All around the globe women are pressured to conform to western standards of beauty. Whether it is striving for the ideal hourglass figure, or using bleach creams to attain a dramatically pale skin tone, the influences of western beauty images pervade television, fashion, magazines, and even dolls, around the world.

Countries around the world previously set their own standards of beauty. According to a Dec. 4, 2003 BBC News article, in certain areas of Nigeria, brides-to-be were sent to “fattening houses” to gain weight so that they could look beautiful on their wedding days. But now, courtesy of western influences, that is beginning to change.

“Young girls in Africa are increasingly concerned with being thin — ­the more exposed we are to western media, the more we buy into it,” South African model Lerato Moloi said in the BBC News article.

One of the ways western beauty standards have spread around the world is through Mattel’s Barbie. Known and recognized around the world, Barbie is an icon of American culture, ranking number 43 in the book 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived. Before Barbie became an international influence, other countries had their own means of reflecting their own cultures, such as the creation of Susi. Susi was a Brazilian doll that reflected Brazilian physical features. However the arrival of Barbie in the 1970s lead to a decline in Susi doll production.

Brazil used to pride itself on the guitar shaped body of its beautiful women—heavier thighs, hips, and buttocks—not the “All-American” hourglass shape. According to a Jan. 14, 2007 New York Times article, a government study showed that appetite-suppressant use had increased by more than 50 percent from 2001 to 2005, making Brazil the number one diet-pill consuming country.

Barbie isn’t only affecting the minds of young Brazilian girls; now, Barbie is traveling around the world in an attempt to represent different cultures. In 2001 when Mattel’s “Dolls of the World” collection was introduced, Barbie’s ethnicity shifted to represent the diversity of beauty. However, their Diwali Barbie, released in August 2006, fails to realistically represent Indian women, as she has small blue eyes instead of the large brown eyes common to Indian women. She also possesses an unnaturally fair skin tone for an Indian woman. According to sophomore Karishma Patel, though Diwali Barbie resembles Indian superstar Aishwarya Rai, she doesn’t represent women of India. “This is nothing like what someone in India would look like,” Patel said. Patel, who is originally from India, pointed out that Indian women often tend to be more “curvy and fleshy”, and don’t show as much skin as the Diwali Barbie.

Barbie isn’t the only one to blame for promoting a western look in India. Many Bollywood actresses and models have changed their looks to reflect Caucasian women by lightening their hair and wearing light-colored contacts. Indian magazines are beginning to resemble their western counterparts. According to Patel, that’s the image that sells. “They think that if you’re more white, you’re more beautiful.”

But sophomore Zaynab Hararah, who is Palestinian, disagreed. “Women only dye their hair just to look like everyone else,” she said. “People like stars do it, and everyone else does it, so they say like ‘I’ll do it too.’”

But in other countries around the world, achieving this European look isn’t just because of peer pressure. Women are attaining western-influenced features by going under the knife for nose jobs, double eye-lid surgery, breast implants and even curvier calves.

In 2004, China held its first ever Miss Plastic Surgery Pageant. Organizer Han Wei discussed the event in a Dec. 17, 2004 China Daily article, saying, “Everybody should have the right to pursue beauty. And in fact, we all know that pretty women have more opportunities than others.” With the majority of plastic surgery done to attain European-style features, pageants such as these are furthermore encouraging lean towards western features. According to the China Daily article, there are 11.2 million practitioners of plastic surgery in 1.5 million beauty salons in China, raking in 168 billion yuan (20.3 billion dollars) in 2003, a 20 percent annual increase. Sophomore Angel Chan, who was born in China, thinks that the reason that plastic surgery is so common in China is because of the increasing pressure from society to look pretty. “There is a lot of surgery for pointy noses and big eyes because these are features they consider beautiful.” Chan believes the pressure from society to have these features is influenced by Europeans. “Only some people are born with double eyelids, and that’s a common European feature,” she said. In Korea, surgeons estimate that at least one in 10 adults have received some type of surgical upgrade and even toddlers have their eyelids done.

Those in east Asia who don’t get plastic surgery try to achieve the classic western look by taking great measures to avoid tanning, including wearing hats, long gloves, and even face masks. In other countries, face creams such as Nivea, are sold to women who wish to have fair skin. In India, even the name of one of the most common skin-fairing cream complies with the western image of beauty­­ — Fair and Lovely. In Mali, women resort to bleach creams, which burn and damages the skin. But still, women go through the suffering since lighter skin can bring about a boost on the social ladder. Though similar skin-whitening creams were banned in South Africa in 1992 due to health concerns, the product is still available.

It is possible that some model themselves after the western ideal, because of western colonization in their countries. For example, during the British colonization in India, settlers created the notion among natives that British blood was superior. In an attempt to give more power to their colonizers, Americans used a similar tactic: slaves who had lighter skin were assigned domestic work, which was considered a privilege.

This mentality is still present in many women today, though they may be oblivious to recognizing its roots. According to social studies teacher Rick Girling, it’s possible that the standards of beauty in South America were influenced by colonialism. “In Spain, the more fair-skinned you were, the more European blood you had,” he said. Being of European descent elevated Spaniards in their social structure. According to Girling, when the Spanish came to South America, they brought this mentality with them as well.

As professor Peter Stearns, author of Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West said in the Dec. 4, 2003 BBC News article, “There’s pretty clear evidence that the impact of U.S. and Western media and models will have increasing global repercussions around shared standards of beauty.”