A brief description of the Young Women, Beauty and Self-Image project, carried out in 2001 and 2002. Also contains the Executive Summary of the report of the project.
The Young Women, Beauty and Self-Image project was a sub-project of the Vanuatu Young People's Project (YPP). One of the key recommendations from the YPP's 1998 report on a survey of over 1000 youth living in and around Port Vila was the need to undertake more research on the gender dimensions of issues which affect young people in Vanuatu today. The Young Women, Beauty and Self-Image project was, in part, a response to this recommendation. The project focussed on hearing young women's opinions about issues, such as kastom (custom or tradition), religion, relationships, and money, which affect young people in Vanuatu, and, particularly, on the way in which these issues affect young women's ideas about beauty and self-image. The project consisted of both qualitative and quantitative research with video training for young women. The outputs of the project were a film about the issue of chiefs opposing the wearing of trousers by women - "Wan naes wan" - and a research report.