AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN BEAUTY \u0026 MARKETING

$: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN BEAUTY \u0026 MARKETING$
African American Women, Beauty & Marketing jkraemer

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Université de La Réunion - Saint Denis de la Réunion - France

Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines

University Year :

Année universitaire 2014-2015

Master Mention Lettres et Langues

Master's Degree in English Speaking Countries Research Program

Spécialité Recherche Monde Anglophone

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN,

BEAUTY AND MARKETING

Dissertation Presented by

Présenté par Jean L. KRAEMER

Mémoire de Master 2

In partial fulfilment of the requirements of a Master's Degree

Directed by Professor

Sous la direction de Monsieur le Professeur

Alain GEOFFROY

August 2015 – Août 2015


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QUOTES On Black Women:

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass. Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women

About Beauty:

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Plato

You can’t control everything. Your hair was put on your head to remind you of that!

About Marketing:

A human need is a state of deprivation of some basic satisfaction. People require food, clothing, shelter, safety,

belonging, and esteem. These needs are not created by society or by marketers. They exist in the very texture of

human biology and the human condition.

Wants are desires for specific satisfiers of needs. Although people’s needs are few, their wants are many. They

are continually shaped and reshaped by social forces and institutions, including churches, schools, families and

business corporations.

Demands are wants for specific products that are backed by an ability and willingness to buy them.

Marketers do not create needs. Marketers influence wants. Marketers influence demand by making the product

appropriate, attractive, affordable, and easily available to target consumers. Society influences wants.

The theory of marketing is solid but the practice of marketing leaves much to be desired.

Philip Kotler1

1 KOTLER Philip T & KELLER Kevin L. Marketing Management, 14th. Edition. 2011. NJ. USA: Pearson -


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African American

women, beauty

standards and

marketing :

objectifying or

empowering ?

(certainly both) Serena Williams, sports

and media star2

Dedication

This research work is dedicated to all African American women,

And more generally to all black women,

For their great value and spirit, for their dedication to their families and their cultures,

For their resilience and their pride, for them keeping a high profile against all odds.

A special dedication for the great black lady who shares my life.

Love and praise to them all.

Acknowledgements

Very special thanks to Professor Alain Geoffroy,

Who helped, supported me and provided a great inspiration from the very beginning.

Special thanks to the professors at the Université de la Réunion

And particularly to

Mrs. Claude Feral

Mrs. Sandra Saayman

Mrs. Renée Tosser

Mrs. Vilasnee Tampoe

Mrs. Eileen Williams-Wanquet

For their welcoming, their help and support

And to

Mrs. Sophie Geoffroy

For accepting to be part of the jury for the dissertation defense

and for her highly useful advice

2 New York Magazine. (http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/08/serena-williams-still-has-tennis-history-to-make.html)


