From: terra@athena.mit.edu (Terra Incognita)
Newsgroups: soc.women,alt.feminism
Subject: Re: Feminists ignore Cosmetics?
Date: 31 Aug 92 14:08:21 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: MIT - DMSE and Bait

In article <1992Aug28.204754.8256@umr.edu> asparrow@mcs213f.cs.umr.edu (Angelia Sparrow) writes:
>I have not read Wolfe, and I'm not
>a feminist. But, the topic intrigues me.
>
>I stood my ground when my mother insisted
>on make-up saying I looked pale and plain.  
>I already have a man, I don't need to entice more.
[...]
>
>A psych prof I had once ran some experiments.
>She was seeing whether men put as much emphasis on
>makeup as women.  She took pictures of women made
>up and then had them wash their faces before another 
>picture was taken. [...]
>However, when pictures were shown to a group of
>men, most could not tell the difference between clean
>and madeup.
>
>Women wear makeup as a bow to social pressure
>from other women, it seems.  
>
I just read "The Beauty Myth" a few weeks ago, and it seemed to me
that Wolf's thesis was that it was *the cosmetic companies* and
*the diet industry* (Slim-Fast, Jenny Craig, et al.) to meet up to
a certain standard of beauty.  (In fact, in a number of places she
makes a point of saying that she doesn't feel it's a simple case of
"men oppressing women".)  After all, these industries have a much more
vital interest than "men" in keeping women swimming in pots of
makeup, moisturizer, and lite meals -- $$$$$$$$.

Essentially, what she's saying is that cosmetic and diet companies
use mass media to propagate a particularly effective form of
advertising:  playing on people's insecurities.  Think about
deodorant ads ("A sprinkle a day helps keep odor away...") or
mouthwash ads (the married couple who won't kiss one another in
the morning until they've rinsed with mouthwash).  The same
principle is involved cosmetic ads.  They give us gorgeous fashion
models as an example of what we're "supposed" to look like, then tell
us that by using their products we can look like those models.  They
take advantage of our raging hormones by telling the relevant 90% of
us that this is what men expect us to look like.  You can't read a
women's magazine, watch an hour of television, or go into a store
without being assailed by this advertising.  Women are made to feel
that they aren't "presentable" without at least a little makeup, and
that they aren't "attractive" unless they have "the ideal" figure.
In any case, money, and not social dominance of one gender over the
other, seems to be the prime motivating factor in this form of
"oppression" of women.

While I think Wolf hyperbolizes somewhat, I found a lot of truth in
her book, too.  I felt like a data point in her book.  I wore a lot
of makeup when I was a teenager, and didn't feel that I was even
"presentable" unless I was at least wearing a little mascara, some
"cover-up", blush, and lip-gloss.  I also watched a fair amount of
TV and read some of the women's fashion magazines.  When I went off
to college, I didn't have a TV, and I didn't have a lot of money
to spend on fashion magazines.  I also had a part-time job and
full-time classes, and a daily "beauty regimen" just didn't fit into
my schedule.  I totally got out of the habit of wearing makeup, and
have worn little or none ever since.  I still don't watch TV or read
the mags, and, magically, don't feel at all self-conscious about
going out with what I heard Helen Gurley-Brown ("Cosmo" editor?)
refer to as "a scrubbed face".  What's more, as Naomi Wolf points
out in her book, and as Angel mentions here, a lot of men don't care
or notice if a woman wears makeup, and some don't like it at all!!
I have also found that no matter how I've groomed myself, I've never
had problems attracting men.  Over the years, my fiance has seen me
in various shades of dishevelment, and, well, he still wants to marry
me...

>Angel, who always wanted to run an experiment
>with veils and see how many wore makeup even
>under an opaque veil.

I bet a lot.
--
Terra Incognita                             terra@athena.mit.edu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA    USA
"Work. Worry. Consume. Die. It's a wonderful life." (Lippy)
Newsgroups: soc.women