Women of Colour and Their Attitudes Towards Beauty Standards

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DO I HAVE THE COURAGE TO LOOK LIKE MYSELF? WOMEN OF COLOUR AND THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS BEAUTY STANDARDS

ONALEE GROVES

Integrated Studies Project

submitted to Dr. Cathy Bray in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts – Integrated Studies

Athabasca, Alberta

December, 2010

Index

Title Page #

Abstract ...... 3

Introduction ...... 3

Research Methodology...... 7

Women and the Beauty Myth ...... 11

Beauty and Power ...... 15

“The Other” ...... 16

The Impact of Slavery and Colonization ...... 20

Beauty Practices of Women of Colour . . . . . 25

Self Esteem and Body Image . . . . . 28

Beauty and the Male Gaze ...... 33

Marketing to Women of Colour . . . . . 34

The Mirror Image ...... 43

Ethnic Identity through Clothing ...... 45

Daughters . . . . . 48

Conclusions . . . . . 51

Abstract

Rates for cosmetic surgeries and aggressive beauty practices have increased dramatically over the past several decades in the western world, but there is little research that demonstrates how many of these procedures have been completed on women of colour and why. There is significant data that suggests the majority of these surgeries have been completed on women, and that most of them are white. This project specifically examined the attitudes of women of colour towards aesthetic and surgical procedures and what has been referred to as “integrationist” beauty practices. Historically women of colour have been denigrated, stereotyped and presented in a negative manner in the media. The Euro-centric beauty standard has been the dominant image and this has had devastating effects on women of colour. Learning to recognize and criticize these sociocultural messages is important so that women of colour are not internalizing their subliminal significance. Parental attitudes and the messages being disseminated to young women of colour around the topic of appearance, cosmetic surgeries and ethnic clothing are discussed.

Introduction

“It was the custom when I was little for a woman to have tiny tiny feet. Westerners called them bound feet, but we call them something so much prettier in China: new moon or lotus petals, after the Tang Dynasty concubine who started the tradition. So beautiful a dancer was she that the Emperor had a larger-than-life lotus complete with pond constructed for her of metal and jewels, and for his entertainment, asked her to wrap her feet in strips of silk cloth and dance among the petals of the lotus. . . The Emperor was so impressed that other women began to wrap their feet and bend their arches in the crescent shape of the new moon. That is how the tradition began” (Chang, 21).

And thus one of the first beauty standards was created. The Chinese practice of foot binding was an ancient tradition that was passed from “mother to daughter, generation to generation and lasted for almost a thousand years”(Mao, 8). Foot binding was practiced not only to make women look beautiful to the opposite sex but to signify that the woman had reached womanhood. “Bound feet served as marker of the woman’s gendered identity” (Mao, 8).

Binding feet was clearly much more than a standard of beauty but a highly effective method of controlling women and keeping them servile. Women with bound feet were not only physically incapacitated but mentally crippled as well, for they knew they were literally incapable of running away from negatives relationships.

“The Chinese may have been the first to develop the concept that the female body

can and should be altered from its natural state”(Owens-Patton, 25) “the practice

of foot binding clearly illustrates the objectification of parts of the female body as

well as the demands placed on women to conform to beauty ideals”(Owens-

Patton, 25).

The Chinese were not the only cultures that altered their bodies for as early as the 700

B.C. Assyrian kings favoured surgical nose augmentation as they considered “big noses to be a symbol of power and authority” (Horsbrugh-Porter, 109) and 16th century surgeons were reshaping noses to disguise the tell-tale signs of syphilis. In the 1880’s

“Irish immigrants lengthened their ‘pug’ noses to help them assimilate into western culture”(Shute, 2). The practice of altering one’s body to achieve a certain standard is obviously not a new concept, but one that has endured over time and is a considered commonplace in today’s western society. Western society generally refers to the

Americas – North and South, as well as Europe and Australia, cultures that share similar cultural values and lifestyles.

Each culture sees beauty through its own cultural lens, as the Chinese saw the tiny foot as the signifier of an attractive woman. Wolf states that each culture has their own preference in that

“the Maori admire a fat vulva, and the Padung, droopy breasts”(Wolf, 12).

In postmodern western society there are many signifiers of beauty; such as large breasts, big eyes and thick lips, and there are increasing demands placed on women today to achieve this often unrealistic and unnatural beauty standard. According to Owens-Patton the current beauty standard in North America is a white, young, slim, tall and upper class woman, a standard that takes extraordinary measures to meet, especially if you are a woman who is not white. Considering that the white beauty myth is the current standard, the question posed is how do these current constructs of beauty affect women of colour?

This paper examines whether or not women of colour feel the need to alter themselves to adhere to a western beauty benchmark or if they have been able to shed the prevailing homogenized image of the dominant culture. It has been documented that

“Asian American and African American women have sought facial surgery in

order to come closer to the Euro-American beauty ideal (Faludi, 91).

Although the number of women of colour having cosmetic procedures is increasing, there are few studies on their reasons for participating in these procedures. Whether they are trying to mimic the Euro-centric model, assimilate into western culture, alter their ethnicity or attract the male gaze, is not well documented. It is also not known what standard they are perpetuating with their children and if they are encouraging their daughters to be comfortable with their own beauty and ethnicity. The impact of knowing

5 this information may help us to see what the future will hold for women, especially women of colour living in western society. Some experts such as Etcoff are predicting that the

“all American beauty will look different as we head into the next century and the

iron grip of the northern and western European blond will give way to greater

diversity”(Berry, 36).

I will contend that women will learn to embrace their own cultures and ethnicities through education and the awareness of media messaging.

This paper begins by looking at the creation of the beauty standard, who defines beauty and what that means for women of colour. It speaks to the fact that beauty has largely been created by a capitalistic society and like money, it is a currency that holds power, therefore it is enticing for most women to acquire it. There are many factors that influence how women of colour the beauty standard for women of colour, such as the gaining the attention of men and assimilating into western culture. Women of colour have been significantly affected by colonization and slavery and this paper examines the impact these institutions have had on their attitudes towards their looks and the practice of mimicking the white beauty standard. This paper touches on the fact that women of colour are not considered a significant portion of the beauty market, nor are they considered to be a viable sector of the market to sell beauty products to. For this reason I will argue that women of colour are largely ignored and left to create a standard of their own.

Methodology

A great deal of the archival research for this project was found online through the

Athabasca University library site in a variety of texts and journal articles. To complete the qualitative research I held 6, one-on-one interviews with women of colour. This created a challenge as it was difficult to connect with women of colour in my community, as it is not known for its diversity. Living in a city north of Toronto with a population of just over 140,000 made it difficult to find my sample so I began by writing letters to local cultural organizations such as the Caribbean Cultural Institute and the Latino-American

Community Centre to ask for their assistance. These groups provided me with several willing volunteers and through these contacts I was able to find six women who agreed to participate in the interviews.

In conversation with one of the women, she noted that she was the Executive Director for a community centre located in east end Toronto and she would be willing to organize a focus group of women that would serve a dual purpose. I would have the opportunity to conduct my research and this would provide her with a chance to do some community engagement work. For the interviews and the focus groups I compiled a series of questions that I utilized to engage the participants and encourage discussion listed in

Appendix “A”. The women that participated in the research are listed in Appendix “B”.

The interviews were held in informal settings, meeting rooms at my work place and my home, with the exception of the focus group that convened at the Warden Woods

Community Centre in Scarborough.

It is essential in completing research to declare any possible biases that the researcher possesses. We all bring our unique perspectives to our work which can affect the way in which we interpret the data and analyze it. I am white woman in my fifties that has lived through two of the three waves of feminism, the second wave being one that I actively participated in and one that personally resonated with me on many levels. As a white post-modern feminist it is important to recognize that my experience has not been, nor is it now, similar to that of women of colour.

The first wave of feminism attempted to acquire equal rights for white women, such as the right to vote and the ability to own property. The second wave of feminism defined by feminist Betty Friedan as “a problem with no name”(Zeisler, 47) was primarily directed at

“college-educated, middle and upper class, married white women – housewives

bored with leisure, with the home, with children, with buying products, who

wanted more out of life” (hooks, Feminist Theory, 1).

