The grass is always greener on the other side...

I longingly admire the waif-like Asian girls, their svelte figures and size zero waists which don’t look out of place amongst thousands of others alike.Their tanned skin shimmers in the light whilst their healthy complexions smile back at me. I can quite easily say I feel like a great big oaf in comparison to these ethereal beings as my mind reels with all the changes I would like to make to every inch of my body.
The women of Asia have a similar problem; they also desire to alter every inch of themselves. After three months teaching in Cambodia I was tired of the constant attention from women who would caress my skin, stroke my hair and appreciate my shape; I was repeatedly told how beautiful I was compared to my much thinner petit contemporaries. Whilst shopping little old ladies with deep sun lined expressions would stand awestruck at the lightness of my hair. As I started to tan in the unavoidable sun my students would tell me I was becoming ugly and I remembered an article I had read in the local newspaper about how a soon-to-be-bride died after applying a skin whitening cream from Vietnam. This was the sixth or seventh case within a few months of each other and the Vietnamese beauty products were subsequently banned. When I brought this article to the attention of one class they revealed how it was very desirable for women to have pure white skin “like you teacher”. You see, in Asia being thin and having dark skin is tantamount to screaming “I am poor and have no money!” so they cover their bodies in gloves, jumpers even balaclavas in the merciless heat to keep their skin pale whilst padding themselves out with shape-wear. Huge padded bottoms and strange hip padded pants line the stalls in the Central Market along with skin whitening creams promising perfection.
Wherever I have been in Asia size is everything. Where we minimize they maximize; where we remove, they add; where we darken they whiten. Clearly big is beautiful here, there is no doubt about it.