This week we both move into a new area in our consideration of race, gender, and class in the media, as well two new media: advertising and sports broadcasting. First, read the following two articles from Facing Difference: "The Beauty Machine" (sec. 1.2) and "Color Blinded: Racial Bias in Network Television's Coverage of Professional Football Games." Consider the findings in both studies.
Before Thursday's class, please post your thoughts on one or both of the following: first, how do the authors' findings in "The Beauty Machine" relate to contemporary depictions of female beauty in entertainment media and advertising? Second, a good number of you, in your local TV news audits, noticed certain trends in the depiction of African-Americans on sportscasts; can we connect those trends to the authors' findings in the second article?
The article "The Beauty Machine" seems a little outdated to me, but there are some valid points.
ReplyDeleteThe article defines beauty as being tall, skinny and white. But I think today the definitions have branched off. Perhaps it is a way to make the beauty business seem more encompassing. People of color are in commercials, tv shows and movies. Make-up products now cater to minorities. But I think certain minorities have to meet certain guidelines in order to be respresented. For example, most black women in the entertainment media seem to be light skinned. Their hair seems to be presented in a way that looks "white." I guess it's okay for them to be represented as long as they try to look white. I also agree with the articles' stance on Asian models. They continue to be stereotyped as exotic. They still seem below whites and blacks in regards to the entertainment media.
And of course, being skinny is still a prerequisite, regardless of race.
I agree with Sybil about "The Beauty Machine" being outdated. But I thought the authors made an interesting argument. Some of it applies to todays society.
ReplyDeleteThe article is dead on about society being influenced by the media. Because of celebrity icons women everywhere are striving to be a size two. Designer handbags are the ultra-important accessories especially if a tiny dog fits inside. These are things that are influenced by the people we see on TV. Reality shows like "The Hills" and "The Real Housewives" glamorize these ideas.
As a big fan of "America's Next Top Model," I find that what the article said about ethnic models to be true. It seems to me that half of the winners on the show are white. Although contestants have all sorts of different backgrounds, ethnicities, beliefs and values.
Either way, the portrayal of women in the media influences the way that women perceive themselves.
In the sport genre, let’s consider Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian. Is Kim a beautiful woman? Nice ballplayer and series, but a divorce resulted. Silicone and liposuction seems to be the essence of beauty now. There are more instances to look at. It seems the taboo is nearly over. At least with money. Underlying racial prejudices are ingrained into our social system. The Kaylee and Taylor incident is a prime example. Kaylee was evidently drunk (sippy, sippy).
ReplyDeleteThe Florida laws that govern “common law” marriages also involve interracial couples. Blog from: http://bfinterracialmarriage.blogspot.com/ (Sept 30 2009.)“Any negro man and white woman, or any white man and negro woman, who are not married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.”
Let’s get real. Sex sells, and the conceived beauty is closer to white is the advertiser’s and programmers dream. $ is the answer, and each entity makes money from the regimen. Oriental models inspire sexual fantasies in men. Black women who have straight hair and the appearance of “white beauty” are appealing to the viewers and advertisers.
I think we can all agree that these articiles are outdated. However in the beauty article the most striking statement to me was: 'We learn to hate what makes us different because the "all-American' look doesn't have anything to do with ALL Americans." This statement is one I do not think can ever lose itself in history. The images associated with beauty are drilled in and reinforced. This happens so often and I think it can make those that do not see someone "like them" in magazines or advertising, then they believe they are not beautiful. In my opinion, the overall look of models is currently more diverse than it was at the time this article was written. I do think that you can see black women in advertising and as models. I also recognize that Asian girls are still almost non-existant in Western Civilization's model scene. Two goals of advertising are profit and preservation of status quo. This is accomplished through having one type of person on the runway or in commercials as far as race and class goes. I think the most diverse representations of beauty are found in Dove's body campaign. Not only are a wide range of ethinicities represented, but it also includes women of diverse ages, and women of all shapes and sizes. It is one of the most effective ads because it is realistic. I think if a wider range of women were seen in model positions than the self esteem levels of women would be higher, which would in turn make younger girls less self conscious.The idea of there being a common image is realistic, even today. It can't be ignored that if someone is of a different race but takes on features that resemble this common "white, thin, tall, blonde" model they have more of a chance. The difference now is that the people working in the position of photographers, designers etc. are now more diverse. This means an understanding between the advertisers and the audiences are becoming more and more level, (or should be.) It might eventually make people in these positions feel they need to represent diversity within beauty.
