Beauty: Difference between revisions

Beauty standards are rooted in cultural norms crafted by societies and media over centuries. As of 2018, it has been argued that the predominance of white women featured in movies and advertising leads to a [[Eurocentrism|Eurocentric]] concept of beauty, which assigns inferiority to women of color.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Harper|first1=Kathryn|last2=Choma|first2=Becky L.|s2cid=150156045|date=2018-10-05|title=Internalised White Ideal, Skin Tone Surveillance, and Hair Surveillance Predict Skin and Hair Dissatisfaction and Skin Bleaching among African American and Indian Women|journal=Sex Roles| volume=80| issue=11–12| pages=735–744| doi=10.1007/s11199-018-0966-9|issn=0360-0025}}</ref> Thus, societies and cultures across the globe struggle to diminish the longstanding [[internalized racism]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Weedon|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Weedon|date=December 6, 2007|title=Key Issues in Postcolonial Feminism: A Western Perspective|journal=Gender Forum Electronic Journal}}</ref>

In of the United States, [[African Americans]] have historically been subjected to beauty ideals that often do not reflect their own appearance, which can lead to issues of low self-esteem. African-American philosopher [[Cornel West]] elaborates that, "much of black self-hatred and self-contempt has to do with the refusal of many black Americans to love their own black bodies-especially their black noses, hips, lips, and hair."<ref name="West 2017 p. 85">{{cite book | last=West | first=C. | title=Race Matters, 25th Anniversary: With a New Introduction | publisher=Beacon Press | year=2017 | isbn=978-0-8070-0883-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mRVHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 | access-date=1 June 2023 | page=85}}</ref> According to Patton (2006), the stereotype of African-American women's inferiority (relative to other races of women) maintains of a system of oppression based on race and gender that operates to the detriment of women of all races, and also black men.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Patton |first1=Tracey Owens |title=Hey Girl, Am I More than My Hair?: African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair |journal=NWSA Journal |date=July 2006 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=45–46 |id={{Project MUSE|199496}} {{ProQuest|233235409}} |jstor=4317206 |quote= "These stereotypes and the culture that sustains them exist to define the social position of black women as subordinate on the basis of gender to all men, regardless of color, and on the basis of race to all other women. These negative images also are indispensable to the maintenance of an interlocking system of oppression based on race and gender that operates to the detriment of all women and all blacks" (Caldwell 2000, 280)."}}</ref>

Much criticism has been directed at models of beauty which depend solely upon Western ideals of beauty as seen for example in the [[Barbie]] model franchise. Criticisms of Barbie are often centered around concerns that children consider Barbie a role model of beauty and will attempt to emulate her. One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a young woman, leading to a risk that girls who attempt to emulate her will become [[anorexia nervosa|anorexic]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dittmar |first1=Helga |last2=Halliwell |first2=Emma |last3=Ive |first3=Suzanne |title=Does Barbie make girls want to be thin? The effect of experimental exposure to images of dolls on the body image of 5- to 8-year-old girls |journal=Developmental Psychology |date=March 2006 |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=283–292 |doi=10.1037/0012-1649.42.2.283 |pmid=16569167 }}</ref>

As of 1998, these criticisms, the lack of diversity in such franchises as the [[Barbie]] model of beauty in Western culture, had led to a dialogue to create non-exclusive models of Western ideals in body type and beauty.<ref>{{cite book|author=Marco Tosa|title=Barbie: Four Decades of Fashion, Fantasy, and Fun|year=1998|publisher=H.N. Abrams|isbn=978-0-8109-4008-6}}{{pn|date=January 2022}}</ref> Mattel responded to these criticisms. Starting in 1980, it produced Hispanic dolls, and later came models from across the globe. For example, in 2007, it introduced "Cinco de Mayo Barbie" wearing a ruffled red, white, and green dress (echoing the Mexican flag). ''Hispanic'' magazine reports that: