Comment: Are Asians ugly?

Peace out homies: Rocking the typical Asian sign (not me, I would shoot myself if I ever posed like these girls). Apart from the stereotype, would you consider her beautiful? Photo / Facebook

It suddenly hit me after seeing, for the umpteenth time, the "typical blonde beauty". The realisation wasn't that blondes were beautiful, but that all blondes were Caucasian.

Then that thought snowballed. 

Being a person who works in the media, I am surrounded by images of luxury, beauty and epically glamorous people. I work under the banner of Life & Style after all.

Having been blanketed by these representations of attractiveness and of "what's hot" for two years, it's only taken that amount of time for it to dawn on me ...

Of all the images I've put up, and of all the articles I've read about beautiful people who have it all - not one of them has been of an Asian face. Not one of those profiles of gorgeous people featured a yellow visage.

I do understand beauty, like fashion, is considered a subjective thing, but it has never struck me as clearly as it has today.

Can people even tell if beauty resides in the Asian race if all representations of beauty belong to a Caucasian face?

Flicking through any fashion and beauty magazine, or any magazine at a supermarket for that matter. It seems Asians don't really factor into the equation when considering the ideal vision of attractiveness.

Researchers have tried to weigh in on this; trying to figure out what "beautiful" is. Turns out, it's Florence Colgate. Scientifically proven to be the fairest of them all.

Which kind of indoctrinates the view there is only one type of beautiful person.

It's as if we're only allowed a taste of one kind of beauty as seen through: ads, newspapers, magazines and TV. In every single one of them, the ideal gorgeous face seems to be European/Caucasian.

Watching Supernatural also got me thinking along the lines of ... 

"Dayum, those boys are hot. Dayum, those demon chicks are hot. I'm pretty damn jealous of them being able to make Dean look in their direction. 

"Wait, not one hottie was Asian. Even if I were there, would he even notice? 

"Man my legs are short ... guess he wouldn't be able to see me anyway.

"Hmm, howcome only super skinny white girls are considered the desirable, sexy, seductive things capable of drawing such attention?"

Then came the question, are Asians ugly? Or are we just too foreign to appear attractive?

The fact remains, we are of a small stature. Some with squinty eyes, and 3/4 of us girls possessing stumpy legs. Nothing close to the Amazonian goddesses of Brazil, Miami or even, Sydney. 

Due to my job, I may have had my head crammed into too many fashion and beauty magazines for this sort of distorted view, but I only write this out of curiosity.

Having been in NZ since I was a bub, I've never really considered there to be such a stark monopolisation of one kind of "beauty" in the media. I guess having grown up here, that's all I've ever really known. That only European/white people can be considered beautiful or attractive.

In a way I guess this is natural as there haven't been any other messages to tell me otherwise. 

So I must ask, if beauty is a subjective thing, then howcome no other colours brighten up the eye-catching landscape of the media? Why is it there is only one colour used on this canvas representing an image of the world?

I guess differences freak people out because they are uncomfortable to deal with, but, don't we all deserve a fair go at being seen under the microscope of impartiality? To be represented so that others may well be able to consider for themselves, what beauty actually is? 

Instead of being force-fed only one kind of flavour, wouldn't varied tastes make for a more balanced judge?

It would be great if you want to share your thoughts.

I genuinely am curious to know other viewpoints about this matter. Can Asians be beautiful if there haven't been many views of what a beautiful Asian looks like? What is considered beautiful anyway? Legs that stretch on for ages; big eyes with fan-like eyelashes ...  or, what?

At this point, I've been born, so it's kind of impossible to look like those ethereal, towering twigs when I already possess thighs that look like tree trunks. Yes, an Asian with hips and thighs. 

Ah, dayum.

Until next time,

Jos

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