Ola!
I can imagine that quite some people, upon hearing 'Brazil', immediately associate it with an image of a tanned perfectly shaped Brazilian girl on the Rio beach, and samba, and Carnaval, and football... (although you'd have to stretch the imagination a bit to fit this last one into the same picture). The things Brazil seems to stand most famously for. I recently (re)read a couple of articles about the importance of beauty and looks in Brazil, published in the beauty magazine of Ici Paris and the promotional magazine about the Brazil festival in Amsterdam back in October 2011. It got me thinking a bit about this whole idea... you know, the girl from Ipanema was, after all, a real girl who has inspired such a famous song.
Brazil is actually the runner up for the most plastic surgery operations in the world, did you know that? (First place is taken by the US.. surprised?) Not that I know many women (or men, let's be fair) in Brazil that have actually had plastic surgery, to my knowledge. And in Juiz de Fora, where I lived in Brazil, despite the average population being handsome and good-looking enough, I didn't notice such a strive to wear the beauty crown; apart from the girls in high heels and short dresses going out in the fancy clubs, perhaps. Then again, Juiz de Fora is not a beach town ;) Rio de Janeiro of course is most well known for this - one look around Ipanema beach says enough, and they sure are a sporty and working-out bunch!
When I was a little girl and watched Brazilian telenovelas on Russian TV, I always noticed how many good-looking people they have in the shows and how closely they always bring the camera to their faces (especially during the romantic scenes... haha). In Brazil, I noticed that watching telenovelas really seems to be a family thing, at least in the host family where I was staying, but I'm pretty sure that is a good reflection of the whole. Curious, right? Well, I read somewhere recently as well (I believe in an article from the National Geographic Traveller... but I will get to that) that if you want to understand Brazil, you have to go to its beaches. It's called a 'crab civilisation' for a reason - a vast number of Brazilians live in the cities along the coast, and spend much of their free time at the beach, so it's no wonder they want to look good, ey! What I would add to this is - if you want to understand Brazil, you have to give the telenovela a go; despite not falling in the taste with many people, of course, it can give you an interesting insight into the culture, especially if you watch it with other Brazilians who are into it.
Among all the many beauty treatments that I've probably only ever vaguely heard about (although everyone probably knows about the 'Brazilian wax'), Brazilian women seem to be ahead of everyone else. In Brazil, I noticed that manicures and painting your nails are a really important beauty signature for women; even some of my students at the school where I worked have already been to a nail salon to get a manicure - girls as young as 9-10. I remember once, a young student of mine aged nine or so, usually quite quiet and shy, was particularly excited one day - it was because she was going to a salon after school to get a manicure. Oh boy. At that age, I still thought painting your nails as a child was unhealthy... I no longer remember who ever had told me that..!
What also caught my eye in Brazil is the female love for tattoos - never have I seen so many women with (so many) tattoos before! From the girls with tattoos I know, these were often fairly subtle or small pictures, but the popularity of tattoos among girls did surprise me. It seems that some get tattoos with specific meanings, so they know exactly what picture they want - but I still wonder actually to what extent tattoos are also a reflection of the beauty factor.
Well, I think that's almost that for now. Just one thing to add - I mentioned the National Geographic Traveller. A while ago they published an article by a journalist who went travelling around Brazil in the search for his perfect beach. The Brazilian Atlantic coastline is thousands of miles long - certainly enough beaches to pick from there! Not an easy - but certainly not an unpleasant - task. There's much beauty there, whether natural or man-made, haha...
Anyhow, since I've travelled along the Brazilian coastline a bit myself, I thought that in the spirit of National Geographic, next time I'll share a few pictures and insights myself. You might just want to get packing for a holiday! ;)
