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Munich Mannequins. Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children. Cold as snow breath, it tamps the womb Unloosing their moons, month after month, to no purpose. The blood flood is the flood of love. The absolute sacrifice. It means: no more idols but me.
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Munich Mannequins • Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children. • Cold as snow breath, it tamps the womb • Unloosing their moons, month after month, to no purpose. • The blood flood is the flood of love. • The absolute sacrifice. • It means: no more idols but me. • In their sulfur loveliness, these mannequins lean tonight • In Munich, morgue between Paris and Rome. • O the domesticity of these windows, • The baby lace, the green-leaved confectionary. • Voicelessness. The snow has no voice.
Why do women wear lipstick? • “It’s what makes you a woman.” Paloma Picasso, fashion designer • “Lipstick is something that makes you feel good about yourself.” Naomi Campbell, model • “It’s a source of female power.” Barbara Daly, make-up artist
Alteration of Appearance • Practiced for 1000s of years • “capture the appearance of youth in perfect health” • Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, French • Ceremonies and religious rites • Minerals, flowers, roots, rinds, bark • Face whitening: lead oxide used 14th - 19th cents. Physical problems and death. • Other poisons found in eye shadow, lipstick, eye shadow (“deadly nightshade”)
Is Your Lipstick Safe? • Lipstick, nail polish, deodorant, toothpaste, body lotion, soap: seemingly harmless products can contain numerous unregulated chemicals • Some chemicals linked to breast cancer, reproductive disorders, and birth defects • Cosmetic companies not required to label many of their products’ ingredients. FDA does not mandate pre-market testing of many ingredients • Feb. `12: over 400 lipstick shades, including those from popular brands like L’Oréal, Nars, and Cover Girl, contain trace amount of lead, according to FDA • FDA says the levels do not pose a risk.
20th Century • Antiperspirants and deodorants: 1890s • Commercial cosmetics industry • 4-parts to attractiveness: exercise, diet, cosmetics, hair products. Info onslaught starting in 1910s • Change in perception of beauty aids: long association with “painted ladies” or women of “suspect morals” • most influential event = cinema; early actresses on screen with make-up of Helen Rubinstein (developer of mascara and colored powder) • Max Factor - pancake make-up • 1920s: emergence of chain, or dime, stores = mass appeal of cosmetics. `27: permanent hair waving. `29: Hollywood and tanned skin, reversing emphasis on whiteness
The Ideal Body • Body types go in and out of fashion • 1920s: flappers (boyish, thin, bound breasts) • 1950s: Marilyn Monroe was sex goddess. By our standards today, she was fat • 1960s: Twiggy era: beginning of the anorexic look. Twiggy was 5’8” and 97 lbs. • 1980s: Elle McPherson – typified the strong and lean look
Beauty = reproductive strategy • Attract mates, sustain genes and species • Peacock, flowers, antlers, lion’s mane • “beauty we strive for today goes far beyond the basic need for survival of species”
Females: “curvaceous derriere; slim waist; and perky, firm, large breasts” • Visible signs of health: smooth skin, good teeth, healthy hair, symmetry, youth, curves (body fat!) • Males: “broad shoulders, slim and toned waist, and muscular legs”
A new study (2010) performed in Ireland has found that young women no longer desire to have an hourglass figure, but instead would like to have a “tubular” and “more androgynous” body shape. • The study compared results to American women in 1954 and found that women now wished to be lighter and no longer wished to have an hourglass shape. • The female students wanted no difference between waist and hips, having the ideal female shape be a tube. • The male students wanted the ideal female shape to have more weight - to be an hourglass. • (3 different body types on next slide)
Venus of Willendorf 24,000 B.C., Austria Early ideal: voluptuous, healthy, fertile Someone important; not typical women
Queen Nefertiti Message similar to today: ideal of beauty required time and effort “always appear flawlessly painted and primped”
Hair Removal • Women in ancient Egypt used beeswax and lime to remove leg hair • Ancient Romans and Greeks used pumice to remove body hair • “Some cultures it as uncivilized since body hair appears on animal bodies. The idea of a hairless body for American women developed in 1915,” said Victoria Sherrow in Encyclopedia of Hair: a Cultural History • 1915: Gillette’s Milady, the first razor designed and marketed specifically for women • “the safe way to acquire a smooth underarm” • “A promise that women can gain access to beauty if they engage in these practices such as shaving their armpits,” Jennifer Scanlon, professor of Women’s Studies, Bowdoin College • Mo’Nique appeared at Golden Globes with unshaven legs • Ren, contestant on “America’s Next Top Model,” arrived with hairy armpits
Paul Rubens’ The Three Graces Beauty traits of 1600s: curves, dimples, rolls, cellulite “Rubenesque” = voluptuous beauty
Lucas Cranach the Elder: Cupid Complaining to Venus 1500s Ideal body: S-shaped, small features, large feet, protruding stomach (fertility)
Paul Gauguin: Two Tahitian Women Glorifying non-European beauty Broadening definition of beauty
Venus de Milo Classical Greek sculpture Geometric formula based on proportions of humans and other natural creatures
Extremes of Beauty • High Heels • Since 1600s, when both men and women wore them • Associated with sexiness • Tense legs, thrust out boobs and butt for balance, emphasize sway of hips • Painful: back pain, shortened leg muscles, foot discomfort • Foot = “masterpiece of engineering and work of art” da Vinci. 26 bones; 20 muscles; 7,000 nerve endings; 250,000 sweat glands
“High heels throws posture forward, like you are standing on your tippy toes, so in order to stand up straight you have to over extend the lower back," said an Australian doctor. “Shortening of calf muscles also creates a jamming effect in the lower back.” “If any woman has had more than a decade of wearing constant high heels, she will have arthritic changes. Addiction to heels also gives rise to neck problems. When you arch the lower back you usually stoop and roll the shoulders and crane the neck. It's like if the foundations of a house get shifted, the roof and the walls and everything else compensates.”
