Private and business life clearly intertwined for the Mann-Simos; now, we turn to defining the second component of the jar’s cultural biography: the family members themselves.. The Mann-Simons were a black middle class family who lived on the evolving property at the corner of Richland and Marion Street for more than 100 years. Celia Mann, a freed slave and midwife, first moved onto the property with her husband in 1843. Generation after generation, the family worked tirelessly to shape businesses and build their home (see Fig. 3). That hard work placed them in a uniquely liminal position: economically and socially, they were better off than their black friends and neighbors. Constructing and owning a home was a rarity for black families; documentation
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With a clear sense of where the bleach jar was found and who would have used it, we can finally move forward to the skin lightener itself. The bottle is not large; only about 9 cm (see Fig. 5). In his site documentation, Crockett calls it one of the most intriguing, rare, and surprising discoveries from the entire site. “Only because of the extraordinary preservation conditions of the [lunch counter] deposit do we know of the bottle’s contents. If the label had not survived, all we would know is that it was a colorless glass, French Square-style bottle, 1 1/8-inch square, 3 ½-inches high, cup-bottom molded with a patent finish.” And indeed, the paper label itself is barely identifiable: we can just make out the blue “White Life” lettering and part of a blue-and-yellow floral pattern …show more content…
However, by 1930, we do know there were 232 brands of skin lightener on the market. The vast majority of these—whether they were creams, powders, or soaps—were promoted toward women. As the flowery pattern we glimpse on the bottle’s label indicates, it is reasonable to conclude White Life was intended to be a feminine cosmetic as well. The tremendous popularity of skin bleaching products can be attributed to a wave of consumerism that enveloped the American South in the early twentieth century; a closer look at what the advertisements for skin bleaches can reveal will follow later in this paper. For now, I want to focus on the experience of African-American women themselves that might lead them to incorporate bleach in their daily beauty rituals. It is essential we investigate what these beauty routines meant to the Mann-Simons women. Just as Dorothy Ko explores the Chinese women who bound their feet as a careful part of their grooming routine, this is an attempt to look beyond a perception of oppressive advertising and instead listen to what an artifact can reveal about these African-American women’s
With a clear sense of where the bleach jar was found and who would have used it, we can finally move forward to the skin lightener itself. The bottle is not large; only about 9 cm (see Fig. 5). In his site documentation, Crockett calls it one of the most intriguing, rare, and surprising discoveries from the entire site. “Only because of the extraordinary preservation conditions of the [lunch counter] deposit do we know of the bottle’s contents. If the label had not survived, all we would know is that it was a colorless glass, French Square-style bottle, 1 1/8-inch square, 3 ½-inches high, cup-bottom molded with a patent finish.” And indeed, the paper label itself is barely identifiable: we can just make out the blue “White Life” lettering and part of a blue-and-yellow floral pattern …show more content…
However, by 1930, we do know there were 232 brands of skin lightener on the market. The vast majority of these—whether they were creams, powders, or soaps—were promoted toward women. As the flowery pattern we glimpse on the bottle’s label indicates, it is reasonable to conclude White Life was intended to be a feminine cosmetic as well. The tremendous popularity of skin bleaching products can be attributed to a wave of consumerism that enveloped the American South in the early twentieth century; a closer look at what the advertisements for skin bleaches can reveal will follow later in this paper. For now, I want to focus on the experience of African-American women themselves that might lead them to incorporate bleach in their daily beauty rituals. It is essential we investigate what these beauty routines meant to the Mann-Simons women. Just as Dorothy Ko explores the Chinese women who bound their feet as a careful part of their grooming routine, this is an attempt to look beyond a perception of oppressive advertising and instead listen to what an artifact can reveal about these African-American women’s