4. The Hungarian case
4.2. The natural: influencers from continental Europe
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Hungary. (Hence is the saying in Hungary that the ideal woman is 90-60-90, meaning the breast-waist-hips measurements in centimeters.) One girl stated critically:
“I believe in Hungary those are considered beautiful who are full of plaster [expression in Hungarian meaning very heavy face make-up], and have no superfluous weight at all. In the end, they all look the very same.” (HU11)
Another interviewee explained:
“my beauty ideal doesn’t match the Hungarian ideal at all. Sadly in the traditional media they don’t show these kind of girls [that I like]. The so called celebs are so fake that I can’t even believe. Hair extensions, fake boobs, fake lips… Very few post natural, no make-up pictures of themselves to Instagram either. Although I would be happy to see that, because I would see that they are also just like me. They are real people as well who don’t sleep wearing make-up, with their hair done.” (HU09)
As it can be seen from the above quotes, the interviewees were almost all very critical towards what they believe the general Hungarian beauty ideal in the traditional mass media.
This mainstream ideal surprisingly represents the looks of Anglo-American influencers on Instagram with the heightened need to purchase and use products to attain a desired level of beauty. They also contrasted it with their own personal beauty ideals that they said aligned more with modes of beauty embraced by influencers in continental Europe.
4.2. The natural: influencers from continental Europe
Another salient aspect that can serve as explanation for the differences found of Hungarian interviewees’ perceptions of Anglo-American and continental European beauty standards and ideals is the differing attitudes towards environment in the two regions which have implications to the prevalent ideas of beauty.
The Pew research Center’s 2007 Global Attitudes Project worked with a sample size of more than 45,000 people from 47 countries and territories, examining attitudes towards environment protection. They found that even though all Anglo-American and continental European countries were in support, for the specific question whether they would still want to see economic growth come at the expense of the environment, the United States had a
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lower ratio of respondents agreeing than most continental European countries. For the US, 66% of the respondents agreed, while this data is well above 75% for not all, but most continental European countries. A few examples: Sweden: 88%; Italy: 86%; Spain: 80%;
Slovakia: 77%; Germany: 75%. (Pew Research Center, 2007, p. 19)
The perception of Hungarian interviewees of Anglo-American countries and the United States particularly, contrasted with continental European countries regarding people’s attitudes towards the environment matches the findings of the above mentioned surveys and research studies. Although it does have to be recognized that nationality is not the only determinant of environmental attitudes which can vary within regions and even within countries. The Hungarian interviewees perceive continental Europeans as highly conscious and caring about the Earth and their environment while deeming Americans rather ignorant about these issues.
As the interviewees highlighted it in follow-up interviews when asked about their perceptions of the differences between Anglo-American and continental European countries regarding beauty, the environmental attitudes play a significant role in assessing beauty ideals and standards as well. One interviewee, who stated in the original interview (when asked about her personal beauty ideal) that she thought “being natural is very important”, in the follow-up interview said:
“As a lot of Europeans, for me protecting our environment and the animals is very important – that is why I became vegan too. I stay away from products that are tested on animals and I try to be conscious about fast fashion as I know it’s really bad for our environment. So that is probably why I prefer following more natural-looking, European girls on Instagram as well. They inspire me by showing me that I don’t need to spend lots of time and money to ‘make myself’ beautiful, but can be beautiful the way I am, naturally. American girls often just make me feel like I need all that stuff to be pretty and always need more and more of it – I don’t like that.” (HU07, emphasis based on interviewee’s tone during follow-up Skype interview)
When asked about examples for continental European influencers they follow for their natural beauty, interviewees mentioned Rebecca Mir German model and TV host, Jessi
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Quednao German travel blogger and Tijana Nikolic Swedish model and Danish model Josephine Skrivers. Another interviewee mentioned the importance of such environmental movements that are increasingly prevalent in Europe, like veganism or being zero waste regarding the pursuit of beauty, saying:
“My impression is that in continental Europe the beauty ideal and thus the look of an average girl is much more natural. […] And I think because of that is why some movements developed and became so popular, like being environmentally conscious, zero waste or the vegan movement as a lot of people realized that this consumption [of beauty and fashion products] is not sustainable for the environment and is probably not the key to one’s happiness.” (HU01)
These follow-up interviews well reflects the importance Hungarian young women place on being ethical to the environment and conscious about their choices in regards to beauty. They follow continental European influencers on Instagram because they portray a natural image of beauty – that is accessible for everyone without having to use an abundance of products in order to become beautiful. Instead, their images reflect being beautiful, portraying beauty in a natural way, which consequently is also much more sustainable for the environment as well.
