asia, Europe and the Americas shouldn't conform with these standards because we don't know who might be making money in the beauty industry
@@seconddarkness8101 I highly doubt your japanese or living in an asian country, so of course you don't understand that you thinking it's "overrated & annyoing asf" isn't an acceptable opinion to be having. It's much more then a trend in these places, did you watch her video at all?
@dydx_ Just because I'm not Japanese means I can't have an opinion on Japanese industries and the trends there. From my experiences, cutesy and moe are what an abundance of audiences aim towards, and in my opinion, it's overrated and annoying. If you think the opposite, that's fine.
@@dydx_ Your excuse doesn't fly. Not living in Asia doesn't ban one from having an opinion on bad trends crossing the oceans elsewhere from there. And more generally, as someone who used to live in china, neither did my male local classmates and friends really find compliance to the beauty standards necesserily as attractive as set by the standards. Particularily the Anorexia stuff. Beauty Standards portrayed to girls and women by the men in fashion and media do not necesserily reflect normal average men's taste anywhere, but that goes particularily for the super problematic onesin eat asia.
Thank you for covering this topic, and honestly I love your channel as a whole so much. I'm not eloquent enough to talk about all the insecurities and trauma caused by my own culture (East Asian/Korean) or otherwise, and it's... freeing to, in a way, have my own thoughts laid out by you. I've never really matched up to the Korean standard - it feels like I've always been running after it but never been able to catch up. All the while being spoken about by relatives, friends and strangers about my weight, skin, height, monolids etc. It's exhausting to the point that I don't even go outside anymore because I'm not at the ideal weight, or my skin isn't clear enough. It's a messed up way to think - "I'll go outside once I look good enough" ;_;
Ah, please don't do that. We'll never be enough, there's always someone prettier and trends change. Please go outside and surround yourself with people that respect you. Improve for yourself, not for anyone else, because it never enough and you're never at peace. Love you :)
Go outside. Tell all the people who criticize you Thanks ... And smile at them. Or remind them politely that their opinion is neither solicited or required. Walk away with your head high. No one has the right to make you feel less than the wonderful person you are. No one.
i find it interesting that east asian beauty standards haven’t changed much while western beauty standards change every 10-20 years. maybe this correlates with the independent vs interdependent idea? either way thank you for the video!
It's because Asian in general share the same beauty traits which is pale, slim and a heart shape face. Western beauty standards are much wilder since North America, South America and Europe are 3 different continent and each of them have different type of beauty standards .
Western society is a mix of different ethnicity. East asians aren't. They all mostly look the exact same, so it will never change in the east. They can say they prefer to have pale skin as the standard and stick skinny because the majority of people have those features.
I've always been confused as to why darker skin isn't supposedly pretty, to me tan/deeper skin and wavy/curly hair is so beautiful. It's also beautiful to have red hair, pale skin and freckles etc., why does everyone have to look the exact same..?
Beauty standards differ within societies. When everyone has black hair and brown eyes, someone with light hair and blue eyes stands out. Vice versa in other parts of the world As you might know, tanned skin is more valued in Finland because we're all pale as fuck and it means you have enough money to go for vacation during winter time
I think in Japanese, a better way to describe SaJiao is "burikko(ぶりっ子)" which in google translate comes up as "flirt(N)" however the literally meaning comes from the Japanese words for "to pretend" and "child," which is literally pretending to be a child. Edit: 10:20
The pale skin ideal which is common in a lot of places, is why ive always loved the gyaru subculture. Ive always loved subcultures that are about going against the norm on purpose like goths or punks, ive always hated beauty standards but to be fair, im fat and black so i never fit those standards in the first place of course i hate them lol. These days it seems like everyone is caught up in wanting to be "beautiful", so much makeup and plastic surgery it bumms me out i wish i saw more people rebelling against the system instead of just buying into it, but i understand everyone just wants to feel desirable
I agree with you, I guess it's like a snowball effect. I'm in Japan and all the counter-cultures you mention like Gyarus, Ganguros, Gothic-lolitas, etc went extinct around 2008-2010.
I’m with you there. I refuse to accept whatever the “norm” is. I find it absolutely ridiculous that people beg for the acceptance of other more insecure individuals who are also wearing façades for approval. It’s sad! I wish people were braver and stopped seeking approval. I’ve been criticized for many things including for not buying name brands lol and now in my home country (Colombia) im hearing that you get ridiculed for not having surgery 😂lol it’s truly demented!!! I refuse to go under the knife for the approval of anybody!!
Some things are cultural, some are not. A well defined jaw is always good, being taller than average is always better, not having eye pockets, having a face that is symetrical etc... It's like being well dressed vs being dressed fashionable. When you are well dressed it's timeless, when you dress fashionably it's just a fad. Beauty standards can be fads but some things never change.
Beauty standards are often class markers. A lot of pre-industrial Eurasian cultures prized paler complexions, especially for women. As she says in the video, it marks someone as privileged enough to avoid labour in the outdoors. This starts to shift for white Europeans in the late 19th century when a full body tan marked someone as wealthy or privileged enough to spend all day tanning or participating in outdoor leisure activities, or able to travel to warmer regions in the winter months. Unlike the urban working and middle classes, who spent most of daylight hours working in factories or shops or offices. Even rural workers were still marked as lower class by their partial tans, e.g. terms such as "redneck", "farmer's tan", and "trucker's tan".
@@Perrirodan1 ^ I agree, there are a few immutable constants. My view is that these biological imperatives are the baseline upon which each distinct ethno-culture adds its own flavor in terms of aesthetic preferences, etc thus generating its own ideal of beauty.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
As an individual with pale skin, most of the time i got told that i need to "tan" plus a lot more mean comments. I believe all skin types are beautiful, as me myself, have lived through the pain of being told about my pale skin and most made it seem as a bad thing. So love yourself for who you are❤
I was so shocked when my ID picture in Korea came back edited 😅 I’m happy that they didn’t make me pale…they just made my face a little more symmetrical and smoother
I’ve had one taken where they touched up my face so much my mom picking up my photo couldn’t recognize me in the pile 😭 idk what they did but I look like an uncanny valley version of myself
If people try to achieve the same kind of beauty standard + get their ID photos edited to get even closer to that standard, then what's the point of having ID photos? I wouldn't want to have the responsibility to check IDs in Korea...
When I discovered the Snow Filter app, I remember becoming obsessed with morphing my face and makeup etc to look more ideal. It went so far that I couldn't tell it looked completely artificial anymore. My friend spent a long time convincing me to pay attention to it and now I feel much better and even went to photoshoots. Our brains really get used to things quickly, we need a reality check more often.
when you mentioned being born with darker skin and hearing the same comment throughout your life, man i really felt that when i remember my experiences (as a southeast asian) i think it's so fucking insane for a kid at 3 yrs old to realize 'oh they think i'm ugly because of my skin' and crying because i thought no one would find me beautiful EVER because i had dark skin and that was apparently not beautiful. times are changing now, and i'm 21 now, but growing up with that kind of environment of always hearing the same thing from relatives about skin color might've damaged me more than i realized, as until this point, i still can't find myself to fully and sincerely think lighter skin isn't prettier when i look at myself. it's just something so ingrained in me for such a long time that i might never like my skin even if i don't want to change it either because i hate the beauty standard that hurt me so. the popularity of kpop and kbeauty might have also caused that little progress to backtrack as it's so prevalent these days in both western and eastern spheres. there's just no escaping beauty standards.
hi, cambodian american here. i feel that the colorism in south east asia is harsher than east asia, or literally anywhere else in the world. which is crazy to me, because south east asians are generally darker skinned. idk why this particular conversation stuck with me, but i remember even arguing with my darker skinned cambodian cousins about how my vietnamese friend that i had known my whole life couldn't possibly be fully vietnamese bc he was dark skinned like them,and vietnamese are all "white." i was like how the hell would vietnamese be from the exact same tropical region and NOT be dark skinned too? idk, i guess it's just crazy to me that the beauty standards are so prevalent that we're just so convinced that we HAVE to look a certain way, or we are just not valid.
@@vee_ly Yeah, it's wild how it is. It should be obvious that tan skin in the tropics is the most natural thing, but people dislike it so much to a degree that feels like dislike for their own. It probably has to do with what TV representation we see. I'm not very into other SEA media yet, but there's this noticeable thing in philippine entertainment industry where a lot of the actors and actresses are mestizo (or mixed), and so they're naturally have lighter skin. Which is crazy because it means the standard is skewed to literally foreign traits.
I'm dark too and deal with these kind criticisms daily. You just need to focus on your future and don't care about others opinion. Why even care if someone think that you are beautiful or not? Life isn't all about an invidual's beauty.
@@sowhat1674 It would be easy if it only targets you. I think it's not just that the comments target you; because even if it doesn't, it targets everybody. Thoughts and ideas get subconsciously reinforced by outside influence.
It's wild to me. I grew up in America, but my mom is Taiwanese. I never understood why she would aggressively push me away from beaches or why the beauty products that she imported always burned so much. Now I know that it was all about keeping the skin fair. It blows my mind. Literally everything has skin lighting stuff in it by default.
The conformity thing is a key part of it. By not fitting or striving to fit the beauty standard others around you can actually feel a bit offended or angry. Kind of like this: "I try so hard to meet others' expectations but you can't even be bothered? Who do you think you are??!" Of course this happens in the west as well, particularly amongst young adults and then in certain social classes. The difference is that we at least pay lip service to the idea of being unique and celebrating differences.
fr i've seen people get defensive when you simply say 'i hate makeup', you have to add a bunch of things like, 'i personally don't like makeup, its wonderful if you do :)' if you want to escape being called a pick-me or something. Funnily its something i've been seeing more and more lately. I think its just much easier to accept these expectations and see them as empowering than go through the trouble of questioning and challenging them because seriously, they're everywhere!
Something really funny about recent western beauty standard trends is that the huge emphasis on 'slim thick', 'instagram curvy' and especially 'plus sized beauty' has replaced a beauty standard that is unhealthy but vaguely technically achievable with diet and exercise with a beauty standard which is extremely genetically determinative and even less attainable.
@@tinfoilslacks3750 I lay the blame there on social media and, more specifically as of late, short-form videos like TH-cam Shorts and TikTok. It used to be a big issue on Instagram where people would use extreme angles, photographic tricks, accessories/clothes, filters, and outright photoshop to give themselves a certain appearance or to emphasize certain curves/body parts. That did create an atmosphere where extreme body types were more prevalent and idealized, but to an extent I think there was still some resistance. People were mostly somewhat aware that photographs could be altered or doctored. Short form videos took this to the next level because people inherently believe that what they see in motion in a video is more "real". However skilled enough people are still able to suck in their stomachs while on video and not appear as if they are taking efforts to do so, makeup and lighting can still be used, and there are also tools available to alter appearances even in video. The effect of content going viral and thirst-trapping also became more pronounced so ofc the most titillating and more extreme body types (large busts and hips with small waists on otherwise relatively thin/small-framed women) get pushed way up to the top by algorithmic routines that amplify videos with the most engagement (people viewing, liking, following, commenting). The twisted side of this is that even people who dislike the video or leave negative comments STILL push the video up because that's also considered engagement.
I’m Korean and I’ve lived in America my whole life, but from a really young age I was made really conscious of having darker toned skin? I tan so easily, and my brothers used to always make fun of me for it and joke on me by saying I “looked Filipino”. And I remember once I tanned so much after swimming and I was panicking in the bathroom bc I was so dark, and I was only in elementary school. Even now I resent people who are super obsessed with K-pop and not conscious of how badly they’re messing up beauty standards. This is my personal take too, I’m an avid romance novel reader and you’ll notice a lot of rom-coms and novels are very white and hetero. (I’m gay) And, that plus the ridiculous East Asian beauty standards have constantly made me feel like I’m intimidating, or unwelcoming, ugly, even unlovable. I’ve done a better job of breaking away from those expectations and, as you said, body surveillance, but I know it’s permanently damaged how I view myself.
Omg. I thought I am the only one who is being described as ‘look like Filipino’. I have a darker skin than average in Hong Kong since born and when I was in high school, my classmates made fun of me that I look like ‘Filipino’ and made that my nickname. Those year I felt so trapped cause being a ‘Filipino’ is nothing wrong but I know their intend is to mock me for having darker skin…
god, as a Filipino who doesn't care about skin tone, let your brother how dumb that statement is lmao, I don't see why our nationality has to be seen as anything bad, it's a person's intentions, not their race, that make them ""ugly""
"I’m an avid romance novel reader and you’ll notice a lot of rom-coms and novels are very white and hetero." Because youre consuming media in the sphere of white and hetero people. Why do you so desperately want to be overrepresented? Thats just gonna alienate white and hetero people to your cause. There is nothing wrong with being white and hetero in a Society built by white and hetero people. We are not living in the 80´s anymore where people had to hide their homosexuality, we have come a long way. So a character being gay, really doesnt make that character special. When someone points out that they dont like a certain character because they are gay then people are gonna shun them for being bigoted, but when someone dislikes a character because they are hetero, then somehow that isnt bigoted anymore? Im sorry that you see your world through such a constricted lense.
@@snakeace0 girl just be quiet. 🤣🤣 What I read was “if other people get equal representation then white people will be oppressed and underrepresented💔💔💔💔💔🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🤬🤬🤬😡😡😡” You jumped to so many conclusions bc you want to be offended but clearly you don’t get it. I never said I don’t like white people or heterosexual people I just said I feel underrepresented. And don’t tell me how to feel about my experiences as a gay Korean man bc you clearly are not a gay Korean man. And even then, you literally didn’t have to be so rude and mean. Like, are you DRUNK???😂😂😂
People in the comments complaining about how she fits the beauty standard while being so critical even though she benefits from the beauty standard: While that may be true,, everyone is struggling, no one can ever be truly enough and you don’t know what her experiences are, so why judge her so quickly? Why not just listen to what she has to say?? It really doesn’t matter whether she fits the bs or not because every girl can be a victim of toxic beauty marketing, social media, and just beauty standards in general. Just because she’s benefiting from it (because of SOCIETY, it’s out of her control. It’s not her fault she’s privileged), doesn’t mean she can’t be educated about the issue and can’t speak about it. If anything, it’s actually good that someone who fits the standard is speaking about it because I think everyone should care about this issue and educate people about it and be aware of it.
