LogFAQs > #975651588

TodorokiHayato posted...

Anecdotally, I've heard beauty standards for men right now in Japan are: being skinny (flexibility in trying new styles), and tall. Whereas, other parts of Eastern Asia, being muscular is praised.

China, Japan and South Korea have this thing where they have this massive fear of looking like a "peasant" or a farmer. So they want the palest skin possible, wear makeup that makes their skin whiter, and avoid the sun as much as they can. It's not to make themselves look white (a common misconception among Westerners), it's to make them look less like they toil all day in the sun. People who do have to work outside like construction workers will swaddle themselves in long-sleeved pants and shirts and wrap their face in a towel, even in the middle of the very hot summers. People at the beach will often wear head-to-toe bodysuits to protect them from the sun.

I don't know about muscles, I would say that Koreans and the Japanese like skinniness and don't like obesity, but they also would probably see a muscular build as making someone look like a manual laborer or peasant, similar to the suntan thing.

I haven't lived in South Korea for a while but when I was there pretty much everyone dressed the same way and had similar haircuts. Women would wear extremely short skirts but their collars were always tightly buttoned and their necklines were always very high so you'd never ever see cleavage.