However, the idea of identity is not necessarily synonymous with race; it can also deal with gender. In her work “ ‘A Dubious Equality’: Men, Women and Cosmetic Surgery,” Kathy Davis examines how men who seek plastic surgery are affected by concepts of masculinity, and how it can affect their surgeries. In her discussion, Davis explains that while there has been a recent rise in the number of male plastic surgeries, these surgeries are still different from those received by female patients, and are not indicators of equality between genders. She chastises the notion that women need to dress in a way similar their male counterparts in order to succeed, “thereby ignoring real obstacles facing women in the overwhelmingly masculine world of big
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When the two talk about the ways race, class, and gender “inform preferences for lighter skin” (Kenway and Bullen 281), it is now understood to mean that they are meant to be smaller pieces of a bigger puzzle that affect how beauty and identity intermingle. Within the context of the beauty industry, this new understanding provides new insight as to how those who fall within similar communities—in terms of race, class, and gender—are differently targeted by companies. These communities can be singled out as separate and generalized entities, or can be combined and interwoven to create more complex and specific …show more content…
In doing so, societal stigmas and norms are created that have the potential to cause harm to those within these groups that do not naturally meet these specific and highly processed standards of beauty. However, an important concept that can be taken away from their work is that if members of these groups can overcome the internal need conform to highly specific and unreasonable forms of beauty, then the industry that profits off of insecurities will hold less power to do so. If the unnatural becomes natural, and grotesque becomes normal, then the necessity to create and reinforce a dichotomy between the two becomes pointless. Accepting that everyone has natural imperfections and deviations strips the power from beauty companies that thrive on highlighting, exaggerating, and vilifying
When the two talk about the ways race, class, and gender “inform preferences for lighter skin” (Kenway and Bullen 281), it is now understood to mean that they are meant to be smaller pieces of a bigger puzzle that affect how beauty and identity intermingle. Within the context of the beauty industry, this new understanding provides new insight as to how those who fall within similar communities—in terms of race, class, and gender—are differently targeted by companies. These communities can be singled out as separate and generalized entities, or can be combined and interwoven to create more complex and specific …show more content…
In doing so, societal stigmas and norms are created that have the potential to cause harm to those within these groups that do not naturally meet these specific and highly processed standards of beauty. However, an important concept that can be taken away from their work is that if members of these groups can overcome the internal need conform to highly specific and unreasonable forms of beauty, then the industry that profits off of insecurities will hold less power to do so. If the unnatural becomes natural, and grotesque becomes normal, then the necessity to create and reinforce a dichotomy between the two becomes pointless. Accepting that everyone has natural imperfections and deviations strips the power from beauty companies that thrive on highlighting, exaggerating, and vilifying