“Annchilee Scott Kemmis is here to change the beauty standards that the society has set.”
By: Rose, 9.1
Light, fair-skinned women with long black hair, perfect hourglass figures, and beautiful smiles on their V shaped faces- who wouldn’t want to look like them? These women are on the front of magazines, movies and newspapers, representing the beauty standards of Thailand. Nowadays, these standards for beauty create what our society believes makes a woman attractive, desirable and overall, beautiful. But, Annchilee “Ann” Scott-Kemmis, a Thai-Australian model who was crowned Miss Universe Thailand 2021, is here to break the standards of beauty. She’s here to spread the new era in Thailand. The era of “Real sized” beauty.
Before we continue, let’s look at the current beauty standards in Thailand. Presently, Thailand's beauty standards are influenced by the Indian caste system which indicates that the lighter you are, the higher you stand in the caste system. Thai people see light skin as youthful, wealthy and consider having light skin as a symbol of a higher class and money while associating people with darker skin as the lower rank with low payments. Some people tend to think white skin is better because of their colonial mindset. They believe that being white means rich and successful because the Westerners’ skin color was “white” when they were colonized by them. The beauty standards are having a V-shaped face, a skinny body, a narrow waist, and large eyes. People are also get influenced by Korean beauty standards from “K-pop” and a lot of TV shows in Thailand.
Scott-Kemmis challenges Thai beauty standards with her online social movement #RealsizedBeauty, to empower women to be proud of themselves and fully embrace their bodies. She got motivated by her own experience of getting body shamed and being told to lose weight just at the age of 13. Another reason was because of her experience as a captain of high school volleyball, softball, and basketball sports teams, where she talked to other young students who felt insecure and incapable of their bodies.
In an interview with Thai PBS World, she quoted “Real-sized beauty is about you celebrating your individuality, the aspects of your diversity and the unique qualities you have within you. It’s about being proud of who you are and where you’ve come from and it’s not limited to shapes and sizes”.
Moreover, she tells about her struggle with being a “plus-size” model. Since markets and shops in Thailand have a very limited size range, she can’t go to the streets and buy clothes that she finds appealing because XL doesn’t fit her by Thai standards. She admits she used to be upset about how people called her “plus-sized” and “curvy” but has now reached the stage where she doesn’t mind them anymore because that’s why she’s here to change perceptions and mindsets. Ann believes that body shaming still exists in society and feels that it’s a social responsibility to make people see the other aspects of beauty that aren’t related to body shape or appearance.
Ann being selected as Miss Universe Thailand is very significant as she won against other 29 contestants who all fit the Thai beauty standards. This shows that Thailand’s beauty standards are slowly but gradually changing. It’s telling us that the correlation between skin color and wealth is disappearing and people are starting to accept the difference between themselves.
In this world, beauty standards are unavoidable. There will always be people who want to look like others, as their role models. But our society should get more friendly towards all types of bodies and appreciate them without criticizing them. They shouldn’t make people feel like an outcast, or inferior or judge them by their cover. Everyone is beautiful just the way they are. We just need our society and social media to confirm that more.
“Be who you are, loud and proud.”
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