I know that in both Japan and South Korea, there is constant pressure on looking good from the surface, in terms of appearance, in most media, keeps presenting actors or celebs in such stunning appearances to the point it looks photoshopped but it isn’t, since that is the extent to how much they use makeup.

Even school girls from a young age in JP & KR become victims of bullying for their ***skin color***, despite ALL of them having the same skin tone, it comes to the fact they literally praise European white skin more than those who are darker as in their eyes is considered acceptable. It also does not help that pharmacies, makeup shops, and department stores sell foundation or skin care products that are brighter than their own skin tone, it’s commonplace to find such products in both countries.

That also applies to the fact how social media like TikTok, not forgetting to add TV and movies including celeb endorsement in both countries to be considered as “beautiful” such as:

* [Fixation on pale skin](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E7%BE%8E%E7%99%BD%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiq4tbK99P-AhVsGVkFHfteDIMQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=%E7%BE%8E%E7%99%BD&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgAMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDoHCAAQExCABDoICAAQBRAeEBM6BwgAEAQQgARQgQVYlTRg5T5oAnAAeAGAAakDiAGNHJIBBzItOS4yLjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ7ABAMABAQ&sclient=img&ei=fZdPZOqvOuyy5NoP-72xmAg&bih=797&biw=1536&client=firefox-b-d) (Nordic white)
* Slender body – no slight ounce of fat (< 45kg)
* Innocent looking
* Weight loss ad propaganda – Diet pills, gel pads, starvation till (anorexic)
* Designer brand clothes and jewelry
* Use of eye contact and makeup
* Waistline no wider than the short length of an [A4 piece of paper](https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/1d2/cb6/9aa736b0d8fa64acfb2486d7c4aea43450-17-weibo-paper-waist.rvertical.w330.jpg)
* Plastic surgery – cosmetic reasons
* Insecurity about their own body image
* Plenty of times so many of them use apps like Facetune or Photoshop

Do Latvian women find East Asian beauty standards toxic? In hindsight, how is beauty presented towards women in Latvia through social media (telegram, instagram, twitter, YT), movies, celeb or model endorsements, makeup vids, weight loss ads and etc?

11 comments

  1. we like healthy woman, not fat but also not a bag of bones. also man usually prefer if a girl is natural, no plastic operations on her cheeks, lips and stuff.
    make up is not mandotory but mostly man like a light makeup and mostly hate if a girl has a tonn of it and feels insecure without it.

  2. Korean skincare trends are popular among Latvian women. Who doesn’t like flawless skin, so in that regard, yeah, we (mostly) adhere to Korean skincare standards.

    As for other aspects, gotta agree that most men like athletic women, think, volleyball players. Fit, but not bulky. Well, to be fair l, most women wouldn’t mind having that type of built.

    Otherwise, main goal of course is to have that effortlessly feminine look, but to different people that will mean different things. Some would say that certain fake lashes are still fine, some would say certain amount of filler is OK, but this will differ from person to person.

  3. In Latvia it’s not that strict because we, latvian guys, love natural girls with minimal makeup and without expressive visual accents. We dont have such crazy beauty standarts as in JPN .But we do have some individuals who have this condition called “body dysmophia” and it shows on their lips, they do injections and usually have long gelish nails. These 2 things come from slavic influence in my opinion. Also the “ego queen” attitude comes from russian divas who in reality are just uneducated escort type gold diggers.

  4. I cannot represent a nation as a whole, am just an individual, but I steer clear from girls that invest in their perceived appearances too much. Our girls are beautiful without that shit imo and nothing scares me off more than overuse of cosmetics. I prefer persona over the facade any day of the week. And this is highly unhealthy in my books. The more you invest in your appearances, the shallower you are as a person.

    Ethnic russian girls stand out way more as they like to cripple themselves with that botox injections, plastic surgeries and whatnot, ewww, fucking monsters.

  6. Only speaking from my experience as a male teen who is sometimes a shut-in :(, but here’s what I got:

    > starvation till (anorexic)

    My good sir, this shit was POPULAR(or i am exaggerating but this had a foothold) among youth, especially girls that were teenagers or young adults to the point that government-funded institutions kicked in along with national television talking about it! Here are some clips from those guys discouraging this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhBp2jAqJeM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPOs78woKKA https://anoreksija.lv

    I am probably exaggerating but everyone at that time FREAKED OUT about it, especially parents and nowdays this practice is (hopefully) discouraged with educational institutions teaching this while parents are immediately aroused by suspicion on any sign of eating practices that are outside norms of eating, but all of this is from my experience at least.

  7. `Do Latvian women find East Asian beauty standards toxic?`

    Yes, these standards sound unrealistic and toxic. The situation in this regard was worse during 1990s-2000s, when many a teenage magazine advertised unrealistic and unhealthy diets.

    `In hindsight, how is beauty presented towards women in Latvia through social media (telegram, instagram, twitter, YT), movies, celeb or model endorsements, makeup vids, weight loss ads and etc?`

    There is a huge difference between instagram that is more beauty oriented and therefore more geared towards such content. Latvian twitter is quite liberal, with a strong left-leaning user base and you are much more likely to find feminist views there.

    Skin whitening products are not very popular here, because being slightly tan is the beauty standard here, but using of tanning salons is discouraged because of the skin cancer probability.

    The advertisement of doctor-prescribed medicaments is forbidden. The advertisement of dietary supplements is strongly regulated, and there are no legal dietary supplements that could legally make weight-loss claims. I have read rumours about amphetamine-like substances being illegally imported, but that is not a large-scale problem.

  8. i think in our country, the beauty standard is the basic Instagram influencer face. tan skin, curvy body, long hair, etc. what I find most funny is that in my life, quite many latvian men have made fun of me because I liked to dress and look feminine.

  9. From a woman’s perspective – I don’t think we have anything particularly different presented to women when it comes to beauty standards compared to other western countries. I wouldn’t say that women are denied opportunities based on their appearance or are severely discriminated against either. The main thing I notice is that it feels like the pressure regarding beauty standards is coming from women themselves. A lot of comments are not directed against anyone else in particular or women in general, but women of all ages openly talk about their own appearance and weight in a very critical way. I have noticed this in all age groups many times women can’t even go eat lunch together without someone bringing up their current diet or how they can’t afford to get a dessert or something like that. And growing up as a teenager and seeing grown women being so critical of themselves is quite damaging and it seems like an endless cycle of learned behavior. Why are these women so critical of themselves? Probably just the western media in general, rather than things specific to Latvia itself.

  10. Hell, shaming is Nr.1, beauty care business. Latvia or not watch America and LGBTQ+ ad. One people stopped buying beer, they went with original horse cowboy rancho vibe. Women! If you want to stop this shaming scam, vote with your wallet. That’s it! And beauty standards are different in each person…

  11. It might be just my subjective experience, but I feel like the beauty standards in Latvia are relatively inclusive. There is a preference for slimmer body types, but other criteria, like height, skin tone or hair color are not the basis for beauty here.
    I just heard a comedian from China in a podcast talk about how her mom and other relatives told her that her skin is so dark and ugly, that no one will marry her. The other girl was from Philippines and talked about how she was bullied in school for her lips being too big. Both of them were stunning! It just made glad that in Latvia you can be many kinds of beautiful.

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