{"id":830,"date":"2012-03-23T22:04:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T22:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/areasontosmile\/?p=830"},"modified":"2012-03-23T22:04:42","modified_gmt":"2012-03-23T22:04:42","slug":"qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Why is white skin believed to be so beautiful?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Is beauty really only skin deep? Well...kind of!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(Unedited) question submitted via Formspring<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is white so beautiful? Soap Operas all over the world only show the light-skinned people. Asian countries have surgeries and accessories to widen eyelids. Light-skinned artists are admired as the most beautiful ones (Beyonce, Drake, Chris Brown, JLo).\u201d<\/p>\n

This was one of the questions we discussed in depth in a recent episode of Rise UP with B. Dave Walters<\/a>, along with:<\/p>\n

NEW BEGINNINGS<\/span><\/strong>! Setting goals, being too picky, dealing with racism, ‘real’ vampires, werewolves, witches, and magic; the Dalai Lama vs the Pope and much, much, more!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to listen<\/a><\/p>\n

So, for this question: like anything, some people have a preference for white or fair skin, and some don\u2019t. \u00a0\u00a0Although it is hard to argue with that on a cultural level, lighter skin has always been perceived as \u2018more\u2019 beautiful.<\/p>\n

So, why is that?<\/p>\n

Many people believe it\u2019s just plain institutional racism, inherited from centuries of \u2018white oppression\u2019.\u00a0 And while that is certainly a part of it (maybe a big<\/em> part), it is actually not where the idea came from originally.<\/p>\n

In the past, very pale skin was a status symbol for one main reason: if you had very pale skin, it meant you could afford to stay inside out of the sun every day, instead of working for a living like everyone else! \u00a0\u00a0This is the exact same reason that being massively overweight was perceived as beautiful in ancient Greece; it proved that you had the resources to get<\/em> massively overweight.<\/p>\n

In both cases, your wealth and status was literally written all over you.<\/p>\n

Over time, as Imperialism spread across the world, fair skin became a status symbol for a different reason.\u00a0 Most European nations put a big emphasis on bloodline and ancestry, so being a fair-skinned minority \u2018proved\u2019 you could claim a portion of that heritage for yourself; since your fair skin meant you had a white parent or grandparent.\u00a0 And like any oppressed people, after a certain point, being able to show you were somehow like your oppressors became preferable.<\/p>\n

Among slave and former slave populations in the US, this peaked with someone who could \u2018pass\u2019 for white, like Vin Diesel or Slash from Guns \u2018n\u2019 Roses, both of which are bi-racial.<\/p>\n

Although there has always been a heavy cultural component of what we perceive as beautiful, we almost all have a universal appreciate for proportion<\/em>.\u00a0 Certain ratios of the eyes to the mouth, the length and width of the face, and some other factors are almost always perceived by human beings as pleasing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is no problem with a certain image being the mass media\u2019s idea of \u2018beautiful\u2019, unless you start to feel bad about yourself because you are not<\/em> that.\u00a0 Unfortunately, making you feel bad about yourself fuels multi-billion dollar hair, makeup, clothing, and fitness industries.\u00a0 \u00a0But, if it makes you feel any better, it has long been rumored that your average Playboy centerfold photo shoot takes between 50 and 70 THOUSAND photos of which they pick roughly 8-10 to put in the magazine.\u00a0 That is before airbrushing and photoshopping, and it also doesn\u2019t take into account implants, hair extensions, and who knows what else.<\/p>\n

So when you hear people complain that those women don\u2019t really exist\u2026in many ways they don\u2019t!<\/p>\n

What do you think ? Feel free to comment down below!<\/p>\n

You are great, and I love you!<\/p>\n

And if you love me back, click ‘share’ up at the top!<\/p>\n

B. Dave Walters<\/p>\n

Writer, Life Coach, and Talk Radio Host<\/p>\n

Find out more about me:
\nhttp:\/\/about.me\/BDaveWalters<\/a><\/p>\n

Ask me anything:
\nhttp:\/\/formspring.me\/BDaveWalters<\/a><\/p>\n

Pages I support:
\nJesus and Buddha\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0— Interfaith dialog<\/p>\n

Gnostic Theism<\/a>\u00a0— Religion and Spirituality for the 21st Century (Join the Movement!)<\/p>\n

