4. The Hungarian case
4.1. The superficial: influencers from Anglo-American countries
in academia. However, in these scenarios, based on the common Hungarian perception and usage of the term, the interviewees most possibly meant people or accounts from European and North American countries, as well as Australia. Only one interviewee mentioned following ‘one or two Asian’ girls, using the same term ‘Asian’ to categorize them just like the interviewee quoted above, without specifying whether she meant their racial or background. However, in the sample of screenshots the interviewees sent over the only two images that portrayed women with Asian ethnic/racial background were not living on the Asian continent – one lives in the United States, while the other in the United Kingdom.
Therefore it is clear that even though nationality-wise they do follow a diverse group, however, these account are still almost exclusively from European and North American countries or Australia, with just a few from other regions such as Middle East, but excluding Asia. Thus their global consumption of images on Instagram is presenting certain cultural imagery that will be discussed further, focusing on their interpretation and differentiation of the images from the above mentioned regions and cultures.
4.1. The superficial: influencers from Anglo-American countries
One of the most interesting findings for the Hungarian case was how Hungarian interviewees’ own personal beauty ideals reflected the characteristics and features they loved about the continental European influencers on Instagram. Meanwhile the local, mainstream Hungarian ideal that is showcased in Hungarian traditional media, which they strongly criticized, was very similar to –although a highly exaggerated version of- what they perceived as the Anglo-American beauty ideal.
In order to better understand this phenomenon, I would like to refer back to theories of cultural globalization. Revising the concept, according to John Tomlinson, “globalization refers to the rapidly developing and ever-densening network of interconnections and interdependencies that characterize material, social, economic and cultural life in the modern world” (Tomlinson, 2012, p. 352). Due to this process and consuming content via the latest technology from all around the world, some aspects of our lives, such as perceptions of beauty in this case can be shaped by ideas from other countries or cultures.
However, it doesn’t mean that as a result, all countries and people will have a homogenous, standardized culture and views of the world, regarding any topic or aspect of life. In connection to cultural imperialism or Westernization and even with cultural globalization, as
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it was already discussed in the literature review above, scholars often mention the United States or the ‘American culture’ as the driving force of this process. However, as Ryoo argues, there will never be a simple copy of the influencer Western/American culture anywhere as a result but ‘multiple modernities’ due to factors such as the local reception of such cultural influences – which will be different all around the world (Ryoo, 2009). This phenomenon of all the different local cultures shaped by the global processes is also often called glocalization.
And this can be the explanation as for why, even though that every nation’s ideals of beauty are constantly shaped by various perceptions and images from all around the world, they possibly end up embracing different modes of beauty. And that difference is what the Hungarian interviewees highlighted too, when describing images portraying women from these regions.
The interviewees tend to group together social media influencers from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, identifying their beauty ideals as similar to each other and yet distinct from influencers from continental Europe. The concept of Anglo-America containing these countries as one analytical unit is a commonly used in academia, appearing in many scientific publications and academic articles covering a wide range of fields from business and economics (Oxelheim & Randøy, 2005; Green, 2016; Varian, 2018) or social sciences ((Dimmock & Walker, 2000; Jackson & McGill, 1996), often contrasting or comparing them with Far-Eastern (Kumar & Thibodeaux, 1998) or continental European (Ooghe & Langhe, 2002; Sigle-Rushton & Waldfogel, 2007; Sison, 2009; Collison et al., 2010) countries. By Anglo-American scholars mean countries such as “U.S., Canada and Britain” (Kumar & Thibodeaux, 1998) or often phrase it naming them as “the Anglo-American group, which includes Britain and its former colonies” (Sigle-Rushton &
Waldfogel, 2007, p. 59). Some other academic articles refer to Anglo-American concepts to be “based on studies of the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada,”
(Groenewegen, 1997, p. 335) or “the US and Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand”
(Dore, 2002, p. 10) so as we can see, the specific countries that is included in this concept might vary, but the United Kingdom and the United States are the two major players that all academics include unanimously.
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While describing the beauty and looks of Anglo-American women, the Hungarian interviewees emphasized more superficial and materialistic characters – things a woman doesn’t necessarily possess naturally, but things she needs to buy or do in order to get that desired look.
Figure 1. Lili Reinhart brought as an example by HU11
“This picture is elated by the make-up, clothing and hair style as she was prepared for an event [by a team],” (HU11) emphasized one interviewee about a picture she chose of a 21 year-old American actress, Lili Reinhart.
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Figure 2. Selena Gomez as example for strong make-up look by HU10
“I like this picture because it shows that with good make-up like this smokey eye look, you can emphasize favorable features,” (HU10) said another one of Selena Gomez.
Selena Gomez is an American actress and singer, who was born in the States, but her Hispanic heritage is commonly knows –her father is of Mexican origins while her mother has Italian ancestry. Therefore even though she has US nationality, her cultural background shares American and Mexican culture as well. Asked about her looks and her vibe in the same picture that the interviewee chose, she described her a ‘bold and sexy’ and not necessarily as the natural beauty Hungarian girls seemed to prefer as their own beauty ideals, which will be discussed later on.