Thanks for speaking about these. Im a korean and our beauty standard is so unreal and harmful. I remember when i was like 5th grade teen and some girls were talking about doing diets even when they are already healthy weight. And they learn make-ups in such young age like in elementary school. Scary thing is that no one doubts about these standards. Having surgeries are common, ive seen many take surgeries when i was in middle school. They pierce ears and wear very short skirts Its so deep in our culture at this point. All celebrities following similar standards and people accepting those and trying to be like them.
I think pierced ears is fine, half the people I know got them pierced as babies. A simple pair of earrings is a quick and easy way to spice up an outfit! I agree with the rest though, you shouldn't be worried about makeup and shorts skirts when you're so young let alone surgeries. Though messing around with makeup and clothes come junior high/highschool is normal teen stuff.
Lol I'm so annoyed with the amount of power beauty has to determine how well society will treat you. (Especially if the beauty standard is extremely unachievable)
This is really interesting. In the West, at least in some places, you get mocked for being "pale as a ghost". Color is associated with health and if you're naturally very pale, people will let you know... Edit: after watch a bit more, it looks like Eastern expectations are way way worse. My thoughts go out to anyone suffering from this...
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
White people skin and East Asian white is different though. Asian white is more milky white while Western white is more pale which can look unhealthy. East Asian white does not look unhealthy.
Anybody else find filters making themselves look 40% worse than without? Even more annoying when my phone for some reason has an autofilter that I literally cannot turn off T_T
samsung has that and i have NO idea how to fix it, and i think it applies to the back camera as well. i end up taking photos with the lightroom app when i want something to look more real
@@jusagosi for the Samsung one, unless they changed it, when taking a picture if u click the symbol that looks like a magic wand it can let u turn off that auto filter or edit it
@@lili-oy1xf i have that turned off, but the image still looks so smoothed out it makes me think theres still some sort of filter, bc the phone is new and the camera isnt bad enough to look smoothed. idk, its just weird
I watched this video twice, took notes, and then looked up an article about self-construal to study further the differences of independence vs. interdependence between men and women. You re-ignited my love of learning, especially as it pertains to social science, in a way I’ve been seeking for months. Thank you so much for this video ❤
hey im doing a school project based off of asian beauty standards if u are down could i send the notes :D? im sorry i just procrastinated and ive got 3 days :,D
I typed my height with that "BM weight" thing on a webside from health department to check if it's ok to have this features in my age. And the webside told me to see a doctor ASAP.
@@Imafraidoflargevegetables There's some other factors, the asian ideal BMI is lower than westerners, not for appearance but because we have some sort of fat(or smth) in our body that means we need a lower weight to avoid the same risks to I believe things like diabetes.
The history of BMI I read was a group who collected the stats of a large group of people. It was never intended to be used as a diagnostic tool. To do so is entirely illogical when looking at the original source.
As someone with pale skin, I used to always get comments like „oh you’re too pale, you look so unhealthy, you should go outside in the sun more“ and similar comments, because where I live and the western beauty standards in general are totally different. Beauty standards are different everywhere and you can never be perfect and what is considered desired somewhere isn’t somewhere else, which just proves how ridiculous it is.
I remember that I had gotten a bit of an eating disorder back in my early teens. I was so ashamed of how my body was, I tried so hard to change it. All I had wanted was to be good enough. It had gotten to the point where I hated how my body naturally was, like my short neck, my egg shaped head, and my darker skin colour. Those were things that I had gotten bullied for, but not just in school. I believe my family was reinforcer of that mindset. In a way it feels nice to know that many people across the worlds face these issues, sometimes even worse, none of us are alone. Personally I think people from Asia are beautiful, like everyday common people, not just specifically idols or celebrities. I’m Bolivian, and for a time I wished I was not. I had heard many racist comments on my people, and sort of internalized that (I remember my grandma saying that people with pale skin and blue eyes were the most beautiful). Now I know better though, and that beauty goes deeper than skin, at least in my eyes. I know that my people are hard working and resilient people, with a beautiful culture, and I’m very proud. Sometimes it does get difficult though, I still struggle with accepting myself and my flaws, and I feel very defeated some days. Too all the girls who are going through something too, I wish you the best luck. Unfortunately society and maybe even our families has failed us in many ways, but I don’t think that it’s the end. There is always hope for a better tomorrow :). (That was super long, kudos if you’ve made it to the end
i find it interesting that all of the beauty standards for women in east asia are to make them look weak or childlike and therefore less respectable and easier to control. that also fits really well to the last theory you metioned, since men take/get back the economic power they loose when women grow confidence and equality, if women deconstruct their bodies and selfworth in another social aspect. its really really twisted and sad, because i would not suggest that men do this to us, it is probably something we do to ourselves, because we might feel like we dont deserve the same strength and power as men or we feel the need to punish or suppress ourselves since we have internalised being less than men. and now, as our rational self fights for economic justice, the injustice comes back at us through beauty pressure and its physical and psycological backlashes....
You sound like the typical sjw white girl from Twitter who write bs to feel important, girl those beauty standards are the same for men in east asia beauty for men are almost the same as the woman one pale youthful but at the same time manly thin but with some muscle not as buff to the point of looking intimidating etc...
but the thing is people who pay attention to celebrities or watch dramas the most are women... It's usually women who talk about which celebrity/idol/tv stars are more beautiful, which means the so called beauty standards are more set by women instead of men.
@@luoluoye9620 Women won't say it (because it's currently socially unacceptable), but they're attracted to men who fit a Patriarch type; tall, strong, won't take BS, because he can protect and provide (symbolises security) and women's primary behavioural force is to seek security. If someone doesn't like it what they're really saying is "How dare you go against the social norm!" What that REALLY means is "I'm going to take this opportunity to gain some cheap social points and also try to eliminate you as a threat to my social stability in my social group that you're attacking".
As a south asian, skin bleaching and whitining have always been strongly influenced in our community, even from the people we love. From birth people say "wow, the baby is so fair, that means he/she is beautiful". Even in a country like India where everyone is brown, being lightskinned is wanted.
The word is coquette. Coquettishness is cuteness in look and mannerism with subtle hints of seduction that forms the mysterious charm that people find attractive
11:55 I suffer from high anxiety and horrible and I mean HORRIBLE self esteem. I never took selfies or like photos because I was exposed to beauty as a little girl, I knew people would hate me (probably because I was bullied) because of that I don't even think I'm smart or a good person because of my looks alone. Self image doesn't end at how you look, it's how you feel, how you interact with others or how you think of the outer world.
Can we talk about how One Size clothing system basically forces people to be very thin. No matter if it is healthy for that person. If one wants to wear clothes, let alone apparel they like, they have to find a way to fit in it.
It's interesting, I'm Mexican American and here in California some Mexican people I know sometimes would joke around about me being light skinned. I used to feel embarrassed by it when I was in my teens, but when I moved to Japan I didn't get ridiculed for my lighter skin; as a matter of fact the women there would sometimes compliment me on my skin tone. It really does change depending on the region you live in.
I can relate with that. When compared to friends and family I have always been pale. I never got tan and sometimes people found it necessary it to tell me I looked like a corps 🫥
I'm a white Midwestern American. I still get made fun of for my ultra pale skin by other white people. I used to get called the Grudge in school because of it. Makes no sense lol
My family comments on me being pale a lot too, though this only started once I started wearing sunscreen and hence no longer had a tan. To them tan skin is beautiful, healthy, and shows you truly had a good time over the summer (vacation, beach, pool, that kinda thing). I try to explain that getting a tan isn't healthy, you'll get your required vitamin d before you gain any colour. Nope, pale = sickly and tan = healthy. I'm diligent with sunscreen because everytime I get a lot of sun I get a new mole and I don't want to get skin cancer. My grandma understands that more moles means more likely to get skin cancer but I'm young and my moles are tiny so she still pushes me to go out and get a tan. The moles my uncle has that she worries about weren't there when he was younger though, gee I wonder how he got them. I don't wanna worry about it after the fact I want to try to prevent it, why do they care so much that I blend into the snow! Being pale wasn't a problem during the winter because they understand that there's no sun but the moment I choose to stay like that year round it's an issue. I'm white in a western country though so pale or tan it's never going to be the biggest thing in my life, annoying as people's constant comments may be.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
The obsession with lighter skin is honestly so sad and i have a little story about it. so my skin has always had a golden hue to it (lol i cant describe it in any better way) and i naturally have a light tan skintone. When i was 5 or 6 my mum literally thought there was something wrong with me because of my skin tone. My mum has really fair skin so. i dont really blame her bc its the beauty ideal. when i was eight i literally wanted to bleach my skin with one of those creams bc of it.
Honestly, your'e so pretty... I know everyone is insecrue in their own way, but in my eyes, you look perfect. And this comparison with myself really hurts.
I absolutely love your channel. Your speaking style is very clear and pleasant, and the points are well organized. Theres excellent use of graphics and visuals on the screen to explain things easily. This channel deserves to blow up. Glad youre getting some sponsors keep it up I look forward to your uploads Aini!
11:19 you bring up a very good point about beauty saturation and how we were probably never meant to see so many truly beautiful people in our lives.. Never thought of it like that.
it would have been interesting to see a comparison between East Asian and Western views on East Asian beauty standard, like the fact that girls who are considered average/relatively unattractive in East Asia are considered pretty by Westerners, and viceversa
I think East Asians have high standards for attractiveness in general. Agree that Westerners seem to find the Asian women whom I would consider average-looking/ plain more attractive.
You're very skilled at presenting every topic you talk about, I'm glad I discovered your channel. Today I'm very anxious and can't get my medication till this evening, your videos really helped me to not feel so alone and distracted me from focusing on my own disorder. Thank you and best luck for everything!
Wanna just say thank you for making interesting topics surrounding Asian culture. It’s genuinely cool to see you showcase different aspects of its history while also tying back to the contemporary space. Your first video had me hooked and after that, your 2nd vid then this video dived into topics that I wasn’t really aware of till recently; they were properly researched while also selectively choosing words that borders on being just complex enough for the laymen to understand while also showcasing that you’re really knowledgeable in the stuff you’re talking about. Round the bush to just say, thank you for your extensive hand to help people like me to know more about the rich culture that the Asians have. As a person within the Asian heritage, although thankfully i’ve not received extreme pressure due to weight, skin colour, body look and more; I have been around people who face the exact stuff you’ve mentioned and its sad to see how much more pressured the Asian culture, especially on the way of its objectification of women and how they should look like and etc. To realise just how damaging it was back then… and now facing the repercussions even within today’s world with more influence from other multiple cultures. Not to tack on the influence of TikTok, Photo Edits & much more that further derails any hope of a resurfaced hope on our self-esteem. Hopefully in time, although the ideation of beauty standards will never die down, it would be nice to reinforce ideas that that is not the only test a person should worry of but rather internally as well; wishful thinking, i’ll be damned. Thanks again!
Very informative and well-narrated. I have to point out that modern phone cameras capture much finer detail than you can see in real life from 2-3 feet away, so as a middle-aged man, I have to use a moderate filter just to get what I actually look like in the mirror.
I am so glad to have found your channel. I am studying East Asian studies from a sociopolitical aspect, and my thesis is related to this video topic. I have been struggling in finding what sources to use so I am so glad you listed out sources :D
While her videos are better than most videos on the Western internet, as a person who is actually Chinese and is a part of that culture, I find that her videos do tend to overgeneralize (China, Korea, and Japan actually tend to have very large differences on this topic, for instance) and she seems to only really analyze these topics as a person looking from the outside in. Maybe her videos are accurate for Korea or Japan, but I can tell you that her videos aren't all that accurate for China.
Personally, in Malaysia, most people around me are pretty tanned. We come in plenty of shades and ethnicities, however- when it comes to beauty products or advertising, it's just a specific type of person (Light skinned to barely tanned, natural-style makeup, long hair if you're not wearing a headscarf, slim but with some curves and a flattering yet "family-friendly" fashion sense.) It's pretty, but not gonna lie it's exhausting to look at, your eyes will just glaze over it when and an advert comes up. In drugstores is the most egregious displays, aside from Maybelline and Loreal...The other options are to go into Sephora, which costs an arm and a leg. with limited shade ranges and not many budget-friendly options, one feels invisible. I'm considered smack middle of the tan spectrum, not even the darkest person! Stores just carry what could be the "Asian shades" light to medium light & tan, yet considering how diverse Malaysia is as a country, there's still a significant gap for anyone darker than medium tan in the drugstore. In my experience, I've see women around me (Malay women) seek alternative beauty products, "whitening" collagen drinks which also claimed to help with weight loss too, whitening creams (may or may not have mercury in them lol) using foundations that are pretty pale and wash most skin tones out. Yet...not even wearing or simply unaware of sunscreen (then again, sunscreen do be a near-monthly expense-) About weight? yeah, body monitoring and commenting on other people's weight are def pretty pervasive in Asian households. Like...for both sides of the family, there's no escape. I learn to live with it, but it's still infuriating. Its commonplace for my dad to pick on my sister's and mom's weight....and his own sister's too. Family members who tend to monitor other people's bodies or eating habits, they'd justify it as "its a way to show care and concern towards your health" but imo, it's willful ignorance at best. I don't get it as often as my sister (unless he sees me overeat), People assume I'm kinda slim, but in reality, my chunk's is pretty stealthy and I got bony arms. After years of body monitoring, My sis would keep asking me if her face is proportionate, among other things. She's a cute girl, and my sister gives off a sophisticated, youthful with her round face but a lil sharp edge from her straight brows and eyes. Sometimes it takes a bit of convincing to get her to see what I see when she ask me those questions about her image. I'm just glad to see her safe and well. We can't really address it head-on because it's so ingrained in the family, so much it definitely eroded mental health sometimes. Because there are some things exercise, diet drink mixes or fasting can't fix. Edit: Crap i almost forgot . Idk if its an inside joke for most families, but some of my family members often joke about having mixed babies... with light skin foreigners / marry a pale foreign person. If I had a Ringgit for every time that happened in my childhood till now; I could buy 2 Cars- In American dollars.
