Dear students,
The ELC Guest Talk—Asian Beauty: Racism, Sexism and Beauty Ideals— was held by ELC this Wednesday, May 8th. The talk was given by Dr. Esther Hio-Tong Castillo, who is a feminist, educator and sociologist. She grew up in Macau and currently lives and works in Philadelphia in the United States. Dr. Castillo received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Temple University in Philadelphia.
In this talk, Dr. Castillo discussed how beauty standards have changed over time, shed light on how beauty ideals are used to perpetuate racism and sexism, and explored strategies to create more positive standards of beauty.
There were more than twenty participants. They were focused on listening to the speaker and active in responding to Dr. Castillo’s interactive questions. During the Q&A session, some thought-provoking questions were asked. For example, “Does beauty even exist?”, “Should we create another word to replace beauty?”, “Why do people in America like to be tanned, while Asian people are eager for whiteness in their skin?”, etc.
Overall, the talk was very successful. Participants and the speaker had a great time discussing racism, sexism and beauty ideals.
Please check out the ELC’s webpage (http://elc.umac.mo) for more information and photos. Thank you very much for your participation in ELC activities and for your support for our University’s English Language Centre.
English Language Centre (ELC)
Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH)
University of Macau (UM)