Globalization of Beauty

Jane Sternbach

4/16/12

Sociology of Globalization

Response to Globalization of Beauty

            I know that everyone is sick of me talking about globalization as western imperialism, but with these articles, I couldn’t help where my one-track mind went. Article after article this week was another affirmation of imperial standards of beauty set by the West. Almost every single one discussed the ways in which the standards of beauty in that place are changing to conform to the unrealistic beauty criteria set by the capitalist West, in a western effort to sell more products and more money on beauty pageants. In this way globalization can be equated to homogenization. Not only homogenization, but homogenization within a powered context. It is not as if we are taking the “best” features of all these different ethnicities, we are taking the ones highly values in the West and imposing them on others because we have the power to, and because it gives our corporations extra padding for their pockets.

            Not only does this topic need to be looked at through a capitalist/imperialist lens, it also needs to be looked at through a feminist one. Imposing unreachable standards of beauty on women, give women something to strive for while they spend all of their money on cosmetics and cosmetic surgery, and at the same time reinforcing patriarchy. This unattainable goal distracts these women from education and other things that would be useful in reducing patriarchy in their home countries. In the article about China, Jesus describes how women undergo plastic surgery (to get more Caucasian features) in order to be more competitive for jobs. At first glance, this seems like a good thing: women getting more job opportunities, who cares what the costs are? However, getting a job based on your looks is clearly not beneficial for women, because it basically justifies the male gaze and harassment in the workplace. Dewey says, “women are positioned as embodied subjects for male consumption” (p.123). You don’t spend loads of money to get plastic surgery to have people (aka men) not look. Why would anyone take your brains seriously when they only notice your breast implants? So, maybe it gets her the job, but it also further oppresses her.

            In both Dewey’s Chapter 5 and Onishi’s article on Nigeria, the authors describe how the beauty pageant industry goes out of its way to disregard traditional beauties in favor of the more modern and international beauty, which means a woman who fits as many Western standards of beauty as possible. Although this happens in India and Nigeria, I found the contrast very interesting. India, a country that has been trying to make itself modern, industrious, and developed both in the eyes of the West and its own eyes, has not opposed this imposition of beauty standards. In fact, it seems to have embraced it, not only in beauty pageants but in their more popular media as well. On page 123, Dewey states: “American images of beauty…has deeply impacted the notion of what a beautiful actress looks like” and she goes on to say that, “she [the actress] is on every film screen as a beautiful accessory to an actor.” This shows how widespread these ideas are in India.

Onishi writes a different story about Agbani Darego, who was the first African winner of the Miss World pageant because she embodies Western ideals of thin as good. However, in Nigeria, many people do not consider her slimness appealing, and in fact the ethnic group Agbani comes from prides themselves on thicker women. This means that where she grew up, she was considered ugly, but to the world/West she is the epitome of beauty. The group that she comes from actually sends their women to fat camp. In the United States, fat camp is where you go to lose weight, but the Calabari fat camp is the exact opposite! Onishi says that the younger generations of Nigerians seem to be buying into the Western ideals more than the older one, but it could also be a fad. Obviously it is too early to tell, but I would be very surprised if the idolization of thinness is simply a fad, because the influence of western standards are only going to get stronger and more deeply rooted in culture.

One thing that I found interesting in Dewey’s chapter 5 is her explanation “why pageants are such a sensation in urban India, but not in the countries that India regards as ‘developed’” (p.159). She quotes a former Miss World saying that she loves being able to show the more developed (western) countries that even though she might come from a less developed place, she can win. This reminds me of Lagaan, and the underdog beating the imperialist/colonialist at their own game. It proves something to the rest of the world about India, if their woman wins. Winning is an exceptionally hard feat in a contest like a beauty pageant (something that is under-valued because it’s for women) that is based on western beauty ideals. In Lagaan, they were playing cricket, with a set rulebook, that is inflexible; regardless of the fact that one side got to make the rulebook. In these pageants, the rules are similarly set by the west, but because of the total power the West has, it could change them on a whim. This begs the question, is playing the game by their rules getting you anywhere? Or are you just buying into the game, without critically looking at the affects? Would it be better to play your own game?

One of the most interesting things about Dewey’s chapter 3 was the discussion on women being in competition with and constantly critical of other women. Some of the ways that women talk about themselves, and other women in India were shocking to me. Dewey says, “it is perfectly normal, even expected, that women will comment on the appearance of other women”(p.120). In this way, the women are participating in the policing of patriarchy, as well as contributing to the commodification of women. Dewey also quoted one woman saying, “it is because I am so beautiful” (p.120). I was shocked to learn that such statements were not out of the ordinary. It’s ironic to think about how in the United States, we are so used to mostly naked or fully naked women that we are seen as not having any modesty. But it would be strange for a woman to say something like that with such self-confidence because we are socialized to be modest, at least in this respect. Whereas in India, the opposite seems to be true: women are told to be modest in regards to sexuality, but apparently not in their view of themselves. In both cases, it’s problematic. In India’s case, it again contributes to the commodification of women, because it normalizes their objectification to the point where they do it to themselves. In the United States, we have the problem of needing men to validate us, and our self-esteem is based on a relationship to men; we lack self-efficacy.

Finally, the Glenn article was extremely interesting and backs up a lot of the points already mentioned. Glenn does a great job illustrating the global whitening phenomenon, which all of the other articles talked about as well, and relating it back to the multinational corporations. These corporations rely on women buying their products, but they did not create the market for them. There has been a long-standing tradition of preferring lighter over darker, which can greatly be attributed to the white Western countries colonizing the world, spreading their ideas about white superiority. Something that Glenn touches upon, but I find really interesting, is that women in the United States give themselves skin cancer and pay enormous amounts of money trying to look more tan. Glenn doesn’t really give an explanation for this. Why would be want to be more tan, when everyone else is killing themselves (sometimes literally) to be whiter?