15:51 Actually gave me chills.. it's not like I didn't know but it's just so natural that you don't actually think or consider it and in my opinion this is the most damaging thing because we know in the back of our mind and we judge ourselves depending on it but we DON'T really think about it or consider and this goes along to all types of new influence Also happy new years to everyone nd May this year be easier nd fulfilfull + congrats on the sponsor!
i'm impressed how this objectively pale-skinned, large-eyed, slender person is able to critique a beauty standard that she clearly falls into. we should all be so self-aware and critical.
That weight chart was something else, especially given the context of it being for a popular brand and likely referenced extensively. It really goes to show just what kinds of insanity can be normalized with enough pressure or incentive
Whenever I hear about things like this, I remember that old TLC song "unpretty" and the accompanying music video. I saw it a lot as a youth and it has a good positive impact on me regarding how people should only value themselves and not other people's images of them
sorry got nothing to add on the topic i think you covered it really well. just want to say I really enjoy your content. From a west asian pov i've been interested in some things about asia, east asia specifically and the topics and knowledge that you're mentioning in your videos are completely new to me and never even crossed my mind tbh. so thank you for educating me. keep it up!
my problem is how these standards warp nonasian western peoples perceptions of asians. even those of us living in western countries our whole life. even for me, i grew up with white parents and when i got into kpop and anime, i started obsessing over lightening my skin because i childishly thought that "asians only have pale skin" and that if i didnt, i wasnt asian. i know it sounds dumb, but i didnt know a single asian soul growing up so thats what i thought. but what my point is is that ive seen some kpop fans in particular think that any korean who is beautiful and fits the standard, did so by plastic surgery, and immediately reflects their inner vanity and obsession with looks. basically, they think all pretty koreans are fake and plastic, and that no korean can be naturally beautiful and not vain. and ive personally been affected by this, as ive internalized on the one hand, this huge wave of obsession with my cultures beauty (kbeauty), but also at the same time, this intense, often uninformed critique of societal standards and the perceived superficiality of people. "koreans are obsessed with looks" "koreans want to look white" "koreans always do plastic surgery" even though i am adopted and didnt grow up with these standards, i am still subject to them. and thus, i still internalize these comments. when i first got into kpop, it helped my self esteem immensely. finally i learned the best makeup tips for my ethnic features. but now, i feel as if this hyperexposure of kpop fans, anime fans, etc. to beautiful asian people and fetishization has destroyed my sense of self love. "they say i cant be naturally pretty" "i am turning into a plastic monster like they say" "the only way i can look beautiful is by having a 10 step skincare routine and 10 layers of makeup and colored contacts and dyed hair styled perfectly like idols". people dont realize that these standards affect asians more than nonasians. because when "asian beauty" became a market, it became a racial thing, not a cultural thing. kpop fans simultaneously criticize korean society for double eyelid surgery and asian hatred of monolids despite fawning over idols who did that surgery. its hypocritical. so many fans say that the west determines the sway of the market. well, if thats true, then this one singular definition of asian beauty of pale skin, slim figure, vline jaw, big doubleeyelid eyes, high nose bridge will remain the dominate ideal of asians for westerners too.
You’ve put what I’ve always wanted to say regarding kpop fans attitude towards koreans into words so perfectly. Korean culture is so commodified nowadays, people synonymously link the entire Korean population with what they see in its entertainment exports. It’s concerning, not only by the fact that Korea is just a backdrop of kpop to some people, but the fact that these beauty standards are becoming ever so normalized.
Coming from a fellow creator doing research videos, I really appreciate the effort you put in citing your sources. I personally would be fine with just a link to be honest (you'll go over the character limit like you probably found out)
i follow a dark skinned indian girl who lives in singapore & has a light skinned singaporean bf. i often see comments insulting her skin tone. i see people saying she’s trying to be black, which is ignorant because they just aren’t aware dark skinned asians exist. there are other comments that fetishize her bf and call him korean when he isn’t korean. i’m filipino & chinese & we have these light skin is better standard as well. it’s so tiring & i wish people would stop judging others by skin tone
The beauty standard messed up for a long time. Kept comparing myself in the past and being underweight was not enough. I don't even live in Asia, but growing up with Asian media heavily influenced me that way, I guess same way western media influences people in the west. These days I am just being healthy, and ignoring all beauty standards as they're harmful as heck, including all the cosmetics and products you put on your skin, your biggest organ, over and over.
great video! i also think that these beauty pressures exist due to the stereotyping and exotification of east asian women on an international scale. there's this idea that *all* east asian women are just 'naturally' smaller and thinner and some people internalize that message and believe it to be true, but it really hurts east asian women because those who aren't naturally thin or small think there's something wrong with them. in a fetishized way asian women are seen as the 'ideal' women - obedient, small, 'naturally' hairless etc and when you internalize that and dont live up to that it can lead to a really unhealthy relationship with your own body.
I live in the Philippines where light skinned is worshipped. I have a family that is a descendant of chinese origins so our skin were light. I literally got called "Only pretty for having a white skin but my face is ugly."
@@Sum_Yousahit's not racism though. You missed the beginninh of the video where she explained that pale skill is a sign off high status due to not having to work outside
I’m 173cm and the only time I weighed 53kg was in high school. I was rail thin and people thought I had an eating disorder. I’d have to lose 40 pounds to be that weight now. Insane.
I can relate to that. I’m 158cm so according to that table I should weight around 40kg. That was my weight in high school as I was dealing with an eating disorder and had several health issues associated with it.
It just blow my mind the pale skin beauty standard from east countries since I'm from Spain where people is obssesed to be tanned and there are tons of beauty products sold to make you look more tan. If in Summer your skin is pale, specially applied to face and legs, it's very common that people bodyshame you calling you a ghost or asking why you are so pale, if you have good health or why you are not sunbathing to be tanned.
@@deekay13 Totally true but still, I know a lot of men and women (here) that even they know the risk prefer to be tanned to be more atractive and good looking to other people or spend a lot of money in a beauty salon to take a auto tan treatment. Also, now doctors are measuring a lot Vitamin D in blood test to see if levels are right and if not they recomend to stay in the sun for 10 or 15 minutes per day.
“Evil always wins through the strength of its splendid dupes; and there has in all ages been a disastrous alliance between abnormal innocence and abnormal sin.” - Gilbert K. Chesterton
![[Watch Party] RoV Pro League 2024 Winter | ( Bacon Time Vs PSG )](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zM25REvnJW4/mqdefault.jpg)
Beauty standards in a nutshell: Be what you are not
And *pay* to be what you are not.
And get absolutely no reward at the end because the standards are always changing. Don't feed the Beauty Beast. It's always hungry
@@princess555o4 bro the last two sentences are so good, can I use them?
@@tertiaritus go for it!
and be european and slim
I'm a dark complexioned Indian and when I was younger ,colorism was so deeply ingrained , that some kids would say stuff like "Ohh you're dark you can't enter the class room until the fairer skinned girls enter" I was 5 and that was the first time I had even heard of such a thing and ever since then I kinda developed this inferiority complex about the color of my skin which took me a long time to overcome and thankfully a sickening cream called "Fair and Lovely" was finally banned in India
I’m also South Asian (from Nepal) and there are similar issues in my country. I’ve seen many of my cousins and aunts have skin whitening creams and lotions (such as “anti-tan” products) to try and fix their natural skin tones. The fear of dark skin is so deeply engrained in my culture I wonder if it’ll ever change how we see ourselves, much less the treatment of other races with dark skin (such as indigenous or black people). Other features such as curly/wavy hair are looked down upon too. It feels like everyone is trying so hard to be white and it makes me sad.
omg Fair and Lovely's advertisements are so retroactively racist hahaha! I remember those on TV in the 90s and early 2000s. Good to hear it's banned in India
It's not banned, they just started to write 'Glow and lovely' on the packets of 'Fair and lovely'. But in fact you'll find both the names written on the packet. So far from banned.
I think dark skin and wavy hair are beautiful xD. Girls like that are so pretty it send my heart into shock every time
I had the exact same thing happen to me when I was a child and some other little girls wouldn’t let me under an umbrella because I’m black. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that and I hope we both can keep growing to love our skin ❤
I find the obsession with lighter skin disturbing. It not only common in Asia. If you watch TV in Mexico, lighter skinned people get the majority of good roles. You can get a role as a darker skinned actor if play a low life or an object of sympathy.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
It's racist. I remember when they had the multiple ugly Betty shows and they all had darker skin glasses,acne and curly hair. Definitely made me so insecure
Yes it’s so considering especially because literally theirs so so many other beautiful skin towns and shades
@@VegaTakeOverwe’re witnessing mental illness
This is because for thousands of years having white skin in China means you dont have to work in the fields under the sun which categorize you as rich.
Opposite to Anglo-Saxons who wants tan skins which means you are able to travel to warm places which means you are rich also.
It honestly disturbs me how some of the beauty standards just feel like descriptions of little children. Small, Cute, big eyes, clean skin and of course also stuff like having no body hair and being obedient.
That’s a big factor, especially for the men, They want a girl like that and associate any asian girls with those features and fetishizing them. It’s funny because they only believe asia is Japan, korea, and china 😂
Stay mad roasty
@@evaunit0195 dude i don’t even wanna know how much you weigh
neoteny
@@Lovejunkooky I weight 66 kg
Whats crazy is that shes talking about the beauty standards and she meets all of them. Im not saying thats a bad thing but interesting to see how those beauty ideals have maybe inadvertently impacted her life.
yeah she's got skin in the game and seems to follow the culture she criticizes but who better to talk about it then a strict follower?
@@BigBoss-sm9xj yeah it’s interesting for sure
I couldn't help but think the same.
I might be wrong... But I'm pretty sure she deliberately made her appearance conform to the norms discussed for the video (she looks pretty different in the ad section)
It doesn't seem weird to choose to look good for a video that you want people to take you seriously on. Plus, she doesn't meet the standards very well. She is somewhat thin, yes, but her skin is not the level of pale captured in these beauty standards as well as not the proper texture. Jaw is not pointed enough, her mouth would be considered a bit big and her cheeks are too pronounced. Her eyes are also not the desirable shape, which is the biggest part. These aren't bad things, like you said, after all she still looks great. I think just about everyone here would agree on that but if we measure her by beauty standards, especially Korean beauty, it's obvious she does not fit and is clearly not interested in fitting them.
i remember in elementary school my classmate would mock me and my skin because it was darker than theirs, those same girls would also complain about their own skin tone when the warmer months came around, about how they wish they were tanner, how pale they look, how dead they look due to lack of skin pigment, i remember i went to bathroom and a girl pulled me aside and asked how i got my skin tone ‘that color’, it made me so uncomfortable, i also remember in school once i put on too much chapstick so my lips looked rather glossy and the girls started making comments about how they would never wear that much makeup, i remember they also threw water at me because they were convinced i wore mascara, my eyelashes have been long my whole life, school and my peers really made me hate my appearance for a while, i love the content and glad someone is talking about it :)
edit: this took place in america for those who were curious, also sorry for bad grammar
wow that's awful. i mean it is school ages so not surprising truly but still.
based classmate
Most people are insulted and bullied at some point in school. If it isn't about appearance, it'll be about clothes, where you live, etc.
Doesn't make it right but there aren't many people who don't get bullied about something.
I hope you're doing well now ♥️
after reading this, i kinda wanna know aini own story as well
I think it’s interesting that a lot of the standards for women focus on being easier to control, ie being thin and less physically powerful as well as childlike looks and behavior associated with being impressionable
At least for Japan I can tell you that it's an incredibly patriarchal society, so it's not surprising.
Atleast in china it's about being thin AND tall but talking about japan Uhm 💀 I'm afraid you are absolutely right
I can't imagine dating an obedient woman, that just sounds so boring. Especially since I love fucking around with people and testing them we'd be done within a week.
@@Wonkess_Chonkess i think youre confusing with obedience with loyalty
@@1eyeddevil929 Where did you get that idea from? I mean an obedient woman in the way the guy who wrote the comment portrayed.
my brother and i were fostered by a traditionally chinese family for a little over a year when we were younger. i loved them so much. they never did try to enforce beauty standards, and praised us for looking the way we did, even if we werent really the prettiest kids. ive been around a lot of people who treat others different based on how well they fit the beauty standard, but my foster parents were the most caring and supportive people i have ever had the privilege of living with. i will always be thankful for their kindness and for not ridiculing me for being a bit chubby as a kid.
Are you and your brother Chinese or of a different background?
Three cheers for decent people.
@@JKTProductionzIncNCo We are ukrainian, not Chinese, but now very familiar with the culture
That's great to hear. The funny thing is, Chinese parents want their kids to be as chubby as possible, until they start growing up at which point they change their minds and suddenly want you to be thin. Even so, they don't ever stop over-feeding you. I'm convinced it's a form of slow torture.
