From the Washington Post’s “On Being” video series: an interview of make-up artist Bailey Orenia-Sessoms – who speaks eloquently about race, beauty, and self-esteem.

A terrific quote:

When you have that lack of self-love, you’re more susceptible to accepting society’s “beauty standards” and then you find yourself not liking who you are year to year because every year (fashion) changes.

To watch the full interview, click here.

Yesterday, the blog Jezebel discussed a recent segment that ran on ABC’s Good Morning America:

Good Morning America recreated the 1940s experiment in which 63% of African-American children given identical white and black dolls said they’d rather play with the white doll and 44% identified more with the white doll.

The original Jezebel post and the GMA video can be found here.

That made me remember a video that I had watched over a year ago, directed by a young African American girl, who ran the very same experiment and also filmed lots of interviews of fellow African American girls, discussing self image, body image, and discrimination. It was far, far more powerful and emotional than the GMA video. I highly recommmend watching it:

According to this story on NPR, Mattel recently opened a six-story Barbie flagship store in Shanghai, China, called “House of Barbie”. In addition to building custom-made Barbie dolls, customers can also get beauty treatments like facials, and indulge in Barbie-inspired cocktail drinks with clever names such as Barbietini, Glamourpolitan, and Pink-Me-Up. (Older customers, one hopes).

Barbie is known for being yellow-haired and blue-eyed, and thus, unless you have severe myopia, she looks antithetical to every woman born in the world’s highest populated country (1.3 billion strong). So Mattel wisely created a special Barbie for the occasion, with “pan-Asian likeness.” (Never mind that 99% of the dolls and artwork in the store show the classic blonde Barbie look). We don’t care. We wanna shooooop!

Now, I truly hope there has been a mistake and this is not the close-up of the so-called “Pan Asian Barbie”:

Because her eyes don’t look the least bit Chinese. Well, unless Mattel was sneakily suggesting that Chinese women should get eyelid surgery to “open up” their eyes and look more like Caucasian women. But nooooooooo. That couldn’t be! You can just imagine Barbie saying, “Little Chinese girl: you look nothing like me! How come?”

At any rate, NPR reports:

The lure of the China market was one reason that Mattel chose Shanghai for its first House of Barbie. It’s aggressively pursuing developing markets, such as Eastern Europe, Russia and India, which aren’t already Barbie-saturated. But when deciding where to place the House of Barbie, Shanghai beat other contenders — including London, Paris, Milan, New York and Los Angeles — because of its strong cross-generation reaction to the doll and the brand.

“There was an amazing connection to Barbie’s values,”

What? Shopping? The love for the color pink? The pursuit of a size 00 with D cup breasts?

Dickson said. “Barbie in this culture represented a world of possibilities for girls and for women. She’s had amazing careers, she has the cars, she has the plane, she has the boyfriend — and she looks fantastic doing it.”

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Ok, ok. I understand. You need to work your butt off trying to become a president, an astronaut or a doctor, but you better look perfect doing it! Otherwise something’s missing.

As it is illustrated in this old Barbie ad:

Perfectionism (looks, career, personal life) = most potent weapon used against girls & women, as it sets them up for a life of dissatisfaction and craving.

Chinese girls – now, you can do it too! BDD and all! Yay!

Now, for the mommies out there, I highly recommend reading this report by Girls Inc., called the “Supergirl Dilemma.”

Girls say they are under a great deal of stress today. Three-quarters (74%) of girls in grades 9-12, over half of girls (56%) in grades 6-8, and just under half of girls (46%) in grades 3-5 say they often feel stressed (describes them “somewhat” or “a lot”).

There is an interesting article by the amazing Claire Mysko on the subject: “How to Help Girls Resist the Pressure to be “Supergirls”

When girls get caught up in the quest to be “supergirls,” they are less likely to feel confident in themselves and celebrate what truly makes them amazing. As adults who care about girls, it’s up to us to help girls confront the pressure they feel to be perfect.

Take that, Mattel.

via Jezebel:

Did Vanity Fair whitewash Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto in the March issue? If only India didn’t have a history of skin bleaching.

From Arabianbusiness.com : “Middle East beauty industry to hit $2.9bn in 2009″

Excerpt:

According to official statistics, the sales of cosmetics and perfumes across the Middle East touched $2.1 billion last year.

The sector enjoys the highest per capita consumption in the region with an average purchase of around $334 (AED1,227) per person.

The largest market is Saudi Arabia estimated to be worth more than AED7.3 billion, while the industry is expected to exceed AED3.3billion in the UAE by the end of next year, according to EPOC Messe Frankfurt, organisers of the Beauty World Middle East.

UAE = United Arab Emirates.

It’s too bad that the article does not mention specifics about best selling products. A close friend, who is now living in Dubai, tells me about the incredible popularity of skin whitening creams – perceived to give darker skinned women a boost in their careers and love life, just like in India.

