Lesly Bries 2007-03985 Anthropology 10 Prof.

Felipe Jocano Reflection Paper: On The Body and Society Im currently living in a world where people are encouraged to embrace diversity, where the plus-sized models are celebrated and we are told that big is beautiful, than tan skin is gloriously sun-kissed and healthy in comparison to the coveted porcelain complexions that pushed women to take unlicensed pills and slather on damaging creams. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, yet when I look up at the billboards, the models all have the same skin color, roughly the same bone structure and similar facial features. Slim, pale, with long, glossy tresses, these standards have remained a troubling fixture that lowers self-esteem, causes eating disorders and leads people to be judged unfairly by others. This was most evident when I talked to my two friends about whether theyd want to change their height and nose or not, and what they would change about it. The female friend in question wanted to have a less squashy nose, asserting that big noses arent very attractive. Looking at her, you would never think that there was anything wrong with her nose. When I asked her what kind of nose she wanted, she paused and replied, Like Blake Livelys. Now, Blake Livelys nose is one of those slim, sculpted variants that rarely show up on Filipinos who arent of Caucasian descentunless theyve had a little help from the cosmetic surgeon. By rejecting our natural, slightly round noses, we are conforming to and affirming the standards of our societys idea of beauty. This standard is something we have inherited from long years of colonization and our love affair with all things American. Barbara Streisand, for example, was an excellent performer but never a raving beauty because of her nose. It was considered too Jewish, unlike the pert button noses of her contemporaries. In this case, noses also indicate social class. We affix an upperclass appearance to these slimmer noses, because we associate the native pango noses with provincial Filipinos or natives, uncosmopolitan brown-skinned people. Its not just women who have hang-ups about their noses: the male friend I asked also wanted to alter his nose to be rid of the random pimples and blackheads that would pop up from time to time. Now, a small pimple doesnt seem like such a big deal, but on the nose, which is smack in the center of the face, a shiny red spot would catch attention straightaway, and nobody finds pimples attractive. Society prefers clear skin for two reasons: you need to have a lot of wealth and not a lot of work to do to maintain clear skin, and pimples remind one of pustules, which indicate disease. Clear skin is a sign of having certain means and being relatively healthy. This desire for clear skin, particularly on the nose is not a Western inheritance, and can be seen from every bit of the globe. The answers to my question on height interested me because both of them wanted to be a little taller, with the girls answer being that shes too short, and the guy (who was 57) saying that tall guys are taken more seriously than short men. Its true that height is also seen in society as a projection of authority, and in the case of men, masculinity. Taller men are perceived to be smarter, more attractive and more

virile than their shorter peers, and are seen as more imposing figures than a shortie who might be ridiculed for overcompensating for potentially non-existent height issues. Women are seen as more desirable when theyre tallerbut only up to a certain range. It seems that after they pass the 58 mark, they start being perceived as less like supermodels and more like gangly giraffes who will have a hard time finding a good match, as men dont want to be shorter than their women. Our social norms often poke fun at such mismatched couples of women taller than their husbands, and indeed, most women prefer a taller man, for the reasons Ive mentioned above. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but lets face it: when you want to hold hands with your boyfriend while walking in the hallway, youd look pretty silly having to bend down to reach his hand, and hed look just as ridiculous. Im sure the epithet hobbit has been applied to many a poor short guy who is otherwise attractive to the opposite sex. I guess its just hard to shake off that kind of social norm and idea of attractiveness. Overall I used to think that society has really come a lot farther, that we celebrate differences instead of hiding them. Im not really all that surprised by the fact that we havent really gotten much headway in the diversity stakes. Standards, once enforced, are difficult to shake off, and it takes the force of fashion, of things being trendy and switching from a low-class to high-class status marker, to really change the beauty game. Who knows? Maybe instead of swallowing glutathione pills, our country will finally get with the program and embrace that St. Tropez tan.