@@DennisBLee That's what kinda confuses me with the beauty standards, most Chinese kids I've seen are more chubby. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, but is ironic compared to the beauty standard
Due to odd circumstances I got my US passport photo taken while I was living in Korea. Technically, I’m pretty sure those photos are not allowed to be retouched. It was four of us Americans that went together for the photos and we were all blown away by how good they looked. We just thought she was a good photographer at the time.
I kind of suspected they were retouched for a while because I look SO good in the picture, but I wasn’t really sure until you brought up the Korean ID photo editing. Thanks for mentioning it! I’ve definitely experienced that first hand as my passport makes me look like a model version of me, she didn’t even ask or tell us it was going to be done, that’s how normal it is!
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
@@VegaTakeOver she literally spends one of her entire videos shitting on the CCP you clown
@@TheTimeWillPassAnyways wrong, she critiques the social culture of china never the gov and that is the strategy of the propaganda to make her come out as "one of us" that criticizes china so you dont see her as a propagandist threat and i mean it worked judging by the defensive response i got from you, how do you think she got so many views on 3 videos when other content creators that make the same exact style of content barley get any traction
@@VegaTakeOver stop being annoying, you're saying the same thing in every comment and like, nobody cares about your conspiracy theories
@@its_gabs i know your like 12 and you only know hot chip and tiktok but once you understand how the world works you will see im right
Honestly, I find it disgusting how beauty standards change like fashion. Bodies are not clothes that you can easily change every few years/months. Different people have different body types (in terms of the skeleton), tastes, workout routines, ... Some want to be thin, some want to be athletic and some want to be a bit thicker. Not everybody should look the same.
a lot of it isn't a choice either. genetics does a LOT, just like any other feature. there's also factors like medications and possible conditions. the human body is not as customizable as corporations would love for us to believe.
Beauty standards don’t change. Trends may come and go but standards are biological. Such as symmetry for instance. No matter where you go regardless of time, a highly asymmetrical face will never be the beauty standard
@@TricksterLawlet 100% because we are literally conditioned as children to believe certain features are "ugly", especially in nurseries and tv shows.
@@harmonygibson3374 New borns stare at attractive faces longer
@@harmonygibson3374uglyness can seep into your soul & how those people being treated by society
Its a good indicator, doesn't mean give you a right to treat uglies badly, until they do something heinous anyway
I remembered something after watching your video. When I was little, my mom told me in chinese that have fair skin hide 3 flaws, but being "fat" destroy all, meaning that even if your face suits the beauty standard and you have pale skin, if you are "fat"/chubby, you would not be beautiful. The East Asian beauty standard is so toxic, people treat you so well if you are pretty, but will look down on you if not.
Hahaha, I'm half White half Taiwanese and that summed up my childhood! Pretty face but ugly body. I wasn't fat. But my frame was literally bigger from my White genetics, and I carried fat in my thighs the way Asian people don't. But back then I just thought I was super fat. I cried when I saw an old photo of me as a kid, because I was thin! I don't know why everyone called me fat and had me yo-yo dieting. No one ever bullied me for my weight when I moved to the US.
as a light skinned "fat" cambodian american, i relate all too well
一白遮三丑，一胖毁所有
Z Z good to see a fellow half Taiwanese & half white person. I hope you’re doing a lot better now. I remember being glorified back in Taiwan as a little kid for being very pale skinned due to genetics. Now that I live in the U.S I’m more tan from doing labor work and it’s completely normal. I don’t get judged for anything and I’m just like everyone else. It’s nice that the U.S is much less extreme on this and being tanned is a positive.
I'm not asian but I was told similar things by classmates as a child, it's horrible. fat people ARE beautiful. it's just another feature.
I'm Indian, there's an obsession with "fair" skin here too. From what I saw when I was a kid and what I'm seeing now, things are getting a bit better these days. As a kid I was always "suggested" home remedies and all to get fair. I always felt the need to get fair skin as my mom and brother had fair skin colour. But seeing gorgeous gorgeous dark skinned people flaunting their skin colour heals me. I no longer feel the need to be more white.
No amount of seething and coping will make people change their preferences. Human preferences are mostly hardwired and not learned.
Curious, do u like fair skin on Indians or do u see white people as even better due to fairer skin?
@@adamknight5089sounds like this person is slyly advocating white supremacy
@@secondfoundation4137 all human populations in the temperate zone and above have light skin. A good portion in the tropical zone as well
Indians are so so so so so so so so pretty to me. Growing up, I couldn't follow standards, or trends and always question why or why not. Mom thinks I'm weird and embarrassing. But I later learned I am in the spectrum and people like me, always like what we like regardless of what society says. That's good and bad in its own way. I'm going on a tangent, but here are some of the things I like on people: many moles, Indians, fat people, big teeth, long eyelashes, thick lips, dangling earrings and when I can see the change in skin tone on people's palms.
It's so interesting to listen about the beauty standards of other cultures. I'm from eu and it was the time of "slim-thick" beauty for some time + natural tan that all emphasized people were active, had money to go to the gym ect. Now I see a lot of teens prefering oversized clothes and are going for "kpop" standards - slimer body and you can see people are using uv creams more. Now it's like a battle between generations. In eu beauty standard for body type changes from more curvy to thin to curvy to extremly thin over and over again.. Here it's a game you cannot win unless you learn to love your body and just care for it without listening to what is "in fashion" this decade.
Edit: spelling. English is not my first language so I apologize for the mistakes.
Just my opinion. Loads of guys don't care as much as girls probably do.
Just my experience. Millions of guys so everyone is different. But just my observation.
Tons of guys would be fine with that slim thick, slim, or maybe even just thick. They will probably take what they can get tbh.
Just going off what I have seen. There definitely might be a trend that's popular. But most guys I think stick to what they like.
Your right it's probably impossible to keep up with the trends. Just find what is comfortable and stick with it.
@@baronvonjo1929 yea, it really relates to that section of the video about self objectification and commoditisation of beauty images. It doesn't have to be 'for guys', as much as peer pressure and unrealistic comparisons to fake celebrities.
I don't believe women style themselves for men as much as men might think, it's still sexualised and the media talks about it in that context, but internally it's more complex.
@@baronvonjo1929 :
Why do Chinese women not want to get married.
Why Chinese women don't want to get married.
China doesn't like that I'm a single woman.
By The New York Times
February 2020
China's leftover women 剩女 。
By Vice
October 5, 2018
.
Since the socialist revolution, the rights of Chinese women have been written into the country's constitution. Under Mao, unprecedented numbers of women joined the workforce and they were celebrated as ""iron girls."
But now, China is home to a fifth of the world's women whose status as equals is dwindling. Domestic violence rates in the country have soared, marital rape is not considered a crime, those who dare to call themselves feminist activists are being detained the government, and unmarried women older than 27 are commonly referred to as ""leftover women.""
To find out what lies behind the drastic shift in women's social status in China, we track down feminist scholar and "iron girl"" Wang Zheng and spend a day with one of China's so-called leftover women. We also explore the extremes of China's wedding industry and its defectors before meeting Wei Tingting, one of the five women's rights activists detained for trying to start a campaign against sexual harassment on public transportation.
@@BobHannent Western Women Eastern Men | Wang Jia | TEDxErasmusUniversity.
The romantic relationship imbalance between West and East has always puzzled him. In this speech, Wang Jia will use his personal experience and research to decode some of the mysteries.
Originally from Beijing, Wang Jia, has lived in Europe for the past 14+ years. He obtained Ph.D. title from TU Delft, and now works as a business analyst.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
I taught English in Japan for a year about 5 years ago and I remember getting multiple compliments from my adult female students about my pale skin. As an American where tan skin is more the beauty norm this was the first time I’d ever been complimented on my paleness. It was sweet of them to compliment me, but I felt a little awkward knowing about these beauty standards and made sure to compliment their skin colors as well and casually mention how I think all skin colors are beautiful. I don’t think I changed anyone’s mind with one compliment, but I think it’s important to say these things out loud.
All skin colors are beautiful and all body types are beautiful!
In Japan, there is a culture that says fair skin is beautiful before they met Caucasians.
The Japanese beauty standard for fair-skinned people has a history of more than 1,000 years, and it is disrespectful to the Japanese people to say that Japanese fair-skinned culture is strange or discriminatory according to current Western values.
And you may not know this, but in Japan, non-pale women are considered beautiful too. For example, Japan's most famous female announcer, Maki okazoe, is very tanned but popular among the Japanese, and Okinawan women are considered beautiful, even though they are tanner than other Japanese women.
Why do you lie?
Both of my parents taught English in Japan in the late 80's. Most of the time, white folks were called gaijins by the locals. They thought all Americans were dirty and had AIDS (at the time). The homogeny of the culture (then) also made it weird for "average-looking" white folks. I mean anyone with brown hair and light skin...which like most white people. My mom often got asked if she was half Japanese half white because of it. She's not Japanese at all. But the locals didn't like that because of the idea of race mixing. And that was the thing, light skin is "good", but you can't be anything other than Japanese. My parents said there were a lot of good things, but that aspect was difficult.
Shut. up. "As an American where tan skin is more the beauty norm". I'm Cambodian South east asian living in america and your comment is so tone deaf. Being white in america your above all us dark people. America hate dark people yet you got the time lying like your pilgrim ancestors.
My ex step mom is black, and I remember when I was a kid, she used lightening cream to literally make her skin lighter (to which she was already on the lighter side naturally). She also hated being in the sun for to long as it would make her darker. As a kid, I never understood why, but as an adult, I’m like, “ohhhh fucked up beauty standards.” She also worked in the music, film and fashion industry so there was is EXTRA level of maintain beauty standards.
Well, that's fucked up. If that was me staying in the sun for too long, I'm the one who is suffering thanks to my sensitivity towards the sun.
I remember I got sunburned as a child and I was crying in pain instead of screaming "Noooo I don't like black/tanned skin!!"
Since then, I have been wearing sunscreen very often and wear darker clothes to protect my skin (I don't mind being white but what I hated the most is my hatred of photosensitivity, it made me not want to go out when the heat is at extreme temperature even at the mildest, those days are more torturous compared to seeing young girls crying about not fitting into beauty standards)
I have my own ways of fitting into beauty standards, I may look ugly and all since my hands and feet doesn't look skinny (although they are smaller than the average people), and one of my friend mentioned I look more like a kid due to my short height (below 4'11, that made me more self conscious of my body instead of my body curves- His words hurt like a whale trying to commit suicide by exploding themselves- 💀)
BITCH I'M ONLY 17 WHICH MAKES IT EVEN WORSE- (my juniors at my school looked at me for being like that, the nightmares of being called a kid in 12th grade is something I want to jump into a void right now)
Sorry about that sudden outburst of venting~ My friend is such a jerk that I wished to slap him 1000 times
How is this even relevant?
@@Fifty_Jeansbecause this video is about beauty standards
I traveled to Australia years ago on a Korean Air flight. A very nice, attractive, attentive flight attendant regularly came by to check if I needed anything. It was only near the end of the flight that I realized it wasn't actually the same woman, but that the attendants all looked so much alike that I just thought it was the same one. Passing by all of them while exiting the plane was a weird experience because they DID in fact all look exactly alike [same height, weight, hairstyle, facial features, everything]. I always think of that experience whenever the topic of "Asian beauty standards" comes up - or the latest "Asian woman" designed robot.
That's exactly what I am thinking when I see those Asian idols: "They all look the same!"
Yes, it's kinda scary. Beauty is in difference, not "standards"
My man out here about to have a crisis because he had an experience that people who aren't willing to listen would immediately jump him for sharing his thoughts on.
I wonder if the faces look the same due to the same plastic surgery procedures
That could be, especially considering South Korea is often cited as the top country in the world for plastic surgery.@@eheartbeat
Ive been on exchange in east Asia for half a year now, and I have to say the whole cute beauty standard fetishising youth feels borderline pedophilic at times
I've thought the same thing
It’s not borderline. East Asian culture is a lot more tolerant of relationships between adult men and teenage girls. It’s not exactly common, but in contrast to Western countries, it is considered acceptable at least when the child’s parents consent.
@@beamyshark I wonder why theses sexpats consider SEA the place to go. Also "fetishise maturity"? you can't push away the blame while also implying that being attracted to adults is a fetish, that is a self report
@@beamyshark very true
@@zoikles1 ironic considering that many instances of paedos getting caught having child p8rnography on their PC are from the western hemisphere. and just FYI the so called "culture", which is non-existence in majority of east asian culture, is heavily looked down upon and condemned by many.
This is a fascinating watch. I’m from US, and while we have our own unattainable standards of beauty seeing a more in depth analysis of East Asian beauty standards is mind blowing to me. The moment you started speaking about the A4 paper trend, I could not help going to my printer and pulling out a sheet. I was expecting it to be jarring but after actually holding up that piece of paper I wanted to start crying. I’ve only known one person in my life to ever be that skinny and she had to go to rehab for her ED, so that’s terrifying to realize. I’m happy that you’re shedding more light on this topic up and noting clearly the severity of which it affects the mental well-being of so many people, especially young women.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
I did the same! I went for a paper as soon as she said it. My waist did disappear under it but I was like...So what now? It's a piece of paper. How can anyone define beauty by a piece of paper? It's ridiculous.
@@VegaTakeOver CCP propagandist exist. This channel isn’t one. I’ve watched many many videos by Laowhy and Serpentza, from those info, I can use critical thinking to figure out that a channel just talking about China isn’t equivalent to CCP propaganda
Hey american. Being thin is not unattainable!
Just hold the A4 paper closer to the camera: problem solved.
I loved how you discussed the East Asian cultural roots behind the pale skin and wide eyes - so often people talk about how this is just comes from Western colonialism (not to discount that!), but it's often more than just "asians wanna be white".
Obsessed with your channel!