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Figure 3. Blake Lively, example for a posed and Photoshopped picture by HU09
Of another American actress, Blake Lively one interviewee also mentioned how she likes the picture “even though it is obviously posed and was probably Photoshopped too”, mentioning her not-so-natural make-up as well. (HU09)
The interviewees seemed to have the same attitude towards women from the United Kingdom, often emphasizing traits that were perfected by material products.
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Figure 4. British women: actress Emma Watson (left) and YouTuber Zoe Sugg (right)
“This is a campaign photo and she has more make-up on, but something in her facial features caught my eye and her make-up is very beautiful too,”
said one girl about British actress, model, activist and UN Goodwill ambassador Emma Watson. To bring one last example, describing a picture of popular British blogger and YouTuber Zoella, one interviewee emphasized her styled hair and how “you can see that she is wearing stronger make-up and her eyelashes look so good like that!” (HU02)
In order to gain assurance and more firm evidence for this argument, follow-up interviews were conducted with a number of Hungarian interviewees, who were asked about the perceived differences between influencers from Anglo-American countries and those from continental European countries regarding beauty. The follow-up question was formulated so that it would give the interviewees no hints about the anticipated, to-be-confirmed concept and argument. One interviewee reflected on the differences saying:
“As I see it, in the USA or the UK it is an expectation or even requirement for one to always have perfect hair and make-up, to always follow the latest fashion trends. Every product and trend that gets to us [to Hungary] more slowly is launched over there first and a middle class girl rather has the money [compared to a middle class Hungarian girl] to purchase everything new – or at least they
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more often know about them and they are more available to them. When an American friend of mine told me that it is expected of them to style their hair and put on make-up every day and that some of her friends take 2.5 hours daily to get ready in the morning, it just confirmed the whole thing for me. In summary, I think in the US and UK these products are more available both physically and financially, they always follow the latest trends and thus they also have a less natural beauty ideal.” (HU01)
Similarly, comparing the continental European and Anglo-American influencers’ beauty in a follow-up interview, another Hungarian girl wrote:
“There is such a big contrast! In England or America, even though sometimes they promote this ‘accept yourself the way you are’ thing, in the end you often find out that women who promoted that actually got this and that done on themselves [by surgery], it is just so fake,” adding that “most of the American social media influencers also promote for example make-up where the point is to apply 10 layers of products to ‘hide this, elongate that’ but in the end the result is not the certain person in a slightly better, enhanced version, but a completely new person. And if you were to remove all that make-up you might not even recognize that. And I just feel like trying to make us buy a foundation that’s like 60 USD is just not compatible with an ordinary person’s budget. Americans spend way too much money to consume these things but we [Europeans] don’t feel we need all that. I just cannot relate to that.” (HU10)
Talking about the mode of beauty Anglo-American influencers portray, the Hungarian interviewees described it as a superficial look driven by consumption, the need to purchase an excessive amount of often expensive products and to continuously be consuming the latest trends of fashion and make-up. Both above mentioned interviewees talked about this constant, excessive consumption not being sustainable for them as these practices are simply unavailable for most middle-class Hungarians due to budget restraints. They criticized the Anglo-American influencers for being fake and superficial, too materialistic, standing unrealistic expectations for female beauty (e.g. with the amount of time and products it is required for them in order to get ready) and deemed them often unrelatable, especially compared to continental European influencers.
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When it comes to describing Anglo-American beauty ideals, as long as the overall look is not fake in an exaggerated manner, Hungarian girls do still find women wearing make-up and having styled hair beautiful and pretty, but they do differentiate these kinds of looks from continental European influencers as well as their own personal beauty ideals. This reflects the fact that they have indeed been exposed to global, including Anglo-American images through traditional and social media throughout their whole life. Therefore they are used to this mode of materialistic beauty and find global ideas of beauty acceptable even if they do not perfectly align with their own – which, due to glocalization are different from these images.
Interestingly, this materialistic, superficial attitude towards beauty that the Hungarian interviewees ascribed to Anglo-American influencers aligns with what they described as the mainstream Hungarian beauty ideal that can be seen in traditional mass media in Hungary – which they also deem as a fake, can-be-bought mode of beauty. However, it needs to be noted that they describe this mainstream Hungarian ideal as an often exaggerated version of it that reaches the level of fakeness and superficiality they unanimously feel the need to criticize.
As mentioned above, describing the mainstream ideal, most of the girls reflected on what modes of beauty, what looks are represented in “the media”, mostly meaning traditional mass media and celebrities. Celebrities in Hungary are popular, well-known personalities that are known either because they are recognized singers or actors, often TV presenters or models – but sometimes only because they have participated in reality shows or other such programs on television, and even though they have no real achievements, due to the expose and their often scandalous behavior, people have become interested in their life, even though many people, especially middle class and above look down upon them.
Reflecting on the characteristics, modes of beauty of these women in traditional mass media, the interviewees described the image of a “fake woman”. They said a fake woman is someone who always has to have her nails done, wears rather stronger make-up, also has her hair (professionally) done. However, they also added that in general they also have to be considered feminine, which is in this case not a necessarily fake or materialistic quality, unless it is achieved by surgical intervention. Hungarian girls described the feminine woman as having an hourglass body shape and curves: bigger breasts, a tiny waist and a bigger, rounder butt – which, again, is the look that is desired mostly by and by most men in
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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.