Beauty Will Save the World:

Exploring the Impact of Modernity on Mongolian Female Body and Beauty

Ideals

Presentation by Hedwig Amelia Waters

M.A. Candidate, Free University Berlin, and Fulbright Fellow

February 9, 2012

Project Implementation• 3-4 months participant observation in countryside (in Omnogobi,

Uvurkhangai, Khovsgol aimags)– 3 herder families, 4 aimag center families, 3 sum center families– 16 total interviews, men and women

• City interviews with public personalities, plastic surgery patients, artists, models, ger district residents, students– 15 total interviews, men and women

• Mini-survey with 20 herder residents of Ulaan Uul sum, Coёo bag

• Large survey with 470 students: – 230 in countryside in Sukhbaatar and Hentii aimags– 240 in UB at various universities and one ger-district high school

What Is the Body Beautiful?Beauty and Body Ideals are:

•Symbolic or as an icon of social values

•Economic, social, historical and environmental circumstances = cultural values and ideals = symbolically represented through body and beauty ideals

•Agentic or as mechanisms of power •Asserting identity, aka through sub-cultures

•Genetic

•Smell and Symmetry

Primary site of the social construction and performance of gender

Pre-Socialist (pre-1924) Beauty Concepts

•Secret History of the Mongols:

•Multiple references to either red, fine, comely, beautiful or rosy cheeked women

•William of Rubruck, 1253-55:

•“…the bigger the belly, the fatter she is, and the smaller her nose, a woman [is] considered to be pretty.”

•Dictionary of Customs (Ёс заншлын тайлбар толь) on describing the perfect woman:

•“Her rump is vast and fatty, the middle of her thighs are circumstantial (large) and her wombs ability will be perfect.”

•“…narrow waist and it is good if there are two to three moving rolls (of fat?).”

Pre-Socialist (cont.) • Marco Polo on choosing beautiful women for

Kublai’s court: – “…upon careful inspection of each of

them separately, that is to say, of the hair, the countenance, the eyebrows, the mouth, the lips, and other features, as well as the symmetry of these with each other…” (125).

• Ivan Maisky (1919):– “…one couldn’t tell the difference

between men and women when they were not standing.”

• Most writings focus on facial features (round, red cheeked, eyebrows, small nose), symmetry or plumpness; no mention of height, eye-size, thinness, body shape

Socialist Beauty Ideals (1924-1990)

• Collectivism– Status (reflected through possessions), hardworking

• Internally-Oriented:• Soviet women’s pamplet (1976):

– “A person’s external beauty is based on an impermanent, relative, non-formulaic, changeable definition. A person’s internal beauty will be weighted by hardwork and their deeds.”

• Tserendolgor (Interviewee):– “I never thought about beauty [when younger], I knew I wasn’t beautiful,

but it didn’t matter, because I was hardworking and going to be successful anyway.”

• White-skin Obsession!!!

Socialist Beauty cont.• Idealization of Soviet Women • No models – Actresses were beauty

icons– Beauty Icon (during 40’s and

50’s): “In my time, women only really looked at the face and clothing. It’s not like now. Well-defined eyebrows, red cheeks like fruit…were sung about. A woman with a big face, narrow eyebrows, and red cheeks was esteemed as beautiful.”

– Beauty Icon (during 80’s): “…round faces, complexions white as snow, and a red-cheeked woman was looked at a lot.”

Free-Market (Modernity): Nomadic Beauty (Functionalist Orientation)

• Combination of Soviet and traditional values:– “Beauty will save the world”– Internal, functionalist, collective based = ability to function in the social structure

• Big, rosy-cheeked, round face ideal disappeared in early 90’s:– “When I was growing up people said big, red-cheeks were beautiful; now that’s

only for kids, it’s ugly when you grow up.”• Сайхан сэтгэлтэй. Ажилсаг. Даруухан. Төлөв.

– “Scholarly with books, hard-working, industrious, neat, modest, and a soft disposition.”

• Quotes from Interviews:– Биедее таарсан махтай = meat that fits your body

• “…I think a little bit fatty woman is pretty. When we got married, she was a little larger, like a squirrel, but now she’s gotten thinner after two kids. I don’t like that.”

• On Models: “In my opinion, they are too skinny when they are young, so when they get older they will get sick a lot, have diseases. It’s really bad for them, and I don’t like it, they look like melted candles,” “They are about to break apart.”

Free-Market (Modernity): City Beauty (Status Orientation)

• Melding of traditional/Soviet culture with free-market ideals

• Collectivism plus Consumerism– Why is it important for a woman to

maintain her appearance?:• “For her family,” “So her husband/family

can be proud of her,” “To get a husband quicker,” “To be self-confident,” “To make a good first impression.”

– Continuation of Soviet status object focus but with free-market objects

• External Body Focus– Survey: “168-175 cm tall. Has the right

body shape. Slightly oval face. The mouth, nose, and eyes have the right symmetry (relation to each other). The teeth are straight. Intelligent, and carries herself correctly.”

