Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

     You would have never guessed it...scars, small face features, and oh yeah surgical face bandages

are the makeup for some countries.

   
     Lipstick, eye-shadow, and contouring may be the beauty standards for women in America, but if

you take a look on the other side of the globe you may be surprised at what you'll find. In America

 the beauty standards are quite obvious and although the ceiling has been broken down a bit there are

 still expectations as to what beauty means. New trends which include having full lips, curves, and

fashion sense can be completely questionable to some Americans, but what is the norm for people

living on opposite ends of the world.

      Some say beauty is pain and in the Middle East that saying is a reality. In Iran women wear

surgical bandages on their face to tell a strong statement to society. It is a symbol of currency and

 their economic position as well as social status. It lets people know that they are willing to spend

those thousands of dollars, or in this case Iranian

Rial, to fix their imperfections. Sort of how

European women in the 1800s wore tower high

Whigs and powdered makeup that only the

wealthy women had, the higher the Whig the

more power you had. So with the bandages its

the same idea, that you are important and other people need to acknowledge that. It gives off the

impression that you are erasing your flaws to improve your appearance, hence becoming a better

version of yourself. Some women go as far as buying the tape itself without actually having gone

through facial reconstruction just so that people will think that they have, following the trend.

     Some other quick forms of beauty include the Japanese ways of having straight hair and

maintaining their faces young. France advertises thin and natural beauty for women that give off an

effortless look, that means not wearing a lot of makeup. Some people actually find it odd when they

see American women with pounds of makeup on their face. Nose rings, and henna tattoos are also

admired by Indian women and most of their standards are more traditional. Brides wear a red dot on

 their foreheads called Kumkum to make the women more appealing or only seen in festive events.

     Now similar to Iran's idea of beauty, Korea is well known as a plastic surgery capitol. It has a very

 strict and demanding view on what beauty should look like unlike anything that I have ever seen,

and that means under going drastic measures to reach those standards. One of which is having pale

completions, having light skin is pleasing to the eye and what you regularly see in both the men and

the women. Korean Soap Oprah's are a great example to this and is

 encouraged throughout media or the music industry.  There are also

 some rare restrictions to what a normal person should look like in

 order to be favored by society, it emphasizes more on the face.

Having a V-shaped face is one of those restrictions that is said to be

at least 17 cm in length with a rounded forehead. They also prefer

having small facial features like the lips, mouth, all with the exception of the eyes that need to be the

 largest portion of the face. Some other rare rules include having round foreheads,  high eyebrows

 that bring attention to the eyes making them larger then they may seem, or upturn noses. It all

resembles a look of innocence and Korea holds the highest number of cosmetic surgeries in the

world.