ReplyDeleteIn the football article the most striking information is the fact that white football players are representative of "positive cognitive attributes" while black players are talked about in regards to their physical abilities. This continues to allow audiences to look at different groups in this way. It does not look at teammates as all educated, physically able teammates working together. It singles out certain players into categories. I think this also contributes to the thought of making white players seem friendlier than black players. (This idea was mentioned in the article in regards to the first/last name referenc,) but I also think it applies here. The seperation being made and shown through media coverage does nothing to make audiences open to idea of equality. This unfavorable image of blacks as compared to whites is something that was a pattern in Heider's book that is less outdated than this one. The idea that audiences begin to group people together by their personal experiences as well as by what they see in the news is something that will continue the gap between races, class, gender and other differences.
Even though I want to talk about the sports reading, I do want to say that yes the beauty machine article may be a little old but some of the facts remain true. I still here females talk about how they want a blonde-haired blue-eyed man, and men still want a young hot blonde. Nowhere in mainstream except maybe Lisa Lampenelli, do you hear people say they want a dark chocolate man or women, or better yet an Asian or Hispanic, even though there are millions of people who find people of color very attractive.
ReplyDeleteNow to sports, I found the information interesting but not surprising. Just up until maybe 10 years ago, The idea that blacks were only athletic and not intelligent was the reason why the NFL for so long did not have any black head coaches and blacks as quarterbacks. I think the broadcasting aspect has gotten better, but there are still some issues.
Unfortunately I can not say that some black athletes have made a good case for themselves regarding how they are covered in the media. People like Micheal Irving and Darell Strawberry, to the present day Pacman Jones and Donte Stallworth, get negative media attention because they did bad things. My problem is when a white person does the same thing the media does not make a big deal about it. For instance, Kobe Bryant was accused of rape a few years ago that got so much coverage, it was almost impossible for anyone not to hear about it. Recently Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of the same thing, and you unless you keep up with sports you may not have even heard of this.
I think the name thing is a little far fetched, because honestly if your not a superstar no one can recognize you without saying your full name. like it or not only great people are referred to by one name like Magic, Bird, Jordan, Marino, Jeter etc. but If I said Williams made a good play, then people would ask which one out of the 5,000 in the league.
I;m just impressed how studies like this can even be conducted. I guess you can research anything.
This article (the Beauty Machine) is almost too outdated for consideration. I can agree with the points they make about modeling and the standard of beauty being predominantly white, but as far as the cosmetics industry, this article no longer holds merit. I think a more interesting point to explore here would be the relationship of class and beauty, not just race.
ReplyDeleteMany "cover girls" are black, many are asian, many are a mix of races. The thing that i have noticed is that it doesn't necessarily matter about your race, but more your status. Queen Latifah, for instance, by the standard that this article is attempting to convey, she is the opposite of beauty. Overweight, not white and somewhat masculine looking. She is a model for covergirl cosmetics.
I am cannot help but believe that she would not hold this position if not for her "celebrity status". I think that advertisers and designers alike are focusing more today on having the public equate their brand or product, with celebrity status even moreso than beauty. Which kind of defies the entire point of this article which was to say that the societal standard of beauty fit into a tall, thin, white box.
Another example, Kelly Osbourne, daughter of Ozzy Osbourne, has been featured in numerous fashion shows walking the catwalk in the designer's clothes. Here is another overweight, short, darkhaired young lady that does not fit into the article's standard of beauty, but designer's want to use her because of the fact that she is rich, famous and well-known.
Who doesn't want to be rich, famous and well known? Who wouldn't like to never worry about money and star in movies and drive nice cars?
Regardless of a person's level of "beauty", consumers will still purchase products and strive to be like those in higher economic classes, no matter what they look like.
Perhaps we can discuss this further in class.
I can pretty much agree with the findings in the Beauty Machine article. I would like to think that we've entered into a different, more diverse phase of the Beauty Machine cycle since this article was written, but a quick look at elle.com and harpersbazaar.com tells me that we haven't progressed very far. Both of these magazine's web pages are filled with white models. Or, from what I've learned recently, people who look white. For as outdated as we think this article is, I still think that it describes a pretty accurate depiction of what we think is beautiful. I never payed much attention to fashion and models, but after reading I never realized how few asian models there really are. It seems like since Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks, it has become more acceptable to have black models in an advertisement, but it also seems like if you include a black model in an ad, you've got your ethnic bases covered. What about everybody else? Also, from what I can remember about some recent beauty ads I've seen, I feel like only famous black people are hired to sell beauty products. Rihanna and Queen Latifah come to mind. I've seen a million beauty ads with white girls that I don't know, but every black beauty ad model is already famous.
ReplyDeleteI think there has been some expansion that only pretty white girls are used as spokesmodels. However, when looking at some of the women of color that have been used, they have very "white" qualities. Beyonce is a light-skinned black woman that comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteI know there is one distinctly black woman that is involved in a Victoria's Secret commercial(I only watch it for the articles) but I don't know her name.
On the whole, though, it tends to be women of a certain "look" that dominate our advertising.
