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
Week 5 : Almost There / “The Sound of Music” vs. “L’Avventura”
The research part of the film is almost over – as I have already read more than a dozen seminal books about feminist theory, media criticism, and – more importantly – the beauty industry.
I’m currently finishing up Rita Freedman’s “Beauty Bound: The Myth in the Mirror” and I’m waiting for Margo Maine’s “Body Wars” to arrive at the library. As soon as I finish reading those, I will move on to the actual writing part, and will do a research on the economics of the beauty industry, getting up-to-date numbers on world-wide profits.
The most fun part so far has been looking at vintage issues of Vogue, Mademoiselle and Elle magazine. I have always been averse to so-called “women’s magazines,” because of their contradictory messages, with their staple features on improving one’s self esteem, right next to impossibly airbrushed ads of beautiful women. Well, while perusing Vogue and Mademoiselle issues from the late 1970s, I was shocked to see their advertising images:
- Regardless of the season, I found tons and tons of ads portraying dynamic women: running, swimming, playing tennis, in work attire rushing to the office…
- Images of “passive” women, languidly resting on beds/sofas/fill-in-the-blank were virtually absent.
- Anti-wrinkle cream ads were virtually non-existent in the 1970s. The most popular beauty products then were foundation, as well as eyeshadow & nail polish in vibrant colors.
- Bodies were rounder.
- There were big smiles plastered on women’s faces. Think: “The Sound of Music” contrasted to today’s Antonioni-like ennui.
I flipped through these magazines in utter amazement, longing for those images to come back, to become a standard again. Then I went back to the library the next day, picked up the exact same issues, analyzed them a little longer, and saw that extensive airbrushing was prevalent then, too. Even in the 1970s. And that you could hardly find images of women over the age of 40. Or over a size 6.
Some things seem to be carved in stone.