Extremes of Beauty • Corset • Since 14th century, device to shape torso: “fasionable S-shaped figure” • Whalebone, iron, steel to narrow the waist (18 inches or less = goal) ; enhance breasts and hips - Damage the body • If started wearing in infancy, muscles that normally hold up the body did not develop • Caused fainting spells and breathing problems • Today = sexual connotations and lingerie
Model Has Natural 20-inch WaistFebruary 2012 • Romanian model Ioana Spangenberg says she has natural 20-inch waist. • Her thin middle in contrast to her 32-inch hips produced the nickname “the human hourglass” • The 30-year-old weighs 84 pounds • Spangenberg insists she cannot gain weight around her midsection. “Every day I eat three big meals and snack on chocolate and potato chips.” • With trickery like Photoshop and wearing three pairs of Spanx, it's hard for some to believe Spangenberg isn't wearing a corset under her clothing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL8ARB5FmsA&NR=1&feature=fvwp
Advertising • Powerful, “educational” force: $150 billion / year • Media “diet” • 30 hours TV / week + 100 hours reading magazines / year = 1,500 ads / day • Effects of emphasis on excessive thinness • Increases eating disorder symptoms • Body dissatisfaction, stress, depression • Ideal image is unattainable by most women • Ave. women = 5’4” and 142 lbs. • Top models = 5’9” and 110 – 118 lbs. • Only 5% of women are this height and weight!
Weight • Economic conditions trigger perception • When food and money are scarce, larger (well-fed) body types were the ideal • Similarly, times of plenty correlated with thinner body ideals: showing status by having time and money on fitness • 1,000 year-old sculptures in India show voluptuous women with full breasts, bellies, and hips • Among the Bangwa and other West African tribes, fatness is an essential part of beauty • Before marriage, Bangwa women are sent to a “fattening house” to eat enriched foods • Fiji: well-fed, robust bodies = signs of health and prosperity. Thin bodies are sick bodies • Introduction of American TV in `95: outbreak of dieting, self-esteem problems, and eating disorders among teen girls
Diet Industry • Tripled its income in past 10 yrs. • $50 billion in 2010
The Skinny on Plastic Surgery • Liposuction, rhinoplasty, breast augmentation / reduction, eyelids, face • 330,000 cosmetic surgeries on people under 18 in 2004, a 48% jump from 2003. • Surgeons say “Extreme Makeover” and “The Swan” are influential. • http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com/
Ads Using Everyday Woman • Real women instead of waifish supermodels to pitch products. • “We’ve gotten tired of airbrushed pictures none of us can relate to,” said a female ad exec. • 1997: The Body Shop had “Love Your Body” campaign, which showed a Rubenesque plastic doll named Ruby. • Tagline: “There are 3 billion women who do not look like supermodels and only 8 who do”
Ads Using Everyday Woman • 2005: Nike and clothes / equipment • Glorifying body parts rarely seen in ads • “My butt is big, I have thunder thighs, my shoulders are not dainty or proportional to my hips.”
Ads Using Everyday Woman • Dove ads: “Campaign for Real Beauty” • “Dove believes real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes, colors and ages. Together, let’s think, talk, debate and learn how to make beauty real again.” • 2004: showed older, wrinkled women; women with pale skin and freckles; and women with small breasts • 2005: six women, none of them models, sizes 4 to 12, smiling in their underwear • Dove trying to sell skin-care products, some of it to banish cellulite