Agreee
Western progressives sometimes engage in a form of orientalism where they cast the blame solely on colonialism for the negative aspects of other cultures, like everyone was so pure and virtuous before they were corrupted by the evil white man. Some of the most absurd levels of this I've seen are claiming that the British introduced the caste system to India, or that antisemitism in the Muslim world is a product of Christianity.
Okay, relax. You “obsessed” with three videos.
I'd wager these days it's a combo of both. Also, being colorist based on class distinctions isn't exactly much better than the other reasoning of trying to look white.
Yes, it's very frustrating to hear such an oversimplification. I think, for example, the extreme emphasis on eye size does come from a European influence but it's still not the same as wanting to look white. That's something else that's often misrepresented. People need to learn that two things can be true at once. Colourism predates European colonialism in most places in fact, it was just made 10x worse after they showed up.
I have been saturated with Kpop in my early teen years. Slender arms, skinny legs, pale skin, all these standards were ingrained to me so much that I worked hard to have them all. I rarely go out, I exercised for two hours a day, I eat so little.
I eventually developed an ED. My hair fell out so much, I get sick all the time, I lost my period for over a year.
All these to say that these standards are so harmful. I wished I knew better then.
K-Pop is so superficial. You will find something more meaningful.
i love kpop but the standards they put them through are just..no
like i feel so bad for the idols that have to be underweight to “look good”, (meaning like 95% of the industry) and im pretty sure the company knows that there’s many fans wants their strict diets to stop
I hope you're recovering now if you haven't already, I may not know you but I'm sure you're beautiful:)
Bruh i thought you developed ED as erectile disfunction not eating disorder, took a solid few seconds to recalibrate and realise that it was ED as in eating disorder
Skinny isn't good. Neither is what ever creature Lizzo is. The ideal body is balanced and toned with proper diet.
10:00 There’s also a Japanese term called “azatoi” (あざとい) which refers to people (often women) consciously acting cute to attract attention (often from men). It’s often used in a derogative way, sometimes in comparison to people who are “kawaii” or naturally cute without trying, but it can also be used positively, praising the effort that the person puts in to appear cute. Common mannerisms that would be called azatoi is wearing loose-fitting clothes especially with loose sleeves called “moe sode” that only show your fingertips, taking bouncy steps, pretending to be more scared than you are of bugs or ghost stories to feign vulnerability, etc…
I naturally squeal when I see something I’m afraid of and a lot of people associate it with me acting cute. it’s werid. I physically can’t control it.
@@normax304 Is there any difference if you are acting or doing it for real?
@@normax304When you squeal is it really dramatic sounding? It could just be that your reaction seems a little overblown in comparison to what you’re reacting to. Especially if people normally perceive you as a very mature, “adult” person.
Damn that just went in the realm of wattpad
@@normax304you can definitely control it lol
Wonderful conversation! Skin blurring and filters are a menace to society. When I started researching Korean skincare, I noticed that it was impossible to see unfiltered pictures of models' skin. Every ad had skin blurring on it. At first, I thought the products couldn't be that good if they won't show their bare face. It wasn't until I saw a few TH-camrs that I follow use Korean products that I tried them for myself. People don't know how real skin looks and appreciate our unique beauty.
I HATE when they use so much filters on very young idols (it's upsetting on older ones too but) if they cannot be allowed to be confident in their natural skin, who can?
@@tdelioncourt1268 So true! The only time that I get to see their beauty is when they appear in the foreign (Western) media. No filters or whitewashing. They look beautiful. Pores and all.
There is a really popular ad I get now (live in Korea) for a acne clearing face wash or stick treatment and it’s very clear that the “acne” is photoshopped on. None of it looks real, from the acne to the obvious filters on the skin. It makes me laugh and not want to use their product even more- even as someone not necessarily the target audience since I’m lucky to have fairly clear skin. It very much I think does target people more insecure and willing to try anything which sucks because how can you be trusted to know how it really does if you’re going to not even highlight the real cases of acne.
You're a lot smarter than I was, I was CONVINCED that those pictures/videos were all unedited and of the model's bare skin. Thankfully for me though I started hearing people like you point that out before I got too deep intp the self-hatred
I remember my family not chosing a guy for my sister who was well respected and had his own business because he had a darker skin. They were afraid that the baby might be also dark.
Yep, true story
This happens in India as well!
@binks69 we turned out ugly either way.
Based family
Lol
I am Irish, and even for someone from this cloudy rainy little island i am pretty pale. When I was 19 I went on a trip to China playing in a brass ensemble, and i got multiple compliments from people about how lovely and pale my skin was, whereas back home I was only ever made fun of for not going outside. It was a very odd experience at the time, I didn't really know how to react.
Is there anything wrong with simply saying “thank you” to that? They just liked your skin tone, and it doesn’t mean to me that they are being racists or any kind.
@@my_account5603I’m pretty sure he’s just saying how different the beauty standards are in China compared to Ireland
Just highlights how cultural “beauty” is.
@@my_account5603there was absolutely no reference to racism in the comment.
中国喜欢的并不是白人的苍白。而是透明白，有光泽且无毛发。
白人的白不可能符合中国人的审美标准。你在撒谎。
The geisha comment is technically true but misguided. While pale skin may be the beauty standard in Japan, geisha did not start painting their faces white for the look we associate them with today. They painted their faces white so that their faces would look bright under candlelight.
People need to see this :/ A lot of Japanese people have explained this gain and again. Good example would be Let’s ask Shogo
Pale skin as beauty standard is correct, but there’s more logical reason why geisha used Oshiroi..
💯💯
That's true it was for the performance needing a better view of the actors very upsetting of this era of misinformation
Oh really? I never knew that, I hope more people see this
It was also in the Tang Dynasty that white skin looked pretty, so such makeup was popular, and it influenced Japan. In Korea, it was natural to whiten makeup from the past, and this was popular. Even in Korea, pale skin has long been regarded as a beauty. call name "sambeak(삼백: 三白)" The skin, teeth and hands must be white. Even today, in India, whtie skin is considered a standard of beauty.
I remember in school being called “kaali” which means dark in Hindi by a fellow classmate. I must be 10 at that time. It did hurt but it was said in the context of a “joke”. After that incident I started noticing things at home that I initially didn’t pay attention to. Like my mom making me eat specific items because it would make me fair or putting homemade masks. She used to always do it but after the incident at school I noticed these things at home. We are made to feel insecure by our family and peers only. I see so many videos where social media and influencer culture is blamed for toxic beauty standards but truly it begins at home. I am wheatish skin tone with a decent body weight and I do basic exercise and eat to my heart’s content. Happy with the way I am at this point.
Thank you for the video. 💜
Amazing because in Hinduism the gods/goddesses depicted with Blue skin are understood to be extremely dark skinned- quite literally black in color. I think Kali is also a woman from the pantheon even tho I'm unsure of her role/personality or if she even indeed is apart of the pantheon - can't remember been a while).
Do you think it is colonialistic influence, or the labor vs leisure skin tone associations?
Sis DON'T feel down because in Bengal KALI is a GODDESS a literal GODDESS WHO KILLED RAKTABEEJ BECAUSE THE SO CALLED MASCULINE GODS FAILED SHE'S LIKE I DON'T HAVE WORKDS TO PRAISE MAA KALI AND HER HUSBAND SHIV HAD TO STEP UNDER HER FEET TO EASE HER ANGER AND GO ON A KILLING RAMPANT AGAINST ALL ASUR BE PROUD TO BE CALLED KAALI THEY DON'T KNOW THAT THEY WERE ACTUALLY PRAISING YOU WHILE INTENTING TO HURT YOU
@zeekay3205 it is almost certainly both. The labour vs leisure is the origin but British colonialism cemented that order and even put it into law.
I was literally called a Britisher because how fair I was.
@@zeekay3205 stop spewing nonsense. Ancient indus valley had a lot of lapis lazuli. So blue is not black. Blue is blue
This may seem insignificant to point out but, thank you for showing that b roll of a very dark skinned black person with dreads Locs when you said “beautiful people”. That really mean a lot because for decades we were made to believe that people who looked like that weren’t beautiful ❤️
I saw that and found myself admiring her ♥
Will that really change anything though?
@@TricksterLawletIt's a step forward. It's better than being static or going backwards.
locs are so pretty!
Dark skin people are beautiful!!!!! Coming from a white woman ❤
Oof this quote hits so hard - "any movement towards gender equality which threatens the patriarchy will inevitably be followed by a heightened emphasis on unrealistic beauty standards as well as increased pressure to meet these standards."
Yes that's a truth we couldn't deny.
Possibly, but it is mostly women that care about and enforce these standards. They are the ones that buy the magazines. Women enforce unrealistic standards on men too, the most difficult being height. Most women will not date a man shorter than them.
@@ericconnor8419 wise words, they cant hold themsleves accountable
this quote doesnt make sense at all
Can you explain what it means?
The puffy under eye thing is blowing my mind as a white American. There are so many products to get rid of puffy under eyes. The photoshopping of IDs and the filters on the payment apps are also absolutely wild to me. I already struggle with the beauty standards here, I couldn’t imagine dealing with standards that intense. I’m so glad they’re are people like you bringing awareness to this issue.
There's a difference between puffiness from unhealthy lifestyle and puffiness for beauty.
not the same thing. east asian and western bone structures are very different. what you mentioned is attributed to “looking tired” among westerners.
@@mornen-bb Not really. I've seen Asian people who naturally have puffy under eyes and they look just as "tired" as any other race with that particular trait.
@@quiznak1003 they seem to do it to offset the more sharp eyes. under a round eye and under the corner of a more sharp eye makes a world of difference, especially for both eye corners
@@mornen-bb eye puff isn't bone structure, for one; east Asian don't suddenly lack the ability to develop it when tired. The cultural association is simply different.
In East Asia is normalize that random strangers can criticize or praise your weight and your body in general, the pressure of being skinny is constantly reinforce in everyday life even if you don't use much social media. Pale skin is not only associated with high socioeconomic class but also with purity so having freckles or moles is considered dirty or impure and many spend a lot of money to remove them with laser.
In Europe being less pc about people's weight is also normal. It would be good for all the fat Americans as well
@@Naikomi603 It's just considered rude here in America even before we had a weight problem. You never ask someone their weight, age, or how much money they make. It's extremely weird and offensive. Ask an American any of those personal questions and watch them never speak to you again.
@@tellallyourfriends27 sweetheart, it's not about asking about weight.. it's about telling all those fat snowflakes that what they are doing is not healthy.
@@Naikomi603 Fat phobic much?
@@tellallyourfriends27 Asking someone their age is not offensive. 💀
Considering that east asians generally emphasize collectivism in society, there are some social pressure to fullfill the standard that is even unattainable.
not in East Asia tho
She mentions this in the video towards the end. :)
@wentforapacketoffagsinatan7331 no it isnt bruv
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
@@VegaTakeOver With her content, it's more likely that she's paid by the CIA or another pro-American organization. I'm aware of this risk but the content's interesting for now. If it gets too preachy about "China bad" I'll tap out.
It's always what you don't have. Here in Denmark (Scandinavia) everyone is pale, but being tan is seen as 'prettier' as it implies you’ve been traveling/been on vacation
The same! Growing up, people always told me to have some tan, as it was considered a beaty standard to have tanned, darker skin in Ukraine
Everywhere you go, the constant is always whatever signifies wealth is attractive.
I think it's interesting how thin the line between health and beauty is. A few months ago I finally did the jump to improve my health. As a person who spends most of their day in front of a computer I knew that my body needs more movement and I also can't just eat whatever I want if I want my body to last. So I signed up for a gym and got a dietary advisor to improve my life. While this all sounds great I felt very called out when you talked about body surveillance. On one hand this is a great way to track progress for me but honestly I do not know where this ends. I have no clue what physique I am even trying to achieve and what is possible. I can easily see how someone would slowly care more about reaching some unattainable beauty standard given how hard it is to see health.
I think "seeing health" is where a lot of these problems come from. You can't really and thus we come up with some correlations and then push them to an (unhealthy) extreme.
Hello, dietiTian here. Achieving society's beauty standards (male or female) does not automatically mean healthy. For example, people can have abs but also have high cholesterol levels, putting them at high risk for heart disease. Also, health is not just physical, but mental as well. If you live your life worrying about every food you put in your body, that is not healthy, that is disordered eating.
For me it helps to not track and just do. It helps me focus on the health instead of the look. Also I try to sway bad body image days into neutral days by just stop thinking about the topic, acknowledging it as a bad day, or stop surveying.
Exactly. If you're naturally pale, it's healthy to use sun protection (albeit, using sun protection is good for all races) to decrease the risk of skin cancer. If you're naturally darker, bleaching your skin is not healthful. Everyone has their own benchmarks for health
You gotta admit, its pretty funny how gen z, the most liberal generation, is so obsessed with Korea and Japan when those two countries are, by Gen Z's standards, extremely problematic and racist, fatphobic, etc lol
Cognitive dissonance.
That’s because they replicate the same problems they identify in the groups that they “otherize” and have no self awareness of it.
people are obsessed with Japanese and Korean culture because of j-pop, anime, k-dramas, k-pop and other cultural exports, that doesn't mean they don't recognize these things. I'm not trying to be rude but this comment did upset me because it just assumes so much 😭like people are allowed to enjoy anime etc that doesn't mean they are okay with colorism, fatphobia, and the pressure to conform the beauty standards. these problems exist all over the world it just takes different forms and there are different beauty standards. its not hypocritical to enjoy things from a country with issues ?? it's like saying "its funny how chinese people like american shows even though america is so racist" (edit: im sorry if this comes across as rude! im not trying to start a comment section fight or anything i just meant like, i dont think it's fair to make this assessment, I guess I understand where you were coming from though)
You forgot to add the race. White Gen-Z*
what a huge generalization
totally agree with your video but just a side note for 0:58, geisha, geiko, maiko, etc everyone under the geisha umbrella painted their faces white because before there were lights as we have today, their performances in the evening were only illuminated by candles so the white face paint helped to make them seen more clearly or another reason why they painted their faces white is to hide their true feelings and facial expressions so they could be portrayed through dance instead
I'm a light tan kind of person, but when I go out in the sun, I become tan easily, Honestly I used to hate it because people always used to tell me.. ''Ohh.. You're so dark now, It's because you always play outside!!'' Which made me stay indoors instead because I felt like I'd be less pretty, But Idk it's kind of pretty to me now, Like a golden touch from the sun, Looks more healthy, No wonder why some Australians or Americans tan themselves. I was always very confused as to why, But now I know why, It's a pretty skin color.