The experience of the second wave was a white revolution and it did not adequately serve the needs of women of colour, as it was premised on some basic tenets that did not apply to them. Feminist theory was created on the belief that

“all women are oppressed. This assertion implies that women share a common

lot, factors like class, race, religion sexual preference”(hooks, Feminist Theory,5).

This particular feminist movement was not inclusive and only served white liberal bourgeois women. Black women refused participation because they felt an anti-male

8 stance was not a sound basis for action, as they could see that their men were oppressed as well. Rather they “bonded with their men to support anti-racist movements”(hooks,

Feminist Theory, 15).

The third wave is a concept that is a little more difficult to describe. According to Zeisler the third wave is “less about collective action than about individual choices”(Zeisler, 113) however others would argue that it is has been aimed at empowering women and addressing those that have been marginalized such as “working women, women of colour and transgender women”(Ziesler, 113). Most importantly the third wave has tried to encourage women to revel in their personal strengths. As one Toronto Star reporter wrote,

“I found feminism in the toilet the other day. . . . scrawled in black pen by

someone who, whether she knows it or not, is a feminist, it read “You are perfect,

sexy and awesome exactly as you are” (Baute, L1).

This statement summarizes the third wave in that its focus was for women to love and accept themselves and their personal styles unconditionally.

Assuming that the third wave is ubiquitous and a model that western women are embracing, one might think that women of all backgrounds and ethnicities are becoming more comfortable with themselves. This point is easily argued when we look at the amount of money being spent by women on altering themselves, such as the “$33 billion dollar diet industry, the $20 billion dollar cosmetics industry and the $300 million dollar cosmetic surgery industry” (Wolf, 17). Many women will argue that the current third wave does not do a better job of serving women, just a different job. Where the 60’s and

70’s were criticized for serving women obsessed with social change, feminism today is criticized for being wed to the culture of celebrity and self-obsession (Ziesler, 117).

Unfortunately there is no one feminist movement that is a ‘one size fits all’.

While collecting data it quickly became apparent to me that I had never considered race as a social construct, rather I have seen it from a biological perspective. Many have argued that race has been socially constructed and divides humans into sub groups based on the way they look and this system exists for the purposes of keeping the Europeans in a superior position. This is not to say that there aren’t biological characteristics associated with different races, such as black women having kinky hair, but like some scholars have suggested, race has meaning because societies give it meaning.

This awareness made me realize that I was approaching this research project from an essentialist perspective. I believed that the women participating in this research would inevitably share certain qualities and inherent characteristics and a feminist perspective. I found this to be only partially true. Many of the women had similar physical characteristics, for example the black women had kinky hair that made their consequent experiences similar, as all of them had employed a variety of methods for straightening it.

Another commonality was that all of the women claimed they had participated in beauty practices not only to adhere to the beauty standard, but to assimilate into western culture.

It was important throughout the project to ensure my personal perspective did not obstruct or alter the intent of the information that was relayed to me by the women about their unique backgrounds and personal experiences. It would have been easy to assume

10 that this group was reflective of all women of colour, but, as it was such a small sample in one tiny part of the world, this is not necessarily the case. There are many variables that were not considered, for example these women all live in the western world and have sustainable incomes. Women of colour living in developing or third world countries would have had very different opinions. This research did not consider the socio- economics backgrounds, educational or employment histories, of these women, and these factors could have significantly impacted their attitudes.

Women and the Beauty Myth

“Every woman knows that, regardless of all her other achievements, she is a failure if she is not beautiful” (Greer,23).

Beauty is not something that can be clearly defined as it is a judgment placed on us by others (Owens Patton,29). Owens-Patton goes on to say that beauty is defined by the ruling class and can be altered at the whim of the dominant economy, consequently

“beauty is an elusive commodity” (Owens-Patton, 29). Feminists such as Naomi Wolf agrees with Owens-Patton when she states that

“beauty is a currency system like the gold standard. Like any economy, it is

determined by politics”(Wolf, 12) and a lucrative economy it is. In 2004 over $9.4 billion dollars were spent on cosmetic procedures, which equals one third of the budget of the National Institute of Health

(Shute, 4). In an article in The Economist magazine in May 2003, it claimed that at that time Americans were spending more on beauty each year than they do on education

(Sutton, 45).

Feminists have argued that when women released themselves from what was coined The

Feminine Mystique by the book of the same name by Betty Friedan, it was replaced by the beauty myth. The feminine mystique was a method of oppressing women through domesticity. The beauty myth is a belief created by white male supremacists that keeps women off balance and insecure by convincing them through advertising that they are

“too short, too tall, too fat, too skinny, dull-haired, lumpy-bottomed, flat-chested,

thin-lipped, too pale, not pale enough, too smart, too dumb, now sexy” (Ziesler,

24).

This has been also referred to as the “pedagogy of defect” a method of keeping consumers engaged by correcting the flaws that have been revealed to them by the media

(Bordo, 17). It quickly becomes apparent that beauty is not really about women, but as

Wolf contends about politics, finance and keeping men in control (Wolf, 13).

If the ruling class is the one that determines the beauty standard then in the western world beauty is defined by male capitalistic society, then Manning questions where in this discourse

“is there any place for the dark- skinned Negro woman with kinky hair, or the

short-stemmed woman of the Puerto Rican, Jewish, Japanese, and other European

and Asiatic races, all of whom make up the working population of this country?”

(Hansen, 95).

According to Manning beauty is determined by men who can only view women as mothers or playthings, and youth is of paramount importance in their definitions (Hansen,

56). In their definition there is no acceptance of the differences and the anomalies that make women of colour or any woman, uniquely attractive and beautiful in their own right. I would contend that there is little consideration or opportunity for women of colour within the current standard.

Once women moved out of the domestic realm and gained better access to the workforce, they became consumers and the primary focus of many marketing campaigns.

“All a big businessman had to do was to change the fashion often enough and

invent enough new aids to beauty and he could become richer and richer. That is

how, under capitalism, the sale of women as commodities was displaced by the

sale of commodities to women. Correspondingly, natural beauty became more and

more displaced by artificial beauty”(Hansen et al, 84).

Hansen makes an excellent point in that the format of our marketing has been altered from selling the beauty of certain women to other women, to one where we sell the product or the procedure to women. For example, if you purchase large breasts, a straight nose or an expensive eye cream, then you too can own beauty. This aligns with what

Naomi Wolf wrote when she said

“beauty is the qualities that any given society finds desirable and that “the beauty

myth is actually prescribing behaviour and not appearance”(Wolf, 14).

And prescribing new behavior is what it did. Less than fifty years ago western women spent their time in the homes, maintaining their households while nurturing their children and their husbands. In today’s world women’s behaviour includes time spent in the

13 workforce, as well as at salons, spas and in the operating room. Women participate in these beauty practices in an effort to remain attractive and not “let themselves go”

(Mandell, 112) a phrase that has referred to women that have not continued to pay close attention to their appearances. By making plastic surgeries more mainstream and less invasive “getting work done” is becoming more attractive (Shute, 3) and easier to do.

“The number of breast augmentation surgeries in 1997 was four times as many by

2007, a booming 400,000 and more than twice as many people had liposuction in

that ten year span”(Campbell & Twenge, 148).

Women are the most frequent users of cosmetic surgeries and research demonstrates that the numbers are increasing on an annual basis with women now making up 90% of all cosmetic surgeries (Henderson-King and Brooks, 134). Another 1.1 million women injected themselves with Botox (Edut, iv), so not only are the numbers of women patients increasing but so are the types of procedures available. Plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures have become normalized for women in the western world as a means of achieving the perfect look and are now considered a past time for western women.

Historically, cosmetic surgery has not been as widely accepted in ethnic populations mainly because there was a belief that “cosmetic surgeries equaled sacrificing aspects of their ethnicity”(Wimalawansa, McKnight and Bullocks, 149). However recently there is a growing interest from ethnic populations in the cosmetic surgery industry and

“minority populations contributed to 22% of 11.7 million cosmetic procedures

that were performed in 2007” (Wimalawansa,McKnight and Bullocks, 159).

