By Kate Quiambao

Every March, we are reminded to continue the mission to empower women globally by recognizing not only their achievements but also the systemic struggles they face. In support of such advocacy, a number of beauty brands have stepped up with high hopes of bringing traction to the cause and catalyzing change. For one, brands like NAYDAYA and Fussy collaborated with charities such as Beauty Banks and Bloody Good Period to show their support this Women’s Month.  

However, despite the presence of these displayed facades, seemingly turning powder and perfume into progress, it is still evident that the beauty industry has constantly been imposing onto women what society considers “beautiful”. Advertisements on billboards, shops, magazines, newspapers, television, and on social media subconsciously build up unrealistic beauty standards, which has paved the way to feelings of inadequacy among women worldwide. These seemingly impossible standards of beauty capitalize heavily on women’s insecurities, which is counterproductive to the goals initially set by the brands.

Dove

The well-known personal care brand Dove launched a campaign called “Real Beauty” in 2003, which gained public attention as it criticized the prevailing notion of beauty at that time. However, this campaign ironically received criticism due to disarrayed representations that are believed to conform to toxic beauty ideals rather than promote feminism. Its slogan, “Real Women Have Real Curves”, was also considered discriminatory against a certain subset of women, particularly those who are naturally thin, as it suggests that their natural body type makes them less of a woman. Evidently, it can be observed that Dove has a way of tapping into women’s insecurities to push their product line. 

 It is sufficient to say that Dove is incapable of living out its objective to change women’s perceptions of beauty, as on a separate occasion, Dove also posed elderly women with prominent wrinkles in its advertisement on maintaining youthfulness. In a slogan stating, “Too old to be an anti-aging ad”, the brand creates cognitive dissonance among consumers, especially given that Dove promotes and sells anti-aging products, which shows that it rarely backs up its claims of valuing inclusivity and body positivity with meaningful action. 

Protein World

In 2014, Protein World, a nutrition brand, gained notoriety as it produced an advertisement that served as a controversy to many. In the said advertisement, the company aimed to promote its “Weight Loss Collection” by using a model with a slim waist, fair skin, and fair hair beside the question, “Are you beach body ready?” This caused an immediate uproar and raised numerous concerns regarding body shaming, which was followed by a protest in London and an online petition that garnered more than 70,000 signatures. 

Due to the severity of the backlash, the advertisement was immediately banned in the UK; yet, this situation did not faze the unapologetic stance of the company. This alone is a reflection of how simple and even natural it is for companies to objectify women, by imposing inferiority caused by unrealistic beauty standards. Instead of encouraging women to embrace their bodies, Protein World made women feel like their bodies are merely commodities, prompting many to starve themselves and develop unhealthy eating habits merely in an attempt to garner larger profits. 

Brandy Melville

Until now, the European-established brand, Brandy Melville, is known for offering clothes in one size, falling between American numerical sizes 00 and 04. This has caused debate among women consumers who argue that the clothing retailer, which largely caters to petite sizes, is perpetuating sizeism and exclusive beauty standards. 

Brandy Melville’s reputation lies in favoring “skinny, pretty, and cool girls”, seemingly the opposite of Protein World. Hence, not only does this pose a serious problem for women who aspire to reach its aesthetic, letting them conform to a certain body type, but also causes a dilemma as to what the “ideal body type” is in the first place. 

Women Empowerment?

These brands are just some of the myriad where misaligned claims played an appalling role in shaping consumers’ self-perception. While cosmetic brands continue to convince everyone that their assertions in their advertisements on women’s empowerment certainly change women’s fate, gender ideology remains prevalent and is still perpetuating women. Further, beauty propaganda is an extremely toxic capitalist tactic, incentivizing people to buy expensive beauty products in order to meet an unattainable standard of beauty. At the end of the day, companies are inclined to put our money’s security over the need to change the current status quo. 

Perhaps, this raises a challenge to the industry in being able to instill in the interest of its audience a product without having to capitalize on women’s struggles to make money. Moreover, this dehumanizing propaganda should serve as a call not only to companies but to everyone to continue encouraging women to accept their bodies as they are. Large companies must not get away from the problems they create; instead, we must let them account for the need to alter the stereotypes associated with the beauty industry.