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Table of Contents

Object page 6

Presentation and Methodology 6

1. African American Women: Subjects, Objects, Targets and Hostages for Marketing

1.1. Representations, Images and Stereotypes 10

1.1.1. African American Women Representations in History and Stereotypes 10

1.1.2. African American Women in Arts 20

1.1.3. African American Women in Advertising and Media 41

1.2. Identity: Being an African American Woman 60

1.2.1. Being an African American Woman in the XXIst Century 60

1.2.2. African American Identity and Culture: Many Shades of Black 61

1.2.3. Colorism, Shadeism and Mixed races: Black or Blackish? 62

1.2.4. Self-Perception: Body image, Self Esteem: Positive Against All Odds 63

1.3. Social Issues 65

1.3.1. African American Women Wouple Relations 65

1.3.2. Strong Women: a Black Superwoman Syndrome? 68

1.3.3. Relations with Other Groups 69

1.3.4. Racism, Sexism, Feminism and Activism: From Defensive to Proactive 71

1.3.5. Racial Profiling, Crime, Justice and Just Shopping 73

1.3.6. Making a Living 75

1.3.7. Jobs and Workforce Dynamics 77

1.3.8. Living Conditions: Money Matters in the End 79

1.3.9. Education Matters (but is not always enough to succeed) 80

2. Beauty and Beyond

2.1. Beauty, a Social Construct 83

2.1.1. What is Beauty? 83

2.1.2. Universal Beauty? 86

2.1.3. Beauty and Social Place: You Are What You Look Like 89

2.1.4. Selfie Times 94

2.2. Models, Mainstream Compulsory References 95

2.2.1. Classic US Models: Vintage is Not Necessarily Outdated 95

2.2.2. Modern References: “You Shall Be” 98


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2.2.3. Model References 102

2.2.4. Beauty Models and the Media 110

2.3. Models and Consequences 115

2.3.1. Beauty Pressure 115

2.3.2. Groomed Body: Beauty is Only Skin Deep 116

2.3.3. Disciplined Body: No Pain, No Gain 118

2.3.4. Altered Body. Want a Movie Body? Cut! 121

2.4. African American Beauty 124

2.4.1. The Doll Test 124

2.4.2. Multicultural but Divided Society 125

2.4.3. A Definition of Black Beauty, if Any 125

2.4.4. Black Beauty and Consequences 127

2.4.5. Black Success and Role Models 130

3. Marketing Beauty to African American Women

3.1. Old Techniques and New Tools 141

3.1.1. From Principles to Strategies 141

3.1.2. Marketing Beauty to Women 144

3.1.3. Knowing the Market 146

3.2. Targeting black customers 147

3.2.1. Black Beauty Marketing 148

3.2.2. Black Beauty Market: to be Considered 147

3.2.3. Segmenting African American Customers 148

3.3. African American Women and Marketing 153

Elements of Conclusion 157

Bibliography 161

Webography 164

Index 177

Non-plagiarism statement (French version) 180

Abstract 181


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Object

This research work questions several main themes of the American society and way of

life; the importance of beauty in social integration and the impact of marketing in this pursuit,

but more generally the role and place of African American women in the USA today, from a

mainstream culture made with and partly by marketing and the media, to a multicultural way

of life involving minorities and ambivalent in terms of a high social pressure to conform to

beauty (among other) standards, but on the other hand stronger claims of self assumption and

demands of difference acceptance.

The objective of this research work is to show that marketing and advertising besides

the negative and abusive presentation of black women, and the stressing and compelling

beauty messages and standards they impose on them, can at the same time be factor of social

integration, a tool for self-expression, empowerment and in the end self-appreciation.

African American women suffer from an undervalued image, and endure more adverse

conditions; they have to face the double jeopardy of being women in a male dominated

society and black in a predominantly white one. They do not correspond to all western

mainstream beauty standards imposed by marketing and media in a world running on

appearances and stereotypes. This creates frustrations and needs, and black women are

compelled to spend a lot on beauty and hair care products to attain general acceptance as well

as a good self-esteem. On the other hand, we also can consider that marketing and media may

play a positive role, by offering the information and products needed to attain their objectives

of social integration and maintaining their identity.

Presentation and Methodology

African American women are a very wide (23.5 Million3) and interesting social

group: they share a common culture (a term we will interpret in a management sense4), a

common history of forceful submission and great resilience, the awareness and interest in

belonging to that category; they also face the same challenges and pressure, they are

confronted to the same stereotypes and compose a rather homogeneous group beyond their

differences.

3 (http://blackdemographics.com/black-women-statistics/) 4 Corporate culture means a shared history and myths, shared values, symbols and practices. In this study this definition can be extended to African American people as a social group, acknowledging that they are not solely “black” (i.e. of African descent) but can also share traits with and be part of other social groups.


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Indeed, this precise identity of being a black female American seems prevalent for

them above all their other possible characteristics: a black female is not simply a woman and

not just black; she clearly defines herself as American rather than (we could sometimes say

no longer) African or Caribbean. Black Latinas are also bound to another distinctive and

pregnant culture in the United States, they have their own specific models and solidarities

which we have chosen to disregard in this research work and might constitute another

interesting field to investigate.

Language Used

In the semantic side, the choice has been made to not capitalize the noun and adjective

black even when applied to people. Truth is that they deserve capitalization as much as any

other ethnicity (we capitalize Latino), but in this case we also should do so for white, and

while we are at it capitalize women and men, and people (they all deserve the same dignity).

This choice can be contended but it implies no discrimination of any kind, whether negative

or “affirmative”.