These statistics included small percentages (all under 10% ) of Latin Americans, African

Americans and Asian Americans clients.

Beauty and Power

“Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference” (Berry, 43)

Aristotle

As far back as Aristotle’s lifetime, beauty has been equated with power. It has been claimed by Berry that a looks-based social stratification system exists that gives people greater and lesser power based on their physical appearance. Berry goes on to say that

“attractive people are assumed to be overall socially better (smarter, more socially

skilled and so on) than less attractive people. The disabled, the disfigured and the

unattractive are all denied the relative ease of access to power and instead

encounter obstacles to gaining social and economic power” (Berry, 24), consequently people resort to artificial means in order to gain or keep social power. It is then no surprise that women everywhere strive to attain the beauty standard through any possible means and utilize a variety of methods in order to acquire it. In recognizing that beauty equals power, it would be reasonable to assume that women of colour, one of the most marginalized groups of people in the western world, would have a great desire to attain the standard.

Beauty is a powerful standard, defined by capitalist society as being white, slim and young. Hansen makes an excellent point that the real keynote of beauty has been erased and women might as well be sugar cookies stamped with the same mold, if they are all

15 considered beautiful based on the same criteria (Hansen, 85). The question then becomes how does this cookie cutter approach to beauty affect women of colour?

“As Black women deal with the constant pressure to meet a beauty standard that

is inauthentic and often unattainable, the lily complex can set in” (Owens-Patton,

26).

The Lily Complex, according to Owens-Patton is a method of altering and disguising your true self in order to assimilate into the dominant culture and be considered attractive.

The overwhelming desire to change her outer appearance to meet a Eurocentric ideal may lead the woman of colour to loathe her own physical appearance and believe that “Black is not beautiful . . . that she can only be lovely by impersonating someone else”(Owens-

Patton, 26).

“The Other”

In western society it is a reality that

“those who are not or do not appear to be white, Western and middle class are

defined as the “Other” largely through their physical appearance traits. They are

also pressured to do all they can to appear ‘normal’”(Berry,34).

As a result of globalization, women of many races are trying to conform to the beauty standard by altering themselves so they are no longer seen as different. It is sad to think that non-white women are considered to be abnormal and continually measured against white women. Berry contends that women are trying to emulate the Euro-American beauty standard and as a result they are fascinated with skin lightening and eye reshaping in an effort to eradicate the physical signs they believe set them apart (Berry, 39).

An excellent example of this is seen in the documentary entitled Western Eyes where one

Asian women parents told her that the closer she could resemble the Europeans, the better off that she would be (Shin, 2000) intimating she should change herself to look like the

Euro-centric standard. As a white woman I wonder how I might have felt if as a child my parents were eager for me to change my appearance, and how this might have impacted the way I viewed myself. I cannot imagine that I would have held myself in high esteem knowing that my parents weren’t satisfied with me and the way that I looked. That being said, it is easy to see why the current beauty standards are viewed as far from harmless decorative procedures but standards that have much deeper implications and repercussions on women of colour.

Current statistics demonstrate that women of varying ethnicities have been unable to shed the desire for the white beauty standard as there is a

“growing trend for Asian women to go under the knife – in Japan, women are

having flaps of skin above their eyes removed to make them open wider, so their

faces look more western”(Horsbrugh-Porter, 109).

While Asian women are seeking cosmetic interventions to alter their eye shape, African

Canadian women have been occupied with lightening their skin and straightening their hair. There a growing problem among women of colour with the increasing sales of skin bleaching products not only in African nations but in the western world. Although many skin bleaching products have been banned for public sale, due to the fact they contain mercury and can cause skin cancer, kidney failure and high blood pressure (Siyachitema,

1), they remain for sale on the illegal markets in third world countries, such as

Zimbabwe, as there is high demand for the commodity of white skin that can be traced back to the days of colonial oppression (Siyachitema, 1). In research conducted by native of Ghana, he claimed that

“bleaching is a form of commodity racism – the practice of using whiteness to

sell products to predominantly black consumers (Atwater, 19).

Africa is not the only continent that has a market for skin bleaching products as in the focus group one participant named Olivia commented that the most frequently sold beauty aid in India was a whitening product called “Fair and Lovely”(Groves). Olivia went on to say that men and women alike use the product but it doesn’t really work as it only bleaches the hair on your face and not your skin. In India, Olivia commented, the standard is “slim, fair and educated . . . if you are all three then you are considered to be a prize”(Groves) What was enlightening in this conversation was that Olivia said,

“if a child is born in India with fair skin, then above all else it is considered to be

the most beautiful, even if it has other issues, such as a deformity or a disability”

(Groves).

I wondered how any mother would prefer white or fair skin over a life-long disability that could negatively affect their child’s health and future. I was reminded again that I could not understand the issue of being born with skin that was not white and the overwhelming desire to obtain it. I was not unlike W.E.B. Dubois when he wrote, “but what on earth is whiteness that one should so desire it?”(Gillman & Wienbaum, 263). Perhaps being white

18 provides us with such exclusionary privilege and entitlement that those of us that possess it are so ensconced in it that we are oblivious of its true value.

Another research participant Lynda said that when she arrived in Canada she used a skin lightening product that burned her face and gave her acne. She then purchased Ambi, a well-known skin bleaching agent, but she commented, “it doesn’t look natural, it makes your skin yellow and you can tell when people are using it”(Groves). Lynda went on to say that many people of colour use skin bleaching agents before they get married. This comment caused many giggles amongst the women as they said that the married couple would then go to the Caribbean on their honeymoon and get tanned, so the effect of the product was lost. According to these women, many mothers in third world countries resort to using natural, inexpensive products like lemon juice to lighten the skin of their babies. Olivia commented that her Gramma wanted her to be ‘marriageable’ so she encouraged Olivia to put white powder on her face to lighten it so she would attract a husband. The desire for white skin is incredible, as many women believe that white skin equals beauty and power.

It was interesting to learn that among the thirteen women interviewed for this project, there was only one that admitted to seriously considering cosmetic surgeries to alter her appearance, although all of them had experienced significant internal and external pressures to assimilate to western culture. Lily commented,

“I grew up in Toronto where I was the minority and I was made fun of, I was

called Rakkie and the “n” word. When I was in grade 7 or 8, I desperately wanted

to have a nose reconstruction to make my nose look thinner. I wanted to become

what I saw”(Groves) and what she saw was white people. Lily commented that as she aged, the desire for the surgery dissipated and she became more confident with the way she looked. Now that

Lily is in her thirties, she says she is more comfortable with herself and able to make more mature and informed decisions around cosmetic procedures. In recent years when she has considered having some work done she commented that she always finds other places for the money to go that she deems to be more important.

The Impact of Colonization and Slavery on Beauty

Women of colour have been positioned in society as “the other” as a direct result of colonization and slavery. Colonization although it was a term used to define “a settlement in a new country. . . a body of people who settle in a new locality, forming a community subject to or connected with their parent state”(Loomba,7), was much more than the actual process of conquering and controlling of other people’s lands. The colonizers not only pillaged and plundered lands and goods, but imposed European cultural standards on the colonizers that they justified under the guise of progressing civilization (Loomba,8). There was a significant backlash from the process that was not anticipated or predicted that had a devastating psychological impact on all colonized peoples, specifically on the colonized women.

American slavery designated the white man as the superior being, as it was an economic and political system that extracted as much work as possible from blacks, through the use

20 of threat or force (Jones,13). Black women were not only exploited for their labour but used as “brood sows” (Jones,13) that were forced to reproduce in an effort to perpetuate the slavery model. These attitudes had profound impact on black women long after the institution of bondage was abandoned.

“From the beginning of modern Western colonialism in the fifteenth century,

Europeans and those people of European descent who settled in other parts of the

world have defined themselves as different from and superior to the peoples of the

five continents they colonized”(Weeden, 188).

Taylor wrote that in the colonial discourse the colonized people were viewed as the

‘white man’s burden’ and the white man deemed it their responsibility to civilize them.

