Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No matter who you are or where you come from, you have a beauty standard. We all know the girls we want to look like and the girls our boys tend to glance at. In many ways, this is natural and depends greatly on cultural status symbols and social norms that are directly linked to biological and environmental needs. It is also true that opposites attract and people often find rarities in their culture more appealing than the norm. Whatever the trend happens to be at the moment, what people like around the world says a lot about how people live and what makes them happy.
Esther Honig is an artist who inspired this project that shows exactly how many ways one photo could be changed to appeal to different groups of people. This model’s picture was sent to marketers around the world to be Photoshopped. As you will see, every country did something different with their model. This project really drives home the way people perceive beauty from all over the globe and it’s fascinating.
This Is How It Started
An all-American, healthy and happy girl. This is what we expect to see when walking down most American streets and it’s cute.
Argentina
As you can see, a smaller figure is more favored in this part of the world.
South Africa
This image is quite similar to the one from Argentina but the skin color has been made lighter.
Venezuela
Hair takes the stage in this Photoshop job. In Venezuela, hair is apparently kind of a big deal down there. It does look good, no lie.
Spain
If you were going to party in Ibiza like all the kids are doing these days, girls who look like this might be all over the place. This is Spain’s beauty standard and it is much easier to work with than some of the others on here.
U.S.A.
Curves and a gap? In America, you can want everything and it looks like Photoshoppers have it down.
China
Hats off to whoever was skilled enough at Photoshop to completely change the race and bone structure of the model. Considering the way this image started, the transformation is impressive.
Colombia
Now a long-haired redhead, our model is all set for a time in Colombia. Lighter hair and skin is popular in these parts, but so is a healthy body shape.
Philippines
In the Philippines, our model gets smaller hips but overall, a pretty reasonable size and shape.
Netherlands
These artists went as far as changing clothes and adding boots. Our model got some pretty red hair like in Colombia and though she was made smaller, she looks natural.
Peru
Though her shape has been smoothed out, her legs and thighs maintain their thicker look which is refreshing.
Syria
Not sure what happened to her crotch. This is probably just a bad Photoshop job but it looks weird. It appears they were going for wider hips and a smaller torso but nope. Fail.
Egypt
Here’s one where you can really recognize the local flair. They’ve added dark hair and one hell of a tan. You’ll notice she’s much curvier than many of the other interpretations in this list.
Romania
The quality of this job is so good, it hardly looks like she was touched up at all if you don’t see the original. Here she sports a gap that is proportionate to the rest of her body.
Italy
It’s hard to believe any part of this was actually the original picture. It looks more like the model’s head on a completely different body. Altogether, this is frightening and a bit concerning.
Ukraine
“Lady In Red” must have been a popular song in the Ukraine when it came out. Here, our model is red from head to toe, right down to the nail polish. She’s much smaller up top and the crotch looks weird in this one too.
Mexico
Mexico gave our model a nice tan, a small gap and one heck of a waste to hip ratio. That’s one voluptuous mama.
United Kingdom
Not sure why they changed the background but this British interpretation of our model does seem consistent with what one would see in British media. We have here a smaller, lighter-skinned version of our model who looks to have more of that red hair we keep seeing in this list.
Serbia
This is the first image in which makeup seemed to be the most dramatic change. Yes, most of the Photoshop jockeys in this list have shrunk our model to smaller sizes, but this one also made enhancements to this girl’s face. Her lips are more red and eyes are more defined, a nod to fashion in Serbia
