"Belle a en faire peur!" (Beauty that scares!). French Opinion on Body Modifications.

Hana: This week Jenny and I will be focusing on body modifications that are (perhaps not main stream) culturally acceptable. I wanted to get the perspective from another country, and since I'm learning French I choice a French video (I can't say for sure that he's French or Canadian, but I'm assuming French). From what I understood, was he was accepting of people's right to choose to look the way they wanted to look, theorizing people get their inspiration from the media like Star Trek, Lady Gaga, and Avatar. He made an interesting observation that he would not like to be with a woman with the new form of beauty, but a young woman with a small subtly placed tattoo. I thought it was interesting that he would want a partner with a tattoo, that was an ideal; however, his overall message, was that he did not like this new form of beauty, but it was up to the people themselves. This is a common theme, if the people choose to do it, then why not let them do it? But in the case of FGM it is not free will, and the only information we are privileged to says these women regret getting it done. However, in this video I also noticed that he compares it to other cultures, and the one that really got my attention was Chinese foot binding. How is that any different from FGM? It has cultural significance, it is to make the woman more desirable, and the family does not do it to harm their children, but to help them.

What are your thoughts? Questions? Comments?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxQxiHe93Hs