Last week I wrote a bit about the historical context of American beauty standards. This kind of thinking makes me crazy, because when I start to unpack the why’s of current beauty culture, it makes me feel a bit duped. When I start to ask myself who benefits from pushing a specific narrative of feminine beauty, the one thing I begin to realize is - it ain’t me.
Let’s dive a bit further into the post World War II media machine and take a look at what was being peddled to the women of the age ie: our mothers, grandmothers, aunties and their friends, who then passed it all on down to us, free of charge.
In the the post WWII era, film and magazines were popular forms of entertainment, with television slowly making ground. Philosopher Marshall McLuhan theorized that new technologies, like television, changed the rhythm and scale in which ideas where introduced to society. Television, in conjunction with more up close, personal and tactile media like magazines, introduced new aspirations, beliefs, which then, as intended, resulted in new behaviors among women.
During this same era, there emerged two popular character types for female celebrities that became popular across all forms of media: the wholesome homemaker and the hyper sexualized bombshell.
Both stereotypical characters displayed a certain defenselessness and desire to be rescued by a stronger, wiser and more powerful man. The vast majority were played by caucasian women with Eurocentric features.
For women of color there was an overall lack of representation, or worse, misrepresentation via stereotypes and tropes. There was also a strong push for women of color to strive for that same white, Eurocentric beauty ideal.
Two caucasian celebrities that embodied these popular archetypes of the day, were Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe.
Garland, with her girl next door looks, played characters that were described as wholesome, good natured and innocent. She embodied the female ethic of the woman who wants nothing more but to fall in love and get married.
Monroe’s characters by comparison, were described as clueless, ditzy, and oblivious to the affects their beauty and sexuality had on men.
Both women were subject to endless scrutiny that played out in magazines read voraciously by millions of women. Garland was badgered by the media in regard to her weight throughout her life. Newspapers of the day ran headlines like Judy The Fat Kid, Judy The Star – Poor Judy.
The type of language in this piece would continue, for decades, aimed at women in the spotlight and internalized by generations of women who consumed it and then believed it as their own ideas.
Monroe, by comparison was universally seen as beautiful, but her bombshell persona seemed to carry with it, a cost. While her looks were not assessed in the same fashion as Garland, her sex life, eating habits and overall intelligence were. Headlines that exemplify this are: A Set of Bizarre Eating Habits and Is Marylin Monroe More Than Sexy?
So, who benefits here? Who profits socially, economically or otherwise from keeping women in a place of having to constantly prove themselves? To prove that they are young enough, pretty enough, smart enough? To walk the line of staying young, but not looking like they’ve had too much work done. To be pretty but not slutty? To be smart but not braggadocious?
For one, the publications themselves profited by scrutinizing the appearance and behaviors of female celebrities and made them the subject of gossip and analysis. In turn, for the women and girls who were the readers of the day, these messages spoke to societal expectations of appearance and behavior.
What’s even more interesting is that these ideologies then became so embedded in the lives of the average woman, that the women women themselves began to police one another to ensure conformity to these standards. Don’t believe me? How many times have you complained to your best friend that you need to lose weight, cover up those unsightly grays, do something about those wrinkles or shave those hairy legs, pits and privates - quick!? How many of you heard your mothers talking to their friends in the same way - or to you directly?
So, what do to with this info? I don’t have the answer to that, but I guess if we can pull back the veil so to speak, at least we can make choices surrounding our beauty rituals that feel good and feel informed.
Next week I’ll dive into the bizarre beauty era of my youth - the neon, supermodel, over the top 1980’s. Stay tuned!
Even worse, I strived to be the Hussy Homemaker (while working full time) you can guess how that worked out 😆