nor is Western standards of beauty always the same for different women. April discussed Western beauty standards through the widespread use of skin-whitening products in India in comparison to the popularity of tanning in Canada. She struggles to negotiate these two conflicting beauty “ideals.” She said: Well, my background is Indian, so I kind a find, there are certain things that we kind of adopt but it‟s actually kind of the opposite, like, over here, I have noticed a lot of Caucasian women, they like to tan, tanning is considered nice, but in Indian culture, the lighter you are, the more pretty you are considered, so, it‟s weird because I‟ve grown up with that, so I avoid the sun like crazy, especially in the summer, because I have this weird thing of getting darker. I don‟t want to get darker. I‟ve grown up with that. When I go back to India, over here you‟ll see like a whole bunch of tanning stuff and everything, you go there and everything is whitening this, whitening cleansers, whitening colour, makeup, whatever, and it‟s really weird. They are called fairness creams. That‟s what they are called. People will bleach their faces and stuff to make themselves look whiter. Yeah, it‟s a painful process I have heard. I know this is like based on history when the British came to India, it was like back in their days where even the beauty standards were fair women are better looking. I don‟t like to get tanned at all. I avoid the sun like crazy. -April, Indian-Canadian, 20 years old White colonization has had a lasting impact on beauty standards in India. April spoke of avoiding the sun to prevent becoming tanned, while white women in Canada are encouraged to purchase tanning products and spend time laying in the sun. Through April‟s narrative, it becomes evident that there is a hierarchy of beauty in Western culture. 6.5. Weight The women I interviewed experience pressure to conform to the thin Western beauty standard. However, women experience this pressure with different intensity levels. For example, April often wishes that she resembled thin women in advertisements. April said: Yeah, definitely, when you look at a Victoria‟s Secret model, she has absolutely no body fat whatsoever, but she has the biggest boobs, the nicest ass, and you are just like, where is that coming from? It‟s so unfair. So you kind of get used to wanting that. That would be my ideal body type. If I could have that. I would die for it, literally. -April, Indian-Canadian, 20 years old Unrealistic images of thin women in Western culture makes women feel like they do not measure up. The thin Western beauty standard is not only pervasive, but working towards achieving it takes a significant amount of time and effort. This is difficult for women who are in school or who work. In order to compensate for this, Nora talked about her previous habit of weighing herself every morning and how she skipped meals if she was not satisfied with the number on the scale. Nora said: I haven‟t been doing it so much now, but in the summer time, there was a point where I was weighing myself every morning, and that‟s bad. And depending on what I would weigh that morning, I would not eat all day. Yeah, if I was a couple pounds more that morning, then I wouldn‟t have lunch. -Nora, Indian-Canadian, 20 years old Nora was not the only woman that I interviewed that would adjust her eating habits to achieve the thin “ideal.” Sam, April and Kristen also altered their eating habits in order to meet the thin Western beauty standard. For Sam, restrictive eating began at age 11. She said: When I was in elementary school, the weight issue, was huge. It was huge. It was, you know, like the puberty, awkward chubby stage, then you kind of grow out of it. But during the awkward chubby stage, that‟s when, I wouldn‟t eat a snack at snack time, because I knew that I could restrict my meals. The restricting started at like, age 11. And the end of elementary school was very, very serious, in the sense that I was seeing a professional because I wasn‟t eating. And then you are thinking, anorexia at 13, that‟s crazy, and then high school only fuelled that. -Sam, White-Canadian, 18 years old 8 International Journal of Gender and Women‟s Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, December 2018 April talked about skipping meals in order to look thin for a formal: Yeah, I think that‟s pretty much it. I went to a formal, last week, and I didn‟t eat the entire day because I was worried that I was going to look fat in my dress. So I had an apple in the morning, and that was my food for the whole day. It was one of those tighter dresses, and I‟m like, I swear if I eat a meal I am going to look 3 months pregnant. -April, Indian-Canadian, 20 years old Kristen talked about her struggle to maintain a low weight in her first year of university: For me, it started, I was with a guy and he was making comments to me, like, you better not gain weight when you