Civilizing them meant not only forcing them to adopt European practices but eradicating their traditional cultural practices and identities. This assumption of superiority was based on the fact that the Europeans had money, better weapons and the ability to travel, things that the colonized did not necessarily have access to. American slavery set the white man as the superior being as it was an economic and political system that “extracted as much work as possible from blacks, through the use of threat or force “(Jones,13). Third World and Western feminisms continue to be profoundly affected by the legacy of colonialism as they

“share a tendency to view women from other societies through a Euro-centric

gaze which privileges Western notions of liberation and progress and portrays

Third World women primarily as victims of ignorance and restrictive cultures and

religions”(Weeden,188).

bell hooks wrote that when the Africans were transported to the New World as slaves, they realized immediately that the colonizer who had brought him to the western world had “seized the lands of the Indians, desecrated their graves”(hooks, Black Looks, Race and Representation, 181) abolished their cultural practices and sent many to their early graves. The Africans quickly learned that in order to survive the retribution of the white man they needed to re-create themselves in the white man’s image. Throughout the colonial process the colonized made every effort to assimilate with their conquerors by adopting many of their habits and practices as did the African American slave women in an effort to conceal themselves from their predators.

Owens-Patton wrote that in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries African American women wore slavery scarves to cover their kinky un-styled hair (Owens-Patton, 28), or wore their hair in styles similar to those of whites to draw less attention to themselves.

Black women mimicked the white women as it offered them a certain amount of protection. It has been well documented that slave women with straight hair and lighter skin were given lighter workloads and

“better access to clothes, education, food and the promise of freedom upon the

master’s death”(Owens- Patton, 28).

Adopting the traits of the Europeans was essential to survival however it met with disapproval in the Black community as they saw practices such as hair straightening as

“pitiful attempts to emulate Whites and they equated straightening with self-

hatred and shame”(Owens-Patton, 29).

This belief was validated by Rooks when she wrote that when she wanted to change her hairstyle from its natural Afro, however her mother took it as a personal slight. Rooks mother believed that she had been a failure who had raised a daughter that rejected her

African self. So where is our identity created? Is it found within our eye shape, our skin colour and our hairstyle or is it more complex than that? Stuart Hall tells us that our identity is a production that is “never complete, always in process and always constituted within, not outside of representation”(Rooks, 15). In the case of Black women, hair appears to be synonymous with the construction of their identity.

With the influence of European colonization and the institution of slavery came not just the attitude of white superiority but the development of the concept of race, a socially constructed idea associated with skin colour. In Buying Whiteness, Taylor tells us that as human beings we are addicted to semiotics or the interpretation of signs, and that we routinely read skin and it is the first sign system that people learn to read (Taylor,3). It is difficult for us not to notice skin colour and the colour means something to us – it signifies race (Taylor,2). Skin comes in many colours and man has come to associate each colour with an identity that predicates who the person is beneath his or her skin, for example there was a stereotype of black women that claimed they were all “sexually loose and morally depraved” (hooks, Ain’t I a Woman, 55).

“In the eyes of the white public, the black female was a creature unworthy of the

title woman; she was mere chattel, a thing, an animal” (hooks, Ain’t I a Woman,

159).

This concept most likely derives from the fact that Black women were slaves and as such they were considered to be the property of white men, no different than their livestock.

The color coding and reading of skin is as Taylor contends, profoundly gendered and racist, and positions black people as inferior. It is odd that even though dark skin is actually physically superior to white in that it can “handle larger doses of ultra violet rays without being subject to cancer” (Berry, 34), throughout history societies have denigrated dark skinned people in comparison to light skinned.

Taylor reminds us that the epidermis is not socially constructed rather the human skin is frequently related to the geographical homeland of a population or where people came from. Darker skinned people are believed to live in areas that have higher temperatures that their skin is more able to endure. This perception of darker skinned people deriving from specific locations is one that is obviously dated and irrelevant. In the research focus group when the women were asked what their ethnic backgrounds were, women with dark skin noted that their ethnicity was composed of a variety of cultures, such as

Caribbean, Scottish, Chinese, South American and so on. The women could not be pigeon holed into specific races and ethnicities any more than they could be shaped into one beauty standard. All were unique.

The belief system that positioned white skin over dark skin impacted negatively on the psyche’s of all people of colour. Frantz Fanon writes that

“the psychic trauma resulted when the colonized subject realizes that he can never

attain the whiteness he has been taught to desire, or shed the blackness he has

learnt to devalue”(Loomba,148).

The impact of colonization has not yet abated and a sense of division still exists between white and black. And although “racially whites are in the numerical minority worldwide”

(Smith, 2007) “white appearance standards are the ones we are all, regardless of race compared”(Berry,34).

Beauty Practices

“Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison” (Zetzel Lambert,

15). This was a statement made by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792 and is great example of how women have participated in beauty practices over the years. Throughout history

“white skin has often been preferred as in Europe during the Middle Ages it was viewed as the mark of coming from a higher social class”(Martinez,3). Pale skin meant that women were not toiling under a hot sun which signified a slave and normally a person of colour. European women would go as far as to bleed themselves and powder their faces in an effort to look as white as possible in fact arsenic, a white powder, became a top seller in Italy and as a result many ``elite women died as a result of applying this poison to their skin (Martinez,3). In Queen Victoria’s reign makeup was banned as she believed it to be vulgar, only to discover the women in her kingdom were ``applying egg whites to

25 their faces to achieve the desired pale and glazed look`` (Martinez, 3). White was the ideal colour.

Taylor wrote that much of the history of western makeup is a history of whitening the face, but “much of the history of western makeup is also a history of hyperbolizing sexual difference” (Taylor, 37). He contended that the white makeup artificially enhanced the appearances of women who did not satisfy the criteria of the reigning female ideal, not unlike traditional Chinese food binding or modern breast implant surgeries. He goes on to say that this is a binary system of differentiated genders is diametrically opposed to what was ideal for men when he writes,

“traditional Chinese culture did not bind men’s feet and American cosmetic

surgeons do not give men silicon tits” (Taylor,37).

Makeup has traditionally been a gendered subject.

The research data demonstrated that the most common beauty practice African American women have participated in was to straighten their hair. These practices may have begun during slavery when white hairstyles, such as straight hair were according to Owens-

Patton an indicator of free person status. Although this does not explain why an Islamic woman in the focus group said she had straightened her hair even though she constantly wore a hijab that completely covered her head. All of the African American women commented that they straightened their hair because it was “nappy”, which means kinky or fuzzy, and that using chemical hair relaxers or hot combs often burned their scalps.

One participant named Tina said,

“it was really painful when I put on chemical straighteners especially if the water

temperature wasn’t exactly right and my mother always said, “this is the price you

pay for beauty”(Groves).

When I said that my mother told me that in Christian values to suffer pain for beauty was a sin as it meant you were vain, Tina responded,

“My mother didn’t have the choice to adhere to Christian values, although she

was a Christian. She had to assimilate in order to find work and having straight

hair helped her to do that” (Groves).

Although beauty practices are sometimes painful they are experiences common to many women, not unlike menstrual cycles and birthing babies, and these practices create places where women connect to one another and share their joys and sorrows. This was framed effectively by Rooks when she wrote,

“hair is the site where African American women comb their memories and braid

or straighten their experiences to express the dreams and possibilities of a social

reality where they are equal partners in the creation and styling of a world free of

oppression”(Rooks,8).

This experience is reiterated in the following poem

“Use to be Ya could learn a whole lot of stuff sitting in them beauty shop chairs Use to be Ya could meet a whole lot of other women sittin there along with hair flying and babies crying Use to be you could learn a whole lot about

27 how to catch up with yourself and some other folks in your household. Lots more got taken care of than hair Cause in our mutual obvious dislike for nappiness we came together under the hot comb to share and share and share But now we walk heads high naps full of pride with not a backward glance at some of the beauty which use to be Cause with a natural there is no natural place for us to congregate to mull over our mutual discontent Beauty shops could have been a hell-of-a-place to ferment a . . . . . revolution.

(Rooks, 9)

It appears that the shared experience of straightening their hair empowered African

American women and they were enriched by communing at the beauty parlour.

