True Colors

This is a spectacle within a spectacle. According to Debord, we live in a world so dominated by consumer goods that even our social relations are “commodified”. We relate to others through cars, stereos, mass-produced music, TV shows and vacation packages.

Mega-spectacles also include sports events like the World Series, Superbowl, and NBA championships which attract massive audiences, are hyped to the maximum, and generate always accelerating record advertising rates. These cultural rituals celebrate society's deepest values (i.e. competition, winning, success, and money) and corporations are willing to pay top dollars to get their products associated with such events.

As we take a look into the feminine beauty ideal among race, we come to one conclusion. Many women conform to the prevailing beauty standards of certain corporate culture or to advance. “There are institutional forces that propagate the idea that the white ideal of beauty is the only acceptable ideal of beauty.” The reality of the situation is that “white” is considered the golden standard and that everything else is deemed unacceptable. Women of color find themselves under enormous pressure to compensate for that which they “lack”. The fact is that races have different ideas of female beauty.

The ideal feminine beauty image is most often linked to the portrayal of whiteness in advertisements, movies, celebrities, etc. Even in other cultures around the world, women strive to achieve a beauty that reflects what is considered a western, white female. The commercial market strongly influences children from a young age that being beautiful requires being white, skinny and blonde. Any deterrent from this ideal beauty image may cause one to be considered as ugly and abnormal.

I find it ironic that Dove, who is trying to promote self-esteem for girls, played this commercial at the Super Bowl XL, which is another spectacle. Do you think that it is counter-intuitive? Our ideas about "what is beautiful" is mediated by images.

xoxo,
Kat