There are certain physical traits that we as the human race can all unanimously agree are desirable, aesthetically appealing and just flat out make our eyes happy. That much is a fact…or is it?
We’ve watched beauty and fashion trends evolve across time. Let’s face it. Those preppy Ralph Lauren Polo shirts that men rock on a daily just made a come-back of recent. The same can be said for flare jeans, platform shoes and Neon colors (that really caught on in 2019 as red carpet approved by fashion’s luxury players like Prabal Gurung, Brandon Maxwell and Off-White); and I’d bet my bottom dollar that all these won’t be that savvy give or take a few decades. Point is- people in different times find different things attractive. We tend to forget however that the same can be said for geographical location.
We’ve watched beauty and fashion trends evolve across time… Now watch them evolve across space.
Japan; where beauty lies in the teeth of the beholder.
We all know or have a friend who invested hundreds of shillings at the dentists getting wires glued onto their enamels (Does anyone really know how braces work?) in the name of getting ruler- straight teeth. In fact, in many countries, crooked teeth are seen as imperfections and a perfectly vertical set of chompers is essentially the ideal. High chances are that this is the case for you who is reading this.
Fashion magazines have their covers plastered with sets of winning smiles so straight they can’t hold hands with another guy. Flair, Vogue, Essence, Vanity Fair, African woman-you name it.
But, and this is basic sociology right here, just because something is the norm in a given society does not mean that it is a hundred percent true all the time. In the particular case of straight teeth, a journey to the Far East might beg to differ.
Yaeba (八重歯,ya-eh-bah) is a Japanese word literally meaning “double tooth.” It can be used to connote either multi-layered rows of crooked teeth or two fang-like incisors sticking out from either side of one’s mouth. Reserved for the fashion conscious, it’s a trend that started in Japan as early as 2013 and saw people, especially women, embracing the look of what we would typically call ‘uneven or disorganized teeth’ It’s an outright departure from the Western ideal of ruler straight chompers.
You would think that such a trend is bad news for dentists in Japan, right? WRONG. Instead of getting paid to fix teeth- these guys are getting paid to wreck it. I’m talking dental procedures which see the upper canines capped with additional enamel like structures, or even surgically altered, to make it look crooked either permanently or temporarily. These procedures can cost from £130 to £340(546,360 to 1,428,940 UGX) for each tooth. You read that right. Each tooth.
So you’re probably wondering- just what is it about front teeth sticking out or overlapping that seemingly drives the Japanese crazy?
Some would say that Yaeba makes a woman look adorable in an almost child-like way. This is probably because it resembles a kid’s smile when their teeth haven’t all grown in yet. Yaeba is therefore a manifestation of the Japanese intrigue with youth, as many cultures have their own way of celebrating it.
But by far, my favorite perception of the entire Yaeba beauty fad is its roots in the Japanese traditional aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi. This a philosophy that, in the words of Richard Powell, conceptualizes accepting the world as imperfect, unfinished, and transient, and then going deeper to embrace and celebrate that reality. The Japanese understand that life – the fingerprints, scars, and laugh lines, the teeth – is in itself perfectly imperfect, and we should embrace the beauty in that.
So if you’re someone who is conscious about the imperfect arrangement of their gnashers, you could either 1) realize that they are not a negatively defining factor of your aesthetic appeal and do not take away anything in the least bit but rather add a layer of character, or 2) move to Japan.
I’d like to think it’s more convenient to do the former.
What is easily observable from such trends is that people do weird things for beauty. We’re talking crazy, strange and sometimes harmful. But hey, to quote one of the world’s most renowned style icons; Marilyn Monroe, “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
The Japanese seem to agree with her.
So what exactly is beautiful? I guess it all depends on who you ask.
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