Woman of all ages feel a constant worldly pressure to be beautiful, and these depictions of beauty are most vastly found through the media. From tabloids to sitcoms the depiction of what a beautiful female should look like runs ramped, consuming the minds of such viewers. However, is this ideal subjective?
ReplyDeleteLook back at the world before broadcast journalism: Women were seen as beautiful if they were heavier (implying wealth and being fed well), pale (due to lack of work and being out in the sun), and the perfect breast size was that of an apple. Today, it seems that women being defined as beautiful possess features of long blond hair, tan skin, thin legs, and the all around perfect barbie doll figure.
Biagi and Kern-Foxworth emphasize that “the beauty machine focuses on two common goals: profit and preservation of the status quo”. Although the book is outdated, some of the principles have still proven true over the decades. The contemporary standards for defining beauty do range from a variety of colors and sizes, but the emphasis on media depiction still holds to the industry.
The media has yet again molded the way viewers perceive a conceptual facet.
The definition of beauty is indeed subjective, but with the media constantly portraying beauty as tall, thin and tan that is exactly what viewers usurp.
First off, here is a link to a video called "Killing Us Softly" done by Dr. Jeal Kilbourne. It tackles some of the same issues discussed in the article.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v= FpyGwP3yze
I will admit, the book is a little outdated, but some of the findings are just as relevant today as they were 10, 15, or even 20 years ago. Although this country is statistically becoming more and more diverse with so many different types of people, the standard of beauty is still white. The facts are saying one thing, but the reality is completely different. I ask myself, why, if there are so many different types of people in this country, do advertisers/companies still choose to use the white "All-American" girl as the face for their products?
beauty=higher social class & higher social class= white.
I have noticed that whitin the past couple of years advertisers are using comanpanies like Dove, to depict "real women". (http://www.dove.us/#/cfrb/) And publications, like Glamour for example, have begun to include women with belly rolls and cellulite in their front page articles. (http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2009/08/on-the-cl-the-picture-you-cant.html)
I will admit, the lack of representation of anyone who isn't thin, white, and tall still exists today, but I do feel like we are SLOWLY making progress as readers, watchers and consumers, towards change. We are more aware (because of the overflow of information) of the issues and are more able to openly talk about these issues, and advertisers realize that.
The Beauty Machine article IS dated, but much of what was said remains true. White women, as Nate pointed out, dominate advertising. We are told what is considered beautiful and who is beautiful. Surgically enhanced bodies and bronzed skin (but not too dark) are what SEEM to be beautiful these days. So many young women have issues with their bodies because they don't fit the definition of "beauty."
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the Dove "True Beauty" campaign. Their ads include REAL women of all shapes, sizes and color. They're trying to break the stereotype of what people consider to be beautiful, and that's great, but the industry is not going to change.
Society is tremendously influenced by the media. And the way 'we' see beauty has been distilled into our minds because the products that 'we think we need' are being sold to us by seductive and beautiful beings. You can compare beauty selling ads to sex selling ads. Beauty sells. Sex sells. I mean, if there is a beautiful and seductive woman selling a product, the majoritiy of the viewers will positively respond to the ad, therefore make the purchase. Especially if we can relate to the person selling the ad. And this is where 'beauty is being tall, skinny and white,' comes in. This is why the idea of models only being tall skinny and white is taking a long time to change; for so long this idea has been dominated by society and the media.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, black women, such as Tyra Banks and Beyonce are successfully multi-tasking back and fourth between modeling, singing and acting (Tyra does not sing), there are still only a few black women taking the modeling stage.
Asian models are still believed to be 'exotic' and do not appear as models often enough. The only American Asian model I found online is Carla Maria.... but she looks like a tall and skinny white woman.
Here are the different links to all 5 parts of Jean Kilbourne's "Killing Us Softly" just incase you're interested.
ReplyDeletePart 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjt77BNjwM
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM5q2-dEjGs
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z0injXhip4
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFiYn0j_s7w
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNiA3EYy80
The Beauty Machine still exists, but the one described in the article is outdated as I often find myself pondering the ethnicity of models in today's magazines or ads. So there have been advancements in 'work' for bi-racial models, but if I quote America's Next Top Model correctly, the "Eastern-European look is in." I think the advertising and fashion industry's attempt to categorize beauty based on geography and put it on a calendar (this year it's Eastern Europe, next year it's the beaaches of Brazil)is ridiculous, but I still watch marathons of ANTM on Oxygen when I have time so that I can see what the "experts" have to say about how well the height, weight, shape, and facial features of the models fit into the current frame of fashion. I don't think I'm alone in the desire for a reality check because campaigns like Dove's True Beauty are examples of attempts to break the stereotypes of beauty and be more inclusive of differing ethnic backgrounds. But I think Yang and Ragaza are right about the ad industry's preference for white (or white looking) models.
