On Bodily Aesthetics

Happy Thanksgiving to you all who are in places where Thanksgiving is celebrated, or wish you were. For T-day this year, a restaurant known as "The Great American Rib Company" is putting on a proper Thanksgiving dinner, buffet-style, for 600 Baht (about $15). That's a rather spendy meal over here, but it will be good to have a proper thanksgiving feast - sure beats the two T-days I spent in Japan, where since I was working each time, Subway was the only place I could find that even had Turkey...

We are officially in cool season now here in mainland SE Asia. It's very comfortable - highs of about 30 C (high 80's for you farenheit lovers out there,) with lows around 22 - 23 (Low 70's), and since it's drier, not nearly as humid. But it's hillarious watching the locals react to this change in weather - everyone goes around wearing sweaters and sweatshirts, and I even see people shivering. Lots of people get colds, reacting to this change in weather. Some of my students have asked me if I can handle this cold weather. I just laugh and say, "you don't even know cold," and tell them how much it snowed back in Dakota last month already.

And now, to the title of this posting. It's very interesting to see how the ideas of what beauty is differ in different places and cultures. Most Thai people have a rather dark skin tone, the type of skin tone that people back in the US and elsewhere spend hour after hour and dollar after dollar in tanning beds and rubbing on tan accelerator to acheive. Most caucasian women would be jealous of the women here for this reason. However, Thai women want a completely different thing - they want the fairest skin possible. When you see models in Thai ads, they have porcelain skin. If you go into any drug store, you see aisles full of various products with skin-whitening agents in them. It's hard to find sunscreen less than SPF 50. When you see Thai women on the beach, they try to cover up as much as possible to keep from gettting any darker. It kind of makes me wonder if I could set up some sort of melanin exchange program, where I could pair up Thai and other SE Asian and western women and they could swap the chemicals that give them their skin tones. That would be a sure way to make some serious money...

Another area where the two cultures seem to differ in bodily aesthetics is in the perceived ideal body shape. Much like in the US and other western places, women want to be thin here. However, the type of thin look they are going for is much different. Whereas in the US, if one goes to a health club or other fitness facility, the number of people working out from both genders is nearly equal, if not even skewed toward more women than men, here you see few women jogging or biking or doing any sort of fitness activity. Instead, the 'skip a meal each day' approach seems to be popular here, as the toothpick-thin figure is favored in this society. It seems that in the US, the athletic look has gained popularity. Rather interesting...

Hard to believe that the Vikings have won three in a row. And whatever happens, this season has not been a waste, because at least we've swept the Packers. The Badgers did their customary late-season choke job. Mighty disappointing, although if I could see any other Big Ten team succeed and smile about it, it would be Joe Pa and Penn State. Hail progress!