Summary: The Pervasiveness Of Beauty Myth and Commodification Of Women

This suggestive line from a fairy tale “Snow White” represents the disastrous obsession for physical attractiveness, beautiful body and fair skin. Roll back to real life and advertisements and various representations in media harp on women’s preoccupation with formidable attempts at transforming themselves into prototypes of beauty. ‘Fair is beautiful’ and ‘Size zero is the new way to be’ are lingering phrases prevalent across cultures. Moreover, the homogenized and universal cosmetic culture endorses an all-pervading challenge to remain youthful, physically and sexually attractive.

These notions get internalized and oppress women to a great extent in various spheres of life as they are laced with various ideologies.

The gender roles endorsed in society give primacy to masculinity and women are restricted to the domestic sphere and viewed as the ‘other’. In the public space and media, they are seen as objects of male desire and presented with images which have sexual overtones. This paper will analyse the manner in which objectification and commodification of women is the resultant of the beauty myth which is reinforced through portrayals in media.

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It will also elucidate the manner in which gender based stereotypes are perpetuated by adopting the patriarchal ideology, which intertwined with the beauty myth, leads to commodification of women.

The term ideology is significant for any reading of beauty myth and the subsequent marginalisation of women. Althusser (1971) said “Ideology works on the principle of ‘interpellation’, as the socially constructed reality is passed as ‘natural’, even though it’s a subjective distortion of the reality and the world” (163).

Women are tyrannised by this ideal of female beauty as the concept of body is tied up with a complex process. Baudrillard (1998) argues that “the body is not merely a biological entity, but a complex socio-cultural formation that reflects, through a process of embodiment, the structures that mediate our subjectivities and lived experiences”. (44). As Masculinity and femininity are determined by gender roles; body becomes a site of these gender roles and has been placed at the forefront of gender debates. The way we represent our bodies comes under the ambit of ‘performing gender’. Erving Goffman(1979) has succinctly articulated that “gender display is the expression of masculinity/ femininity through bodily postures and behaviour”.(38)

Advertisements and media portrayal of women problematise bodies and become narratives of marginalising women. Women’s bodies are posited in the ideological constructions of patriarchy. The concept of Beauty is therefore laden with representations of the body in accordance with the ideological framework. It becomes a product of consumerist and patriarchal ideology which enforces the constructed ideas of body. Patriarchal ideology has marginalized women and insinuated towards ideals of beauty which conforms to the male gaze. The depiction of overt and covert sexual images in media makes women pawns of this regressive patriarchal ideology. Women too, become implicit in pursuing the standards of femininity by conforming to the societal criteria.Marilyn Crafton Smith in the article Woman Created, Woman Transfigured, Woman Consumed: An Introduction opines “Interrogating the circulation and transformation of cultural meanings helps reveal how dominant ideologies seem to remain fixed in place. This is the point at which cultural work or activity contributes to social struggles and the ground on which discursive and representational politics come into play”. (viii)

She further says “Feminist theory and politics benefit from analyses that focus on the struggle for dominance, whether applied to the processes of production or consumption of meanings of cultural representations, or the processes through which social subjects, political identities or social formations come to exist. Each of these processes contains the fluidity, tension, and antagonisms that define the struggle for power. When critical work on representation takes into account the process through which 'hegemonic realism' is constructed-i.e., outlining the overlapping contradictions, the characterizing features of the process and the degree of its success at pasting together and cohering disparate, indeterminate elements-femi- nists gain greater understanding of how unrelated ideas, beliefs, and/or social relations come to be structured in correspondence with dominant power relations”.(xi)

Feminism with its different waves had generated narratives all over the world to challenge the patriarchal ideology. However, in the 90’s a challenging dimension erupted in the feminist phase as Naomi Wolf’s best seller The Beauty Myth- How Images of Beauty are used against Women, staunchly insinuated the feminist to mull over the concept of female beauty which works as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, women were strengthened with an overhaul in the system, which gave primacy to notions of equality and status and on the other hand, this idea of female beauty was laced with an ideology which was self-destructive.In an introduction to the Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf says” Incredible to think of now, a decade ago too many of us were asking ourselves, “Will I be taken seriously at work if I look ‘too feminine’?” “Will I be listened to at all if I look ‘too plain’?” “Am I ‘bad’ if I gain weight? ‘Good’ only if I lose every ounce?” If women no longer think this way—or, if they at least know that there is something terribly wrong if they are forced to think this way—it is testimony to the power of an idea in the minds of a lot of women at once; proof of their ability to create lasting change and even a bit more freedom”. (8)

