Different eras have different ideas. Different folks like different strokes. Different people in different countries have different definitions of what beauty is. So here’s an amazing experiment to see that, well, difference. A woman had her picture photoshopped 40 different times by more than 25 different countries to find out what each country thought was beautiful.
Esther Honig, a 24-year-old radio journalist, found photoshop professionals in over 25 countries around the world and told them to “make her look beautiful.” Sometimes the changes were sweeping with skin lightening, new hairstyles, excessive makeup, new outfits and new jewelry. Other times they were more understated like a colour change in the eyes, for example. Honig writes about the photoshopped pictures:
They are intriguing and insightful in their own right; each one is a reflection of both the personal and cultural concepts of beauty that pertain to their creator.
Photoshop allows us to achieve our unobtainable standards of beauty, but when we compare those standards on a global scale, achieving the ideal remains all the more illusive.
Some of the results are below. You can see more here.
Above is Morocco’s definition of beauty
Above, the Philippines
USA
Argentina
Pakistan
India
Israel
Greece