Stereotypes of women

It is kind of strange how stereotypes work. I have asked a range of people if I should die my hair dark or blonde. This has been over the span of 6 years. In Singapore, generally people think I have natural blonde hair.  This is of course, very hard for my friends in Norway to believe. How can they think my hair is natural, when I look so asian! In Singapore, they would say: How can a white girl have dark features underneath?

Then you have the other people in Vietnam, who ask:
Why are you using tanning lotion and not whitening lotion? Why are you so dark? In Singapore, and South East Asia in general,  big manufacturers are making millions of skincare products - and you have a wide range of whitening products from all the major beauty brands. Then - the same brands are carrying tanning lotion in places like Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

The new generation
I grew up in the 90s. When I was young, I thought I looked asian. Moving into Singapore, people perceived me as a "white woman" or "Ang-moh. I guess I had periods where I was very blonde. I Have a lot of mixed friends, they all experiment with haircolours. It is perfectly normal to want blonde, blue, dark, pink, or green hair. I dont think you should be judged by your haircolour or whoever. We all have rolemodels, and we all have women we look up to - there is nothing wrong with changing the way we look, even if it IS often.

One of my best friends is Half british and half asian. She sometimes looks brazilian to me, but she can also look very caucasian or sometimes very asian. I also have tons of other female friends who are mixed. I also have an asian friend in Singapore with green/ blue/ purple hair. As I mentioned - I think it is important that we women have the freedom to do whatever we want with our looks - without being frowned upon for their/our decision making.

Defining Beauty
So how do you define beauty, when the opposite ends of the world wants to look like both another, advertisements in South East Asia show slim, caucasian women, and Advertisements in Scandinavia sometimes show darker or tanned women with more curves? For us Scandinavians, the new beautiful is being healthy, no matter what shape you are.

I would say it is a everlasting subject to discuss, you can not define beauty. You can not let others define who you are. You should not look in the magazines and try to be someone else. You are who you are, and each individual is beautiful in their own way. As cheesy as that may sound.

Last, I want to share with you a video my sister showed me yesterday,:



Lyrics

Put your make-up on
Get your nails done
Curl your hair
Run the extra mile
Keep it slim so they like you, do they like you?

Get your sexy on
Don't be shy, girl
Take it off
This is what you want, to belong, so they like you
Do you like you?

You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing

You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
Yooou don't have to try

Oooh

Get your shopping on, at the mall, max your credit cards
You don't have to choose, buy it all, so they like you
Do they like you?

Wait a second,
Why, should you care, what they think of you
When you're all alone, by yourself, do you like you?
Do you like you?

You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing

You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to bend until you break
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing

You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try

You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
Yooou don't have to try

Oooh

You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing

You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
You don't have to try

Take your make-up off
Let your hair down
Take a breath
Look into the mirror, at yourself
Don't you like you?
Cause I like you

Songwriters
DIXON, ANTONIO LAMAR / EDMONDS, KENNY BABYFACE / CAILLAT, COLBIE / REEVES, JASON BRADFORD

Published by

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Xoxo, till we meet again.



Pssst. Shout out to my HK sister, Serene Eversmann, BB, The crowned, and my lil sis Camille.