Pursuing natural beauty for them means abstaining from things like heavy make-up looks created with a myriad of products or the constant purchases of fast fashion clothing items which in the end get thrown away putting an even bigger burden on the environment.
Examining the way they described the beauty of women from chosen Instagram images and their follow-up interview replies Hungarian interviewees unanimously associate continental European women with natural beauty which they also identify with, especially compared to Anglo-Americans.
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Figure 5. Danish model Josephine Skriver (left) and Dutch supermodel Doutzen Kroes (right)
Describing Instagram images of Danish model Josephine Skriver and supermodel Doutzen Kroes from the Netherlands when looking for women she finds beautiful one interviewee said:
“In my opinion their beauty lies in their „naturalness”, their charisma is very open, natural and positive. They both differ from my personal beauty ideal because of their light colored hair, but that just shows that a woman is not beautiful because of her outer, physical traits, but that their inner harmony has an impact on their outer appearance. Their make-up is also very natural, it just emphasizes their features. Their hairstyle could also be described with being natural, loose waves, kind of a wind-blown effect.” (HU07, emphasis added)
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Figure 6. French Angelique Boyer, as an example of natural continental European beauty
Another interviewee described the French Angelique Boyer saying
“I think this woman is beautiful because of her simplicity. She is wearing a simple white blouse, standing in front of a white background and she is still beautiful,” (HU09)
They sometimes also chose the images of European women because as they said they felt more natural, not so posed, which made them stand out amongst all the other images on Instagram. And as a last example I would like to bring a quote from an interviewee, who was talking about an image of Hungarian model Vanessa Axente, saying:
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Figure 7. Hungarian model Vanessa Axente, example of natural beauty by HU01
“She looks very natural in the picture, as if she had no make-up on. So her make-up was done to look like she has none. Her clothes are very simple, a white turtleneck and dark jeans. She has a dreamy smile and looks innocent, she is a bit blushed. She is beautiful but in a very accessible, friendly way. She looks naturally beautiful.” (HU01)
Another interviewee also mentioned how she thinks:
“people in Europe are more conservative, discreet and low-key. In Europe the simple, natural women are considered beautiful, in contrast to America that is full of fake women.” (HU09)
When they were asked to describe their own personal beauty ideals, the Hungarian interviewees portrayed an image resonating with how they perceive continental European beauty, often emphasizing the natural mode of beauty.
“For me it’s important to have a natural appearance. This doesn’t mean not using make-up at all or not caring about one’s look – but the way she does her make-up should have a more natural and young effect,” one interviewee said, while others also emphasized things like “for me a girl is beautiful if she dares to show her naturalness even without make-up” or “I think beauty is when someone
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is natural. She wears a little bit of make-up to emphasize her favorable facial features, but definitely not too strong [of make-up].” (HU08)
Hungarian girls therefore recognize the beauty in one’s innate look and characteristics and condemn the (excessive) use of products to enhance one’s beauty. They prefer a girls natural look, which they contrast with the Anglo-American beauty culture that expects or even requires women to use products (make-up and clothing) and services (surgery and fake tanning) to make them beautiful.