Self Esteem

After reading the information on how negatively western society has traditionally viewed women of colour over the years, the question arose as to how the women of colour perceived themselves and whether or not they participated in narcissistic behaviours as a

28 result of low self esteem. Peels’ research indicated that African American women had higher self esteem than their Caucasian counterparts (Steven et al, 1994) and were also found to be more accepting of their bodies (Reel et al, 322). It is curious as to why women of colour, whose colour and beauty standard have been continually denigrated, have been found to demonstrate higher levels of self esteem. Of the women interviewed for this project the majority of them appeared to be confident and comfortable with their looks. One clearly voiced, “I like me. I see no reason to change” (Groves,2010). Grogan contends that high self esteem generally correlates with high body satisfaction for women. A participant from the Sudan, noted that her culture did not put an emphasis on body shape and size, and that being thin was not considered to be glamorous in her culture. Being thin is something that is revered in western society and it is a dichotomy of terms because of the growing obesity epidemic particularly in North America (Ziesler,

141).

It is easy to defend Reel’s findings if you look at the research conducted by Grogan with groups of adolescent women. Grogan found that 41 per cent more white girls than black girls considered themselves overweight (Grogan, 134) and went on to write that

“Asian women were less likely to describe themselves as too fat, less dissatisfied

with their body size, less likely to want to lose weight and less likely to diet”

(Grogan, 134).

The reasoning she claimed was that in ethnic groups where being overweight was not

``stigmatized, healthier and more satisfied attitudes towards larger body shapes and size develop`` (Grogan, 135). Grogan sited examples that African American cultures privilege

29 plumpness in women and see the more ``voluptuous female as sexual and powerful``

(Grogan,135). Reel argues that African Americans are operating under two conflicting ideals – ``one that as a member of western society see thinness as beauty, and the other meeting the ideal of femininity in their ethnic group that believes larger is better”(Reel et al, 326).

This brings us to the subject of the panoptic gaze, which was based on a prison design called a Panopticon, where the prisoner was observed without being able to observe the guard (Reel, et al, 325). In Reel’s article feminist sociologist Duncan related this to a women’s view of herself and then to the societal gaze that enforces body ideals for women.

“The common sense view of women’s bodies as an object of the gaze and

reinforces the idea of women as observers of their own bodies”(Blood, 37).

Foucault defined the panoptic gaze as the ordering and controlling of human populations through subtle and unforeseen forces, such as women and the print media (for example, magazines) which guides women on how they should look (Foucault, 84). The women in the focus group appeared to be able to resist the influence of the media and society and listen more closely to their own hearts and cultures. Lily commented that “there is a fine line between participating in beauty practices as esteem boosters and obsessive compulsive mental illness. People need a solid foundation and if they continue to alter themselves without feeling more confident, then they need to fix the root cause”

(Groves).

One might think that after having read about the effects of colonization and the western beauty standard that African American women might suffer from low self esteem and be eager to pursue the white beauty standard in an effort to feel whole and confident. In research completed by Reel, SooHoo, Franklin, Summerhays and Gill on body image, they found that

“African American women have been reported as having higher levels of self

esteem, more positive attitudes toward their bodies, and lower levels of self-

objectification compared to other ethnic backgrounds including Caucasian, Asian-

Americans and Hispanics” (Reel et al, 322).

They found that women of all cultures tend to want bodies that the men of their culture deem to be attractive, and Caucasian men desire thinness more than African American men. In Reel’s research they also found that African-American women tend to compare their bodies with other women of the same ethnic grouping rather than media images``

(Reel et al, 322) and that “looking good’ was more about public image and personality than one’s body weight (Reel et al, 322). This research was refreshing and reinforced what many of my research participants had demonstrated, that in spite of the media hype and the hyper-vigilant attitudes towards beauty in western society they felt that they looked good and were confident in themselves.

When the focus group participants were questioned on whether they thought that cosmetic procedures would increase their self esteem Rhonda commented,

“It won’t change your inside. If you cut one thing out you won’t ever finish. It’s

more about what is on your inside, it’s more mental”(Groves, 2010).

Research suggests that plastic surgery can be of benefit to patients for both physical and psychological reasons, Dr. Maltz, who is both a psychologist and plastic surgeon noted that with many patients self-esteem remain unchanged even after their physical appearance dramatically improved (Thorpe, Ahmed & Steer,76).

Another woman argued,

“Changing yourself through cosmetic surgeries is so shallow. It’s not your soul –

it’s just your skin. Blind people do not have a perception of your eye shape or

your body. We forget that it is important to see other people’s souls because we

live in such a visual world full of advertising” (Groves).

The women in the focus group agreed that as they got older they were becoming less concerned with adhering to beauty standards as when Tina noted,

“I have always had ‘eight ball hair’ and when I reached my forties I decided to get

off the treadmill, so I went to the barber and shaved my head”(Groves).

Tina went on to say,

“I had recently visited Tanzania and everyone there had ‘low hair’. It was so

comfortable and incredibly liberating” (Groves).

The older women in the group agreed that age had an enormous influence on how comfortable they felt about themselves. One participant questioned, “now that I am 50 I ask myself – is it give in or give up?”(Groves) As women age they may stop adhering to the standard because they realize that it is futile, they will get wrinkles, and saggy bodies no matter how many surgeries they have. As Susan Sontag put it bluntly

“women are girls as long as possible, who then age humiliatingly into middle-

aged women and then obscenely into old women” (Mandell,111) making the point that older women are no longer considered relevant in a beauty standard that values youth. Older women are especially targeted in cosmetic surgery promotions to remedy their physical imperfections that are the result of the natural aging process and told they need to conceal their real age. We can only hope that

“cosmetic corrections to reduce the appearance of age, may, like fads, become

dated themselves” (Mandell,113).

Beauty, Men and the Male Gaze

Beauty is a primarily a gendered issue in that

“Western women spend much more time attending to their bodies, and to specific

parts of their bodies, and engaging in techniques to improve their appearance than

men” (Henderson-King and Brooks,134).

Men do not typically spend as much time on their appearances and are far less likely to participate in cosmetic surgeries, possibly because society does not tend to judge them as harshly as it does women, or as a previous comment about cosmetics, it is a gendered issue. According to Woods,

“appearance still counts. Women are still judged by their looks. They must be

pretty, slim and well-dressed to be desirable” (Owens-Patton, 36).

Where men fit into the standard is at the intersection where women participate in the beauty practices to be attractive to men and capture their attention. In the focus group

Ginette, an African American 45 year old argued that

“we think we are doing this for our men, even though we know that we are doing

it for other women”(Groves).

It is questionable how many beauty treatments or fashion trends women take part in for the purposes of assimilating with other women or attracting the male gaze.

It is not well documented if women of colour participate in beauty practices to please themselves, to adhere to the beauty standard or to attract men. We know that

“feminism values women as the subjects of our own lives, not objects to attract

and hold another’s gaze”(Winter,16)

Women may be aware they are trying to improve their looks to attract men’s gaze but some of them can’t stop themselves from doing it. As one advertising campaign phrased it, “it is far better to be looked over, than it is to be overlooked”(Blood,57).

There is external pressure on women, not just from the ad companies but from friends and family members to conform to what society sees as acceptable. Ginette said that her mother yelled at her when she did what she felt comfortable with, like putting her hair in dreadlocks. Her mother would ask “How are you ever going to get a man with dreadlocks in your hair?”(Groves). This was in direct contrast to the mothers that were insulted when their daughters straightened their hair.

Marketing to Women of Colour

As beauty is an industry, its ideology is transmitted to women through pervasive marketing (Geok-lin Lim,28).Women are specifically targeted in marketing campaigns and messages permeate their consciousness via billboards, television, the internet and

34 magazines. The messages remind them that they will be substandard individuals unless they dedicate endless hours, money and effort into improving and maintaining their looks.

“Beauty ideals can now exceed all previous expectations; at the extreme, the

commercial representations of women are neither human nor obtainable”

(Mandell, 111).

