Bodies, Beauty and Globalization Maggie Nelsen

Maggie Nelsen 4/18/12

Bodies, Beauty and Globalization

                Most people around the world have noticed the tendency of women everywhere to aspire to the western construct of beauty and feminization—a standard which westerners themselves struggle to achieve. The epitome of beauty is definitely tall, thin, blonde, miniature features, but most of all: White. This sentiment is thoroughly demonstrated in Glenn’s Yearning for Whiteness piece, which examines how each major region of the world works towards achieving beautiful complexion—which means as fair and pale as possible. In mostly all countries around the world, darker-skinned people are considered less intelligent, dirty, unattractive, or poor. These various connotations Glenn acknowledges are often a legacy left from colonialization, especially in countries like India or southern Brazil which have a long history of European occupation and rule. However, she also points out that each region or country has a slightly different construct of beauty given the cultural and socio-economic contexts of each place. This idea is further elaborated in the New York Times article by Barrionuevo. I hear remarks from American boys all the time about the beauty and sexiness Brazilian women have gained a reputation for—Gisele Bundchen included. The irony is she is of European (German) descent and ethnicity; obviously model recruiters and males in general are going to be most inclined towards a more European-looking woman rather than a darker-skinned Brazilian woman of indigenous descent. The fact that Gisele was scouted at the puerile age of 13 and that she was whisked away to eventually marry a American pro-athlete is kind of sad. Even more disgusting is that recruiters in Brazil will actually use scientific studies to scout out just the right demographic of women to send abroad like Gisele.

But overall there is a general “international standard” which most women work for. Glenn’s article focuses on how multinational corporations have capitalized in this international standard, developing various beauty products and treatments to help women achieve paler skin and better overall complexion. I was surprised to learn just how big and global the market is for skin bleachers and other related complexion products. Major corporations involved include French/American L’Oreal, Dutch Unilever (Ponds), and Japanese Shiseido. It only seems natural that the leading skin product lines would all come from countries where skin complexion is the Whitest and most Ideal form of facial-color beauty (Japan, Europe/U.S.). The market for skin bleachers, which are indeed bleach, many containing mercury and hydrogen peroxide, is vast. Historically, almost all skin bleaches, typically targeted for African consumers living in the West, contained unsafe levels of mercury—adding another layer of disregard to health and wellbeing to the inequality and racism already present in this practice and phenomenon. After reading this piece, I have come to believe that this practice of skin bleaching is perhaps more dangerous than the beauty-pageant culture, only because it involuntarily involves everyone. Beauty pageants affect the futures only of those who choose to participate in them, and while the activities and practices which go on within beauty pageant culture are incredible destructive (which I will elaborate on next) at least this is something that only directly effects a small group of women, and indirectly to the viewers who buy into the conceptions of beauty they see in televised competitions. Whereas women everyone will be judged by everyone based on the color of their skin—it can’t be helped, and it holds more serious social and economic implications. Paleness of skin affects marriageability in countries such as India, as well likelihood of getting a job. As one would expect these major corporations are only perpetuating the stereotype and notion the paleness is important and translates to success in many aspects of life. This is demonstrated in their heinous advertisements suggesting that women are ignored by men and turned down for job opportunities until they start using a skin lightener/enhancer product promoted in the ad.

Reading the two chapters on Miss India and the massive undertaking training entails to compete for Miss Universe is definitely a dive into an intense, scary world. While on the surface, international beauty standards of Whiteness and height and so on are sought after, girls in India must reshape their ideals slightly given height and Whiteness is not who they are. Throughout the reading many aspects of the beauty pageant culture sound all too familiar: eating disorders, strict observation and policing of one another, intensive schedules, etc. From this perspective Indian pageant girls seem no different and no more oppressed, restricted, ridiculed, and discriminated than their American and other worldly counterparts. However, there are significant differences and challenges specifically embedded within the Indian pageant culture which these girls also must contend with. For instance, one distinction I found quite interesting was the theme of seclusion from the outside world and “protection” so prevalent during Indian pageant training and competition. The girls are literally not allowed out of their hotel because of the invitations of male streetwalkers to make remarks about their flashy appearances and usually high caliber bodies as compared to everyday women in the streets. This and constant surveillance of the girls by chaperones is also the norm in order to avoid gossip and infighting among the girls and other scandals. This is absolutely not the case in America. Producers of these events or other media in the States want to capitalize and profit off the scandal and gossip about these girls as the climb to the top to be number one. Girl fights, late-night parties and escapades with boys is an opportunity to make money and publicity—it would be encouraged and even fostered in the States. Yet that is not the case here. This strongly reminded me of the article we read early in the semester about the young women who were kicked out of a bar just for being there and drinking—perceived as an encroachment on male territory. Another theme I noticed which is a similarity between the US and India is how intrinsically tied pageantry and the film industry are. One leads to the other, and there connection plays a huge role in the construction of how pageantry norms emerge.

From reading the article on China’s New Faces, I found some correlations between China and India. I think a lot of the increased pressure in these countries surrounding beauty pageants is because these are the two most populous countries in the world, which is such added pressure to stand out—within your own country and on  an international scale. Also, there is a prevalent sense of nationalism manifested in the pageant cultures of both countries. Overall, skin-tone and pageantry each have their own international standards the world tries to emulate, but as we learned from the last set of readings, the practices each carry their own culture-specific weight regionally and nationally. The latter is really important to comprehend in order to for us to understand how the globalization of standards of beauty interplay at the micro-level ideals within countries.