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Q&A How do I express that a culture has a different standard of beauty?

Does the story you're writing center around this idea of the concept of what is beautiful being different from what the current Western standard of beauty is? Or is this just window dressing and w...

posted 8y ago by DoWhileNot‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:29:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24126
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar DoWhileNot‭ · 2019-12-08T05:29:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
Does the story you're writing center around this idea of the concept of what is beautiful being different from what the current Western standard of beauty is? Or is this just window dressing and world building?

If it's just background for the story, then treat it that way. Mention it casually, and incorporate it in as you would hover car or faster than light travel. It's there, and it belongs as naturally as trees belong in a forest and glass belongs in high rise buildings. Say the girl is beautiful and has deliciously chubby fingers, or whatever, and leave it at that.

It doesn't have to be a big deal. It's a given - this is what people think in the culture of your story.

And the idea that you're going to lose readers just because of some small element of world building is nuts. You might lose readers if your plot has holes in it, or if your writing is poor, but not for something like this.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-08-12T15:30:37Z (about 8 years ago)
Original score: 3