Ophira Edut says that it is interesting to see how “significantly the myths of our culture influences our lives”(Edut, vii). Edut writes that most of us know intellectually that fashion ads are airbrushed and models are unrealistic, however on an emotional level we are in denial about it or many of us would not be spending so much money trying attain a beauty ideal that doesn’t even exist. It would appear that even if women are critical thinkers and able to dissect and critique the media messages a significant number are unable to resist perpetuating the beauty ideal as witnessed in the statistics previously stated on the rates of cosmetic surgeries. Twenge’s concern with this is that the world of magazines and television is seducing us into a shallow worldview and

“slowly, real people are beginning to resemble what they see on the screens

before them . . . beautifully painted with an empty mind”(Campbell &

Twenge,159).

If some women are spending significant amounts of time and energy on their external appearances Twenge contends that this may be taking away from time spent with their families, friends and education.

In my research I found that the women of colour interviewed are becoming increasingly critical of the media and better able to decipher the messages. They are also not easily influenced to participate in common beauty practices. The women interviewed for this project appeared to be able to interpret media messages and follow a beauty regime that they defined for themselves and felt comfortable with. Twenge’s research refutes this when he writes about the case of Jennifer, age 35,

“I feel more pressure than ever to do things to improve my physical appearance.

Coloring your hair and having hair removal are two practices that are now

mainstream and ‘required’ to just live up to the societal standards”(Campbell &

Twenge, 144).

Jennifer argued that in her mother’s day this was not the case, her mother did not do any of these things and she still managed to be socially accepted and even admired (Campbell

& Twenge, 144). Jennifer’s opinions can be attributed to the omnipresent influence of the media something to which her mother was not as frequently exposed. This may be largely attributed to advances in technology and the resultant exposure to media as argued by

Wolf when she wrote,

“Before the Industrial Revolution, the average woman could not have had the

same feelings about “beauty” that modern women do who experience the myth as

a continual comparison to a mass disseminated physical ideal. Before the

development of technologies of mass productions . . . the ordinary woman was

exposed to few such images outside of the church” (Wolf,14).

Now women are constantly inundated with images that perpetuate the Euro-centric beauty ideal. My research indicated that the older women were better at dissecting the

36 media messages and ignoring them, this could be attributable to the fact that they have no interest into buying into a beauty standard that is focused on young white women.

The women interviewed for the purposes of this paper may be more exposed to media images however they appeared to be better equipped to see through them. In the focus group interviews Louise said “big businesses say to women, unless you use my product you will not be beautiful” (Groves), so clearly she was able to see the real meaning of advertising. There are publications on the market, such as Adbusters magazine, that encourage consumers to look closely at the intention of advertisements. A great example of one of Adbusters spoof ads is aimed at Benetton, a company that sells clothing with a campaign called The United Colours of Benetton, which ordinarily profiles people of all ages and ethnicities. The intent of their ads is to demonstrate how inclusive they are, an

‘everyone is welcome to spend their money at Benetton’ approach. Adbusters has an ad in their magazine entitled “The True Colours of Benetton” that features one young white businessman dressed in a suit with his mouth stuffed full of cash, truly an impactful message.

In perusing the Adbusters website the mission of the organizations is cited as follows

“We are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society” (Adbusters, mainpage). An interview with one of the founders of the magazine commented that they formed their organization in a desire to create change from the bottom up. Their desire was to create an organization that assisted them in

37 freeing themselves from a model where society’s identity is dictated to us by big business, top down. These types of publications are growing in popularity and becoming more available so society in turn is becoming more critical of ad campaigns, even the ones that disguise themselves as eloquently as Dove does.

According to Jefferson and Stake “there have been few studies done on the impact of the media on African American women and girls”(Jefferson and Stake, 398). They contend that African American women tend to reject the Euro-American standards in the media and this could be due to them not internalizing the White beauty standards (Jefferson and

Stake,398). My research supports this contention as the African American women clearly told me that they do not see themselves in, or gravitate towards, images of anorexic white women. Grogan argues that in respect to body size the influence of the sub culture could be greater than the influence of main stream media images, as the images of black men and women are not positive, so they are either rejected or considered to be irrelevant

(Grogan, 135). Jefferson and Stake interviewed European American and African

American women to see who they compared themselves to and both groups noted that they compared themselves to women of their own ethno-racial group (63.3% and 73.2%) respectively. The remaining sample of European American (36.7%) and African

American (26.8%) indicated that they compared themselves to women of all ethnicities and races. None of these women noted that they compared themselves to women of an ethnicity or race that was not their own (Jefferson and Stake,399)

These findings concur with the research completed in this project. When asked, “If you were going to model yourself after a beautiful woman, what would she look like?” All but two of the thirteen respondents said they wanted to look like a woman of their own ethno-racial background. Twelve of the women named movie stars, women known for their physical beauty, such as Halle Berry and Gabriel Union. The remaining two named women they admired, not just for their appearances but for their political and social contributions, for example Michaelle Jean, former Governor General of Canada and

Maya Angelou, renowned author. One young woman wanted to model herself after her mother, who she believed to be very beautiful. She mentioned that she closely resembled her mother which suggests that we see beauty in ourselves, therefore we gravitate to images that are similar to our own.

If women of colour look for images of themselves in today’s media they will find that they have been traditionally under-represented.

“One had to page through almost 100 pages of the usual suspects (white models)

in order the reach the exotica of the day in the much touted “Black Vogue” in the

July issue of the Italian edition (Sharife, 64).

When the editor of the magazine was asked to comment on her decision to dedicate her magazine to the ‘specialness’ of black models, she said that most of the agencies did not seek out black girls, as they realized that blonde, blue eyed-girls sold more (Sharife, 64).

Sharife argued that the magazine only paid lip service to the black women and that this type of tokenism sets black women apart and perpetuates them as an exotic breed that

39 could not appeal to the general public, except in small doses. She goes on to say that it emphasizes “the differences between the ethnicities – one the colonizer and the other, the black women as the colonized – by imposing skin colour as the dividing barrier”(Sharife,

66). If African American women never see themselves reflected in the media as women that are considered to be beautiful, it is doubtful if they will ever be able to see themselves as beautiful and valued by society. Women that are profiled in the magazines even now are determined as beautiful based by “ how closely they come to emulating the perfect white beauty” (Sharife, 65), rather than the perfect black beauty.

Although typically under-represented overall the research participants appeared to be overall comfortable with their looks. I would attribute this comfort level to several things.

First and foremost many of these women were educated and as such they were able to critique the media messages as unrealistic and unattainable. Secondly I think the level of support provided by one’s family has an influence on how we feel about our looks as one woman commented, “when I was overweight my family and friends told me I was fat.

This has a big influence on how you feel about yourself and whether or not you accept the way you look” (Groves). Lastly as the media does not profile them and they don’t relate to the images of white women, they are in a good position to ignore the media. I would also contend that maturity plays a role for as women age they are become more confident and have less regard for what others think of them. Ginette, who was able to ignore her own mother’s desire for her to assimilate by losing the dreadlocks and wearing western clothing, presented herself as a person that did not internalize outside messaging unless she chose to. This could have been interpreted as Ginette’s way of talking balk, a

40 strategy that Crow and Gotell says is a way for women to “assert their dignity and a method of empowering themselves”(Crow and Gotell, 327).

“The media has historically been used to perpetuate the dominant culture’s

perspective and create a public forum that defines and shape ideas concerning

race and ethnicity” (Littlefield, 677), which Littlefield says is clearly evident in the representation of African Americans in various forms of the media. Littlefield argues that

“the media has historically perpetuated ideas about race and ethnicity that place

African American women at a clear disadvantage” (Littlefield, 677).

African American women on television have often been manipulated and represented as stereotypes from the hypersexual Jezebel to the asexual Mammy (Boylorn,417). bell hooks writes that one only has to watch television for twenty four hours to see how black women are perceived, the “predominant image is that of a fallen woman, the whore, the slut, the prostitute”(hooks, Ain’t I a Woman,2). This portrayal raises questions around the understanding of race as a concept with no biological meaning, as Littlefield contends it is still very much a factor in the lives of these women when they are constantly portrayed as the sexual prowler (Littlefield, 677).