However, being natural in regards to female beauty in an unclear and subjective term or concept that has not yet been defined in academia either. Some studies mention it through the interpretations of their subjects, however even their opinions within one study often differ. In the study of Jurdi and Smith (2018) the interviewees (Lebanese women aged 18-45) define natural beauty as either the lack of surgical intervention or procedures or the lack of make-up use. However, the extent to which they require such things differs as well: for some women using make-up but not excessively can still be considered beautiful, while for others the use of any make-up or beauty products eliminates the right to be called natural.
There are studies that focused on the aging aspect of beauty, where for the women in the study (aged 50-70) being natural meant, again, the lack of plastic surgeries and the acceptance of natural aging (Clark & Griffin, 2007). In Millard’s (2009) study about the Dove “Real beauty” campaign and women’s perceptions about the concept of beauty, her interviewees defined the opposite of natural as “orangey tans, heavy makeup, plastic surgery, overly tight clothes, acting self-absorbed, and airbrushing, among other things,” (p. 155) which includes an even wider range of aspects. Millard noted that her interviewees used the term natural to describe one’s “true self”. Other studies disregard plastic surgery, clothing or tans as it is and place the emphasis only on make-up instead. Sur (2017) defines natural beauty as:
“ is ‘modern’ with a look that is called the “nude look” and is very first world dominated. It was the most popular makeup among my participants which exhibits a barely made up look. The blogs through various steps teach how to look natural by choosing the shades that look natural.” (Sur, 2017, p. 281)
She explains how in the researched beauty blogs there were actually 6-7 steps on average that one needed to follow to achieve that ‘natural’ look that were “very laborious and time
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interviewees highlighted the same phenomenon of applying make-up products that require a lot of time and effort in order to achieve a look which looks as if the subject in fact had no make-up on.
Figure 8. Examples of the “no make-up make-up look” presented by HU01
Describing a picture of Hungarian model Vanessa Axente she said:
“She looks very natural on the picture, as if she has no make-up on. So her make-up was done to look like she has none.I don’t know how much work they put into her hair and make-up looking so natural, simple and clean.” (HU01) Going on to talk about another woman she chose as an example of beauty, she said:
“Her make-up also looks minimal, natural. That kind of no make-up make-up look, which probably took a lot of work, but has the effect, espeically on picture that she has no make-up.
Her eyes, her eyebrows, lips, and the foundation all have this natural effect.” (HU01)
She praised the women for looking natural, while admitting that she was conscious of their use of possibly extensive make-up. Therefore for her –and many other Hungarian women
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based on personal experience- looking natural doesn’t necessarily exclude the use of make-up or doesn’t even limit the number of products, as long as looking at the final result it is not obvious for the onlooker that the person in question is wearing make-up. Looking at the images that the Hungarian interviewees described as natural, it is the light eye make-up (lack of dark eye shadow, eyeliner or dramatic mascara) and the lack of lipstick or at the least the use of natural looking, nude colors that makes a make-up look is perceived natural in their eyes.
As the examples from previous literature and this present research shows, the idea of natural beauty is a subjective concept that can be different for each individual and we need to be conscious of this fact when reading and assessing opinions and descriptions using the term.
People have different extents to which they expect one to be natural and untouched, meaning the lack of using products and other interventions, in order to fulfill the requirements or standards for natural beauty. For some individual the use of any products or procedures is unacceptable, and only the way someone was born can be considered truly natural.
Meanwhile for some others it is only plastic surgery or a certain amount or kind of make-up products that rules out the label ‘natural beauty’, therefore in their perceptions to some extent, deliberately made beauty can also be natural. We need to be critical towards women’s use of the term ‘natural’ when talking about female beauty, because as of now, there is no commonly accepted definition in academia for natural beauty and this present research also only provides preliminary data suggesting the concept. Further extensive studies are needed in the field to gain a deeper understanding of women’s perceptions of natural beauty and to establish a definition that can be widely used in academia.