Just recently, I went to visit my cousin and the first thing she said to me was "Why didn't you shave your armpits?". This question reminded me of seeing on a friend's WhatsApp status one time that beauty standards for women changed after the invention of safety razors. Some random man decided that bodily hair on women was not sexy because he wanted to make money.
From hair products to waist trainers to makeup products, women's bodies have been a source of income for male-dominated capitalist industries. Manufacturers have strategically been exploiting women's insecurities (that were created by the patriarchy in the first place) for years.
The question about shaving my armpits started me thinking about products that are marketed toward women and their significance in women's lives. Through manipulative advertising, owning these products is conveyed as the proper way to be feminine.
It made me realize that femininity, as we know it to be, is not something inherent in women. One of the ways it is constructed is through commercialization. A lot of women are pressured to consume products that can be harmful to them while they play into femininity standards and gender roles that society has put in place for them.
In 2019, I bought and used a shaving cream that gave me an infection because I wanted to get rid of my pubic hair. This is the case for a lot of women. Products like hair relaxers, bleaching creams, etc are marketed as the definition of true beauty and womanhood.
Companies make large amounts of money off portraying unrealistic female bodies and promoting products in line with stereotypes that women are supposed to look a certain way and use certain products.
Weight loss products such as slimming teas are usually marketed with pictures of thin women. They are marketed in ways that play into the stereotype that the perfect body is the thin one. They use phrases like "summer body" to convince women to buy their products.
A lot of other producers of items targeted at women play into beauty stereotypes while marketing their products. An example is in the marketing of hair products like relaxers. Relaxer brands play into the white supremacist stereotype that nappy hairs are ugly and hard to maintain, while selling products that leave a lot of women injured.
One may be fooled into seeing these products as mere fashion trends but there is a need to question why their target audiences are women. Capitalism and patriarchy work hand in hand to sustain gender inequality. By marketing products that actively reinforce standards of femininity, producers maintain that the female social role centers around looking acceptable.
I am not saying that women should stop using beauty products altogether, my point is that we need to rethink why we need to use certain products in the first place, especially ones that have dangerous health implications.
Komentarze