These arguments do not support the fact that one of the world’s richest and most revered television icons is Oprah Winfrey, a female talk show host. Oprah is not presented as sexually promiscuous whore, nor is she presented in the fashion of a Mammy or Aunt

Jemima type kitchen staff, but rather as an intellectually superior individual that holds

41 tremendous power and influence in the western world. Nor does this argument support the role of Bill Cosby’s wife, Phylicia Rashad, in the family sitcom The Cosby Show, that profiles her as a professional raising an upper middle class family. We also see successful black women in the media that are not television celebrities but diplomats such as Condoleezza Rice, who was recently the first black woman to be named Secretary of

State in the United States. These images clearly demonstrate that the media is beginning to change its representation of African American women.

Another factor contributing to the image of women of colour is that they have largely been ignored as a viable demographic in the marketing industry. In her article entitled

“Color Blind” Yin confirms that

“marketers pay scant attention to this consumer segment . . . despite how fast the

population of African-American women is growing”(Yin,26) and in spite of the fact that these women frequently control the financial decisions in their household (Yin, 26). Yin argues, the marketers don’t realize that

“African American women represent a dynamic market. They are upwardly

mobile, making gains in education and income”(Yin,27).

Yin further explains that part of the problem is that marketers do not respect this audience as they still picture African American women as single mothers on welfare (Yin, 277).

So if we consider that they are not marketed to but rather ignored as they are stereotyped, then it supports the case that they are surrounded with beauty standards that are not directed at them, but at white women only and therefore easier to ignore.

The Mirror Image and the Abject Body

“A flaw of the spirit Cannot be hidden on a face But a flaw of a face If one fixes it, Can put a spirit right” (Covino,57)

Covino wrote in her book, Amending the Abject Body that the aesthetic surgical industry is not necessarily the founder of oppressive aesthetic values, but it has been argued that it is a “part of the contemporary development of a bodily imaginary that gathers our concepts of psychological health and community around aesthetic considerations”

(Covino,2). Covino contends that this industry provides a forum for the abject body in culture, in that it frees the fantasized image of oneself from the signs of variance, it provides women with opportunities to eradicate that which does not please them. Covino goes on to say that Lacan’s Mirror Stage presents a useful working conception of this fantasy, since it theorizes an imaginary identification with another who is whole, from the perspective of a self who is fragmented”(Covino,2). That being said, it is curious as to whether or not women of colour view themselves as incomplete.

Many feminists have been vocal about critiquing the aesthetic surgical industry as it capitalizes on our fears and desires and preys on bodies that are troubled by aging, physical impairment and or racial and ethnic difference (Covino,2). They have argued that these procedures dehumanize and dis-empower women as they further lead to their objectification, while others believe it truly liberates as it allows them to make their own choices. Banet-Weiser writes

“The increasing normalization of cosmetic surgery in the United States is one

expression of post-feminism.”(Banet-Weiser, 30) The “explosive growth of the

‘makeover culture’ can be understood as a process of both abjection (ridding

ourselves of the unwanted) and identification (joining the community) of what

Julie Kristeva calls “clean and proper bodies” (Covino, cover).

Kristeva suggests the body is made up of waste and fluids, that are not necessary, and surgeries can abject that which is unattractive, like sagging older skin. Kristeva is also interested in abjection, as a social phenomena, which translates from the body into how the racial ‘other’ comes to be abjected in culture (Covino, 71).

“Symbolically and literally transformed into body parts, women, constructed

through this globalized patriarchal gaze create the demand for cosmetic surgery,

for breast implants and for liposuction. This demand is more and more

constructed as “natural” and “ordinary” and the physical reality of such

“cosmetic”surgery – performed not for medical reasons but as a body mutilation

deemed aesthetically pleasing and valuable because of its conformity to male-

dominant notions of female beauty and sexuality – has been more and more

elided”(Geok–lin Lim, 29).

Reconstructive surgeries may not be the liberation of women, but simply another method of controlling them, that does not differ significantly from Chinese foot binding.

Ethnic Dress

One last question posed in this research asked “If your race or culture has traditional dress, do you wear it?’ This question attempted to ascertain how comfortable these women were with their ethnic backgrounds. Women that had grown up in Jamaica said they did not believe that there was a national dress for their country. The eldest woman interviewed, Ronnie, 59 years old, remembered a time when the Queen came to visit

Jamaica and they wore skirts made of checkered material, the top was white with puffed sleeves and there was a head tie that matched the skirt. Ronnie said, “I only wore it once for that special occasion. I have lived in Canada for over 30 years and that is not the style.

I don’t want to be singled out. Heck”, she said, “they don’t even wear it in Jamaica anymore” (Groves, 2010). This statements supports what Crow and Gotell have contended that integrationist beauty practices are less about being white then they are about being current and attractive (Crow and Gotell, 326).

All of the women that were interviewed one on one, had similar feedback, in that they dressed in western clothing and were not necessarily clear on what constituted their national dress, other than Akiro, an Asian women. When she was asked if she ever wore traditional dress she laughed and said “I ride my bike to work – how do you wear a kimono and do that? It just isn’t practical”(Groves).

The opinions of the women in the focus group were significantly different from that in the one-on-one interviews, which could be attributed to the fact the focus group was conducted in a large metropolis. The focus group took place in Toronto, which is

45 recognized as the most multi-cultural city in the world so the women living there may feel more comfortable remaining true to their ethnic backgrounds, especially in their clothing choices. The one-on-one interviews were conducted in Barrie, a city of 140,000, north of Toronto, however this is a city that does not have a diverse population. The majority of the women in the focus group were dressed in popular western fashions, only two came in traditional ethnic dress – one Islamic woman wearing a long skirt and blouse and a hijab (Rhonda), another African American woman (Ginette) wore a bright colourful

African dress complete with head dress. One young woman wore a traditional East Indian blouse, however she was combined it with blue jeans and running shoes.

Rhonda commented that she had always been comfortable in her native dress, however her daughters often complained about wearing it. They said the long skirts were ‘trip hazards’ and they find them difficult to negotiate when climbing stairs at school or in the subway. Rhonda’s daughters also worried that wearing a hijab would affect their opportunities of finding gainful employment when they finished school. Rhonda was adamant that an employer should be judging them on their education and the quality of their work, not by their dress or their appearance.

Ginette said,

“many women have told me that I am courageous, because I always wear

traditional African dress. It is what resonates with me and what I gravitate

towards, even though my heritage is a mixture of

African/Caribbean/Scottish/French/Spanish etc. I want to have this impact on

other black women, to encourage them to dress in ethnic clothing or what they are

comfortable in and lose that attitude that you can’t be successful in the business

world unless you wear western clothing”(Groves,2010).

Ginette went on to say that her mother would never have worn her African head dress as she was too concerned about fitting into Canadian culture. Alternatively Susan, an Indo-

Canadian woman that had come to Canada from the Sudan said “I can’t wear a sari, it is too hard to maintain and it just isn’t practical, but my mother always wore one”.

The clothing discussion evolved into a commentary on appreciation and understanding of your cultural background. In her interview Lily commented that a lot of your self esteem depends on how strong your foundation is and if you are made to understand and value your culture. She said, “My kids understand Jamaica, they have completed school projects on it for school and they celebrate it”(Groves,2010). Lily emphasized that learning about and valuing your culture goes a long way in encouraging your children to embrace their ethnicity and feel proud and confident about it. Lily noted that her Mother was so busy with being the single Mother of four kids and holding down several jobs that she did not have a lot of time to instill these cultural values into her children. In the documentary Western Eyes (Shin, 2000) one young woman said “I just don’t feel connected to the Philipino race” perhaps this attitude made it easier for her to consider changing the shape of her eyes as she did not feel an affinity or loyalty to her culture and did not connect her ethnicity to her appearance.

Taking ownership of your culture and embracing its differences from western culture is not something all women of colour are able to do. In Western Eyes one Asian woman said, “My Korean heritage has little to do with the way I look’ The attitudes of these women are similar to the findings of Geok-lin Lim who wrote that “that the East has been and is highly Westernized and adores images of whiteness”(Geok-lin Lim, A1). In

Akiro’s interview she confirmed that the Japanese strongly admire the features of western women and have a great desire for round eye. According to Geok-lin Lim, Korea is

Asia’s largest market for cosmetic surgery,

“the similarities between Western and the Korean plastic surgery is that the

standard for beauty is Western” (Geok-lin Lim, A1).

