"Asia Minor" Photographed by Steven Meisel, December Vogue 2010"You're pretty...for an Asian girl."
Ever been served a back-handed compliment? You know, being handed an ice cream cone with a razor blade hidden inside of it: sticky-sweet, cold, deliciously wrong; and all is "just fine" until you've cut your tongue. Badly. Is almond praline supposed to taste blood-iron-y? (Are compliments supposed to have irony?)
Of course, beauty is never just about beauty. And after seeing ubiquitous blonde/blue-eyed Amazonian-esque "beautiful" women in fashion, advertising, the media, and the movies for decades, today, there are different shapes and shades of people who are making the cut.
In terms of global beauty, I think we are off to a good start -- perhaps we have been for awhile?
http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/asia-major
And yet, the finish line; the be-all, end-all that would feel right to everyone, everywhere, is nowhere in sight, not just yet. But we may just get there.
(Thank you, American Vogue!)
