Aug 22, 2012

What makes a face beautiful...

When I was twenty years old, I had the opportunity to work as a volunteer in Venezuela for one year. It was a great experience for a number of reasons: learning a new language, getting to know new people, immersing myself in a different culture and also learning a lot about myself.

One thing that intrigued me the most though, was how the Venezuelan beauty ideal differed from the one I was familiar with from my Central European background. Not only were the Venezuelan men attracted to women that were a bit chubbier on average, but skin color was an interesting issue. Almost all the girls I talked to admitted to envying the light complexion of my skin. Interestingly enough, where I come from we actually have solariums (aka tanning booths) to take care of the "problem" of our light complexion!

Now imagine my surprise when I read an article from the New York Times (which you can read here) that talks about a similar issue in China: women wearing face masks to the beach, so they won't lose the fair complexion of their skin - in their case, they want to keep the color of their skin, whereas Caucasians in Central Europe and Latinos in South America are not happy with the skin color God has given them! What a crazy world we live in...

All I can say is this: As an adult male, I have seen pretty female faces all over the world - because what makes a face beautiful is not its color. Let's just try to remember that...

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