This statement reminds us that the western beauty standard is not confined to the parameters of North America, or the western world, rather it has permeated international boundaries.

Daughters and what the future may hold . . .

Lastly the women were asked if they had daughters would they allow them to have cosmetic or reconstructive surgeries. All of them agreed that they would not allow their daughters to have any work done, unless they were horribly disfigured by an accident or a disease. This does not concur with Twenge’s findings when he wrote that “some parents are giving breast augmentations as graduation presents”(Campbell & Twenge,156).

Twenge’s research indicated that in certain circles of high socio-economic brackets, cosmetic surgeries are a trend and one that both parents and children are participating in.

This information supports an article that tells the story of a young Asian child adopted by a Caucasian family in the United States, that had her eye shape altered by her father, the plastic surgeon (Ouellette, 14). He reconstructed his daughter’s eyes as he claimed that lacking a fold in her upper eye made her eyes appear small and sleepy and caused them to shut completely when she smiled. The father considered his daughter’s appearance to be of enough concern that he decided to risk the complications of surgery, such as hematoma, asymmetry and drooping, for purely cosmetic reasons (Ouellette, 16). This father treated his daughter’s ethnicity as though it was an affliction, something that should be removed. It is not unlike the scholar that states

“the Japanese woman paying for a face job has had a race change. She has altered

her appearance until she appears to be white” (Miller, 3)

Another case of an Asian woman that recommended eyelid surgery for her child claimed

“I think that having less sleepy looking eyes would help her in the future with getting jobs”(Covino,48). This woman was considering the surgery as a way to enable her daughter the opportunity to assimilate into western culture and ensure her future. As

Wallace noted,

“white features were often more a reliable ticket into this society than professional

status or education”(Owens-Patton, 29).

Lily a young mother with an MBA contended in her interview that

“you cannot raise your children and tell them to be happy with themselves and

who they are and then turn around and have surgery to reduce the size of your

nose so you look more white, in the hopes it will better equip you to get a job.

How do you justify that to them?” (Groves).

In the discussions around raising daughters the participants argued that it is crucial for parents to take the time to discuss beauty standards with their daughters and most importantly to look how women are marketed to. There are many new marketing initiatives by companies such as Dove that have strategies such as their Self Esteem

Fund, a part of their Campaign for Real Beauty. This campaign focuses on promoting inclusive images of women who are varying sizes, and different ethnicities and ages.

They pose questions such as “Does true beauty only squeeze into a size 6?” (Zeisler,

140). They have produced a short film called “Onslaught” (Ziesler, 139) that shows a montage of images of women - on billboards, on television, then on surgical gurneys with problem areas circled with marker, and lastly lasers, scalpels and liposuction cannulae thrust in and out of their bodies. As the camera closes in on a young girl these words appear on the screen, “talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does”

(Zeisler, 139).

Dove contends that the Onslaught beauty campaign has been designed to act as a catalyst for widening the definition and discussion on beauty. According to the Adbusters magazine the Onslaught campaign by Dove instantly escalated their sales to previously unprecedented numbers, with their lotion sales along jumping over 700 per cent in the

United Kingdom alone (Uechi,1). This campaign was so well received and one might think that their increased sales indicate that women are eager to embrace beauty standards

50 that are not stereotypical. Ironically women supported this idea by purchasing more products and buying into the capitalist model.

Conclusions

The topic of beauty practices and the white western beauty standard was one that was easy to engage women in discussing. Women today often agree that they are tired of measuring themselves against an impossible-to-achieve beauty standard so they don’t try to. This was particularly true for the women interviewed and they demonstrated this by not participating in aesthetic surgeries and beauty practices and encouraging their daughters to do the same. The white beauty standard continues to affect women of colour on a daily basis as it is the image that is predominantly represented in the media and the entertainment world. For the most part the women in this project seemed to be aware of the intent of the media and were able to dissect and critique their messages. All of the women agreed that they participate in a double standard of beauty practices, as Bennett wrote, “women will always face a double bind, expected to conform to the beauty standards of the day, yet simultaneously condemned for doing so” (Bennett, 2). Women are becoming aware that capitalist society perpetuates the beauty industry and by purchasing products whether hair colour, makeup or cosmetic surgery, they are contributing to a capitalist economic model.

Even though women of colour participate in some beauty practices it is important to remember that

“not every woman of colour who decides to straighten her hair or change the

colour of her eyes by wearing contacts believes that beauty is synonymous with

whiteness”(Owens Patton,29).

Owens-Patton argues that if women of colour decide to try on a new look that is associated with Europeans it does not automatically imply self hatred or a loathing of their ethnicity. Women in this research appeared to be participating in what they believed to be fashionable, as they did not want to be dated. Following the current fashions did not appear to be about mimicking white women but more about remaining current. If women of colour try new styles and hair colours it is not always about emulating white women, it just appears that it is the case because white women are the focus of western culture.

Research participants frequently mimicked women of their own ethnicity, as that was their mirror image and one they identified with.

Women are rebelling against imposed homogenization and seeing the solution around beauty standards as a feminist one. Naomi Wolf supports them pushing back when she writes,

“A woman’s right to choose what she wants to look like and what she want to be

rather than obeying what the market forces and a muli-billion dollar advertising

industry dictates” (Wolf, 202).

I believe this is the direction that women of colour are heading in, in that women are becoming educated and aware of what fuels the white beauty standard consequently they are better equipped to ignore it. If, like Lily, they are wanting to mimic what they see,

52 society is slowly changing and beginning to positively profile women of colour, so they will soon see images of themselves if they don’t already.

Western society has been slow to see the beauty in other races as they are not visible and present in the media. I can hope that as we move forward “ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture . . . with a message of difference no longer based on white supremacist assumption that claims . . . blondes have more fun” (bell hooks, Feminist Theory,21).

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Appendix “A”

Questionnaire

1. How old are you?

2. What is your cultural background and heritage?

3. Have you ever considered having or had, any of the following beauty treatments? a) Reconstructive surgery, such as breast implants, face lift, tummy tuck, nose job, cheek implants, surgery to alter the shape of your eyes. Please answer Yes or No and then state which ones. b) Cosmetic treatments, such as botox, microdermabrasion, tattooed eyebrows or eyeliner. Please answer yes or no and then state which ones. c) Have you ever bleached your skin, yes or no? d) Have you ever straightened your hair? Yes or no? e) Have you ever employed other means of improving your appearance, e.g. braces on your teeth, laser eye surgery so you would no longer require glasses, varicose vein removal, Please answer yes or no and state which ones you participated in.

4. If you answered yes to any of the questions above, why did you participate in that particular beauty practice?

5. If you answered no to the questions above, why did you not participate in these practices?

6. What do you think are some of the positive or negative effects of having procedures like this one?

7. For the older participants, I asked, if you disagreed or agreed with these procedures, would you have disagreed with them 30 years ago, 20 years ago or 10 years ago? Why?

8. If you disagree with having these treatments or surgeries done to yourself, would you encourage or discourage a daughter from having any or all of these procedures?

9. If you were going to model yourself after a beautiful woman, what would she look like?

10. Does your race/culture have traditional dress? Do you wear this type of clothing in public? If no, why not?

Appendix “B”

Participants in this research project were:

Akiela, 20 year old Jamaican, Administrative Assistant

Akiro, 53 years old, Japanese descent, an architect in her own firm

Alinka, 31 years old, Jamaican descent, artist

Ginette , 45 years old, African/Caribbean/Canadian Ginette is a professional social worker and the Executive Director of a Community Centre

Gloria, 50 years old, Caribbean descent, raised in England

Karen, 50 years old, Jamaican, bus driver

Lilly, 37 year old Jamaican, Vice President of a Financial Firm

Lynda, 51 years old, Caribbean descent

Olivia, 26 years old from India, works in a community service role

Rhoda , 40 years old Somalian, stay at home Mom

Ronnie , 60 years old, Jamaican descent, nurse

Susan, 30 years old, Sudanese, professional social worker

Tina, 40 years old, African/Canadian descent, Administrative Assistant

• Please note these women were not asked what their professions were, this information became known throughout the conversations so it was recorded