Beauty is, as the adage goes, in the eye of the beholder. Blond, brunette, milky skin, freckles, chipmunk cheeks, willowy -- it's easy to find someone who agrees these traits are either attractive or not so much. And, they provide a pretty clear description. I could probably find someone at the airport given this basic information.
You rarely hear anything about dental status added to the list. So how did Americans become obsessed with white teeth? Check out any pharmacy and you'll go dizzy over the choices in teeth whiteners. TV commercials abound with women fretting that they don't have time to whiten before a big date.
Chalk it up as yet another project of Madison Avenue trying to define how we ought to look -- right up there with having firm, tight skin and nary a strand of grey.
A European once told me he could always spot an American. I thought he'd comment on our volume or the socks with sandals get-up -- both understandable targets. But he surprised me by saying we all have such white teeth.
Can you become obsessed with whitening? Addicted even? No one wants to look like they've spent months with Captain Jack Sparrow gnawing on bugs and berries, but there's no need to blind someone either. To paraphrase an old joke, you really want to help the over-whitener, but you'd miss using them as a night light.
No comments:
Post a Comment