"Touched by the sun" is such a beautiful way to see it! I'm happy you feel more confident about your skin color now!
Seeing idols in ultra slender bodies (bordering prepubescent) doing aegyo disturbs me. Other girls think it's feminine and cute, but I can only think of the men behind the scenes. The producers, directors, photographers, CEOs. I can't help but think *they* were the ones who shaped the industry to be like this. It's sleazy, perverted and highkey pedophilic. It seems like they are obsessed with having frail, virginal, pretty little dolls acting all cute and sexy for them.
Same =_= as someone living in Europe this is very concerning, I believe that girls both in Asia, Europe and the Americas shouldn't conform with these standards because we don't know who might be making money in the beauty industry
Exactly what I'm thinking of. I find the cutesy moe trend overrated and annoying asf.
@@seconddarkness8101 I highly doubt your japanese or living in an asian country, so of course you don't understand that you thinking it's "overrated & annyoing asf" isn't an acceptable opinion to be having. It's much more then a trend in these places, did you watch her video at all?
@dydx_ Just because I'm not Japanese means I can't have an opinion on Japanese industries and the trends there. From my experiences, cutesy and moe are what an abundance of audiences aim towards, and in my opinion, it's overrated and annoying. If you think the opposite, that's fine.
@@dydx_ Your excuse doesn't fly.
Not living in Asia doesn't ban one from having an opinion on bad trends crossing the oceans elsewhere from there.
And more generally, as someone who used to live in china, neither did my male local classmates and friends really find compliance to the beauty standards necesserily as attractive as set by the standards. Particularily the Anorexia stuff.
Beauty Standards portrayed to girls and women by the men in fashion and media do not necesserily reflect normal average men's taste anywhere, but that goes particularily for the super problematic onesin eat asia.
Thank you for covering this topic, and honestly I love your channel as a whole so much. I'm not eloquent enough to talk about all the insecurities and trauma caused by my own culture (East Asian/Korean) or otherwise, and it's... freeing to, in a way, have my own thoughts laid out by you.
I've never really matched up to the Korean standard - it feels like I've always been running after it but never been able to catch up. All the while being spoken about by relatives, friends and strangers about my weight, skin, height, monolids etc. It's exhausting to the point that I don't even go outside anymore because I'm not at the ideal weight, or my skin isn't clear enough. It's a messed up way to think - "I'll go outside once I look good enough" ;_;
Ah, please don't do that. We'll never be enough, there's always someone prettier and trends change. Please go outside and surround yourself with people that respect you. Improve for yourself, not for anyone else, because it never enough and you're never at peace. Love you :)
@@kenasssss tysm for the encouragement, kind stranger 💖 this means more to me than you'll ever know ;__;
I really get the "I'll go outside once I look good enough" part( It's embarrassing
@@owowowowowouwu 💖💖
Go outside. Tell all the people who criticize you Thanks ... And smile at them. Or remind them politely that their opinion is neither solicited or required. Walk away with your head high. No one has the right to make you feel less than the wonderful person you are. No one.
i find it interesting that east asian beauty standards haven’t changed much while western beauty standards change every 10-20 years. maybe this correlates with the independent vs interdependent idea? either way thank you for the video!
Western beauty standard pretty much same all the time. Skinny, slender waist. Do you see a popular Tiktok-er or Instagram models pretty much that?
It's because Asian in general share the same beauty traits which is pale, slim and a heart shape face. Western beauty standards are much wilder since North America, South America and Europe are 3 different continent and each of them have different type of beauty standards .
Western society is a mix of different ethnicity. East asians aren't. They all mostly look the exact same, so it will never change in the east. They can say they prefer to have pale skin as the standard and stick skinny because the majority of people have those features.
@@bunnyfreakz I don’t believe in the changing beauty standards narrative
@@sag686 western society isnt límited to anglo speaking world and france
I've always been confused as to why darker skin isn't supposedly pretty, to me tan/deeper skin and wavy/curly hair is so beautiful. It's also beautiful to have red hair, pale skin and freckles etc., why does everyone have to look the exact same..?
Beauty standards differ within societies. When everyone has black hair and brown eyes, someone with light hair and blue eyes stands out. Vice versa in other parts of the world
As you might know, tanned skin is more valued in Finland because we're all pale as fuck and it means you have enough money to go for vacation during winter time
I think like you too ! :)
Dark skin implies that you work a labour job in the fields (aka poor), whereas paler skin means you're wealthy enough to not have to.
@@deanchurand thats a flex? 💀when did beeing lazy ang getting fat became good
@@allocator7520 It's been a flex since the dawn of humanity.
I think in Japanese, a better way to describe SaJiao is "burikko(ぶりっ子)" which in google translate comes up as "flirt(N)" however the literally meaning comes from the Japanese words for "to pretend" and "child," which is literally pretending to be a child.
Edit: 10:20
Yea can't agree MORE! "burikko" is closer to "SaJiao".
agreed !
Uma vez eu li que japoneses a alguns anos chamavam a Sana do Twice de Burikko
The pale skin ideal which is common in a lot of places, is why ive always loved the gyaru subculture. Ive always loved subcultures that are about going against the norm on purpose like goths or punks, ive always hated beauty standards but to be fair, im fat and black so i never fit those standards in the first place of course i hate them lol. These days it seems like everyone is caught up in wanting to be "beautiful", so much makeup and plastic surgery it bumms me out i wish i saw more people rebelling against the system instead of just buying into it, but i understand everyone just wants to feel desirable
I agree with you, I guess it's like a snowball effect. I'm in Japan and all the counter-cultures you mention like Gyarus, Ganguros, Gothic-lolitas, etc went extinct around 2008-2010.
@@lisehoover I still see them
@@RichielaurensIII There are women wearing gothic lolita style even tho the style is different from the 00's one.
@@lisehooverthey didn’t go extinct lol they’re the same as they’ve always been
I’m with you there. I refuse to accept whatever the “norm” is. I find it absolutely ridiculous that people beg for the acceptance of other more insecure individuals who are also wearing façades for approval. It’s sad! I wish people were braver and stopped seeking approval. I’ve been criticized for many things including for not buying name brands lol and now in my home country (Colombia) im hearing that you get ridiculed for not having surgery 😂lol it’s truly demented!!! I refuse to go under the knife for the approval of anybody!!
Its so interesting to hear about the beauty standards of other regions, as it makes you realise how culturally formed they are.
Some things are cultural, some are not. A well defined jaw is always good, being taller than average is always better, not having eye pockets, having a face that is symetrical etc...
It's like being well dressed vs being dressed fashionable. When you are well dressed it's timeless, when you dress fashionably it's just a fad.
Beauty standards can be fads but some things never change.
Beauty standards are often class markers. A lot of pre-industrial Eurasian cultures prized paler complexions, especially for women. As she says in the video, it marks someone as privileged enough to avoid labour in the outdoors.
This starts to shift for white Europeans in the late 19th century when a full body tan marked someone as wealthy or privileged enough to spend all day tanning or participating in outdoor leisure activities, or able to travel to warmer regions in the winter months. Unlike the urban working and middle classes, who spent most of daylight hours working in factories or shops or offices. Even rural workers were still marked as lower class by their partial tans, e.g. terms such as "redneck", "farmer's tan", and "trucker's tan".
@@digitaljanus I know, the term blue blood for nobility in Europe comes from being pale enough that your blue veins can be seen
@@Perrirodan1 ^ I agree, there are a few immutable constants. My view is that these biological imperatives are the baseline upon which each distinct ethno-culture adds its own flavor in terms of aesthetic preferences, etc thus generating its own ideal of beauty.
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
As an individual with pale skin, most of the time i got told that i need to "tan" plus a lot more mean comments. I believe all skin types are beautiful, as me myself, have lived through the pain of being told about my pale skin and most made it seem as a bad thing. So love yourself for who you are❤
Yeah, thats pretty much the case and it sucks, but I simply want to remind others to love themselves no matter their skin colour😊
I was so shocked when my ID picture in Korea came back edited 😅 I’m happy that they didn’t make me pale…they just made my face a little more symmetrical and smoother
Whhhhaat? That’s CRAZY. Not the government coming for our looks too..
I’ve had one taken where they touched up my face so much my mom picking up my photo couldn’t recognize me in the pile 😭 idk what they did but I look like an uncanny valley version of myself
If people try to achieve the same kind of beauty standard + get their ID photos edited to get even closer to that standard, then what's the point of having ID photos? I wouldn't want to have the responsibility to check IDs in Korea...
When I discovered the Snow Filter app, I remember becoming obsessed with morphing my face and makeup etc to look more ideal. It went so far that I couldn't tell it looked completely artificial anymore. My friend spent a long time convincing me to pay attention to it and now I feel much better and even went to photoshoots. Our brains really get used to things quickly, we need a reality check more often.
when you mentioned being born with darker skin and hearing the same comment throughout your life, man i really felt that
when i remember my experiences (as a southeast asian) i think it's so fucking insane for a kid at 3 yrs old to realize 'oh they think i'm ugly because of my skin' and crying because i thought no one would find me beautiful EVER because i had dark skin and that was apparently not beautiful.
times are changing now, and i'm 21 now, but growing up with that kind of environment of always hearing the same thing from relatives about skin color might've damaged me more than i realized, as until this point, i still can't find myself to fully and sincerely think lighter skin isn't prettier when i look at myself. it's just something so ingrained in me for such a long time that i might never like my skin even if i don't want to change it either because i hate the beauty standard that hurt me so.
the popularity of kpop and kbeauty might have also caused that little progress to backtrack as it's so prevalent these days in both western and eastern spheres. there's just no escaping beauty standards.
hi, cambodian american here. i feel that the colorism in south east asia is harsher than east asia, or literally anywhere else in the world. which is crazy to me, because south east asians are generally darker skinned. idk why this particular conversation stuck with me, but i remember even arguing with my darker skinned cambodian cousins about how my vietnamese friend that i had known my whole life couldn't possibly be fully vietnamese bc he was dark skinned like them,and vietnamese are all "white." i was like how the hell would vietnamese be from the exact same tropical region and NOT be dark skinned too? idk, i guess it's just crazy to me that the beauty standards are so prevalent that we're just so convinced that we HAVE to look a certain way, or we are just not valid.
@@vee_ly Yeah, it's wild how it is. It should be obvious that tan skin in the tropics is the most natural thing, but people dislike it so much to a degree that feels like dislike for their own. It probably has to do with what TV representation we see.
I'm not very into other SEA media yet, but there's this noticeable thing in philippine entertainment industry where a lot of the actors and actresses are mestizo (or mixed), and so they're naturally have lighter skin. Which is crazy because it means the standard is skewed to literally foreign traits.
I'm dark too and deal with these kind criticisms daily. You just need to focus on your future and don't care about others opinion. Why even care if someone think that you are beautiful or not? Life isn't all about an invidual's beauty.
@@sowhat1674 It would be easy if it only targets you. I think it's not just that the comments target you; because even if it doesn't, it targets everybody. Thoughts and ideas get subconsciously reinforced by outside influence.
It's wild to me. I grew up in America, but my mom is Taiwanese. I never understood why she would aggressively push me away from beaches or why the beauty products that she imported always burned so much.
Now I know that it was all about keeping the skin fair. It blows my mind. Literally everything has skin lighting stuff in it by default.
The conformity thing is a key part of it. By not fitting or striving to fit the beauty standard others around you can actually feel a bit offended or angry. Kind of like this:
"I try so hard to meet others' expectations but you can't even be bothered? Who do you think you are??!"
Of course this happens in the west as well, particularly amongst young adults and then in certain social classes. The difference is that we at least pay lip service to the idea of being unique and celebrating differences.
fr i've seen people get defensive when you simply say 'i hate makeup', you have to add a bunch of things like, 'i personally don't like makeup, its wonderful if you do :)' if you want to escape being called a pick-me or something. Funnily its something i've been seeing more and more lately. I think its just much easier to accept these expectations and see them as empowering than go through the trouble of questioning and challenging them because seriously, they're everywhere!
Something really funny about recent western beauty standard trends is that the huge emphasis on 'slim thick', 'instagram curvy' and especially 'plus sized beauty' has replaced a beauty standard that is unhealthy but vaguely technically achievable with diet and exercise with a beauty standard which is extremely genetically determinative and even less attainable.
@@tinfoilslacks3750 I lay the blame there on social media and, more specifically as of late, short-form videos like TH-cam Shorts and TikTok. It used to be a big issue on Instagram where people would use extreme angles, photographic tricks, accessories/clothes, filters, and outright photoshop to give themselves a certain appearance or to emphasize certain curves/body parts. That did create an atmosphere where extreme body types were more prevalent and idealized, but to an extent I think there was still some resistance. People were mostly somewhat aware that photographs could be altered or doctored.
