Afro-Occidental Beauty; A Study On The Portrayal, Perception And Effects Of Beauty Among The Youth, A Kenyan Case Study [before doctoral defense]

Kivonat, rövid leírás

Beauty standards vary across different cultures. In western cultures thinness among females is considered attractive while in Africa fatness was a sign of fertility, health and wealth (Kaziga et al. 2021; Frederick, Forbes & Berezovyaskaya, 2008). Western beauty also known as Occidental beauty is characterized by a thin and toned woman who has a symmetrical face, a thin nose, full lips and high cheek bones (Tolentino, 2019). On the other hand, African beauty also known as Afrocentric beauty is characterized by a woman that has wide hips, small waist, big buttocks, dark skinned, short hair, big legs, long arms, slender fingers and decently dressed (Kaziga et al. 2021). Beauty standards continue to change and are influenced by urbanization, globalization, changes in socioeconomic status, popular culture, education and exposure to broadcast media and social media. Popular culture depicts a beautiful woman of African descent as one who is light skinned, has straight hair (relaxed hair or wearing straight or wavy wigs), practices hair removal, medium breasted, has a small waist and big buttocks (Lee & Watkins 2016; Avery 2017). The reality therefore for women of African descent is that beauty lies in a continuum and they may hold on to Afro-Occidental beauty, a hybrid of the beauty standards from the west and those from the African society. The media significantly contributes to the internalization of beauty norms; the beauty images displayed provide a blueprint for ideal beauty standards (Dye, 2016; Galioto & Crowther, 2013; Warren 2008). Social media, a channel through which intrinsically private and external information from individuals, organizations, industries and the society are propagated (Lundmark et al. 2017) is more potent at conveying ideal beauty standards compared to broadcast media (Cohen & Blaszczynski 2015). This is because social media continues to perpetuate a flawless appearance as synchronous to beauty (Almaki et al. 2023). Existence of filters on social media also foster the internalization of makeup use to cover flaws (Miller & McIntyre 2022). Research also shows that social media users who spend a lot of their time on social media had a higher chance in comparing their physical appearance with others which leads to feelings of envy, rise in shame and body surveillance (Alfonso-Fuertes 2023; Chancellor et al. 2016; Wick & Harriger 2018).