Beauty A multicultural look at what makes people beautiful.

Thailand – Kayan Tribe In Northern Thailand a woman with an elongated neck is considered beautiful. Women wear rings around their neck that compress the collar bone and ribs to give the appearance of a longer neck

Uganda and Mauritania In Uganda and Mauritania women who are fat are considered beautiful. In fact in Uganda women live in a fattening hut for months before their wedding to gain weight so they can please their husbands. In Mauritania women are force fed and even tortured to gain weight.

Japan Women with fair skin and straight hair are considered beautiful in Japan. Many women pay to have their hair straightened and they buy meat with collagen to help their skin.

France In France thin is beautiful. There is an ongoing debate about the thinness of models and a bill has been proposed that would make it illegal to "provoke a person to seek excessive weight loss by encouraging prolonged nutritional deprivation that would have the effect of exposing them to risk of death or endangering health."

Ethiopia – Karo Tribe The Karo excel in face paint which the use on their bodies for celebrations and ceremonies. Karo women scarify their chests and stomachs to beautify themselves and attract men. Scars are cut with a knife and ash is rubbed in to produce a raised welt.

New Zealand – Maori People The Maori people of Polynesian descent believe women with full blue tattooed lips and chin are the most beautiful.

Jamaica In Jamaica voluptuous is beautiful. So much so that women take pills that are used to fatten chickens to grow fuller breasts and hips. There are many side effects to taking these pills since they contain arsenic which when built up in the body can cause cancer

India Indian women are known for their long beautiful hair and glowing skin. Indian women take a more natural approach to beauty and use natural herbs and supplements to beautify.

Brazil Brazilians value thinness. Brazil is the number one seller of diet pills in the world. The average weight of a woman in Brazil is lbs. Brazil is second to the USA in numbers of plastic surgery

Skin Bleaching In many countries men and women bleach their skin to be more beautiful. Many cultures believe that the darker ones skin the lower class he/she is. People across the globe bleach their skin to appear lighter. It is a dangerous process and often times the chemicals being used end up destroying peoples skin.

Blepharoplasty Blepharoplasty is eyelid crease surgery and the number 1 cosmetic surgery in Asia. Blepharoplasty adds a crease to the eyelid thus creating a more rounded eye. It is gaining popularity in the United States but many Asian American women dont feel they need to change their eyes to be beautiful

So how does America define beauty?

W HAT ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE WHO DOESN T FIT THIS STANDARD OF BEAUTY ? A RE THEY NOT BEAUTIFUL ?

Prolific Writing What is beautiful to you? How do you define beauty? How have others expectations of beauty impacted your life and who you are today? When I look in the mirror I see… Respond to the quote: It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. ~Leo Tolstoy Why do you think there is more pressure on women to change who they are to be beautiful? Any thoughts… Any reactions…