Short form videos took this to the next level because people inherently believe that what they see in motion in a video is more "real". However skilled enough people are still able to suck in their stomachs while on video and not appear as if they are taking efforts to do so, makeup and lighting can still be used, and there are also tools available to alter appearances even in video. The effect of content going viral and thirst-trapping also became more pronounced so ofc the most titillating and more extreme body types (large busts and hips with small waists on otherwise relatively thin/small-framed women) get pushed way up to the top by algorithmic routines that amplify videos with the most engagement (people viewing, liking, following, commenting). The twisted side of this is that even people who dislike the video or leave negative comments STILL push the video up because that's also considered engagement.
I’m Korean and I’ve lived in America my whole life, but from a really young age I was made really conscious of having darker toned skin? I tan so easily, and my brothers used to always make fun of me for it and joke on me by saying I “looked Filipino”. And I remember once I tanned so much after swimming and I was panicking in the bathroom bc I was so dark, and I was only in elementary school. Even now I resent people who are super obsessed with K-pop and not conscious of how badly they’re messing up beauty standards.
This is my personal take too, I’m an avid romance novel reader and you’ll notice a lot of rom-coms and novels are very white and hetero. (I’m gay) And, that plus the ridiculous East Asian beauty standards have constantly made me feel like I’m intimidating, or unwelcoming, ugly, even unlovable. I’ve done a better job of breaking away from those expectations and, as you said, body surveillance, but I know it’s permanently damaged how I view myself.
Omg. I thought I am the only one who is being described as ‘look like Filipino’. I have a darker skin than average in Hong Kong since born and when I was in high school, my classmates made fun of me that I look like ‘Filipino’ and made that my nickname. Those year I felt so trapped cause being a ‘Filipino’ is nothing wrong but I know their intend is to mock me for having darker skin…
god, as a Filipino who doesn't care about skin tone, let your brother how dumb that statement is lmao, I don't see why our nationality has to be seen as anything bad, it's a person's intentions, not their race, that make them ""ugly""
Using "looking like a filipino" as an insult is so crazy...
"I’m an avid romance novel reader and you’ll notice a lot of rom-coms and novels are very white and hetero." Because youre consuming media in the sphere of white and hetero people. Why do you so desperately want to be overrepresented? Thats just gonna alienate white and hetero people to your cause.
There is nothing wrong with being white and hetero in a Society built by white and hetero people. We are not living in the 80´s anymore where people had to hide their homosexuality, we have come a long way. So a character being gay, really doesnt make that character special.
When someone points out that they dont like a certain character because they are gay then people are gonna shun them for being bigoted, but when someone dislikes a character because they are hetero, then somehow that isnt bigoted anymore?
Im sorry that you see your world through such a constricted lense.
@@snakeace0 girl just be quiet. 🤣🤣 What I read was “if other people get equal representation then white people will be oppressed and underrepresented💔💔💔💔💔🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🤬🤬🤬😡😡😡” You jumped to so many conclusions bc you want to be offended but clearly you don’t get it. I never said I don’t like white people or heterosexual people I just said I feel underrepresented. And don’t tell me how to feel about my experiences as a gay Korean man bc you clearly are not a gay Korean man. And even then, you literally didn’t have to be so rude and mean. Like, are you DRUNK???😂😂😂
People in the comments complaining about how she fits the beauty standard while being so critical even though she benefits from the beauty standard:
While that may be true,, everyone is struggling, no one can ever be truly enough and you don’t know what her experiences are, so why judge her so quickly? Why not just listen to what she has to say?? It really doesn’t matter whether she fits the bs or not because every girl can be a victim of toxic beauty marketing, social media, and just beauty standards in general. Just because she’s benefiting from it (because of SOCIETY, it’s out of her control. It’s not her fault she’s privileged), doesn’t mean she can’t be educated about the issue and can’t speak about it. If anything, it’s actually good that someone who fits the standard is speaking about it because I think everyone should care about this issue and educate people about it and be aware of it.
Yes; that’s what I’ve been wanting to say. Even more models are speaking up about the fashion industry. All that glitters isn’t gold.
It's like they want her to change her physical body shape and ruin her hair and swear off of makeup just to make a video. Wild.
Thanks for speaking about these.
Im a korean and our beauty standard is so unreal and harmful.
I remember when i was like 5th grade teen and some girls were talking about doing diets even when they are already healthy weight. And they learn make-ups in such young age like in elementary school.
Scary thing is that no one doubts about these standards. Having surgeries are common, ive seen many take surgeries when i was in middle school. They pierce ears and wear very short skirts
Its so deep in our culture at this point. All celebrities following similar standards and people accepting those and trying to be like them.
I think pierced ears is fine, half the people I know got them pierced as babies. A simple pair of earrings is a quick and easy way to spice up an outfit! I agree with the rest though, you shouldn't be worried about makeup and shorts skirts when you're so young let alone surgeries. Though messing around with makeup and clothes come junior high/highschool is normal teen stuff.
Lol I'm so annoyed with the amount of power beauty has to determine how well society will treat you. (Especially if the beauty standard is extremely unachievable)
This is really interesting. In the West, at least in some places, you get mocked for being "pale as a ghost". Color is associated with health and if you're naturally very pale, people will let you know...
Edit: after watch a bit more, it looks like Eastern expectations are way way worse. My thoughts go out to anyone suffering from this...
I'm a pale Greek woman and everyone calls me Casper the ghost. But hey, at least the majority here appreciates their ethnic features 😭
Request them to move to an East Asian country
@@_my_insomnia_blink562 Emena me lene kitriniara arrwstiara
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
White people skin and East Asian white is different though. Asian white is more milky white while Western white is more pale which can look unhealthy. East Asian white does not look unhealthy.
Anybody else find filters making themselves look 40% worse than without? Even more annoying when my phone for some reason has an autofilter that I literally cannot turn off T_T
samsung has that and i have NO idea how to fix it, and i think it applies to the back camera as well. i end up taking photos with the lightroom app when i want something to look more real
@@jusagosi for the Samsung one, unless they changed it, when taking a picture if u click the symbol that looks like a magic wand it can let u turn off that auto filter or edit it
@@lili-oy1xf that's how I turned mine off, I took me off guard to see this as the standard setting
@@lili-oy1xf i have that turned off, but the image still looks so smoothed out it makes me think theres still some sort of filter, bc the phone is new and the camera isnt bad enough to look smoothed. idk, its just weird
@@jusagosi oh hmm maybe it's a thing with newer Samsung models because mine is a few yrs old now and it doesn't have that feature
I watched this video twice, took notes, and then looked up an article about self-construal to study further the differences of independence vs. interdependence between men and women. You re-ignited my love of learning, especially as it pertains to social science, in a way I’ve been seeking for months. Thank you so much for this video ❤
hey im doing a school project based off of asian beauty standards if u are down could i send the notes :D? im sorry i just procrastinated and ive got 3 days :,D
could u send** my laptop is so laggy nooo
I have an A4 waist. In landscape mode.
i love that haha
I typed my height with that "BM weight" thing on a webside from health department to check if it's ok to have this features in my age. And the webside told me to see a doctor ASAP.
THIS. It doesn’t even make sense either because im 50 lbs over the “ideal” weight and I wear BM all the time and it still fits. Absolutely insane
What's your height ? Plus weight can be both fat a muscle @@Imafraidoflargevegetables
@@Imafraidoflargevegetables There's some other factors, the asian ideal BMI is lower than westerners, not for appearance but because we have some sort of fat(or smth) in our body that means we need a lower weight to avoid the same risks to I believe things like diabetes.
@@Agent-57 im pretty short. It ofc doesn’t fit me like it fits their models but its still really cute on and fits comfortably.
The history of BMI I read was a group who collected the stats of a large group of people. It was never intended to be used as a diagnostic tool. To do so is entirely illogical when looking at the original source.
As someone with pale skin, I used to always get comments like „oh you’re too pale, you look so unhealthy, you should go outside in the sun more“ and similar comments, because where I live and the western beauty standards in general are totally different. Beauty standards are different everywhere and you can never be perfect and what is considered desired somewhere isn’t somewhere else, which just proves how ridiculous it is.
I remember that I had gotten a bit of an eating disorder back in my early teens. I was so ashamed of how my body was, I tried so hard to change it. All I had wanted was to be good enough. It had gotten to the point where I hated how my body naturally was, like my short neck, my egg shaped head, and my darker skin colour. Those were things that I had gotten bullied for, but not just in school. I believe my family was reinforcer of that mindset.
In a way it feels nice to know that many people across the worlds face these issues, sometimes even worse, none of us are alone. Personally I think people from Asia are beautiful, like everyday common people, not just specifically idols or celebrities.
I’m Bolivian, and for a time I wished I was not. I had heard many racist comments on my people, and sort of internalized that (I remember my grandma saying that people with pale skin and blue eyes were the most beautiful). Now I know better though, and that beauty goes deeper than skin, at least in my eyes. I know that my people are hard working and resilient people, with a beautiful culture, and I’m very proud.
Sometimes it does get difficult though, I still struggle with accepting myself and my flaws, and I feel very defeated some days. Too all the girls who are going through something too, I wish you the best luck. Unfortunately society and maybe even our families has failed us in many ways, but I don’t think that it’s the end.
There is always hope for a better tomorrow :).
(That was super long, kudos if you’ve made it to the end
yall lets not judge her because she somehow fit into these shitty standards, being something and talking about it are mutually exclusive
i find it interesting that all of the beauty standards for women in east asia are to make them look weak or childlike and therefore less respectable and easier to control. that also fits really well to the last theory you metioned, since men take/get back the economic power they loose when women grow confidence and equality, if women deconstruct their bodies and selfworth in another social aspect. its really really twisted and sad, because i would not suggest that men do this to us, it is probably something we do to ourselves, because we might feel like we dont deserve the same strength and power as men or we feel the need to punish or suppress ourselves since we have internalised being less than men. and now, as our rational self fights for economic justice, the injustice comes back at us through beauty pressure and its physical and psycological backlashes....
You sound like the typical sjw white girl from Twitter who write bs to feel important, girl those beauty standards are the same for men in east asia beauty for men are almost the same as the woman one pale youthful but at the same time manly thin but with some muscle not as buff to the point of looking intimidating etc...
Stop your BS . I find skinny and weak women attractive because they are sexy . We all have requirements.
but the thing is people who pay attention to celebrities or watch dramas the most are women... It's usually women who talk about which celebrity/idol/tv stars are more beautiful, which means the so called beauty standards are more set by women instead of men.
@@luoluoye9620 or gay men
@@luoluoye9620 Women won't say it (because it's currently socially unacceptable), but they're attracted to men who fit a Patriarch type; tall, strong, won't take BS, because he can protect and provide (symbolises security) and women's primary behavioural force is to seek security. If someone doesn't like it what they're really saying is "How dare you go against the social norm!" What that REALLY means is "I'm going to take this opportunity to gain some cheap social points and also try to eliminate you as a threat to my social stability in my social group that you're attacking".
As a south asian, skin bleaching and whitining have always been strongly influenced in our community, even from the people we love. From birth people say "wow, the baby is so fair, that means he/she is beautiful". Even in a country like India where everyone is brown, being lightskinned is wanted.
The word is coquette. Coquettishness is cuteness in look and mannerism with subtle hints of seduction that forms the mysterious charm that people find attractive
Isn't that a potato dish?
@@adlilzafri2322that’s a croquette lol!!
11:55 I suffer from high anxiety and horrible and I mean HORRIBLE self esteem. I never took selfies or like photos because I was exposed to beauty as a little girl, I knew people would hate me (probably because I was bullied) because of that I don't even think I'm smart or a good person because of my looks alone. Self image doesn't end at how you look, it's how you feel, how you interact with others or how you think of the outer world.
Can we talk about how One Size clothing system basically forces people to be very thin. No matter if it is healthy for that person. If one wants to wear clothes, let alone apparel they like, they have to find a way to fit in it.
It's interesting, I'm Mexican American and here in California some Mexican people I know sometimes would joke around about me being light skinned. I used to feel embarrassed by it when I was in my teens, but when I moved to Japan I didn't get ridiculed for my lighter skin; as a matter of fact the women there would sometimes compliment me on my skin tone. It really does change depending on the region you live in.
I can relate with that. When compared to friends and family I have always been pale. I never got tan and sometimes people found it necessary it to tell me I looked like a corps 🫥
I'm a white Midwestern American. I still get made fun of for my ultra pale skin by other white people. I used to get called the Grudge in school because of it. Makes no sense lol
My family comments on me being pale a lot too, though this only started once I started wearing sunscreen and hence no longer had a tan. To them tan skin is beautiful, healthy, and shows you truly had a good time over the summer (vacation, beach, pool, that kinda thing). I try to explain that getting a tan isn't healthy, you'll get your required vitamin d before you gain any colour. Nope, pale = sickly and tan = healthy. I'm diligent with sunscreen because everytime I get a lot of sun I get a new mole and I don't want to get skin cancer. My grandma understands that more moles means more likely to get skin cancer but I'm young and my moles are tiny so she still pushes me to go out and get a tan. The moles my uncle has that she worries about weren't there when he was younger though, gee I wonder how he got them. I don't wanna worry about it after the fact I want to try to prevent it, why do they care so much that I blend into the snow! Being pale wasn't a problem during the winter because they understand that there's no sun but the moment I choose to stay like that year round it's an issue. I'm white in a western country though so pale or tan it's never going to be the biggest thing in my life, annoying as people's constant comments may be.
The light skin thing is so interesting to me considering that here in the US people are giving them selves skin cancer in tanning booths
lmao dahyun being the example of pale is so fitting. they call her dubu for a reason
What does dubu means?
She is a CCP propagandist dont fall for the well put niche content that mimics a normal YTber so she seems like shes on your side so you are more sympathetic to china , DONT FALL FOR IT
@@VegaTakeOveris everything okay at home
@@aaalex1311 yes
@@aaalex1311hahahaha
The obsession with lighter skin is honestly so sad and i have a little story about it. so my skin has always had a golden hue to it (lol i cant describe it in any better way) and i naturally have a light tan skintone. When i was 5 or 6 my mum literally thought there was something wrong with me because of my skin tone. My mum has really fair skin so. i dont really blame her bc its the beauty ideal. when i was eight i literally wanted to bleach my skin with one of those creams bc of it.
