East asian beauty standards are exhausting

In East Asia, there is almost an expectation to be beautiful. What are the beauty ideals there, and what does this pressure do to us?

Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:32 The pale skin ideal
4:24 The slender body ideal
8:34 The ideal of looking innocent and possessing aegyo
10:47 Social comparison theory, self objectification and body surveillance
13:20 Filters and the constant need to be beautiful
18:05 Self construal in culture and conformity
20:34 Quick discussion on beauty in the socioeconomic context
21:50 Conclusion

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Sources and some quick thoughts:
The source list is long because I went out of control lmao but if I could recommend one source to dive into further, it would be the first one, titled: 'Occidentalisation of Beauty Standards: Eurocentrism in Asia'. The focus of my video is on East Asia, but beauty standards in Asia in general are deeply rooted in colonisation, in which classist and eurocentric beauty ideals have often lead to a lot of Asian self hate, feelings of inferiority and contradictions between ethnic beauty traits and European ideals. So I think this is a great 10 minute read on beauty and the impacts of European imperialism across Asia in regions like Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East and I would love to see more discussion in this area!

Academic Journals

Kim, S. Y., Seo, Y. S., & Baek, K. Y. (2014). Face consciousness among South Korean women: A culture-specific extension of objectification theory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 61(1), 24–36. doi:10.1037/a0034433

Leung, F., Lam, S. and Sze, S. (2001). Cultural Expectations of Thinness in Chinese Women. Eating Disorders, 9(4), pp.339–350. doi:10.1080/106402601753454903.

Samizadeh, S. (2018). The Ideals of Facial Beauty Among Chinese Aesthetic Practitioners: Results from a Large National Survey. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 43(1), pp.102–114. doi:10.1007/s00266-018-1241-8.

Web sources - I'm over the character limit TT - sorry if halfway through these sources aren't referenced properly

Other credits

Thanks for watching! :)

tags: video essay, cultural commentary, social commentary, internet analysis, analysis video, east asian beauty standards, beauty standards, east asia, korea, china, japan, east asian, kpop, iu, diet, iu diet, thin, skinny, pale, pale skin, colourism, pretty, self objectification, objectification, double eyelids, social media, instagram, filters, plastic surgery, meitu, snow, beauty standards, beauty ideals, east asian beauty ideals, identity, c, kawaii, aegyo, sajiao, conformity, individualist, society, beauty pressure, beauty influence, self monitoring, appearance anxiety, body dissatisfaction, chinese culture, korean culture, japanese culture, chinese history, chinese dynasty, ancient china, mina le, edvasian, kookielit, aini

[christianrodier]

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.

[taramathews]

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

[petiteetoile]

Beauty standards in a nutshell: Be what you are not

[niyassecondaccount]

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.

[emptyarchive]

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

[Slaaneshy_Concubine]

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.

[vargask]

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.

[lain]

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.

[blahaj]

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

[sophie]

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.

[TheTimeWillPassAnyways]

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!

[koifish]

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.

[itsthemintbunny]

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.

[Lena-mtck]

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.

[arthur]

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

[jaynefrances]

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.

[LindaMitchell]

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 YouTubers 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.

[rosalinahope]

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.

[m.i]

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…

[Nikimouse]

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.