Blaire Beavers
Position Paper
The cosmetics industry has been dominated by females since its creation; this also means it’s been dominated by idealized women. If you pick up a weekly advertisement for Sephora, odds are you’re going to see a very pale, very skinny, young woman on the front. While in Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly film series show how women are portrayed negatively in the media and its effect on the everyday women, I believe the makeup industry may be on leading the way to a new image. The history of the industry can be traced back to as far as 10,000 BC. At this time, both men and women in Egypt used oils as way to mask body odor and protect and soften skin. Around 4,000, Egyptian women started using various minerals …show more content…
Later on, with the help of retouching technology, cosmetic models are some of the most despised for their “lack of flaws” appearance. Of course, if the cosmetic company is trying to sell something to make you look flawless, why would their model appear to have flaws? The real issue comes down to this: what defines a flaw. In the history of advertising things such as wrinkles, freckles, darker skin, dark hair, not-white teeth, and being bigger than a size 2 are reasons to either disqualify you from modeling, or something to be fixed. In reality, these are qualities that make us human, which is why the advertising industry has been in so much heat …show more content…
I know I still see plenty of the “ideal” woman in ads all over the place. Well, aligning with the third wave of feminism, much of the reasoning behind the cosmetic industry now is isn’t fixing yourself because you feel like you need to, but rather improving yourself because you want to. The biggest contributor to this in my opinion is social media. The biggest influencer being YouTube, a place where thousands of videos are being uploaded and viewed daily all about cosmetics. From a personal experience, I don’t think I would know anything about makeup if it weren’t for YouTube. This platform allows everyday people to say their opinions on products, show how products are used, and teach others tutorials on how to apply makeup. Because of this, knowledge is being spread more easily, allowing more people to be involved with once a “prestigious” industry. It is showing people that women can make themselves look how they want, not because they need to look a certain way, but because they now know how to make themselves feel
Position Paper
The cosmetics industry has been dominated by females since its creation; this also means it’s been dominated by idealized women. If you pick up a weekly advertisement for Sephora, odds are you’re going to see a very pale, very skinny, young woman on the front. While in Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly film series show how women are portrayed negatively in the media and its effect on the everyday women, I believe the makeup industry may be on leading the way to a new image. The history of the industry can be traced back to as far as 10,000 BC. At this time, both men and women in Egypt used oils as way to mask body odor and protect and soften skin. Around 4,000, Egyptian women started using various minerals …show more content…
Later on, with the help of retouching technology, cosmetic models are some of the most despised for their “lack of flaws” appearance. Of course, if the cosmetic company is trying to sell something to make you look flawless, why would their model appear to have flaws? The real issue comes down to this: what defines a flaw. In the history of advertising things such as wrinkles, freckles, darker skin, dark hair, not-white teeth, and being bigger than a size 2 are reasons to either disqualify you from modeling, or something to be fixed. In reality, these are qualities that make us human, which is why the advertising industry has been in so much heat …show more content…
I know I still see plenty of the “ideal” woman in ads all over the place. Well, aligning with the third wave of feminism, much of the reasoning behind the cosmetic industry now is isn’t fixing yourself because you feel like you need to, but rather improving yourself because you want to. The biggest contributor to this in my opinion is social media. The biggest influencer being YouTube, a place where thousands of videos are being uploaded and viewed daily all about cosmetics. From a personal experience, I don’t think I would know anything about makeup if it weren’t for YouTube. This platform allows everyday people to say their opinions on products, show how products are used, and teach others tutorials on how to apply makeup. Because of this, knowledge is being spread more easily, allowing more people to be involved with once a “prestigious” industry. It is showing people that women can make themselves look how they want, not because they need to look a certain way, but because they now know how to make themselves feel