Hanazakari means 'flowers in full bloom" in Japanese, or a woman at the height of her beauty. It's such a popular phrase in Japanese that it inspired a television drama, and totally understandable because for woman, aging is one of the worst enemies: worse than rotten apples, men who don't pay child support, and controlling mother in laws. This might become a creepy post and you might cringe when reading some of these descriptions (I know my girlfriend already is), but I'm gonna discuss when a woman is at her highest peak of beauty.
First of all, when discussing pure aesthetic beauty, it's hard to say due to the miracles of makeup. As women grow older, they realize how to use makeup better, so it really becomes a work of art, not pure beauty. (I'm reminded of a video I watched one time where a pretty plain-looking woman used makeup to totally change her appearance and at the end looked like someone else entirely). There's also the miracles of plastic surgery and botox and whatnot, so nowadays no one's 100% pure. There's a famous Japanese tale where a husband never knows what his wife really looks like (her suppin = face without makeup) because the wife wakes up before the husband and puts on makeup, adds more to fortify it during the day, then goes to sleep with her husband with the makeup on only to finally remove it after husband goes to sleep. So I guess the hanazakari can be in full effect!
Wrinkles: I'm actually ok with wrinkles (mainly cuz I proudly display them on my forehead too... my hanazakari ended when I went through puberty, I lost my boyish good looks at like age 15) but some women are deeply afraid of them. For women it's probably like, once a wrinkle has extended past 1mm on one's face, it's OVER....Hanazakari season has officially ended.
Grey hairs (still not sure whether grey is grey or gray, btw, one of those weird words in English language): I had a coworker who would OBSESS about any grey hairs that would pop up: dye them, spray paint them, pluck them, pray that they go away, etc., grey hairs have got to be one of the worst things about waking up ( I remember those days of waking up dreading to see what new pimples had popped up), grey hairs are probably like that for women.
At the end of the day, one quote I heard one time really hit home: Women don't really dress up and look pretty for men to look at, they dress up and look pretty for other women. (not necessarily to attract sexual attention as in a lesbian relationship, but more just to show superiority, like "Hey I'm prettier than you!" much like the guy's testosterone-inspired "I can beat you up!" or "I'm better than you at so-and-so!" girls' way of competition is to be more beautiful, to be the prettier flower in full bloom. And guys just benefit. To a certain extent, guys do this too, but the competition is not as intense, it's more about muscles, cars, athletic ability, and dissipates pretty quickly after getting into a fight or resolving it in some other way, but women.......that's a race that lasts for years. It's probably a good thing, then, that Asian woman don't age between the years of 20 to 40.......
No scientific study has dared to approach that subject before, but it is anecdotally true and I call it the Asian Hanazakari effect: Asian woman, due to protection of skin (using lotions, creams, magic powders, etc. etc......I know, my girlfriend has at least 100 of these....) they don't age out at all between these years, like a flower that's in full bloom for 2 years. I've honestly been 10 years off in guessing a woman's age (from afar, of course, and only when a woman reveals her true age, which is not common for anyone over 20) due to this phenomenon.
I apologize if this post has been extremely sexist or projected some sort of double standard against women. I think women are beautiful even if they look mature, and trying to look better than other women is just a rat race that you're not going to win, definitely not forever. I think I should end by saying I love my girlfriend, she is beautiful in every way, and she is definitely in full bloom. Hanazakari!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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