Deconstructing the Westernized Beauty Standards of Thailand’s Miss Universe Stage
- onceuponageneratio
- Jan 8, 2022
- 4 min read
“Beauty standards” refers to popular culture aesthetics that usually focuses on women in our modern society and stems from our early exposure to film, literature, magazines, education systems, medical systems, politics, social media and advertising, the law and more.
For a country like Thailand, which has never been colonized by Western nations and directly exposed to its culture (unlike, for example, the Philippines where western colonial beauty standards have frequently led to few pure Filipina finalists in beauty contests), our idealisation of beauty takes root in Chinese influence, the rise of K-Pop over the decade and the prevalence of half-Thais - or “luk-kreungs” - within our entertainment industry.
Over the world, societies have mostly realized how impacted we are by eurocentric definitions of attractiveness: for a woman, that means being light-skinned, thin and tall, having large breasts and eyes, a small nose, small waist and high cheekbones. The unspoken and widely accepted pressure to fit into the ideal look of “woman” has led to global rises in anxiety, depression, dysmorphia, eating disorders, self-harm and low self-esteem.
Before the European Age of Exploration, China’s standard of beauty lay in women having youthful, cute and innocent features. The aristocratic history of Japan and China built upon the notion that having darker skin equated to being a lower class worker. Whilst our stereotypical ideal of beauty today is embedded in eurocentrism, beauty standards in regions like East Asia predates Western neo-colonialism; however, it is also solidified by the rise of Western capitalism as we see expansions in the institutional characteristics of sexism, racism, colourism, classism, ableism, ageism, and gender norms all over the world.
The Treatment of Dark Skins & Luk-Kreungs
Sit-coms have distorted Thailand’s views of dark-skinned people: often used as comedic effect, they are portrayed as “stupid”, “lazy” and “unclean”. The paradox of prizing whiteness as the ticket to social and economic success in a country where most people are dark-skinned is something that has gone on for as long as a person belonging to Gen Z has been alive.
The depiction of racism in Thailand when compared to a nation like America produces stark differences: where Americans are aggressive in their prejudice, racism in Thailand does not easily appear on the surface. Thailand’s portrayal of dark-skinned people as “clowns” does not come close to compare to America’s brutal history of slavery.
During the Vietnam War in the 1960s-70s, American soldiers and Thai women bore mixed-race children which were esteemed with equal amounts of skepticism (since many saw Thai women as prostitutes or “rented wives”) and desirability. With Western features and proficient English language skills, a number of half-Thais are successful in today’s Thai entertainment industry.
Celebrities like Cindy Burbridge, a half-Thai half-American model, actress, activist and winner of Miss Thailand 1996, epitomise the wave of social transformation that began in the country as a “new, more cosmopolitan Thailand” emerged. According to a 2002 New York Times article, though Burbridge faced discrimination from her home country whilst striving to represent them at the start of her career, the “round face, arched eyebrows and small mouth of the classical Thai look” became replaced by “the sharper and more pronounced features of the West”.
Thus, luk-kreungs, plucked mostly from international schools, symbolized Thailand redefining itself as a “modern, liberal society, crowding its cities with tall buildings, hustling its way into the world economy and learning to lean back in air-conditioned comfort with an imported cigar and a glass of wine.”
The Miss Universe Stage & The Politics of “Thainess”
Miss Universe was conceptualized in Texas, America in the 1920s and rose to prominence in the 1950s. Although over 70 countries participated in the 2020 contest, the beauty standards in these pageants were narrowed as most contestants “sport[ed] a certain interchangeable, westernized aesthetic”.
In Thailand, Miss Universe holds a deliberate political influence. Whilst Burma, Cambodia and Laos were under colonial rule in the 1940s, Thai power-holders strove to build a nation of “civilized” women - “Flowers of the Nation” - who looked Western enough: for example, women ceased wearing the pant-like “chongkraben” in favor of the skirt-like “phassin” to convince the Western world of Thailand’s modernity to evade colonization.
The state started sponsoring Thai beauty contests for “Miss Thailand”: not only did this appropriate women’s bodies for the state’s agenda, but it formed the oncoming era of elitism which favoured Bangkok-based Thai women who could afford Western dresses whilst seemingly promoting equality between men and women (in high society). It is not far-fetched to attribute Thailand’s classism to this particular piece of history.
Thai women became commodities “sold for the international perception of Thailand as a pro-capitalist nation.” As electronic media spread in Thailand, the government was able to divert public scrutiny on their corruption and illegitimate rule as beauty contests paraded women’s bodies with help from the American Cold War “Development Aid”. Amongst other things, the politically-motivated objectification of female bodies has carried on into normalizations of social issues like fatphobia and rape in Thai TV shows.
Today, the “Thainess” of Thailand continues to be epitomised by pictures of graceful, flower-holding Thai women wearing traditional clothes, greeting tourists arriving at Suvarnabhumi airport, gentle female Thai rice farmers, and the peaceful meditation of Thai maidens. “The state’s essentialization of Thai identity is exotic, packaged for ready consumption, and undoubtedly feminine.”
In the entertainment industry, pageants like Miss Universe Thailand have favoured half-Thais with Western features over dark-skinned Thais. That is not to say that there haven’t been improvements in other social issues in such competitions of the last decade: 2020’s Miss Universe Thailand, Anchilee Scott-Kemmis, a Thai-Australian model challenged Thai society’s weight stigma by promoting body positivity through her “Real Size Beauty” Campaign.
Beauty pageants like Miss Universe also undoubtedly provide those with attractiveness the opportunity to climb the Thai social and economic ladder. Much good has come out of competitions like Miss Universe that encourage patriotism and female empowerment. However, when viewed in its historic light of sexism, racism, colourism and classism, the politics of suppression and social prejudice through mediums like beauty contests must be deconstructed, discussed and dismantled.
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