Dusting for Cracks in the Beauty Industry

SOCIETAL ZITS AND HEALTH BLEMISHES

Society: ‘It’s A Hollywood Thing!’

While some argue that it is simply the accessibility to beauty and cosmetic products and procedures that is titillating and inviting to women, others argue that it is our society’s deep infatuation with celebrities and the ‘beautiful people’ that is the main engine behind such interests.

As noted above, Julyne Derrick is of the opinion that insecurity is big business, and that companies know to target this through a barrage of celebrity endorsed advertising. To paraphrase her, while in the 1980s and 1990s the super-model was the main spokes-person for ‘beauty’, today it is the movie or music celebrity that endorses the tubs of anti-aging cream and water proof make-up, among a myriad of other things, which they themselves “don’t wear that much of, but make tons of money … advertising … .”

We live in a world where celebrities and Hollywood stars hold almost as much importance (and definitely more prestige) than do presidents and political figureheads! Is it any wonder, then, that women and even men now follow their every word and buy every product they tell us is ‘the best’?

In fact, our infatuation with celebrities and everything that comes with them, including beauty tips and even fashion lines, has grown so large that capitalists are manufacturing ways, as was shown above, to include regular people in a world they otherwise can only aspire to reach. Thus, shopping-mall fashion-shows, where the talent are young kids from different ethnic minorities or plus-sized women, have become not only acceptable, but desirable.

But questions arise in the minds of some people.

For instance, amidst rhetoric of being equals under the eyes of god and the law, politicians as well as civilians have criticized our obsession with “unattainable degrees of beauty” that are only possible in Hollywood and the like. Interest groups have surfaced speaking about the social effects that this obsession has on young people, particularly women.

News of teenagers self-inducing vomiting after meals because they want to be ‘thin’ has become almost common parlance; others speak of the ‘prosti-tots’ phenomenon, where girls as young as 9 or 10 are demanding their parents to buy them skimpy outfits they saw celebrities like Britney Spears (in her time) or Fergie wear.

Praznik suggests that there exists a “code of advertising ethics” that sort of regulates how young they can begin to target people. It is his opinion, furthermore, that “there have been fair efforts in the last while to ensure that people are not being targeted in a manner that wouldn’t be appropriate in advertising.”

Yet it is evident that people of all ages, especially the youth, are more aware of the latest fashion trends, products and brand-names than of whom their Member of Parliament is. Praznik himself tells me that his teenage step-daughter can “tell you all the brand name stores she wants to go for a t-shirt or sweater”. However, he insists that this “speaks … to a larger social issue of education of our young people and in our schools”, but that with “advertising standards like the Advertising Standards Council of Canada … and [with] what we teach our children about values and sense of propriety” at home, they may lead a balanced life.

He did not seem to think that advertising and the high-status of celebrities were largely to blame for the acute awareness of everything to do with fashion, and the general ignorance or apathy towards societal issues and politics evident in our society, particularly among the youth.