Love One Another<\/a>\u00a0— \u00a0A group for the coolest Spiritual people on the Internet!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Unedited) question submitted via Formspring: \u201cWhy is white so beautiful? Soap Operas all over the world only show the light-skinned people. Asian countries have surgeries and accessories to widen eyelids. Light-skinned artists are admired as the most beautiful ones (Beyonce, Drake, Chris Brown, JLo).\u201d This was one of the questions we discussed in depth in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":450,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,80,39,86,35,114,29,81,38,46,88,28,41,78],"tags":[3,34,13,12,54,11,36,14,22,23,26,25,51,24,5,42,56,32],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emotions-2","category-family","category-fear","category-fitness","category-getting-over-it","category-guilt","category-happiness","category-healing","category-hope-inspiration","category-love-yourself","category-mind","category-peace","category-positive-thinking","category-worry","tag-b-dave-walters","tag-breakthroughs","tag-change","tag-emotions","tag-getting-married","tag-gnostic-theism","tag-hope","tag-life-coach","tag-los-angeles","tag-love","tag-peacelovemoney-com","tag-psychology","tag-rejection","tag-relationships","tag-rise-up","tag-self-talk","tag-stress","tag-who-are-you"],"yoast_head":"\nQ&A: Why is white skin believed to be so beautiful? - A Reason to Smile<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Q&A: Why is white skin believed to be so beautiful? - A Reason to Smile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Unedited) question submitted via Formspring: \u201cWhy is white so beautiful? Soap Operas all over the world only show the light-skinned people. Asian countries have surgeries and accessories to widen eyelids. Light-skinned artists are admired as the most beautiful ones (Beyonce, Drake, Chris Brown, JLo).\u201d This was one of the questions we discussed in depth in…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Reason to Smile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-23T22:04:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/areasontosmile\/files\/2012\/03\/article-1236636-07A3E78A000005DC-775_468x288-300x184.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"B. Dave Walters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Q&A: Why is white skin believed to be so beautiful? - A Reason to Smile","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Q&A: Why is white skin believed to be so beautiful? - A Reason to Smile","og_description":"(Unedited) question submitted via Formspring: \u201cWhy is white so beautiful? Soap Operas all over the world only show the light-skinned people. Asian countries have surgeries and accessories to widen eyelids. Light-skinned artists are admired as the most beautiful ones (Beyonce, Drake, Chris Brown, JLo).\u201d This was one of the questions we discussed in depth in…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html","og_site_name":"A Reason to Smile","article_published_time":"2012-03-23T22:04:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/areasontosmile\/files\/2012\/03\/article-1236636-07A3E78A000005DC-775_468x288-300x184.jpg"}],"author":"B. Dave Walters","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html","name":"Q&A: Why is white skin believed to be so beautiful? - A Reason to Smile","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/areasontosmile\/files\/2012\/03\/article-1236636-07A3E78A000005DC-775_468x288-300x184.jpg","datePublished":"2012-03-23T22:04:42+00:00","dateModified":"2012-03-23T22:04:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/#\/schema\/person\/bcf42d892eff535aad3a062b7d9534c9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/areasontosmile\/files\/2012\/03\/article-1236636-07A3E78A000005DC-775_468x288-300x184.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/areasontosmile\/files\/2012\/03\/article-1236636-07A3E78A000005DC-775_468x288-300x184.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2012\/03\/qa-why-is-white-skin-believed-to-be-so-beautiful.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Q&A: Why is white skin believed to be so beautiful?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/","name":"A Reason to Smile","description":"Beliefnet Voices - B. Dave Walters","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/#\/schema\/person\/bcf42d892eff535aad3a062b7d9534c9","name":"B. Dave Walters","description":"B. Dave Walters is like a mix between Joel Osteen, Tony Robbins, and the Old Spice Guy. He is the winner of the \"Be the Next Beleifnet Featured Blogger\" contest for Beliefnet.com in the Hope & Inspiration category. He is also the host of Rise UP with B. Dave Walters on Party 93.4 FM out of Hudson Valley, New York, as well as a nationally syndicated columnist on the topics of spirituality and relationships for the Examiner.com. He is the author of one book, \"49 Lost Secrets of Peace, Love, and Money\". For years, friends and relatives looked to him for guidance and support during difficult times, and he realized at an early age that his purpose in life was to serve and inspire. While touring as a personal coach with a prominent rock band, he was discovered by one of the top trainers of the Anthony Robbins companies, which lead to him settling down to open and operate a Marketing, Business Services and Coaching firm in Los Angeles. Armed with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, he brings the same discipline and determination that helped him earn Black Belt rankings in Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi to all areas of study and focus. In addition to earning a degree in English from Morehouse College, he has mastered the science of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and other communication, healing, counseling and spiritual systems from all over the world. He brings his empathy, insight, and vast personal experience into all his relationships, which has lead to him being one of the most sought after Coaches in the world today. He lives in Burbank, California with his wife and two daughters.","sameAs":["http:\/\/about.me\/bdavewalters"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/author\/dwalters"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/450"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}