Maybelline's Beauty Myth

In Naomi Wolf’s, “Beauty Myth”, she talks about the detrimental effects of women as represented in the media and society. More specifically, the inversely correlated relationship between female liberation and ideas about femininity in the media. While women have increasingly gained prominence in social, political, and economic platforms, they have also been increasingly idealized in the media to the point of impossibility. We would think that as women breach these positions of power formally held by men we could assume the images that represent “ideal women” would also change for the better.

      Wolf indicates that this inverse relationship is a result of a “violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement” (Wolf 487).  This is what constructs, “the Beauty Myth” that Wolf speaks of. Every day we are bombarded with media that promotes the myth of beauty. It is a myth because we know now that the kind of beauty we see in advertisements, on TV, and in movies is fabricated to create notions of beauty that always leave women striving for the unattainable. And now, because men can no longer control women through domestication and force, the media chooses to undermine them by basing their self-worth and “beauty” on impossible goals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTgeUVOxl8E

                

     Above is a 2009 Maybelline commercial advertising “NEW Dream Liquid Mousse” foundation. This is a perfect representation of “the Beauty Myth” that wolf speaks about. The commercial initially says, “Flawless skin? Old news. 100% pore-less perfection has arrived.” Not only does the commercial say “flawless” skin is now a goal of the past (and unattainable one at that), it introduces a new goal for “pore-less” skin that is deemed perfection. In all reality if our skin didn’t have pores we would not be living. Then the commercial goes on to say, “skin looks smoother, perfect. Like it’s been airbrushed.” This references the airbrushed skin that we see in the media constantly. There is not a single image that hasn’t been retouched with first makeup and then photo shop. The ad promotes “perfection” as looking like Adriana Lima is depicted, with absolutely no blemishes, and frankly, no real skin.

                

     

       And so, a woman can be a part of congress, or a CEO, or president for that matter, but if we can see her pores, suddenly her self-worth has plummeted. At the end of the commercial the Maybelline logo comes says, “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.” This implies that “100% pore-less skin” is something people can actually be born with. The ad constructs the desire to have this skin where before, pore-less skin wasn't anything any woman was striving to have. This is a beauty myth because it constructs a desire for women to work for and causes them to come seek out products that might give them this new pore-less skin.

                Below is a visual deconstruction of “The Beauty Myth” in popular culture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U