When asked to define beauty, girls often respond with descriptions of physical appearance. I often wonder – but have not yet asked – if this physical beauty is something they think “everyone” agrees is the standard, or if they believe that beauty is defined differently in different cultures.
In her VHI reality TV series The Price of Beauty, Jessica Simpson explores the notion of beauty and provides some answers to the question of whether there is a universal beauty standard or if it is locally (culturally) defined. Throughout her journey to India, LA, Morocco, Paris, Rio, Thailand, Tokyo, and Uganda, Simpson interviews local women, or “beauty ambassadors,” who each defines beauty in her own way. For example, while Parisians revere the waiflike figures walking the runways, members of the Uganda Hima tribe believe, “the fatter, the better.” [1] What these women do share in common, however, is their subscription to a beauty ideal that seems to have been set by someone else.
I have run workshops for female college students of various racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds and asked them to find images in magazines or other print media that epitomize beauty as they see it. Most of the women choose images that somehow resemble them – in race, ethnicity, hair color, and even body type. They may choose the lips of one woman, the legs of another, or even an action or personality trait of yet another, but in sum the images are reflective of the participants in the group.
These workshops have been hugely successful and I look forward to future opportunities to offer girls and young women the chance to relish and appreciate their unique qualities while reveling in their shared beauty. There is nothing more beautiful than loving yourself and helping others do the same.
- Corinne
[1](http://www.vh1.com/shows/jessica_simpson_the_price_of_beauty/episode.jhtml?episodeID=166388#moreinfo).
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