The language used in the study is standard American English to correspond to the

subject, sometimes combined with “journalese” language and marketing terms when needed.

Sources

This research work has been conducted more in the sense of an observation and

analysis of practices and perceptions rather than a questioning of theories. This is why the

priority has deliberately been given to media sources and why books and university

publications only play an explanatory role. For this study, were consulted almost exclusively

American online sources, particularly digital media (general information, NPOs5 and public

sources, educational and particularly university publications, survey figures and analysis, but

also specialized and opinion online media, and particularly black audiences oriented, blogs

and videos -- mostly from You-Tube). It would be impossible to list them all, for they

amount to several hundred screen-pages, often concerning the same topics, and each time a

choice has been made to present the most accurate and trustworthy. All these sources have

been accessed between January 2013 and July 2015, and reviewed in the last quarter. They

should all still be online and accessible (except one, pointed out); all URL addresses are

mentioned in the footnotes and the webography.

5 Non Profit or Not-For-Profit organizations: not aimed at making profit


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Media sources published online are the most accessible and up-to-date data, the most

comprehensive and certainly the most interesting information in terms of public opinion

collecting, reflecting and shaping. Media use and make abuse of stereotypes while

comforting them and participating to their emergence and crystallization: if a piece of news is

“fit to print”6, it means that it corresponds to what audiences expect (or at least are supposed

to), are interested by or accept to receive.

This can also be said for marketing: they overuse stereotypes and clichés because it

renders their message easy to understand and accept, rooting their arguments on the

commonly accepted “truths” and cultural references of their social and commercial targets

and this gives them access to the widest audiences and potential markets. When media and

advertisers seem to push boundaries or be transgressive, it most often is because they need to

attract attention and take the generally calculated risk of what they expect to be an acceptable

shock, which can create buzzing and can be considered as an inexpensive communication

tool to gain visibility and brand awareness, while shaping the image they want to project

towards their audiences or potential customers. Marketers act thinking they do not have a

social responsibility towards people, apart from their actual product. To be more precise, they

consider their responsibility only in terms of possible negative reactions to their action and

the possible cost and consequences for their company.

Digital publication as a whole, is certainly the best source and window display of

public expression through social networking, its freedom and “peer-control” through the

supportive or despective reactions to facts, figures, images and statements. The Internet has

become the primary meeting place of the global village, the public place where values and

trends are created or destroyed, where cultures and subcultures are compelled to evolve in a

Darwinian logic: the survival of the fittest. African American women are keen users of this

tool to access to information and use networks as well as to react to facts and statements.

In a more economic way of seeing the information exchanges, the net is the

marketplace where offer and demand of data meet each other according to each actors’

interests, solely guided by an Adam Smith-type "invisible hand"7 supposing that if each actor

follows its own interests, this will somehow benefit if not everybody at least the system as a

whole. 6 “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” Adolph Ochs’ slogan for the New York Times, on Page 1 since Feb 10 1897 (http://www.nytco.com/who-we-are/culture/our-history/#1940-1911-timeline) 7 SMITH Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. 1776. Accessible at (http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf )


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Some other principles need to be reminded as a background: money (and profit, also

called bottom-line in business) is what makes a world go round; companies are meant to

make profit, so they can share the financial value added they create between their

stakeholders (from shareholders to financers, from public authorities via taxes, to

employees), according to their respective influences.

Business and marketing have not been (and should certainly not be) seen as

intrinsically good or evil in this research work, but rather as the basic and principal activity to

create wealth and economic development for the former, and as the main tool to implement

business strategies for the latter. It is not our purpose here to support or challenge capitalist

system’s global choices, and we will not consider if marketing can have alternatives nor

judge its aims but simply try to analyze its ways and means and consequences particularly for

African American women. A better debate would certainly be on the distribution of the

created wealth and the ultimate positive or negative impact of the whole market system and

its externalities on people’s life, but that would deserve another and more extensive research.

As for the users --the so-called net-surfers--, apart from the generally inexpensive

access fees, there is a usually admitted geek saying: “If it’s free, you’re the product”. This

means that the users’ personal data are systematically collected and processed, to be sold as

consumers’ trends but also as individual behavior patterns in order to contact each individual

and make them commercial “offers they can’t refuse” since they are tailor-made in a “one-to-

one” logic.