Also, plastic surgery is rampant in the Middle East, amongst wealthy, upper crust women: the most popular procedure? Rhinoplasty (nose jobs) to give them a more “Western” appearance. Botox and liposuction are also on high demand.

Watch the commercial from Fair & Lovely for their Middle Eastern market:

(Remember: Fair & Lovely is owned by Unilever, the parent company of Dove and its “Real Beauty” products. For more on Dove’s hypocrisy and duplicity, check out this older post.)

Excerpt:

Madison Avenue is scrambling to adjust to a new era, when the most admired people in America are a black family. To reflect this reality, talent scouts are on the hunt for models who look like the Obama children, Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10.

[...]

Marlene Wallach, president of Wilhelmina Kids & Teens, says the First Daughters are tough subjects to match. “It’s a very specific age and a very specific ethnicity, so there aren’t that many girls that would necessarily fit the bill.”

Full article here.

On the one hand I’m deliriously happy to see that thanks to Barack Obama’s election racial minorities may get more visibility in the media – it’s about time!!! During my research for the docu “The Illusionists” I was positively surprised to see, in women’s magazines from the 1970s and the early 1980s (Vogue, Cosmo, Mademoiselle), lots and lots of black models in fashion/beauty photo shoots, advertisements, and on magazine covers. Why had they disapperared all of a sudden? The fashion industry had seemingly turned racist in the last 15-20 years. So: visibility of racial and ethnic minorities: awesomely positive.

On the other hand, though, I’m saddened that such a moving, historic milestone (the first ever black family in the White House) may get immediately mixed up with the usual base commercial interests – Sasha and Malia dolls with already developed breasts, photo shoots with Sasha and Malia lookalikes – to sell products. On top of that, the article above highlights a desire to see more Obama girls lookalikes – not more black children in fashion / advertising / mass media.

Don’t know how to feel about this…

Premise:

You have to give some credit to beauty companies. They have an unsurpassed talent at searching for – and finding – new areas to exploit.

The strategy goes like this:

1) Find one area of a woman’s body that has no dedicated beauty products/treatments

2) Make up a product/treatment that would “improve” said area

3) Through advertising and articles in women’s magazines, imply that the natural appearance of said area is unattractive/embarrassing and that you can only be pretty and acceptable if you buy the product described at point #2

After a while, sometimes with the aid of TV (with story lines dedicated to the topic) this idea permeates public consciousness, to such an extent that using the product (or treatment) becomes a necessity.

Some recent examples of products and treatments fitting the description:

- teeth whitening strips (“you need blinding-white teeth!”)
- pedicure (“your feet are simply gross without one”)
- Brazilian wax (“you don’t want to look like Chewbacca down there, do you?”)
- Botox (“wrinkles = unacceptable”)

and now, one area for which advertising is very tricky: skin tone.

L

Starting in the late 1970s, Fair & Lovely (parent company: Unilever, grandaddy of Dove “We’re for real beauty”) began promoting its line of skin bleaching creams in India. Other companies followed suit in Asian countries like China, Taiwan and Japan – even though women living in those countries already have a fair complexion. The advertising message: “white is beautiful.”

In India, the message in TV commercials and print ads is that you cannot find love or a proper job if your skin is too dark. If you use a skin bleaching cream, your face will become fairer in a matter of days, and you will be able to attract the man/woman of your dreams and get that amazing job.

In other Asian countries, where women already have a naturally fair skin, the message is slightly different. L’Oreal, Dior, and Nivea – amongst others – promote the sale of skin whitening creams with the message that exposure to the sun can be dangerous, causing wrinkles and skin impurities. A glowing, white skin is the symbol of youth and freshness.

Pure genius. Through the modification of ad messages, these cosmetics giants have been able to sell products to women of different racial origins and skin complexions.

Now, let’s come to America (North & South), Europe, and Australia. Most women there, just like in Asia, have naturally fair skin (that is, Caucasian women). I can imagine some ad men going, “What can we sell them?”

If the message is that in order to be beautiful you have to go against your nature, you can easily get to the answer: “tan is beautiful”!!!

So, starting at right about the same time, in the late 1970s, a tan body for Caucasian women has been the symbol of status (can afford time to vacation) and health (with paleness becoming synonymous with sickliness).

So, tanning beds became extremely popular in the 1980s, through the mid 1990s – until a link was found in between melanomas (skin cancer) and the use of tanning beds.

And now, the very same companies that to this day promote skin whitening creams in the Middle East and all over Asia – L’Oreal, Dior, Nivea – have an arsenal of self-bronzing and self-tanning creams for their American, European, and Australian markets.

These two ads, because of their opposite message, will positively make you flip:

Video #1 – L’Oreal Nutribronze

Video #2 – L’Oreal UV Perfect

Yay for cunning marketing!