When i check my blog again, I realised that i have too much to say. But again, i need to spew it all before i am going daft. Too prolific but insufficient to be eloquent.
Beauty is the topic that i have been pondering for so long. Long time ago, i didn't believe in beauty since i could not find the 'real one'. I was aware at that time that i was sort of realist. There must be an essence, i thought. But the harder i tried to find out what the beauty is, the closer i am to the idea of relativism. There is no beauty in essence. It is utterly a cultural construction.
Everyone has different view of beauty. I saw many people in the West are insanely sunbathing to get their skin tanned. Otherwise they will go to solarium to get their skin brown. Meanwhile, in other places, such as Indonesia, people are unbelievably obsessed with having a white skin and to do so, they buy whitening lotions.
How do we explain this phenomenon? I believe that colonisation contributed partly to the construction of beauty. During colonisation, the natives were represented as backward, traditional, uncivilised and so on. The scientific racism in 19 century could tell us more about this representation. This created images, which gave a sense of inferiority amongst natives, were accepted as their identity and therefore agreed with the idea of white supremacy.
We can still see this legacy in our modern day. In Indonesia, if you have white skin and your parents are mixed between Indonesia and Anglo, you are very likely to be approached by model agency. Once your faces are displayed in magazines and TV ads, it just needs a little bit an effort to be a soapie actor/actress. As to representation, the ideology of beauty is produced and distributed through media.
While in the West the idea of White Supremacy did not gain its prominence, albeit some will subscribe to it, the notion of beauty also changed. This is perhaps due to the changing construction of beauty. I can think of one particular reason why this construction has changed. Black Beauty culture which began in 1960s contested the dominant notion of beauty and most importantly reclaimed the meaning of black is beautiful.
Can Indonesians perceive black beautiful? I am a bit sceptical if Indonesians could see black beautiful. To be beautiful means you must have a pointed nose, white skin, a long straight hair, free acne's face, and so on.
So it baffles them if they saw an anglo saxon looking man walking with Indonesian women whom they thought have an avarage facial feature. 'Maid-looking-women' is a derogatory term ascribed to these women (mmmmm was wondering since when look has a close relation to social class). "Why do so many westerners like 'a maid looking' women?" is the question they often raised. It is because they are open to the idea of beauty and are not looking at beauty with the sense of inferiority, shit head!
Beauty is the topic that i have been pondering for so long. Long time ago, i didn't believe in beauty since i could not find the 'real one'. I was aware at that time that i was sort of realist. There must be an essence, i thought. But the harder i tried to find out what the beauty is, the closer i am to the idea of relativism. There is no beauty in essence. It is utterly a cultural construction.
Everyone has different view of beauty. I saw many people in the West are insanely sunbathing to get their skin tanned. Otherwise they will go to solarium to get their skin brown. Meanwhile, in other places, such as Indonesia, people are unbelievably obsessed with having a white skin and to do so, they buy whitening lotions.
How do we explain this phenomenon? I believe that colonisation contributed partly to the construction of beauty. During colonisation, the natives were represented as backward, traditional, uncivilised and so on. The scientific racism in 19 century could tell us more about this representation. This created images, which gave a sense of inferiority amongst natives, were accepted as their identity and therefore agreed with the idea of white supremacy.
We can still see this legacy in our modern day. In Indonesia, if you have white skin and your parents are mixed between Indonesia and Anglo, you are very likely to be approached by model agency. Once your faces are displayed in magazines and TV ads, it just needs a little bit an effort to be a soapie actor/actress. As to representation, the ideology of beauty is produced and distributed through media.
While in the West the idea of White Supremacy did not gain its prominence, albeit some will subscribe to it, the notion of beauty also changed. This is perhaps due to the changing construction of beauty. I can think of one particular reason why this construction has changed. Black Beauty culture which began in 1960s contested the dominant notion of beauty and most importantly reclaimed the meaning of black is beautiful.
Can Indonesians perceive black beautiful? I am a bit sceptical if Indonesians could see black beautiful. To be beautiful means you must have a pointed nose, white skin, a long straight hair, free acne's face, and so on.
So it baffles them if they saw an anglo saxon looking man walking with Indonesian women whom they thought have an avarage facial feature. 'Maid-looking-women' is a derogatory term ascribed to these women (mmmmm was wondering since when look has a close relation to social class). "Why do so many westerners like 'a maid looking' women?" is the question they often raised. It is because they are open to the idea of beauty and are not looking at beauty with the sense of inferiority, shit head!
No comments:
Post a Comment