Reference no: EM133436827

Question: One theme in Unit 6 is the beauty standards in South America and their negative effects of it. This includes how deeply embedded marianismo is, which is the idea that women must follow gender norms that are most appropriate for them, including their image and their relationships with others. One country that was discussed was Venezuela, a country that is recognized as the country with the most beautiful women, having a high record of winning pageants. This is explained in "Venezuelan Femininity: The Painful Embodiment of Beauty" by Michelle Roche, where they discuss how due to their importance of beauty, causes physical, political, and economic restraints on women, with beauty and personal care being one of the biggest markets in Venezuela, and thousands of aesthetical surgeries being produced each month to follow Western Beauty standards. This is also reinforced in the video "Perfect: A Conversation with the Venezuelan Middle Class about Female Beauty and Breast Implants" by Alexandra Hilgado, where many women in the country are getting breast implants as early as 16 years old, despite them knowing the costs and consequences of these surgeries to have bodies that fit into the beauty standards. However, these strategies must not be exaggerated, and they seemed as natural so that people do not question that it is surgery. Even the men speaking badly about plastic surgeries admit to enjoying Venezuelan body standards, including big chests and big behinds while having slim bodies. In the end, despite the high levels of social, economic, and emotional damage their body standards affect women, they continue to be a large part of Venezuela's culture. This begs the question of why women continue to follow these beauty standards despite recognizing the negative consequences of it.