a look at how multi billion dollar industries (cosmetics, dieting, cosmetic surgery, pornography, mass media) set impossible beauty standards and reap large profits by making women feel insecure about their appearance.
contact: aseachange [at] gmail [dot] com
June '08 - Status Update
I have finished the research/writing part of the film.
I have done An Inconvenient Truth/Al Gore style presentation twice in front of friends & acquaintances, showcasing all of the film’s themes. Got great feedback.
I’m currently getting in touch with potential interview subjects and assembling the technical material (video/audio stuff).
Will start filming soon…
The Beauty Myth: Then and Now.
Left: Elle Magazine, French edition, January 1967. On the cover: the diet that will make you stay young for 50 years. Actual article: lots of common sense about exercising and eating well.
Right: Elle Magazine, French edition, March 2008. On the cover: style tips for overweight women, to make them look “beautiful.” Inside: the spread features models size 0-6! Celebrities featured in the do and don’t: Scarlett Johansson, Rihanna, and Beyonce!!! AHHHHHHH MY EYES!!!
My Keynote presentation is growing day by day… in one week, it went from 0 to 42 slides… Currently working on a section about different beauty standards (tanning in the West, bleaching creams in the East). Above: a gem I found last Friday – bleaching cream ads for men (“Fair and Handsome” - the version for women is called “Fair and Lovely”). I could not believe Shahrukh Kahn – one of Bollywood’s biggest stars – was the spokesperson for this product. But then again, if Ronaldo is the face of a Rogaine-like product, anything is possible. The beauty myth is indeed starting to be imposed on the opposite sex as well…
Repubblica (Italian newspaper) has an interesting image gallery, showing how Bollywood actresses have been shrinking in size.
Enemy #1 – Toys for Girls
Above: model Kate Moss, a lot wider in size than Malibu Barbie (circa 1971)
But what to say then about Bratz, aimed at 3-8 year olds? According to Playthings Magazine, “Bratz was the No. 1 fashion-themed doll property during the final quarter of 2006,” outselling Barbies by a large margin.
Best. Form. Of. Contraception. Ever.
Because who wants to have a kid, knowing that there are multi-million dollar companies promoting prostitute-looking dolls to 3-8 year olds?
After downloading the excellent Pitchboards ‘08 Keynote theme pack, I’m now building a multi-media presentation/pitch with the film’s structure/themes. Al Gore style ;)
One of the first subjects that will come up in the film is a quick look at the evolution of beauty standards, from the Renaissance to our days (see screencapture above). This week I’ll start contacting docents at American universities in Paris to see if I can find someone to interview for the 20 min/demo version of the film…
Censoring Women's REAL Bodies
“In Women and Self-Esteem, Linda Sanford and Mary Ellen Donovan report that the majority of females studied in therapy groups over a five-year period habitually downgraded their worth, and poor body image was a central factor in their self-rejection. […] Most viewed their bodies inaccurately. They distorted reality in two particular ways: either they saw themselves as having the wrong size and shape (fatter, wider, rounder than they really were), or they saw a certain body part as grossly abnormal.
[…] Sanford and Donovan assert that one reason so many women experience their bodies as a problem is that our culture teaches women that they must be pretty to be worthy, and sets up beauty standards that are unhealthy and unattainable. The poor body image that underlies a variety of adjustment problems is largely a product of social conditioning.”
from: Rita Freedman, “Beauty Bound” – p.25
The following passage is taken from Naomi Wolf’s “The Beauty Myth” – its subject is women’s breasts, but the concept could easily apply to any other body part:
“Women of all ages have a fixation - sad in the light of how varied women’s breasts really are in texture – on “pertness” and “firmness.” Many young women suffer agonies of shame from their conviction that they alone have stretch marks. Since beauty censorship keeps women in profound darkness about other women’s real bodies, it is able to make virtually any woman feel that their breasts alone are too soft or low or sagging or small or big or weird or wrong. […] The trend towards breast surgery is created by a culture that blocks out all breasts that are not the Official Breast, [and] keeps women ignorant of their own and other women’s bodies.”
My take: after spending almost 2 months reading literature on the beauty industry and its effects on women’s self-esteem, I have come to the realization that a documentary would only be part of a bigger plan.
I’m starting to think about a parallel project – a photographic one, that is. The details are still fuzzy, since when it comes to photographing women’s naked bodies it is easy to fall into the trap of exploitation. But I’d like to collect images of women of various demographic backgrounds (different age groups, shapes, sizes, racial/ethnic backgrounds), in order to go against the media censorship Naomi Wolf talks about – and to show how varied women’s bodies really are. Indeed, in the last chapter of “The Beauty Myth”, Wolf says,
“We need, especially for the anorexic/pornographic generations, a radical rapprochement with nakedness. Many women have described the sweeping revelation that follows even one experience of communal all-female nakedness. […] A single revelation of the beauty of our infinite variousness is worth more than words.”
Viva Zapatero
This is a bit off topic – has nothing to do with looksism/body dysmorphic disorder, the cosmetic surgery epidemic, or ads about ineffective beauty creams. It is, however, a very important feminist issue – after the latest elections in Spain, Prime Minister Zapatero has formed a new cabinet, with women outnumbering men. The biggest cause of rejoicing for me was the appointment of a 7 month pregnant Carme Chacon as Defense Minister – who promptly went to visit troops in Afghanistan. A big step towards equality, I’d say.
I heard about these facts during a sojourn in Italy – I’d come here a week ago in order to vote in the general elections (read: to vote against Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire uber-weasel that has been dumbing down this country with his TV/media monopoly for more than 20 years now).
On Monday, alas, he got re-elected (I’m beginning to feel Italy = Russia, democracy-wise), and what did he say, at the first chance he got? That Spain’s government was “too pink.” And then he went on to say,
That’s something we cannot do… because there is a prevalence of men in politics and it isn’t easy to find women who are qualified for government. Now he’s asked for it. He’ll have problems leading them.
My reaction? Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I wanted to tear up my Italian passport in pretty little pieces. (Of course, while the international press got a field day covering these statements, in Italy they were hardly noticed.)
What did Berlusconi do next? Not even a week after the victory in the elections, he met with Putin in his multi-million dollar villa in Sardinia and treated him with a pseudo burlesque show (featuring bikini clad dancers from one of his TV shows). Somehow I couldn’t picture Prodi (former PM) or Veltroni (B.’s opponent) pulling off the same stunts.
I wish I were from Spain.
Gladly, I’ll be off to Paris in a couple of hours.
“There’s one part of you which should definitely not be thin.”
Pantene Ad from Mademoiselle Magazine, April 1979.
(Lamest. Ad. Concept. Ever. “Favorite” bit: Thickening Shampoo de Pantene. Because if the product sounds French, women will definitely buy it in droves).
