Beauty standards differ from time to time, from place to place, and from culture to culture. While modern American beauty standards are widely shown on the screens of everyone with a TV or an internet connection (thank you, Hollywood), some of them seem bizarre (or just not that pretty) in other parts of the globe. Here are some of them.
Tan-Tastic
Sure, healthy skin is great, but Americans seem like they are more concerned with getting the perfect shade of caramel rather than getting some sunscreen. Especially in the summer, and especially if you live near the coast.
However, in other places, such as East Asian countries, people are more interested in having fair, porcelain skin. In Japan, for example, women do a lot to avoid the sun, like wearing hats, long sleeves (even in the summer,) and carrying a parasol.
Super Smile
Americans are extremely pedantic when it comes to the way their teeth look. They often get them whitened, and it’s incredibly common to go through teeth-straightening treatments in high school. Those perfect smiles are not necessarily healthier, because frequent whitening makes your teeth weaker.
In other countries, smiles that are too perfect are not very desirable. While people won’t go out of their way to get yellow or crooked teeth, when someone’s smile looks too good to be true, that person might seem a little fake or condescending.
Body-mod Boos
Tattoos, earrings, and other forms of body modification are slowly becoming more mainstream, but in America, they are still stigmatized, mainly by older generations.
Around the world, however, mainly in tribal communities, certain forms of body-modification are common and even considered beautiful. In certain tribal cultures in Africa, for example, elongated earlobes are considered beautiful and women often stretch their earlobes to the extreme in the name of beauty.