Vietnamese women have the reputation for being very beautiful and seductive. However, druing daytime, I wouldn't say they have a "sexy" look.
In Vietnam, We may find it amazing to see women hiding themselves from head to foot whereas temperatures can easily reach 90*F. It's sometimes necessary to suffer to be beautiful, and Vietnamese women are ready to sacrifice themselves to be so. In daytime, they rarely wear skirts and prefer to wear trousers. They cover their arms with long sleeved gloves and their faces with masks against the sun and the pollution. When we go out at night, we could think we are in a different country for the contrast is so great.
That cultural specificity has been taken into account by marketing managers from the biggest cosmetic companies and lots of whitening creams can be found in the supermarkets.
As the country opens to foreign media, whether to the television, the cinema or magazines, people receive a different image of beauty. In the south of Vietnam, some women get rid of the gloves and start to wear more comfortable clothes. By the way, the white skin doesn't match so well with blond hair, another craze that has been recently introduced into the Vietnamese society. |