City Beauty cont.• “The Beauty Myth” – meritocracy

based on appearance and increased sexualization of labor market:

– “In Mongolia it is now a fact that many urban and even highly educated Mongolian women find it difficult to qualify for jobs if they are over 25 years old and not good-looking, i.e. the experience of an increased sexualization of the labour market. Such development generates the tendencies of women to spend their meager resources on jewelry and clothes that signal wealth. This is believed by Mongolians in general to indicate high status and power. It is, however, also associated to the connections and risk-mindedness of the family, especially the father or patriarchal kin” (Benwell, 2006).

• Plastic Surgery/Korean Influence – “Asian Eyes are Ugly”

City Beauty cont.: Influence of Western

Media• Interview Excerpt: I asked Eej how she maintains her appearance:– 0:20:46.7 N: she just takes care of her skin.. and wants it to be nice, wants it to look nicer that's

why she’s using creams and oils and scrubs– 0:20:56.8 H: but did she not do that before TV?– 0:20:59.0 N: (“Did you do this before TV?”)– 0:21:01.5 E: *shakes head*– 0:21:02.6 H: (“really?”)– 0:21:02.8 N: nope– 0:21:03.9 H: ohhh. ok, well, then I have a question, cause TV seems to be important, does she

feel like like she saw my beauty magazines and stuff.. does she sometimes.. does she feel like she tries to look like... that it's important to look like those women on TV or in these magazines

– 0:21:18.4 N: (“You saw the magazines we got, did you feel like, after you saw the pretty women on the pictures or in the magazine that you wanted to look exactly like that? Like now, you wanted to be tall like that, white like that…?”)

– 0:21:32.6 E: (“I mean, really. I see those girls and think, how did they get that thin and tall??? I want to be like that.)

– 0:21:35.9 N: sometimes she thinks, I want to be same tall like her and looks.. sometimes wanna that skinny body

– 0:21:44.3 H: hmm but she didn't think like that TV?– 0:21:47.2 N: (“Did you think like this before you got TV?”)– 0:21:49.4 E: (“No.”)– 0:21:50.6 N: because she didn’t know about women who are from the city.

Body/Beauty Ideal Survey

Included questions regarding eyes, nose, lip, body shape, face shape, body proportion, weight and breast preference; plastic surgery and body confidence; pop culture and

media usage.

Survey Results• Dominant preference for Caucasian features

– 80% preference for Caucasian eyes over Asian (with and without double eyelid)– One difference: Hourglass figure vs. Hips

• Widespread internalization of Caucasian preference in city AND country:

Дотуур тамиртай Self-centeredМуу санаатай Mean-spiritedИх зожиг AsocialУуртай AngryГунигтай SadБухимдуу Upset/NervousХүйтэн хөндий FrostyГанцаардсан   Lonesome/ForlornХайр дутсан Failed at loveӨөрийн хүссэнээр байж чаддаггүй – Can’t do what they wish

Цовоо VivaciousСэргэлэн BrightЗальтай CraftyЦоглог Full-of-LifeДулаан сэтгэлтэй Warm-heartedАвхаалжтай SagaciousШийдэмгий DeterminedУхаалаг IntelligentХайраар дутаагүй Wins at loveТөлөв Decent/Measured

Survey Results

cont.• Original Study: Fallon & Rozin, 1985• Replications: U.S., Australia, Britain,

Taiwan, Egypt, Fiji• Mongolian women consistently guessed

wrong– Distortion bigger in city

• Men’s body preferences did not change between city and country suggesting that they are little affected by changes in body ideals in media

• Unique to Mongolian context: Women thought men wanted thinner than what they themselves wanted

– Could possibly point to large internalization and awareness of the expectations of others

W Estimate = Body type women estimated men prefer

W Ideal = Body type women prefer M Attractive = Body type men prefer

On a more positive note…•American female body image has been plummeting the last 30 years: “Measures assessing body image and statistics vary from study to study (with findings ranging from 24% to 90% of girls dissatisfied with their bodies)… however reports seem to indicate that at least half of girls report dissatisfaction with their bodies by mid-adolescence” (Levesque, Robert. “Encyclopedia of Adolescence.” pg. 311)

•Reacting to the question, “Do you think you are beautiful?”:

•Over 65 percent of all groups said “Yes”

•However, body image dissatisfaction higher in city

Location

City Country

0102030405060708090

100

N

25.2%

8.4%

66.4%

15.2% 12.5%

72.3%

Female

0102030405060708090

100

N

20.8%8.3%

70.8%

8.6% 11.4%

80.0%

Male

Gender

M N Y

Self-Perception

M N Y

Self-Perception

Chart

Conclusions• Modern Mongolian beauty ideals are a hodgepodge of traditional, soviet and free-

market ideology• Many of the physical body ideals that existed during the pre-Soviet and Soviet eras

have diminished or disappeared completely in the last 20 years– These ideals have been replaced by imported ones – big eyes, long legs,

thinness, oval face – due to Westernization of media and influx of Korean influence

• Many herders are not affected greatly by modern consumption ideals because they do not internalize it

• Largely, Mongolians still – as a result of traditional culture – aren’t overly focused on external body appearance – beauty is largely internal

• However, the increased sexualization of the labor market (as a result of changing gender norms and changing economy) causes city women in UB to be very image focused

• The media has a huge effect on the increase of sexualization/feminization and external body focus on modern Mongolian women

• As more people gain in wealth and as traditional cultural hold decreases, body image insecurities and external body focus will increase

The End!