On my ten hour flight from San Francisco to Tokyo I had the luxury of watching a Vice News feature on Japan's plastic surgery industry. Notably, girl-children as young as seven going under the knife for non-essential procedures. The feature does not pass explicit judgement on their subjects but rather the narrative of it guides the viewer in. A mother and her young daughter have a plastic surgery themed vlogging channel. The mother assures the journalist, Hanako Montgomery, that having a double eyelid surgery will open opportunities for her daughter. She draws back to her own experiences of feeling inadequate and wants to make sure her daughter is confident in her physical appearance. We see another woman who has undergone dozens of plastic surgery procedures due to low self esteem from childhood.
As a side note: I noticed the same thing with the flight attendants when I was on an ANA flight to Japan recently. As it turns out that while there is no official age restriction anymore, very few work at a Japanese airline past the age of 30. On my flight back with Lufthansa there were many 40+ flight attendants, Japanese staff included.
Huhm, I hadn't thought of it as a form of privilege, but I suppose it is.
On the other hand - while there has always been a double standard, I would contend the casualization of the work world really got supercharged when Steve Jobs asserted his ability to do the jeans & turtleneck combo, and subsequently basically every founder out here went casual very quickly, and let their staff do the same.
Prior to that - well, there was a 'male' beauty standard too. It was your suit, or khakis/collared shirt, or work uniform, and it's really only in the last 10-20 years that standard has begun changing rapidly.
So in that sense, I feel the rejection of Beauty Queening among the powerful women is what is paving the way for the less powerful to be able to do the same, because they can rightfully go 'It's good enough for <respectable person>, so why isn't it good enough for me?'
But it will be much faster if-when we have much more gender equity
As a side note: I noticed the same thing with the flight attendants when I was on an ANA flight to Japan recently. As it turns out that while there is no official age restriction anymore, very few work at a Japanese airline past the age of 30. On my flight back with Lufthansa there were many 40+ flight attendants, Japanese staff included.
Huhm, I hadn't thought of it as a form of privilege, but I suppose it is.
On the other hand - while there has always been a double standard, I would contend the casualization of the work world really got supercharged when Steve Jobs asserted his ability to do the jeans & turtleneck combo, and subsequently basically every founder out here went casual very quickly, and let their staff do the same.
Prior to that - well, there was a 'male' beauty standard too. It was your suit, or khakis/collared shirt, or work uniform, and it's really only in the last 10-20 years that standard has begun changing rapidly.
So in that sense, I feel the rejection of Beauty Queening among the powerful women is what is paving the way for the less powerful to be able to do the same, because they can rightfully go 'It's good enough for <respectable person>, so why isn't it good enough for me?'
But it will be much faster if-when we have much more gender equity