Japanese Beauty Standards
Japan’s conception of female beauty has been heavily influenced by western culture and media. A thin figure (see Female Body Image and Character Design), silky hair, and large eyes with double eyelids are viewed as attractive, as is pale skin. Many beauty trends such as hair dyeing, plastic surgery, and circle lenses are methods in which women have attempted to make themselves closer to the ideal woman. For example, a Japanese woman going by the name Vanilla Chamu spent hundreds of thousands of dollars undergoing surgical procedures in order to transform herself from an Asian woman into a Barbie Doll.
Double eyelid surgery is incredibly popular in all of Asia because people believe that achieving that subtle extra fold will increase how large their eyes appear, making them more beautiful. Many products are sold in Japan such as eyelid tape or eyelid glue that help give people the appearance of having double eyelids, but this is only a temporary solution. The only permanent fix is surgery. The video below shows how to achieve different double eyelid looks for people with monolids using eyelid glue.
Double eyelid surgery is incredibly popular in all of Asia because people believe that achieving that subtle extra fold will increase how large their eyes appear, making them more beautiful. Many products are sold in Japan such as eyelid tape or eyelid glue that help give people the appearance of having double eyelids, but this is only a temporary solution. The only permanent fix is surgery. The video below shows how to achieve different double eyelid looks for people with monolids using eyelid glue.
Standards of Beauty in Manga
In manga, female manga characters are hyper-critical of themselves and aspire to change their physical traits and behaviors in order to attract men. When entire genres such as the shōjo genre, which is directed at teen girls, are based on women being unhappy with who they are and subservient to male interests, it reveals that men are the people creating the standards at which women are held. They are the ones who are able to delineate which behaviors are acceptable and which are not. Here are a few of the physical traits the majority of female characters who are deemed beautiful possess.
- Colorful Eyes
- Many bishojo, or beautiful girls, are shown having colorful and large irises as opposed to the darker ones Asian people usually possess. It is interesting to note that manga and anime characters usually have double eyelids with lush eyelashes as opposed to single eyelids, which may add to their attractiveness. There are many tropes surrounding eyes, including “Beady Eyed Loser,” which describes a character with small irises. These characters are uncoordinated and air-headed. While they may be cute, they are not seen as particularly attractive.
- Femininity and Fragility
- Femininity and fragility are two attributes expected of women that go hand in hand. The main character of Koukou Debut!, Haruna, is made fun of for her athleticism and strength due to years of playing softball. In fact, her love interest, Yoh, says, “Girls don’t need muscles!” after seeing her muscled legs. Hence are two main aspects of being a woman in Japanese culture and men find these attributes the very appealing.
- Petite Women
- Petite women are seen as adorable and attractive as well due to their pure, child-like statures. It appears that the more moe a manga character is, the more men they attract, and the same is for women in real like as well. For example, Hagumi Hanamoto from Honey and Clover is 18 years old at the start of the series and in art college yet is so small that people mistake her for a child. To add to her youthful image, she has long, blonde hair which she occasionally wears in buns. Two of the main male characters, Yūta Takemoto and Shinobu Morita, fall in love with her immediately due to her physical appearance, as well as her artistic abilities. Yūta in particular likens her to a koropokkuru, or a race of very short people depicted in Ainu (an indigenous people from Northern Japan) folktales. Koropokkuru are so small that they are normally shown standing under leaves or holding leaves over their heads. In any case, Hagu’s fragility is attractive because it brings out the urge to protect her from the male characters. Because this is a widespread preference, the fact that men prefer smaller, more delicate women is logical because it reaffirms their positions of control within society.