Ok, every other Asian Blogger has had a Betelnut Girls story so I figured “if you cant beat them – join em”
Mr Smith
The term Betel nut beauty refers to a common sight along roadsides in Taiwan: a young woman selling betel nuts and cigarettes from a brightly lit glass enclosure while wearing revealing clothing.(Openshaw) The Mandarin term names the women after Xi Shi, the legendary beauty of imperial China’s Spring and Autumn Period. Though betel nuts are chewed in many regions of the Asia-Pacific, the betel nut beauty phenomenon is distinctly Taiwanese.
The original betel nut beauties were the “Shuangdong Girls” who, in the 1960s, brought glamour to the opening of the Shuangdong Betel Nut Stand in Guoxing Township, Nantou County. The success of the marketing strategy led competitors to follow suit, and by the end of the century betel nut beauties and their neon-topped kiosks were a trademark feature of Taiwan’s cities and countryside. The kiosks appear in urban, suburban and rural settings alike. They are most characteristically encountered along major highways where truck drivers–famously enthusiastic consumers of betel nuts–can easily find them.
Controversy surrounding betel nut beauties generally centers on two questions: (1) the propriety of their revealing dress in public places and (2) whether their dress marks them as victims of exploitation.
Betel nut beauties often hail from agricultural and working-class sectors of Taiwanese society. This has led some critics to regard their revealing dress as a sign of exploitation. Other observers take a more benign view. If most betel nut beauties come from agricultural and working-class backgrounds, so do their customers and employers. Betel nuts are, after all, an agricultural product.
These observers are more inclined to see these betel nut vendors as self-empowering: young women with few resources who better their economic situation by employing a marketing technique that requires confidence. The same approach is evident, they say, wherever trade show and fashion models do their work. Ordinances that target betel nut beauties exclusively, say these observers, smack of hypocrisy and class discrimination.
The Center for the Study of Sexualities in National Central University has been promoting the self-empowerment of betel nut beauties. Citing other occupations that also involve female nudity, for example, show girls, female liquor promoters, nude models for artistic purposes, pole dancers, or even popular Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai. The underlying notion is that is there are differences in degrees of female nudity
From Wikipedia
Promo video for a proposed documentary by Tobie Openshaw on the Betelnut girl culture
This Video had Mad Camel Toe
More…
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