[Music]
I went to ten countries on six
continents to explore cultural notions
of beauty and attraction I tried to
explore the the commercial side of
beauty and how concepts of beauty have
become distorted around the world I mean
this doesn’t exist in nature please this
is a children’s beauty pageant she’s six
and this was another closed world it was
the time of JonBenet Ramsay and and one
mother actually even threatened my life
if she saw a picture of her daughter in
print some kind of makeup has been used
in every culture since the beginning of
time the men in Papua New Guinea are the
flamboyant sex and then and these are
who Lee wig met at a Sing Sing in the
highlands the who Lee bachelor cult the
men separate from the women for three
years to purify themselves and to grow
their hair they water at ten times a day
to help it grow and and then they shave
their heads to make these really
dramatic wigs that they consider the
essence of manhood and they wear these
these wigs for the rest of their lives
at festivals and and to court women you
so the the mud men of Papua New Guinea
they paint their body with this clay
made of ash and they make these
ferocious masks to scare their enemies
this is the mercy people of the Omo
Valley in in Ethiopia the the origins of
this tradition are lost to history but
some think it was to discourage the
slave traders from taking their women
these large clay plates are now
considered the status symbols and and
the size determines the bride price of
the woman and the Chinese bound the
woman’s feet for a thousand years the
girls feet were were broken at age three
and then the bandages were wound tighter
and tighter around their feet until the
were wrapped completely under the arch
so like like the mercy lid plate the
size of the foot determine the worth of
the woman it’s actually a very rare
picture of an unbound foot even the
husband’s rarely saw them unbound they
preferred to think of the of the these
bound feet as mysterious and erotic and
it’s interesting what I discovered doing
this story was that the changes that
were made to men’s bodies all made them
appear stronger and more powerful but
but the women somehow ended up maimed or
their movements inhibited somehow but
the world is changing fast cultural
traditions are quickly dying out all
over the world and Western clothing and
notions of beauty are taking over
obviously some traditions deserve to die
but sometimes we’re losing our
connection to our history and and
crucial ties to our cultural origins we
seem to be throwing the baby out with
the bathwater
[Music]
I went to ten countries on six
continents to explore cultural notions
of beauty and attraction I tried to
explore the the commercial side of
beauty and how concepts of beauty have
become distorted around the world I mean
this doesn’t exist in nature please this
is a children’s beauty pageant she’s six
and this was another closed world it was
the time of JonBenet Ramsay and and one
mother actually even threatened my life
if she saw a picture of her daughter in
print some kind of makeup has been used
in every culture since the beginning of
time the men in Papua New Guinea are the
flamboyant sex and then and these are
who Lee wig met at a Sing Sing in the
highlands the who Lee bachelor cult the
men separate from the women for three
years to purify themselves and to grow
their hair they water at ten times a day
to help it grow and and then they shave
their heads to make these really
dramatic wigs that they consider the
essence of manhood and they wear these
these wigs for the rest of their lives
at festivals and and to court women you
so the the mud men of Papua New Guinea
they paint their body with this clay
made of ash and they make these
ferocious masks to scare their enemies
this is the mercy people of the Omo
Valley in in Ethiopia the the origins of
this tradition are lost to history but
some think it was to discourage the
slave traders from taking their women
these large clay plates are now
considered the status symbols and and
the size determines the bride price of
the woman and the Chinese bound the
woman’s feet for a thousand years the
girls feet were were broken at age three
and then the bandages were wound tighter
and tighter around their feet until the
were wrapped completely under the arch
so like like the mercy lid plate the
size of the foot determine the worth of
the woman it’s actually a very rare
picture of an unbound foot even the
husband’s rarely saw them unbound they
preferred to think of the of the these
bound feet as mysterious and erotic and
it’s interesting what I discovered doing
this story was that the changes that
were made to men’s bodies all made them
appear stronger and more powerful but
but the women somehow ended up maimed or
their movements inhibited somehow but
the world is changing fast cultural
traditions are quickly dying out all
over the world and Western clothing and
notions of beauty are taking over
obviously some traditions deserve to die
but sometimes we’re losing our
connection to our history and and
crucial ties to our cultural origins we
seem to be throwing the baby out with
the bathwater
[Music]
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