ReplyDeleteWhile some of the points in "The Beauty Machine" are still valid, there have been changes in the 16 years since the article was published. The article quotes Naomi Campbell's observation that "there has never been a [major] cosmetic contract for an ethnic girl." But in recent years, Cover Girl cosmetics has featured several black women as models, including Queen Latifiah, Tyra Banks and Rihanna.
ReplyDeleteI think standards of beauty have evolved since this article was published. It is very common to see many different types of models on TV and in print. It seems like advertisers are acutely aware of the benefits of showing diversity in their ads. It is still common to see tall, thin white models, but it is also common to see models from a variety of backgrounds.
The standards of beauty for advertising are also different now in terms of body shape and size. The current season of America's Next Top Model is a competition for models 5'7" and shorter. I haven't seen recent studies on the model industry, but I have noticed a greater presence of plus-size models in advertising. Also, Dove's Real Beauty campaign is in a number of different magazines and on TV.
I believe that the advertising world can do a better job of incorporating more "real" people in their ads. But, as the article says, it will likely depend on market forces for changes to happen.
Although some points in the article are outdated, much of the content still holds true today, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteBlack women have been more widely accepted in the modeling and fashion industry, however, they are still required to set a very rigid set of standards. As others have mentioned, many black models are very light skinned and their hair is often styled to appear more like "white hair".
I haven't seen much improvement at all for Asian models. In the rare occasion that an Asian model is featured in a magazine or ad, it is usually because their is a special issue about how "diverse" the magazine is. It is still very rare to see a magazine with more than one or two Asian models featured.
Some Brazilian and Spanish models have had great success in the US, but even many of these models are not a true representation of their ethnicity.
One thing that the author failed to talk about was how models of all color fit into a very limited size range. The average model is a size 0-4 (4 being refered to as "curvy) and anything bigger than a size 6 is classified as "plus size". This is obviously not an accurate representation of women in our society, and I think that this may be just as big of a problem as the lack of ethnic models.
Echoing everyone else, the text and its issues are outdated to a degree, but the idea of the beauty machine is still around. The text talks about the different parts of the "machine": Hollywood, Madison Avenue, modeling agencies, fashion and glamour magazines, etc. And Hollywood immediately struck me as a big part of this "machine" and how it still excludes people of color from leading roles. The texts briefly examines how the trends and status quo of Hollywood is the result of the drip from the fashion world.
ReplyDeleteI tried to recollect the last romance/romance comedy film I saw advertised that cast a black or Asian actor as the role of one or both of the lead love interests. I couldn't think of the name of one movie. I remembered seeing a preview for a romantic comedy a couple of years back in which the entire cast was black, but even then it gives of the segregationist idea of they have "their" movies and we have "our" movies.
I saw a preview for an indie romantic comedy called White on Rice recently and all the lead roles looked as though they were played by Asian actors. Besides this film, I can not think of one American romantic comedy that the entire cast and its lead roles are played by Asian actors.
But, it is not only the romantic comedy genre of film that excludes actors of color. Look at results for Oscar or Emmy wins and see how many are not white. The most critically acclaimed films and actors are disproportionately white.
In regards to the The Beauty Machine it is outdated theres no question about it. At the same time there are points that still exist today. Tall, Skinny, White (but tan), Blonde hair, and Blue eyes for some reason seem to be the winner of advertising. Magazine artcles, commercials, and advertisements keep wanting to go towards something different but are still playing it safe to what they know society will respond to positively. I think its time that Hollywood stops "Hollywoodizing" because it gives a horrible example to young kids, both girls and boys about what they have to look like or what they have to do to be successful and make money. It's unhealthy and unfair to them because they're already pressured enough. Not to say that people of college age aren't facing the same problems but it's time for everyone to stop playing it safe.
ReplyDeleteI deleted my previous post by accident. Here is the paraphrase. Sorry it's late!
ReplyDeleteThe beauty machine is alive and well. Though it is far more insidious and psychological than before. It has also spread to men and is far more widespread in our culture.
The most perplexing thing about race and football is that white wide receivers can only be compared to other white wide receivers and vice versa for black receivers. There is a Wes Welker scale for white guys and for blacks, its the Randy Moss/ Michael Irvin scale. Neither shall cross paths and instant doom awaits the sportscaster who broaches the subject.
It correlates to the black quarterback paradox. For decades the black quarterback has been judged on the Randall Cunningham scale, as a measure of mobility and speed. As more black qb's play in the league this stereotype has been obliterated, although sportscasters still think comparing black quarterbacks to white ones is comparing apples to oranges. Not one person in the world will stand up and say that Byron Leftwich is a mobile quarterback, but why is he still judged at a fault for not having mobility instead of a rocket arm with no soft touch?
Perplexing.
This is Matt btw. Sorry I missed class today too. I had some last minute stuff come up.