The unhealthy beauty standards in Thailand
Some problems noticed from skin whitening to eating disorders
The first thing I noticed as I left the BKK airport in the early morning and got onto the skytrain was the advertisements around me. each one portraying high beauty standards of a porcelain white, very skinny, man or woman, with perfect, clear skin. Almost every advertisement looked more AI than human, completely blemish-free with huge artificial-looking eyes.
Unhealthy beauty standards in Thailand
On this page
| Jump to section | Description |
|---|---|
| What I have noticed about these standards | In Bangkok, an overwhelming prevalence of advertisements featuring flawless, porcelain-white, very skinny figures with perfect, clear skin, which felt unnatural to me. |
| How does it impact a person? | This idealised beauty standard can deeply impact local people, especially the youth. It can lead to eating disorders, low self-esteem, and unhealthy practices like excessive dieting or surgeries. |
| Skin lightening | The skin whitening industry in Thailand, a US$8.8 billion market, pushes the idea that lighter skin is better. The pressure to conform is seen even in everyday products, and it contributes to beauty insecurities. |
What I have noticed about these standards
As someone who has grown up in the age of a diversity push within Canada and the United States, seeing only one type of beauty all around me, felt quite honestly unnatural.
It didn’t end with posters in the skytrain; it continued onto billboards all over the city, as well as magazines, and every other form of advertisement attainable. The worst part of it all was that the majority of the Thai people I saw all around me looked almost nothing like the idealised billboards all around them.
I only spent two months in the country and already noticed the impact the country’s beauty standards had on how I felt engaging with other people. This got me thinking more deeply.
How troubling could such an unachievable beauty standard be to residents of the nation itself?
How would this adversely impact the confidence and body image of local young men and women?
How does it impact a person?
As a tourist, I cannot begin to understand to know the way that these beauty standards impact the Thai people. I do hope that my recognition of this helps provide a starting point for others wanting to further explore and challenge this very prevalent issue.
This is an issue that affects Thai outliers and half kids in Thailand as well because of the physical and cultural disconnect that they can feel by having their genetics and life on both sides of the pond, as Thai-American Nicole Ogden illustrates in an article in Lazy Women.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about how tiny my peers were compared to me, and all I wanted to do was hide.
“I eventually realised that my friends were suffering from eating disorders and that they weren’t the only Thai girls who were suffering from them.”
Eventually, Nicole has learned to appreciate her own differences and her own self but for a lot of young women and men in Thailand, they will take drastic measures, as seen here, like eating disorders.
Others might resort to supplementing and working out too hard, a lot go under the knife, and some aim to lighten their skin even. Although these can help, the issue arises that when someone falls victim to comparing themselves, they exacerbate these and harm themselves in the process.
Skin lightening
On one of my regular visits to the tourist and local hotspot of 7/11, I had to actively work to find simple products to use on my skin that wouldn’t also whiten it. Going from the Canadian culture of idolising tanned skin and sitting in the sun, it was shocking to see a world filled with the exact opposite.
This pushed me into a bit of research, where I found that skin whitening was found in 2022 to be a US$8.8 billion industry worldwide. An industry that has actively used people’s insecurities against them to generate huge amounts of profit.
For a more extreme example of this, see this video CNN posted about the Thai skin whitening advertisement receiving backlash worldwide:
Beauty standards in Thailand, as in many parts of the world, often emphasise unattainable ideals that can have a profound impact on self-esteem and body image. The constant exposure to flawless, porcelain-skinned models and the booming skin-lightening industry creates a pressure to conform to a narrow definition of beauty.
This affects young people, especially those of mixed heritage, who may feel a disconnect between their appearance and the idealised standards they see around them. For some, this pressure leads to deeper issues, such as eating disorders, as seen in the experiences shared by Thai-American Nicole Ogden.
The beauty industry profits from these insecurities, reinforcing harmful ideals that can affect millions. It’s important to challenge these rigid standards, embrace diverse representations, and redefine beauty to foster a more inclusive and positive cultural shift. By reflecting on the impact of beauty standards on self-perception, we can move towards a future where beauty is celebrated in all its unique forms.
What is your idea of beauty, and what do you think about the beauty standards in Thailand?
Latest Thailand News
Follow The Thaiger on Google News:
Sadly, it is not only a Thailand point of view. Seems that many other parts of the world hold the same standard of beauty. This perception needs to be rooted out from childhood. What parents speak about should be the character of the person not the color of skin or size of their nose.