5 BEAUTY STANDARDS FOR MEN AND WOMEN IN FRANCE
- Aug 1, 2017
- 3 min read
Beauty. One word, but countless meanings across the world. From small hips and curly hair to tattoos all over the body, the notion of beauty, for both men and women, is highly imposed by the society through the advertisements, fashion and cultural believes. Of course, beauty perception is different for everyone. Anyone who is not following the “standards” below are still beautiful. Love yourself, you are unique!
So what are the standards of beauty for women in France?
1 BE TALL, around 1m70 is ideal from women perspective, it should certainly be a little less from men’s point of view. Interesting: average height of French women is 1m65.
2 BE SLENDER AND TONIC. Being very thin was a trend 6-7 years ago but nowadays the trend is the sportive figure.
3 HAVE TANNED SKIN because it’s seen as sexier and more “healthy” as it shows that you are going out and do many activities. White skin is assimilated to pale skin and illness.
4 HAVING SOME CURVES, breasts and butt, appears as a symbol of femininity. The S-line shape is much appreciated. Interesting: the most common plastic surgeries in France are breast augmentation and liposuction.
5 BLUE EYES AND BLOND HAIRS are seen as very beautiful, but eyes and hairs’ colors are not really a key standard of beauty. Interesting: the new trend for young women in their 20s is short hairs / bobbed hairstyle. Maybe it's a way to break with their adolescent period when they have long hairs.
Despite this quite general “beauty standards”, there are many communities that emerged with their own codes of beauty. For example, the apparition of tattoos and piercing trends. We can see more and more French women with tattoos but it is still not well seen at work.
Some French celebrities are real beauty icons; they are references for many women. Brigitte Bardot is definitely one of them for her glamour image. More recent celebrities, there is Marion Cotillard (at the right) and Léa Saydoux (in the middle) who represent very well the beauty of French woman. They are elegant, chic with a “natural” beauty at the same time.
What about beauty standards for French men? Men as well cannot avoid standards.
As a famous adage says, “the most beautiful period for a man is in his thirties”. This is maybe how the perfect male French beauty is defined today: wild man in a well-shaped suit and a well-maintained beard. More precisely, the standards of beauty for men stand for a “manly image”.
1 BE TALL, starting 1m80. Interesting: the average height of French men is 1m75.
2 BE IN A GOOD SHAPE, having a large chest and shoulders as well as a muscle abdomen.
3 HAVE A WILD-HAIR STYLE. Recently, the hairstyle has become a really important issue for French men. Not too long but not too short either.
4 BLUE EYES AND BROWN HAIRS are seen as 'sexy', but eyes and hairs’ colors are not really a key standard of beauty.
5 THE DANDY STYLE is back, mustache and a 2-3 days well-maintained beard are trendy. We can see two reasons to it, men are lazy and it makes them look more manly.
Benjamin Millepied, a famous French dancer, is a good example of a gorgeous French man. Beard, wild-hair-style, in a good shape…
What do you think about those standards? Are the beauty standards in your country very different from those in France?
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