Social Constructs of Beauty in America, Europe and Asia - Research Proposal Example

Lecturer Social Constructs of Beauty in America, Europe and Asia Introduction Social Constructs of beauty in America, Europe and Asia, in this research work, is analyzed based mainly on the Media, Culture and Society text. The cross cultural depiction of beauty is diverse in the three regions; this is because the common media outlets have come up with various ways of depicting the women. One of the most dominant means of depicting the women is in the advertising since it is a genre that offers a unique opportunity to the construction of gender in the various cultural contexts. The paper will looks at the international constructions of beauty in various cultural locations all over the world precisely in the USA, Asia and European nations. The research will seek to explain the way the women are depicted in terms of their sexual appeal and the varying sexual contraptions of the beauty in the different parts of the world (Rojek, 2007). The variations of the sexual connotation of beauty will be compared according to the region where the magazine adverts come from (Hartley and Ang, 1992). The research will look at the points of commonality and the divergence in the construction of beauty in fashion. The running theme in the paper will be the effect of the cultural influences in the modeling of what is beautiful across the three regions of America, Europe and Asia. The paper will not assume a comparison point of view; instead, it will seek to look at the social constructs of beauty individually. The practical activities representing the social constructs of beauty take into consideration the increasing globalization effects. In line with the increasing globalization, the cultural influences in the design and fashion areas are turning out to be hazy mazes. The dominant cultures are exerting their influences on the traditional concepts of beauty such that the end result is a dwindling effect of culture on the depiction of beauty. Majority of the western films have been credited for the erosion of the social constructs of beauty. This precedence is dangerous in that it threatens the actual existence of the beauty in its indigenous form. As a creative practitioner, the assignment will seek to expose the beauty in the cultural influences. The practical aspect will assume the form of a short presentation of the cultural perceptions of beauty. The research paper will seek to answer the questions of how different the portrayal of beauty is manifested. The main research question will be: What is the role of sexual appeal in the definition of beauty in the different cultures? The research also has two sub questions: What are the areas of variation in the definition of beauty across the cultures? What are the noticeable effects of westernization in the constructs of beauty in Asia? From the questions mentioned above, the paper will be focusing on the cultural influences on the depiction of beauty in the respective regions (Sinclair, 1958). The paper will conduct the research on the premise that beauty is a cultural construct that most of the fashion moguls try to design to suit given cultural groups in the society. The portrayal of women in the different regions represented in the paper is different, based on the encoding or cultural construct of beauty. This indicates major divergence along the cultural orientations. The paper will also seek to include the impact of globalization on the perceptions of beauty. Context Each culture has a certain array of qualities that are cherished in the society as the epitomes of what is beautiful or not. The cultural constructs in each society also state the ultimate measures of beauty (Gonzalez, n.d). In the western world, to be beautiful entails having attractive capacity, ingressive nature, and a kindred spirit that makes one to be nurturing to all people. It also entails the general tendency of maintaining effective relationships with people (Poran, 2002). The script of the femininity and beauty is written in the culture and is knowingly and otherwise transmitted to the future generations by the society’s major players such as the teachers, parents, peers and most recently, the media. Beauty is one of the cultural constructs and it has wide variations from one culture to another. The construct also changes with the exertion of external influences on the culture through interactions between the people (During, 1993). The variations in the social constructs of beauty can be seen in the valuations of twiggy in America in 1960s, scarification of the skin in Africa and the immense value given to the porcelain skin in china. The stated beauty methods lead to immense changes in the outlook of the person, according to the beauty perception of the culture (Willis, 2011). The above variations are the major issues that are used in the definition of fashion. The adverting industry has been able to harness the social constructs of beauty and use them to sell. In the dress making industries, the shorter dresses sell more in the majority of the regions in western world, while in the Asian culture minimal exposure is desired as a measure of beauty (Graydon, 2004). The adverting campaigns in the Asian nations seek to sell products on the premise of porcelain skin. The people that have minimal marks on their faces are deemed to be more attractive than their counterparts. The campaigns reinforce these ideals by use of models that have the same attributes that the society deems to be the ultimate measures of beauty. Cultural constructs of beauty change with time. The change could come from the interactions of different people that have varying cultural backgrounds (Inglis, 1993). This change could also come naturally; when the people feel that they need to change their representations on the ideal measure of beauty. Change of cultural construct on beauty can be seen in the American transitions. In the 1950s, Marylyn Monroe was the ultimate measure of beauty. In this time, being buxom as Marylyn was a desired attribute. The majority of the advertising campaigns reflected this assertion. The models used in the magazines and on the television had similar buxom bodies (Etcoff, 1999). However, the onset of 1960s brought with it a new cultural construct of beauty with the buxom models being replaced by skinny ones. The members of the society came to be conditioned that the skinny models are the ideal