Suu-ay Mak! Thai Standards of Beauty from a Farang Perspective.

      I am told I am beautiful (Suu-ay in thai) on a daily basis here. Sometimes, depending on my activities, there is a deluge of compliments. The motorcycle taxi driver gang just outside my apartment, women sitting next to me on the bus, the lady I buy my grilled banana breakfast from, students in the Biology department at Mahidol; all of them exclaim how beautiful I am whenever I encounter them. It is a little odd.  At first I thought it was just a form of simple flattery for farang. Perhaps they assumed it was one of the only thai words that I was familiar with and they wanted to be kind or, more insidiously for those peddling goods, that they wanted my business. Now I realize that not only is it genuine but it comes from a deeply-engrained and complicated set of beauty standards. 

      First of all, there is the issue of skin hue. A short stroll through any beauty department will reveal an overwhelming number of skin bleaching products for both men and women. There is eye cream, face cleanser, body wash, deodorant, foot creme, face masks, body scrubs, and bar soap.  In fact, finding any of these items without skin whiteners or brighteners is basically impossible. Even imported brands have added ingredients. (Good thing I brought enough BMe, Jason Organics, LUSH, and Burt’s Bees to ration out until someone comes to visit!) I am whiter than white and I suspect that the use of any sort of whitening agent would take my skin from beyond-fair to translucent. I love my pale skin but I also like having enough color so I am not confused with a corpse. But Thai people? They buy and use these products on a daily basis. Pale skin is a sign of beauty, wealth, and a high-class background. Women especially are subject to light skin standards. They carry umbrellas on sunny days, wear long sleeve shirts, and spend obscene amounts of money on lotions, potions, and spa treatments to turn their almond hued skin porcelain white.

Portion of the the "Beauty" aisle in Big C. All whitening. 

      Think about the American obsession with tanning beds, sunless tanner, and sun-bathing. Women in the States spend obscene amounts of money and time to risk melanoma and future wrinkles in order achieve the ideal sun-kissed look. Precisely the opposite of the Thai ideal... In fact, while my fair skin earns me compliments here, I cannot count the number of times someone has made a snide comment about how pale or sickly I look in the States. People have joked about how they are ‘blinded’ by my whiteness or commented that I would look so much more attractive with a bit of a tan. 

      I want to be clear that both standards are harmful, obsessive, and generally ridiculous. Both endanger a person’s physical health and mental well being. Both suck ludicrous amounts of money from the pockets of people who buy into advertisement campaigns, lifestyle ideals, and beauty standards that fail to accommodate the natural variety of human skin pigment. On one level, I am more than a little disgusted by both of them. On another level, I feel sorry for anyone, Thai or American, who feels as though they have to alter their appearance in order to be considered beautiful. I say screw them all and own what you have. Easier said than done, I realize, but if more people adopted this attitude it would wear on the rigidity of these standards. 

      Secondly, Thais regard European facial features as highly desirable. Most actresses and pop-stars that appear on television, in movies, on print ads, and on billboards look far more Western than Thai. And most Thai women see their own shallow-broad noses, pronounced lips, and almond shaped eyes as ugly and, instead, aspire to the pointy noses, thin-flat lips, and rounded eyes that characterize a European face. Just as American women flock to plastic surgeons for lip plumps and rhinoplasties to confound their European heritage, affluent Thai women undergo blepharoplasties and lip reductions to appear more Western. It fits the overused cliche that one always wants what they don’t have. 

      Keeping all this in mind, it is difficult for me to accept a ‘You’re so beautiful’ compliment without listening between the lines to hear an ‘I’m so ugly’ self-assessment... particularly when I am complimented by women. It bothers me and I try, as much as possible, to return the compliment using specific examples of why I think they are beautiful. Sometimes it works, most times they just brush it off and say that they are not pretty in comparison. In reality, even the most ordinary Thai woman is breathtakingly beautiful. The Western standard is deeply engrained as the way to be attractive... most of these ideals are the result of Americanization of media and advertisements. I could be politically correct and say “Globalization” but that is simply not a genuine representation of what is going on here. It is American T.V. shows, movie-stars, advertisements, and products that have, for the most part, resulted in this push toward Westernized beauty. Shame on the advertising and telecommunication companies who have allowed this to happen.