10 Beauty Standards From Around the World That Prove Beauty Isn’t One Thing

Throughout the centuries, the meaning and expectations of beauty have changed massively and keep on changing all the time. Weight, body figure, brows, hair and complexion are some of the things that people’s view on keeps changing. And of course, the country you live in plays a massive role in your personal opinion, since not all countries have the same beauty standards.

1. India

According to the poll, the most attractive men in India are actors Shah Rukh Khan (Don 2), Aamir Khan (Like Stars on Earth), and Hrithik Roshan (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara). Even though Shah Rukh Khan took first place, he actually opened up, saying that he has been called “ugly and unconventional” in the past.

Indian standards are pretty close to American: tall, muscular man, who have clear skin and a full head of hair.

2. Ireland

A typical Irish woman usually has thick eyebrows, fair skin, and thin lips. But their most common features are a large forehead, green eyes, lots of freckles, and red hair. As the Irish people always stand for natural beauty, they highly appreciate all these traits in women.

3. Japan

In most Western countries, a perfect smile is usually associated with beauty, but for Japan things work in the opposite way. In this country, young women are heading to dental clinics to make their teeth look crooked and multilayered. This semi-vampire look, or yaeba, is actually considered cute there, as the Japanese believe that it’s a symbol of natural beauty and youth.

4. Philippines

The most attractive men in the Philippines have been noted as Josh Cullen Santos from the boy group SB19 and the actor Alden Richards (Imagine You & Me).

The beauty standard in the Philippines has shifted and instead of looking macho, the men care about their appearance a lot and go for a more beautiful look, so they go to salons to get facials. Other standards include having dark hair and being at least 5’9″.

5. South Korea

The idea of a perfect woman in South Korea is defined by flawless white skin, a pointed nose, a small face, and large eyes. But the most important thing is the shape of the face — it should resemble a heart, with a narrow chin and should get wider at the top. To achieve this ideal, lots of Korean women spend hundreds of dollars on plastic surgeries.

6. Mexico

Mexicans go for a more “macho” look, which means being extremely masculine, as opposed to South Korea which prefers a more androgynous look. The list of the most attractive men includes actors Diego Boneta (Luis Miguel) and Ryan Guzman (9-1-1) in the first 2 spots.

7. Tajikistan

In Tajikistan, bushy eyebrows, that are merged above the bridge of the nose, have long been considered the standard of beauty in women. Some time ago, there was even a common superstition — the closer your eyebrows are to each other, the closer your husband will be to you. Besides that, it’s considered a symbol of purity and innocence in women.

Although today, things are changing, you still can find a lot of Tajik women with a unibrow. And even those who’ve missed out on the unibrow gene try to fake it and use herbs to grow the necessary hairs or draw the brows on themselves to look prettier.

8. Saudi Arabia

The eyes are the mirror of a person’s soul — Saudi Arabian women give another meaning to this old saying. To make the eyes more attractive, they use all kinds of makeup and tools and spend huge amounts of money on them.

9. New Zealand

In New Zealand, tattoos are not only used to decorate skin, but the indigenous people, the Maori, use a tattoo technique called ta moko to make a kind of ID card in black and dark blue patterns right on the face of a person. Maori women traditionally tattoo themselves on the chin during adolescence and try to make their tattoos as neat and detailed as possible in order to show their social status.

When another person of the tribe looks at this tattoo, they can easily “read” the entire story of its bearer and estimate how beautiful a woman is.

10. The Netherlands

The Netherlands is considered to be a country that has the tallest people in the world, with the average height of a woman being 5’7″ (around 170 cm), and 6’0″ (around 183 cm) for men. Dutch women seek a male partner that is taller than them.

TV presenter Arie Boomsma and actor Michiel Huisman have been named 2 of the most attractive Dutch men, and their heights match up the beauty standard: Boomsma is 6’5 (around 198 cm), while Peelen is 6’1 (around 185 cm). Notably, both men are also muscular and have facial hair.

Where are you from and what are the preferred beauty standards amongst people there?