Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…or so they say. Within this blog, I want to explore something which has been niggling away at me since I moved to Colombia last July: the concept of beauty. There is no denying that Colombia has some of the most beautiful, drop-dead gorgeous women, and men that I have ever seen. I can rarely walk down the street without having to turn my head two, three, four times to catch a glimpse of what has just walked street by me. People in Colombia are beautiful…simples. 

To the Colombians, looking good is everything. They spend time, and money investing in their looks. From manicures, to pedicures, to waxes and even cosmetic surgery, to the Colombians there is nothing more vital than looking your best! And with good Latin genes, perfect hair and a tan to match…why the hell not!

The great thing is, unlike in the UK where all these things come with a pretty hefty price tag…in Colombia, it costs little to nothing to look that good! You can easily bag a haircut, manicure and pedicure for under a tenner. My gym membership including all my classes is less than £15 a month and that’s in a capital city! 

I have nothing wrong with people taking pride in their appearance, I’m a fan of ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it’ but since spending quite a considerable amount of time now in Colombia I have to question where one draws the line. 

Colombia is one of the main countries in the world with the cheapest cosmetic and plastic surgery! They are debatably the top provider of plastic surgery in the world and many Americans and Canadians holiday here and return with more than just a tan! Nose jobs, bum jobs, boob jobs, tummy tucks, you name it – Colombia can do it…and at a good price too! 

As a result, I have to some extent found Colombia to be a very vain nation. I have found that in certain areas of town, primarily the wealthier areas, for example ‘la zona rosa’, people seem to spend more time checking out what you are wearing, what branding you have on and how you have styled your hair than actually having a good time clubbing. Perhaps I am wrong, but this is definitely the vibe I have received in many establishments.

Furthermore, there exists a certain pressure to live up to a specific image. As a man, I feel the need to have a good body, go to the gym, wear the ‘right clothes’, the ‘right aftershave’ and perhaps most importantly be able to dance! I am more than sure for females, the pressure is even stronger.

 I can’t help but feel that in the wake of globalisation, growing tourism and an expanding fashion scene in Colombia, the country places a huge importance on image and furthermore branding. More and more people on the streets are wearing Hollister clothing, Abercrombie and Fitch hoodies, Diesel jeans and Superdry tea shirts, albeit fake a lot of the time. Not only is the influence of North America more and more present but so are the strata division and ever growing rich-poor divide. 

I imagine being a straight male in Colombia must be great! The women here are stunning. I have to admit, I have questioned my sexuality more than once in Colombia…but usually as soon as I start thinking about women, some stud of a Latino hunk walks by and catches my eye, causing my mind to become occupied with ‘other’ thoughts and images. I can’t help but think that the pressure for women to live up to some kind of pre-set image must be huge. Whilst not every woman looks like Shakira or Sofia Vergara, they do tend to be much curvier than British girls. 

Taking care of oneself is important: and that means manicures, pedicures and lots of trips to the salon. Also, in Colombia I have seen some of the biggest bums and boobs in my life. For some Colombians, it seems that going to the local plastic surgeon for a boob job or bum job is like nipping into your local Tesco for a pint of milk. 

Men don’t get let off the hook to easy either… in Colombia men get manicures! I know! Personal presentation and up-keeping has never been more important.  O and by the way…I’m NOT just talking about the gay scene. Straight men get manicures…believe me.

I understand that in order to look their best, men here seem to spend lots of time going to the gym and the salon. However one thing I am NOT down with is shaving. I am NOT talking about beards or tashes here. I am talking about armpits. Colombian men often shave their underarm hair and some may even shave their legs, bleach their arm-hairs and wax their eyebrows.

 Back home in the UK, especially in Northern Ireland, if a guy was to do this exact same thing, he would most likely be accused of being ‘gay’, or a ‘poof’ or as I have often been called as a child ‘a big women’s blouse’. I know – isn’t Northern Ireland a lovely place to grow up being homosexual – Interestingly, what qualifies being masculine in Colombia is not that similar to what I am used to back home in the UK. Somehow, I don’t think I’ll be shaving my under-arms too soon…

What is the result of these pressures? Well, I believe the result to be a highly image conscious or even ‘image obsessed’ society in which the line between being highly conscious about one’s appearance and vain or arrogant very blurred. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to work with what you’ve got and be happy with how you look. That might mean, going to the gym once in a while, not having that empanada or that Mr brownie you don’t really need. Nonetheless, there’s beating yourself up about not feeling like you’re good enough or pretty enough and even being driven to the point of getting plastic surgery.

In Bogotá, before going on a night out, I can spend hours looking at myself in the mirror, wondering what I can do to improve the image looking back at me. I often look at the reflection, wishing I was a little more tanned, that I hadn’t that small scar above my left eye brow and that I didn’t have so many wrinkles on my forehead when I smiled. I find myself de-tagging photo after photo on Facebook because I simply don’t like the way I look and often even fear that others might judge me for my appearance. 

I get upset when I don’t receive any attention on a night out even though I’ve bought a new shirt, done my hair and tried to look my best. It sometimes hurts me when the guy I been talking to for an hour in the club ditches you in a second to talk to some Enrique Iglesias lookalike. One night, in Bogotá, someone even told me that they weren’t attracted to me because I was too short.

Nonetheless, no matter how tough your skin is, you are always going to be affected by this type of behaviour. At least I am.

So…where do we draw the line between working with what we’ve got and vanity and arrogance? What are the dangers for the foreigner in Colombia? I somehow don’t think it’s being kidnapped by FARC or being murdered by a drug lord in Bogotá…its losing sight of reality. Where does one decide that enough is enough? Teeth whitening, Botox, anti-wrinkle treatment? I mean, they’re ok surely? But what about liposuction or a tummy tuck? They are considerably cheaper in Colombia than in Europe after all.

So, is beauty really in the eye of the beholder? Think again…especially if you are living in Bogotá, Colombia. As Dorothy Parker once said after all “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.”