What most impacted me from the videos was the one where a woman spoke about how in her country a thin body is not considered beautiful. This catapulted my mind into deep thought because I was born and raised in the United States where a thin body is considered beautiful. From another video I watched I know that both these are cultural paradigms learned from the places where we grew up.
Which one is correct? Could both be incorrect? Does it matter? Is a blending of the two paradigms better?
Correct or not, as a single man attracted to women one of the first things I notice is how thin or not a woman is. My logic tells me that I should not focus on outward beauty and yet before I have a chance to talk to a woman I have formed an opinion of her based on what I see. This opinion is heavily influenced by the paradigm I learned in the United States. Is there anything about thin or not that comes from something beyond what I have learned? I find that I don't have any other frame of reference I can use. I grew up with this all around me all the time.
I don't view women that are not thin as ugly and I guessed that someone would be attracted to them, but it wasn't me. From this video, I now know that there will be men that find women who are not thin to be beautiful.
I have lived in and visited other countries and even been immersed in the culture of one (the Dominican Republic) and yet I have never come across anything to challenge this cultural paradigm I learned in the United States.
I wonder, can I unlearn something that I have known for decades? Can such a shift in paradigm take place in a short period of time or will it take more decades? And if I want to make such a change wouldn't the best change be to view all women as beautiful whether they are thin or not?
Hi Robert! I thought your post was really interesting! I think the world today is really trying to push that all woman are beautiful but I still think that it is inevitable that certain cultures will feel differently about different looking women. I feel that many cultures have such strong paradigms about how women should look that it is hard for us to change those so quickly. That kind of goes along with your question of how quickly a shift can take place. I think that it is different for different paradigms and how deeply they are engraved in us. For example, in the video about the guys from Kenya, they discovered that trash gets disposed of in a trash can and not thrown out the window. Though this is different, it wouldn't be something that would take decades to change. However, a paradigm such as how we view women or one that is more deeply engraved in our minds, would be harder to change because it is a big psychological mindset change.
ReplyDeleteJust some of my insights!
Natalie Smith
Thanks. I hadn't thought about how it would depend on the paradigm as to how long it would take to change it.
DeleteHi Robert,
ReplyDeleteFor me, all women are as beautiful as they are. Delali Bright, who gave her talk at TED was not consider as beautiful in her own country. But when she moved to the US suddenly, she was beautiful because she is thin. I hope that this kind of judgment will stop soon. We all know that true beauty comes from the inside. People nowadays still deciding what or who is beautiful using their eyes, not their hearts.
Anyway, I like how you wrote about yourself. It is wonderful to see how you are proud to introduce yourself as a disciple of our Savior Jesus Christ. Keep up the good work.
Leah Yano
I like how you say that we should be using our hearts to determine beauty and not our eyes. For me, though, this is easier said than done.
Delete