Is it just me or do these ideals seem like they just want women to look like children? It’s kinda creepy and gross 🤢
I agree! It's weird
bigot
@@Mapleboi404of course your profile picture is anime
@@Mapleboi404 i am capable of doing both
@@Mapleboi404you'd probably think 30 is old lol
Honestly, your'e so pretty... I know everyone is insecrue in their own way, but in my eyes, you look perfect. And this comparison with myself really hurts.
I absolutely love your channel. Your speaking style is very clear and pleasant, and the points are well organized. Theres excellent use of graphics and visuals on the screen to explain things easily. This channel deserves to blow up. Glad youre getting some sponsors keep it up I look forward to your uploads Aini!
It will blow up, just a question of time
11:19 you bring up a very good point about beauty saturation and how we were probably never meant to see so many truly beautiful people in our lives.. Never thought of it like that.
it would have been interesting to see a comparison between East Asian and Western views on East Asian beauty standard, like the fact that girls who are considered average/relatively unattractive in East Asia are considered pretty by Westerners, and viceversa
Continue?
I think East Asians have high standards for attractiveness in general. Agree that Westerners seem to find the Asian women whom I would consider average-looking/ plain more attractive.
laowhy86 covers this re: the perception of how beautiful his wife is generally perceived to be by Chinese (❌) vs. westerners (✅).
@@24X7CARZ His wife is ugly even by Western standards.
Classic case - Lucy Liu is almost universally considered “ugly” in Asia.
You're very skilled at presenting every topic you talk about, I'm glad I discovered your channel. Today I'm very anxious and can't get my medication till this evening, your videos really helped me to not feel so alone and distracted me from focusing on my own disorder. Thank you and best luck for everything!
Wanna just say thank you for making interesting topics surrounding Asian culture. It’s genuinely cool to see you showcase different aspects of its history while also tying back to the contemporary space.
Your first video had me hooked and after that, your 2nd vid then this video dived into topics that I wasn’t really aware of till recently; they were properly researched while also selectively choosing words that borders on being just complex enough for the laymen to understand while also showcasing that you’re really knowledgeable in the stuff you’re talking about.
Round the bush to just say, thank you for your extensive hand to help people like me to know more about the rich culture that the Asians have.
As a person within the Asian heritage, although thankfully i’ve not received extreme pressure due to weight, skin colour, body look and more; I have been around people who face the exact stuff you’ve mentioned and its sad to see how much more pressured the Asian culture, especially on the way of its objectification of women and how they should look like and etc.
To realise just how damaging it was back then… and now facing the repercussions even within today’s world with more influence from other multiple cultures. Not to tack on the influence of TikTok, Photo Edits & much more that further derails any hope of a resurfaced hope on our self-esteem.
Hopefully in time, although the ideation of beauty standards will never die down, it would be nice to reinforce ideas that that is not the only test a person should worry of but rather internally as well; wishful thinking, i’ll be damned.
Thanks again!
Very informative and well-narrated. I have to point out that modern phone cameras capture much finer detail than you can see in real life from 2-3 feet away, so as a middle-aged man, I have to use a moderate filter just to get what I actually look like in the mirror.
I am so glad to have found your channel. I am studying East Asian studies from a sociopolitical aspect, and my thesis is related to this video topic. I have been struggling in finding what sources to use so I am so glad you listed out sources :D
While her videos are better than most videos on the Western internet, as a person who is actually Chinese and is a part of that culture, I find that her videos do tend to overgeneralize (China, Korea, and Japan actually tend to have very large differences on this topic, for instance) and she seems to only really analyze these topics as a person looking from the outside in.
Maybe her videos are accurate for Korea or Japan, but I can tell you that her videos aren't all that accurate for China.
Just funny that you’re complaining about it but you fit it all😅
Personally, in Malaysia, most people around me are pretty tanned. We come in plenty of shades and ethnicities, however- when it comes to beauty products or advertising, it's just a specific type of person (Light skinned to barely tanned, natural-style makeup, long hair if you're not wearing a headscarf, slim but with some curves and a flattering yet "family-friendly" fashion sense.) It's pretty, but not gonna lie it's exhausting to look at, your eyes will just glaze over it when and an advert comes up. In drugstores is the most egregious displays, aside from Maybelline and Loreal...The other options are to go into Sephora, which costs an arm and a leg.
with limited shade ranges and not many budget-friendly options, one feels invisible. I'm considered smack middle of the tan spectrum, not even the darkest person!
Stores just carry what could be the "Asian shades" light to medium light & tan, yet considering how diverse Malaysia is as a country, there's still a significant gap for anyone darker than medium tan in the drugstore.
In my experience, I've see women around me (Malay women) seek alternative beauty products, "whitening" collagen drinks which also claimed to help with weight loss too, whitening creams (may or may not have mercury in them lol) using foundations that are pretty pale and wash most skin tones out.
Yet...not even wearing or simply unaware of sunscreen (then again, sunscreen do be a near-monthly expense-)
About weight? yeah, body monitoring and commenting on other people's weight are def pretty pervasive in Asian households. Like...for both sides of the family, there's no escape. I learn to live with it, but it's still infuriating. Its commonplace for my dad to pick on my sister's and mom's weight....and his own sister's too.
Family members who tend to monitor other people's bodies or eating habits, they'd justify it as "its a way to show care and concern towards your health" but imo, it's willful ignorance at best.
I don't get it as often as my sister (unless he sees me overeat), People assume I'm kinda slim, but in reality, my chunk's is pretty stealthy and I got bony arms.
After years of body monitoring, My sis would keep asking me if her face is proportionate, among other things. She's a cute girl, and my sister gives off a sophisticated, youthful with her round face but a lil sharp edge from her straight brows and eyes. Sometimes it takes a bit of convincing to get her to see what I see when she ask me those questions about her image. I'm just glad to see her safe and well. We can't really address it head-on because it's so ingrained in the family, so much it definitely eroded mental health sometimes. Because there are some things exercise, diet drink mixes or fasting can't fix.
Edit: Crap i almost forgot .
Idk if its an inside joke for most families, but some of my family members often joke about having mixed babies... with light skin foreigners / marry a pale foreign person. If I had a Ringgit for every time that happened in my childhood till now; I could buy 2 Cars- In American dollars.
Thank you for making a video on this topic, it’s very important 😊 You made me and many others so much less insecure
15:51 Actually gave me chills.. it's not like I didn't know but it's just so natural that you don't actually think or consider it and in my opinion this is the most damaging thing because we know in the back of our mind and we judge ourselves depending on it but we DON'T really think about it or consider and this goes along to all types of new influence
Also happy new years to everyone nd May this year be easier nd fulfilfull + congrats on the sponsor!
i'm impressed how this objectively pale-skinned, large-eyed, slender person is able to critique a beauty standard that she clearly falls into. we should all be so self-aware and critical.
The funnny part is you fit that standard
that doesn't make her opinion less valid...
Well I’d say that my mind is influenced by Asian beauty standards but I still understand that it’s wrong and know I shouldn’t think like that.
That weight chart was something else, especially given the context of it being for a popular brand and likely referenced extensively. It really goes to show just what kinds of insanity can be normalized with enough pressure or incentive
Whenever I hear about things like this, I remember that old TLC song "unpretty" and the accompanying music video. I saw it a lot as a youth and it has a good positive impact on me regarding how people should only value themselves and not other people's images of them
thank you for listing sources. I have always wondered how people dive into topics like this.
sorry got nothing to add on the topic i think you covered it really well. just want to say I really enjoy your content. From a west asian pov i've been interested in some things about asia, east asia specifically and the topics and knowledge that you're mentioning in your videos are completely new to me and never even crossed my mind tbh. so thank you for educating me. keep it up!
my problem is how these standards warp nonasian western peoples perceptions of asians. even those of us living in western countries our whole life. even for me, i grew up with white parents and when i got into kpop and anime, i started obsessing over lightening my skin because i childishly thought that "asians only have pale skin" and that if i didnt, i wasnt asian. i know it sounds dumb, but i didnt know a single asian soul growing up so thats what i thought.
but what my point is is that ive seen some kpop fans in particular think that any korean who is beautiful and fits the standard, did so by plastic surgery, and immediately reflects their inner vanity and obsession with looks. basically, they think all pretty koreans are fake and plastic, and that no korean can be naturally beautiful and not vain. and ive personally been affected by this, as ive internalized on the one hand, this huge wave of obsession with my cultures beauty (kbeauty), but also at the same time, this intense, often uninformed critique of societal standards and the perceived superficiality of people. "koreans are obsessed with looks" "koreans want to look white" "koreans always do plastic surgery" even though i am adopted and didnt grow up with these standards, i am still subject to them. and thus, i still internalize these comments.
when i first got into kpop, it helped my self esteem immensely. finally i learned the best makeup tips for my ethnic features. but now, i feel as if this hyperexposure of kpop fans, anime fans, etc. to beautiful asian people and fetishization has destroyed my sense of self love. "they say i cant be naturally pretty" "i am turning into a plastic monster like they say" "the only way i can look beautiful is by having a 10 step skincare routine and 10 layers of makeup and colored contacts and dyed hair styled perfectly like idols". people dont realize that these standards affect asians more than nonasians. because when "asian beauty" became a market, it became a racial thing, not a cultural thing. kpop fans simultaneously criticize korean society for double eyelid surgery and asian hatred of monolids despite fawning over idols who did that surgery. its hypocritical. so many fans say that the west determines the sway of the market. well, if thats true, then this one singular definition of asian beauty of pale skin, slim figure, vline jaw, big doubleeyelid eyes, high nose bridge will remain the dominate ideal of asians for westerners too.
You’ve put what I’ve always wanted to say regarding kpop fans attitude towards koreans into words so perfectly.
Korean culture is so commodified nowadays, people synonymously link the entire Korean population with what they see in its entertainment exports. It’s concerning, not only by the fact that Korea is just a backdrop of kpop to some people, but the fact that these beauty standards are becoming ever so normalized.
Coming from a fellow creator doing research videos, I really appreciate the effort you put in citing your sources. I personally would be fine with just a link to be honest (you'll go over the character limit like you probably found out)
i follow a dark skinned indian girl who lives in singapore & has a light skinned singaporean bf. i often see comments insulting her skin tone. i see people saying she’s trying to be black, which is ignorant because they just aren’t aware dark skinned asians exist. there are other comments that fetishize her bf and call him korean when he isn’t korean. i’m filipino & chinese & we have these light skin is better standard as well. it’s so tiring & i wish people would stop judging others by skin tone
thank you for such cool and high-quality videos, it’s very interesting to watch 💕 greetings from a blogger to a blogger!
giiirl you are cool too
What are the odds? I subscribe to your channel too.
The beauty standard messed up for a long time. Kept comparing myself in the past and being underweight was not enough. I don't even live in Asia, but growing up with Asian media heavily influenced me that way, I guess same way western media influences people in the west.
These days I am just being healthy, and ignoring all beauty standards as they're harmful as heck, including all the cosmetics and products you put on your skin, your biggest organ, over and over.
great video! i also think that these beauty pressures exist due to the stereotyping and exotification of east asian women on an international scale. there's this idea that *all* east asian women are just 'naturally' smaller and thinner and some people internalize that message and believe it to be true, but it really hurts east asian women because those who aren't naturally thin or small think there's something wrong with them. in a fetishized way asian women are seen as the 'ideal' women - obedient, small, 'naturally' hairless etc and when you internalize that and dont live up to that it can lead to a really unhealthy relationship with your own body.
i like this comment a lot!
Hey, Cheyenne's here. Your channel is cool.
I agree with your comment.
I live in the Philippines where light skinned is worshipped. I have a family that is a descendant of chinese origins so our skin were light. I literally got called "Only pretty for having a white skin but my face is ugly."
So racism is widespread in the Philippines? Kinda shocking to learn 😨
@@Sum_Yousahit's not racism though. You missed the beginninh of the video where she explained that pale skill is a sign off high status due to not having to work outside
@@Sum_Yousahit's called colourism.
3 videos in and homie already got a sponsor, good for her
I’m 173cm and the only time I weighed 53kg was in high school. I was rail thin and people thought I had an eating disorder. I’d have to lose 40 pounds to be that weight now. Insane.
I can relate to that. I’m 158cm so according to that table I should weight around 40kg. That was my weight in high school as I was dealing with an eating disorder and had several health issues associated with it.
@@kiara3376 well I'm 158 cm and 50 kg
@@rhemerisus Yeah, that sounds like a much healthier weight than 40kg. Perhaps I did not get you point…
40kg!?@@kiara3376
It just blow my mind the pale skin beauty standard from east countries since I'm from Spain where people is obssesed to be tanned and there are tons of beauty products sold to make you look more tan. If in Summer your skin is pale, specially applied to face and legs, it's very common that people bodyshame you calling you a ghost or asking why you are so pale, if you have good health or why you are not sunbathing to be tanned.
Medically speaking, tanning in the sun is very bad for your skin.
@@deekay13 Totally true but still, I know a lot of men and women (here) that even they know the risk prefer to be tanned to be more atractive and good looking to other people or spend a lot of money in a beauty salon to take a auto tan treatment. Also, now doctors are measuring a lot Vitamin D in blood test to see if levels are right and if not they recomend to stay in the sun for 10 or 15 minutes per day.
“Evil always wins through the strength of its splendid dupes; and there has in all ages been a disastrous alliance between abnormal innocence and abnormal sin.”
- Gilbert K. Chesterton