ones and women worked very hard to ensure that they attained the skinny bodies that were in agreement with the new cultural construct of beauty (Diana Draelos, 2007). The depiction of beauty in the magazines regardless of the form assumed by the magazine is of absolute importance (Jeffreys, 2005). One of the main ideals that make the magazines in the print form have more appeal to the users is the fact that they are tangible and that they are present in the lives of the readers for a larger part of the month. However, the online magazines have the upside compared to the print magazines in that they are easier to access given that the majority of the magazines are available for free. However, in all the magazines or media, the cultural construct of beauty affects the efficacy of the readers. The pedagogy of reading the print magazines is more than the one for digital magazines. Digital editions are less familiar to the majority of the people. The ability of the print magazines to exist even after the reader has read all the content affects the ability of the readers to maintain some records of the reading. In the case of the fashion issues and the social constructs, the majority of the women have cuttings that they hung in their rooms or attach in a scrapbook. Concept The research on the cultural construct of beauty will be conducted using primary research as well as desk research. Primary research predominantly employed interviews technique. The main reason for using the primary method of research is to obtain primary information that is more recent than the one contained in the secondary research (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2003). Secondary research will be instrumental in the collection and analysis of existing knowledge on beauty in the cultural perspectives; past research will be used as a bench mark. The interviews will be conducted using the telephone as well as face to face interviews. The findings of the research are to be presented using the research report (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007). The proposed practical research outcome is that sex appeal has significant influence on the beauty standards of the three different cultures. The American culture relates beauty with minimal clothing. Skinny women are also currently considered beautiful in American culture. The women should also maintain their hair long, so as to have sex appeal and be considered beautiful. The European culture has historically equated beauty with modest dressing. This is equated with the long and flowing dresses which reach the ankle, as illustrated in the images. However, the current European beauty standards tend to be the same as America’s, with shorter dresses being preferred more. The sex appeal in Asian culture favors minimal exposure, and porcelain skin, as benchmarks for beauty (Bakhtin et al., 1981). American Social Construct European Social Construct Asian Social Construct Rationale The reason for proposing the practical outcome is that beauty means different issues or factors to different people in different cultural settings. Therefore, the sex appeal defines beauty based on the respective culture. Due to globalization, some aspects of beauty can be passed from one culture to another (Duncan, 1988). For example, the sex appeal of skinny women in America was copied by the Europeans in recent years. Historically, European women dressed modestly with long flowing dresses. Given the nature of the research there are some debates on ethical issues that are bound to surface. One of the major issues that could arise would be possibility of ethical and racial profiling. The research looks at the social construct of beauty and its depiction in the media through adverts. This means that the research has a high possibility of affecting the people involved due to the sensitivity of the issue covered. In some cases, the people may have the belief that they are not treated in the same manner with the other respondents. Others could harbor reservations on sharing their perceptions out of fear of judgment (Ashby, 2010). The other ethical issue could be the privacy of the information shared. The interviewees may have reservations when it comes to participating in the research due to the risk of their opinions being traced directly to them. Therefore, the research has to ensure that the information collected from all participants does not have a direct attribution to them. This can be attained through the concealment of the identities of the participants. The researcher ought to reassure the participants that their information will not be analyzed according to their racial and ethnic affiliations. The information contributed also must not be accepted or rejected according to the races of the contributors (Cowen, 2007). Conclusion This research proposal aims at understanding how the media outlets portray the social constructs of beauty in the three regions of America, Europe and Asia. Beauty is normally depicted in terms of sex appeal of women. The sex appeal varies considerably in the three regions due to the different cultural perceptions. Therefore, the cultural constructs of each society illustrates beauty standards. This research process will be conducted through primary methods of interview, and secondary methods of analyzing literary works on the three cultures. Ethical debates are likely to occur in the research process. This is because depicting cultural issues is very sensitive to concerned societies, accurate representation should always prevail. This research process is very important for my professional development. This is because it equips me with theoretical and practical understanding of culture of the three regions; more so, the cultural perceptions of beauty. Bibliography Ashby, L. (2010). The Rising of Popular Culture: A Historiographical Sketch. OAH Magazine of History, 24 (April 2010), 11–14. Bakhtin, M. et al. (1981).The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. London: University of Texas Press. Cowen, T. (2007). For Some Developing Countries, America’s Popular Culture Is Resistible. New York Times, 22 February 2007. Diana, Z. (2007). Perceptions of beauty. Journal of cosmetic dermatology, 6(3), pp.143. Duncan, B. (1988). Mass Media and Popular Culture. Toronto: Harcourt, Brace & Co. During, S. (1993). The Cultural studies reader. 1st ed. London: Routledge. Etcoff, N. (1999). 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