So last time I left off I was pretty charged up. I have simmered down since then. When I first started my ELI, I was very sure of what I was going to be doing, however, since then it’s been getting harder to stay on course. Beauty, history, politics: these were the three main fields I wanted to focus on. What I didn’t consider was the different angles I could tackle them from.
Beginning with beauty, my initial plan was to focus on beauty standards in America and show how they can affect people. But through the course of this, it seemed necessary to expand, so I did. I began comparing beauty standards within different cultures. The only problem is, I didn’t consider the weight of it. There were so many different angles I could explore. Media, history, psychology, and on. In the end, I focused on how wealth and power could influence the culture of one group, such as in India.
India was colonized by Britain, and it wasn’t until colorism was implemented by the British in order maintain control of the larger population that the beauty of a person depended on the color of her skin. Colorism is a practice of discrimination by which those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin. Professor of anthropology Fuji Lazada states, “Before the 1990s, the Indian beauty industry was not very large. Advertisements for beauty products were found mainly in women’s magazines. The primary products of the beauty line were hair care, skin creams, soaps, and powders. Most of the skin care products were geared toward helping women get fairer skin, in accordance with the colorism that has dominated the country since the British invasion” All of this fascinated me and that’s when I began connecting the dots.
It seemed to all fit, how beauty is based off what society deems as successful, smart, and well-off. Gathered from the things I’ve read, here’s what I’ve come to believe as to why we set and strive for beauty standards in our society.
It’s no secret that people who are more attractive tend to get better treatment. But, why are they considered attractive? Recent studies have shown that beautiful people are generally viewed as more intelligent and healthier. Perhaps it all comes down to our animalistic instincts. Before there was technology, medicine, and transportation, as humans, our chances of survival were slim. So, in order to guarantee we lived on through our offspring, we tended to select mates who were skilled and healthy. Mates that would pass on their skills and health to offspring. Skip thousands of years later and that way of thinking is still ingrained within us but has just been adjusted to fit our modern society. Think about it. In today’s society the rich and famous are what we strive to be because we believe they live better lives. A common ideology in America is that you work hard enough and you can have the picket white fence. We’re not a country of haves and have nots but a country of haves and soon to haves. At least that’s what we tell ourselves. The people with the most are the people who have better access to food, clothing, medicine, and pretty much everything else. So what do we do? We try to emulate them, in order to be acceptable.
All in all, our beauty standards are constantly changing depending on who we believe is on top, who holds the power. And a great outlet for where we find out the latest trends is the media. Today it’s tans, beach waves, and skinny jeans. Tomorrow it’s polos and slacks. I don’t know. All I know is that it’ll change again and again and again.
~Ivonne
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