A landmark study of 2,100 women in 10 countries in Asia reveals deep divides between countries when it comes to women's self-esteem, body image and sense of beauty. The study, sponsored by Dove, is called “The Real Truth About Asian Beauty: Asian Women's Attitudes Toward Self-Esteem, Body Image, and Media Portrayal.”

While Asian women overwhelmingly feel that beautiful women have greater opportunities in life, few consider themselves beautiful. When asked how they would choose to describe themselves, nearly a third chose “simple or natural” followed by “average or normal.”  Fewer than 3% said “beautiful.”  However, in the Philippines, 5% call themselves beautiful.

When compared to women in nine other countries in Asia, Filipinas exhibit a stronger sense of happiness and satisfaction with their bodies and their lives.  At the same time, women from the Philippines rank the importance of family and religion higher than women do in the rest of Asia.

Because women's views are the sum of a complicated matrix shaped by family, culture, media, financial and health well being, romance and more, the survey broke the elements down and separated the findings by country.  The results reveal both an overall difference in satisfaction as well as variances by individual aspect and country.  Across the board, Asian women appear to be relatively more satisfied with their friendships, family relations and health, but less satisfied with financial success, and romance and least satisfied of ll with their own sense of beauty.  Some countries as a whole appear more content; for example, the Philippines ranks in the top three in each category related to overall life satisfaction.

MOST SATISFIED

FAMILY RELATIONS: Malaysia, China, Philippines, Thailand

There appears to be a strong relationship between happiness in other aspects of one's life, such as family and friends, and feeling beautiful.

What are the drivers of feeling beautiful?

 Across Asia, women agree that humor & happiness, dignity & confidence, kindness, intelligence & wisdom are all more important than sex appeal or youth in terms of feeling beautiful. Yet the same respondents appear to be beholden to youth when it comes to looking beautiful (see findings below). While religion or spirituality rated low in most places, it was a top driver of beauty in the Philippines.

 

Satisfied with your beauty? Depends on whom you ask.

When it comes specifically to beauty, again satisfaction varies by country, and to some degree, by marriage and children.  Filipinas top the beauty happiness scale with 87% saying they are satisfied with their beauty. They're followed by Vietnamese, Singaporeans, and Chinese. Meanwhile, Japanese and Koreans are least satisfied with their own beauty.

How long has it been since these women have felt beautiful? Some countries fared far worse than others. Two-thirds of Japanese women (66%), and half the Singaporean women (49%) said it had been since last year or longer that they had felt beautiful. Indeed, in Japan, a large number said they have never felt beautiful or could not remember feeling beautiful (42% total combined).  At the other extreme, half the women from the Philippines said they felt beautiful that same day.  Women from Thailand, Taiwan and China  all scored relatively high as well when it comes to self-esteem as expressed by feeling beautiful in the last week.

Not surprisingly, there appears to be a correlation between being complimented and feeling beautiful. In countries with frequent compliments, there is a higher self-esteem. Again, the Japanese bucked the trend with half saying it had been since at least last year since anyone told them they were beautiful which showed up in low feelings of one's own beauty.

Who shapes a woman's sense of her own beauty?

In most countries women said it was the husband/partner whose opinion counts most. In Vietnam, for example, the husband is far more influential (say 54% of women). Only in China is it where the woman's own opinion that rates highest.  The least self-confident have to be in Vietnam where only 6% of women trust their own opinion. In the Philippines, it is the family opinion that counts most.

Beauty and youth

Despite claims by the overwhelming majority of respondents that a woman can feel beautiful at any age, youth clearly still rules.

The majority said a woman looks most beautiful when she is younger than 25, and about 8 out of 10 said most beautiful before 30 years of age.  In the Philippines, women were the most skewed towards youth, saying, on average, a woman looks most beautiful at 20 years of age.  Women in most countries said on average between 24 and 26 years. Only in China, Japan and Taiwan was there any respect for maturity—about a quarter of each said a woman looks most beautiful older than 30.

How do women in Asia feel about their own bodies?

The parts of the body that most influence the way a woman feels appear to be the face, overall body shape, skin and shape of eyes. They care less about their breasts, lips, tummies and hairstyle. Women in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan seemed least happy in their own bodies.  Women in China and the Philippines appear far more comfortable with their own bodies, with Filipinas more satisfied than anyone else in the appearance and tone of their skin as well as their breasts.

Weight and Self-Esteem: Filipinas say “Just Right”

Among countries where self-esteem and related feelings of contentment with oneself is low, there is also a correlation to weight.  The highest percentage of women who feel they are too heavy are from Taiwan and Japan. Meanwhile, more Filipinas on average than anywhere else say their weight is “just right.”

If they're not happy with their bodies will they go under the knife?

The range of those having considered cosmetic surgery to improve their looks runs from a low of Malaysia (4%), China (9%), and Singapore (10%) to a high of Japan (39%), Taiwan (40%) and Korea (53%).   But more become interested in surgery when asked whether they would consider it if it were free or covered by healthcare insurance. Then the numbers of interested jump 5-10 percentage points with the biggest jump in Thailand to 63%.  But even if it were free, the number of women who would consider cosmetic surgery in the Philippines is still relatively low at only 26%.

For those saying they are interested in cosmetic surgery, most focus on wrinkle treatments, skin whitening, and fat removal.  Both Japanese and Korean women more than others show interest in face and eyelid surgery.  In the Philippines, of the few interested in cosmetic treatments, it would be mainly in skin whitening and wrinkle treatments.

What is the role of advertising and media?

Across Asia, women feel that media and advertisers are setting unrealistically high standards and wish media and advertisers portrayed women of more diverse characteristics.  Women in the Philippines are sending a very mixed message. On the one hand, more women there than anywhere in Asia say they think show business personalities and models are good role models for girls. But ironically, more women in the Philippines also say they felt “inadequate when they look at beautiful women in magazines,” and wished media did a “better job of portraying women of diverse physical characteristics.”

 

Women offered their three top suggestions:

• show women in more active roles
• show women of a greater variety of ages
• show more everyday women (as opposed to models and celebrities) with more interesting personalities. 

The Campaign for Real Beauty

Sparked by the results of the global study, Dove is launching a major initiative designed to provoke discussion and encourage debate about the nature of beauty.  The Campaign for Real Beauty asks women to give serious thought to a host of issues surrounding beauty, such as society's definition of it, the quest for “perfection,” the difference between beauty and physical attractiveness, and the way the media shapes our perceptions of beauty.

Supporting the Campaign for Real Beauty is a pan-Asian communications campaign, which launches in June 2005 and rolls out across eleven countries.  The campaign questions whether “stereotype model” attributes such as large eyes, youth, slimness, long hair and flawless skin are required to be beautiful — or is there more to it than this. 

Each ad presents an image of a woman whose appearance differs from the stereotypical physical ideal and asks the reader to judge the woman's looks by voting or ticking a box.

Each advertisment will direct women to cast their vote to join the beauty debate as will the Web site:  At www.campaignforrealbeauty.co.ph