Naomi Wolf argued that “We are in the midst of a violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement: the beauty myth. It is the modern version of a social reflex that has been in force since the Industrial Revolution. As women released themselves from the feminine mystique of domesticity, the beauty myth took over its lost ground, expanding as it wanted to carry on its work of social control”. (10) Wolf has condemned the ideology which restricts women to the prevailing myths of beauty and stifles their identity and existence. In an attempt to redefine the status of women, women are heaped with images of flawless skin and perfect body. Wolf, while condemning the cosmetic industry and market forces, exhorts women to empower themselves by making judicious choices.Media reinforces the stereotypical image of women by adhering to gendered notions. The binaries are instrumental in marginalising women and constructing gender specific roles for them. The beauty myth contributes to self-flagellation and commodification of women. Eating disorders and cosmetic make over are by-products of these attempts to conform to the notions of beauty. In this context, Roland Barthes idea of myth also merits attention. “Myth has a double function: it points out and it notifies, it makes us understand something and then imposes it on us”(115) Barthes definition can be viewed in the light of popular advertisements and images of women in media which subtly tune the viewers into the direction of accepting rigid culturally based norms of being fair, svelte and beautiful. As women appropriate these status codes, the gender attributes constructed in these representations become psychologically damaging and are replete with beliefs which questions a woman’s worth as an individual.

Laura Mulvey has done path-breaking work in the area Male Gaze. According to the Gaze theory, media looks through the eyes of male. A woman is aware of being looked at and learns to look at herself through the male eyes. The female consciousness too, is deeply affected by projection in media. Women are thus, trapped in the patriarchal clutches and seem to remain oppressed despite being successful in the global context.

The stereotypical portrayal of women is media not only demeans women but also conditions the society to view women as an object. Jean Kilbourne who has extensively studied the image of women in advertisements states that “ads sell more than products. They sell values, images, concepts of love and sexuality, of normalcy”. Women become objects of pleasure and this leads to their commodification. The potentially destructive implications of these representations deride women as these codes are androcentric and are constructed in co-ordination with the perceptions of society.

Bartky (1977) observes that feminine body itself is a mark of inferiority. Feminine body-discipline is deeply insidious with particular norms of diet, exercise, movement, smiles, make-up, and skin care, rendering women as docile and complement companions of men. As women have internalised this discipline and its conception of femininity, their adherence to it seems voluntary and natural, and any refusal to practise this discipline reflects non-conformity to the knowledge and skills that are central to women's so-called identity.(qtd in Patriarchy: Theoretical Postulates and Empirical Findings,259).

In the present context, body-shaming has assumed mammoth proportions as females with an oversized figure consider themselves on the margins and perpetuate the notion of inferiority and imperfection if their figure does not conform to the supposedly etched out form. The repercussions of body shaming on the psychological and emotional well-being is an issue of concern and detrimental to the empowerment of women. Obsession with one’s self is the resultant of markedly commodification of women and this seems pronounced due to the role of media. It creates a lopsided structure in the society where the dominant sites of ideology covertly get enmeshed into the field of representation. This has a bearing on the status of women in society, where ideals of beauty spring from the site of control which sometimes overtly or covertly pushes women to the periphery, treating them as objects of desire and commodities of pleasure.

References:

1. Althusser, L. Ideology and ideological state apparatuses. In L. Althusser (Ed.), Lenin and philosophy and other essays. New York: Monthly Review Press. 1971.Web.
2. Barthes, Roland. Mythologies: Roland Barthes. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.Print.
3. Craighead, Clare. “(Monstrous) Beauty (Myths): The Commodification of Women's Bodies and the Potential for Tattooed Subversions.” Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, vol. 25, no. 4 (90), 2011, pp. 42–49. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23287201.
4. Goffman, E. 1979. Gender Advertisements. London: Macmillan.Web.
5. Marilyn Crafton Smith. “Woman Created, Woman Transfigured, Woman Consumed: An Introduction.” NWSA Journal, vol. 11, no. 2, 1999, pp. vii-xiii. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4316652.
6. Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, Vol 16, Issue 3, Pages 6–18, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6
7. Soman, Uthara. “Patriarchy: Theoretical Postulates and Empirical Findings.” Sociological Bulletin, vol. 58, no. 2, 2009, pp. 253–272. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23620688.
8. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. New York: Perennial, 2002. Web.