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When I was given this title, I realised this is a difficult subject for me to write about. There is no identity of beauty; for me it is everywhere. The dictionary definition of Beauty - the quality of being pleasing, especially to look at, or someone or something that gives great pleasure, especially by being looked at, certainly gives the general view of what we associate with beauty. Being beautiful starts with confidence. It is part of a whole life style, a culture that reminds us of our existence, and represents something fresh and alive. I asked myself why this subject is a tricky one and during my research I discovered several reasons why. Although beauty culture is worldwide, we all have very different views on how we are 'made up'. Today's woman has an almost expected duty to maintain her beauty routine, thanks to media, cultural expectations, opinions and obligation. This has almost become a joke to manage. The endless journey starts with the pressure to smell good, keep clean, maintain your hair, whether coloured or cut in the newest fashionable style, manicure your nails or even extend them, prepare your face almost as carefully as a salad, with numerous lotions, potions, creams and face masks. Who has the time for all this? We do. And not only women. Nowadays more and more men feel under pressure to 'perform' on the beauty front, with various treatements being pushed on them, well why not? They might as well do something, while they are waiting round for their girlfriend/wife/sister to get herself waxed to infinity. So I begin my confusion with myself. In a world surrounded by beauty regime, how do I feel that I maintain myself without feeling the same pressure as some of my subjects? Ah ha. The answer lies in where you were born, the weather, the people, your family, and even your religion. If we look first at Turkey, its mystery, the culture and the rituals of religion, we can clearly see a link to beauty culture. Water is a symbol of beauty for Ottoman women. Look at the Hamam; to be clean and spiritually calm, as part of a ritual in this society. For tourists it is a thing to experience, yet here this is something that turkish people are very familiar with. The hamam culture has remained strong and has been carried through into modern times. Today we do it because we 'want to be beautiful for ourselves'. The 'touchy feely' nature of the Turkish culture starts from family, companionship and love, where maintaining our sisters, mothers and friends comes naturally. Who hasnt been in a restaurant without seeing one of the waiters giving some unfortunate tourist a free massage? Turkish women see plucking, waxing and pruning as part of their inbred routine. Women of all ages and all walks of life, from the top of the society level down to the working class are constantly taking care of themselves. Mediterrainian women do their beauty treatment themselves and it grows within their family and close relatives, doing each others hair, epilation, and generally helping themselves instead of going to the nearest beauty center. Even the men visit the Barber shop regularly, getting their eyebrows trimmed and their nose and ear hairs burnt off. One of the fundamental reasons for the muslim culture of circumcision is cleanliness. Owch. That is one we can leave that one to the boys. Metrosexuality is a spreading trend, and men are more than happy to get on board that bandwagon. The beauty culture in Turkish women grew with the domination of the male in society and came as an expectation of looking great for your husband. When you search Europe and the beauty culture there, you don't see so many people getting up early to go and find a hairdresser first thing in the morning. One, this would be impossible, as most nuclear European families don't have the internal support to go dashing off to get their hair done, and two, most hairdressers in Europe require two weeks warning and a written statement to say you want an appointment. Our family culture of eating breakfast together, with Mum preparing breakfast even when her children have grown up and left the nest is one that has long past tradition in many other countries. Cereal bars and morning traffic may be more familiar to many Europeans. Turkey's relaxed way of life and different pace contribute to many differences, especially in the Southern regions and definately in the East. Maybe our cities have fallen in to line with the quick start that Europeans enjoy, but this will take many years, maybe even generations, to instill nationwide. Interestingly you can also draw comparison with our food and beauty culture. I notice, the regular family gatherings where we are always preparing our food from scratch, rarely using prepacked food alternatives, our mothers preparing great feasts, making yogurt and cheese, baking bread, making cakes and sweets, with organic ingredients readily available. Our mothers braiding our hair, using cotton thread to pluck eyebrows, using natural henna to dye our hair, making our clothes and even scrubbing our bodies if required, even when we are grown. Compare this to European food and beauty culture. Shops and supermarkets filled with packet foods and powdered sauces, tinned beans and baked goods, probiotic supplements for upset stomachs, yeast free, gluten free, allergy sensitive products, with organic ingredients three times the price of the genetically modified cheaper alternatives. Mothers rushing to work, with no time to spend on hair and makeup, dropping children off to school on her way because she is single or because dad has already left at goodness knows what time in the morning to beat the rush hour. Having barely 10 minutes to themselves to shower, a bath being a real treat when you have the time, and a beauty or hairdresser appointment happening only in dreams, where when you finally get to sit down in the swivel chair you feel like falling asleep. So, what pushes us to be beautiful and keep clean? And how/why has that changed so much? Society today is filled with images of the 'beautiful people', from the Supermodels of the 1980s, to the glam and bling of today. MTV, Fashion TV, Vogue, Elle. Hell. They didnt have to worry about this in the old times, where even having rotten teeth was a good sign, meaning you had enough money to buy sweet goods. That impressed the neighbours then, didn't it? Nowadays its all porcelain veneers. Who can forget Julia Roberts and her hairy armpit incident on the red carpet at the Oscars?! Shocking. You would never see Kate Moss with cabbage in her teeth on the cover of a magazine. We are so clean now we even have the highest level of allergy related problems reported. Disinfectant, sprays and powders make sure our beauty culture extends through to our homes and environments, where we are expected to continue our maintenence and have the latest homes and gardens look. Social reactions, discovering your own self, and your health and possessions is all a part of your responsibility, and all these subjects make beauty culture a factor in the foreground. In turkish women you can see this more so in bigger cities and business women more than housewives. But we are all affected, worldwide, from an early age now more than ever. Beauty is a very egotistic point sometimes, but beauty is not something that should destroy your nature or put pressure on you to copy others. What is our perception of beauty now? In this century the standard of women means endless long legs, long coloured hair, wasp like waist and trim hips, natural make up, sparkling eyes and glossy lips. But basic beauty comes with formation, and symmetry. We are all beautiful in our own way; Beauty is individual, with every natural or made up face. There are similar dresses and styles of body and face, similar sizes. There is no real fashion when it comes to timeless beauty. Women of all shapes and sizes exist, and now more than ever we are being encouraged to think outside the given standard. Beauty changes with your history, your country, and society. It depends on your freedom, your confidence, your upbringing and of course the way you look. Sanem Zorlutuna, Manager of Alanya's Grand Cafe in the Harbour agrees. She says she does her own beauty treatment as part of her normal life. Sanem is well known by her friends and customers for being glamourous and as a business woman in Turkey this is of course expected, although she prefers most of the time to be natural and without makeup, because it makes her more comfortable in herself. Caption Sanem Zorlutuna ; Quote 'Make up makes your history disappear.' Joy Atkins, originally from the UK and now resident in Alanya, says that she enjoys going to the hairdressers or doing special treatments for herself, as it makes her relaxed and happy. It makes women more close to men, and makes you feel you are beautiful and attractive, improving the way you present youself. She believes beauty definately changes between cultures, and Joy sees a big difference between beauty culture here and the UK. Caption Joy Atkins ; Quote 'Suddenly you see yourself in front of the mirror after the hairdresser finishes and there you are; yourself, and you are ready. Joy thinks it is a part of life to keep fit and be healthy and clean, and very important in today's life. She says it gives you power, happness in work, confidence in public and keeps your complexes away! So both Turkish and European opinion seems to be similar so far. What about covered women in fundamentalist countries? Are they feeling the same way? One of my friends Erol, a Chemical Engineer travels extensively and has recently visited Iran. He says he disagrees if people think that just because a woman is covered that it makes them second in |
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