In the United States, our perception of beauty is to be slim, look youthful, have long hair, clear skin, and many other hard-to-achieve traits. We hear about many people who use diet pills, develop eating disorders, or go to absolute extremes to obtain these beautiful traits. But what we perceive as beauty can be completely different in the eyes of someone across the world. In South Korea, pale skin and big eyes are favored. South Korea holds the highest ration of cosmetic surgeons to citizens worldwide. An alarming amount of people, some as young as high school students, spend lots of money to get eyelid surgery. The eyelid surgery they receive is for a “double eyelid.” Caucasian people naturally have this; it is the crease above your eye. Many people of Asian descent don’t have this, so they get surgery or use beauty tools like glues found in convenient stores to get this, because they find it beautiful. In Western Africa, their idea of beauty seems to be the opposite of ours. Women there are found the most beautiful when they’re overweight and have stretch marks. Many parents send their daughters to a camp that solely helps them gain weight, feeding them 16,000 calories a day. (3,500 calories are in one pound of fat. Take away the average amount of calories burnt in a day and they’re gaining about 4lbs a day!) In other parts of Africa, scars are considered beautiful an attract partners. Usually, parents cut their children’s stomachs so they can receive lifelong scars. In parts of China, many women and men turn to a painful leg surgery that breaks the bones in their legs. Metal bars are inserted into the legs, in hopes of making that person taller. In France, many women don’t wear make-up, and if they do, then they wear very little. Natural beauty is favored in France, while here in the US, many women use a lot of make-up to hide the slightest of blemishes. Our views on beauty change from culture to culture. And of course, not everyone agrees with their culture’s perception of beauty; everyone has their own opinion. So all in all, it’s quite true that “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder."