In “Constructing Bodies, Deconstructing Ads: Sexism in Advertising”, Anthony Cortese discusses subvertising, a form of advertising that “subverts mainstream ads [by]… uses the power of brand recognition and brand hegemony either against itself or to promote an unrelated value” (49-50).
In the last 15-20 years, images of women of color, especially black women, have reverted to very narrow and oftentimes one-dimensional state of representation which leads to, in some people, buying into these representations as somehow an authentic form of who they are. These images are very similar to that of slavery and Reconstruction eras of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
For example, in men’s magazines and some women’s magazines catered to black Americans, there is a reoccurring visual image of the black female body in mainstream pop culture that is a reconstruction of the Hottentot Venus. The major difference is that not only is her big butt an essential part of the package, she also embodies some of the same qualities as the white women featured in these glossy tabloid/celebrities magazines. The women are “young, slender… [some are] blonde, famous, often long-haired… revealingly dressed, or undressed” (Maggie Wykes/Barrie Gunter 209). In addition, she is highly airbrushed, retouched and Photoshopped to fulfill the perfect fantasy woman.
Here is my form of subvertising in response to this sexist assault on black women’s bodies that continue to get mass-reproduced by the media and are “politically oppressive and commercially exploitative” to women (Maggie Wykes/Barrie Gunter 219). My idea, inspired by Jean Kilbourne’s book “Can’t Buy My Love”, is to have an ad featuring a video vixen-looking female that comes with a disclaimer. Similar to the approaches that cigarette ads have taken on, it would say, “Warning: attempting to look like this can cause of lifetime of low self-esteem, psychological/emotional distress, distorted self-image/worth, internalized racism and oppression, shame, suffering, self-deprecation, self-sabotage, body-hatred".
These pervasive image/message, as what Jean Kilbourne has stated, is that “girls of all ages get the message that they must be flawlessly beautiful and…thin” (132). Like the “perfect provocateur” that Anthony Cortese describes as “…not human; rather she is a form or hollow shell representing a female figure”, the portrayal of women is that “she has no lines or wrinkles…no scars or blemishes-indeed she has no pores. She is thin, generously tall and long-legged, and, above all, she is young”. this applies to women of color and they are expected to “conform to this norm” (54, Constructing Bodies, Deconstructing Ads; and 122, Beauty and the Beast of Advertising). Much of the imagery we see that shape and influence concepts of masculinity and femininity in mass media, especially in advertising, is inescapably white because it continues to be dominated, run, and owed by white men. When people of color, the disabled, or the elderly are featured, they are seen as subordinate, marginal, exotic, a novelty, a token, and/or take on a secondary position to serve in the interest of whites and/or reinforce whiteness in its primary and dominant place. Cortese highlights this when he says, “whiteness is the norm vis-à-vis ethnic minority subcultures…whiteness is an invisible privilege, understood but not stated, unconscious but prevalent” (70).
In many of her books, bell hooks has addressed that people of color, black Americans specifically, have internalized white supremacist ideals and aesthetics about beauty imposed by westernized and white-dominated mass media and how that has been applied onto girls and women of color. This internalization has taken on a global level. In the article, “The More You Subtract, the More You Add”, Jean Kilborne addresses that “the influence of the media [brought upon] a sharp rise in eating disorders among young women in Fiji soon after the introduction of television to the culture” (135). Whether it is the re-Hottentotinization of the black female body, the lightening of one’s skin via airbrushing in magazines, the ubiquitous long-haired woman, the super-thin actresses and models, etc., Kilbourne goes on to quote that “the big success story of our entertainment industry is our ability to export insecurity” (135).
Here are some articles I found that attempt to addresses these issues and finds alternative answers.
In researching plus-size models online, it was quite disappointing to see so many of them be mostly white women and so few are women of color. The images of black plus-size or “fat” women that I did came across were either tasteless, borderline on soft-pornographic, or offensive. However, I found a few sites that dispel these images and address the issue of under-representation among plus-size models of color.
When it comes to images of black women in mass media, besides that of the new Hottentot Venus especially in advertising, the prevalent image is one with chemically strength hair and/or weaves. Black women with “natural” hair, one that is not chemically straighten and/or worn in weaves or wigs, are once again marginal. Although there is a so-called natural hair movement going on, it remains subversive and kept out of sight within mainstream media, only known about within certain circles and/or the internet/blogoshpere. Similar to the white women with long straight hair as the prominent image to that of white women with short or closely-cropped hair-dos, black women with long straight hair is set as a default and a standard to that of the black woman with “natural” hair seen as a novelty. However, this is slowly changing. Here are some websites that construct new alternatives to what’s beautiful in black women.
http://newlynatural.com/blog/
/http://blkgirlsrock.tumblr.com/
http://hairspiration.blogspot.com/2011/09/hairspiration-short-hair.html
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