The fact of the users being the real product because they get free services has been

challenged arguing that the fact of paying more, less or not at all for a service has no direct

connection with its quality and usefulness. Quality is defined by ISO standards as "the ability

to satisfy the user’s need"8, in this sense we can consider that Internet is indeed a quality

media since the users can satisfy many social, informational and consumption needs.

The same questioning should apply to marketing: it is a quality tool and provides quality

products (goods and services) only if it satisfies the customer’s needs while reaching its

corporate aims.

8 ISO stands for International Standards Organization. They formalize, communicate and control all technical standards and rules concerning all business fields. This definition can be found at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) site (http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=5150)


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1. African American Women: Subjects, Objects, Targets and Hostages for Marketing

1.1. Representations, Images and Stereotypes

1.1.1. African American Women Representations in History and Stereotypes

1.1.1.1. African Americans and Blackness

Black or African American? Not Just Terminology

The United States Census Bureau flatly describes as: “Black or African American – A

person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa” meaning that these terms

are equal.

In the USA, “Black” (The US Census Bureau capitalizes all races) means being of

Sub-Saharan African descent. This is not solely, not even mainly a matter of skin color, since

some Indian and some Pacific Islands people can have a darker skin than most African

Americans, but will be listed as “Asians” or “Other Pacific Islanders”. For practical reasons,

we will focus on the African American black people, regardless of their skin shade, even

though we will see in the next parts that being fairer or darker skinned can make a difference.

Caribbean and Latin American people of African descent living in the USA do not

always consider themselves as African Americans, but will recognize a black identity. In this

study, we will not make a difference for them but consider their common characteristics,

more than their differences, regarding beauty and marketing.

The US Census Bureau considers the fact of belonging to a race as a self-

identification issue.

They mention that the racial categories they define “generally reflect a social

definition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to define race biologically,

anthropologically, or genetically.” This statement clearly states that race issues are not a

scientific matter, but clearly a social concern, in other terms a matter of social appreciation.

Since 1997 “People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture9”

but this more open, less “black and white” (if we dare say) way of considering origins can be

challenged by what is called the “single drop rule”, meaning that a person having even a

9 The White House site. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg_1997standards)


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small and remote part of African ascendance will be considered as black, even if the figure is

certainly more complex in the genetic, family-wise and heartfelt self perception.

In a more pragmatic way, blackness seems to be assumed before being claimed. Being

black also depends on how the others perceive the person and so can also be reckoned as

being a matter of belonging or not.

We could mention that the studies conducted to know if those concerned preferred

being called Blacks or African Americans yielded quite simple results: a vast majority (about

the two thirds) consider that it does not matter. Without that choice, left only with the

alternative of black or African American, the latest polls show even figures at about 42 to

44% for each choice (the difference is not statistically discriminating), the remaining would

argue whether that they do not feel African but plainly American, or in the contrary that they

are black but not (yet) really American. The terms chosen are not only a matter of political

correctness or geographical origin accurateness but also a means to create a contact and

convince an audience for politicians, media and marketers as a whole (we will develop this

point in the marketing part).

Some other terms can be coined for the American blacks, as “ebony”, in reference to

the very dark, heavy and strong tropical wood. This word was the name chosen by Ebony10,

the first and leading magazine aimed at black people since 1945.

We can cite the notion of “colored people”, considered “sometimes offensive”11 in

terms of political correctness but assumed by the National Association for the Advancement

of Colored People (NAACP). In fact we can suppose that some terms are likely to lose much

of their “offensiveness” when used among them by the concerned people; this seems to be the

case for the word “negro” (presently considered by many as a “bomb”, but of normal use

until the 1960s and dropped only in 2013 by the American Census Bureau12), along with all

the variations of the so-called “N word”, for nigger or nigga written or pronounced in

standard or African American Vernacular English (AAVE or Ebonics).

10 Ebony magazine, (http://www.ebony.com/) 11 Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, used as the reference dictionary for this research work, (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colored) 12 Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/us-census-surveys-will-no-longer-use-negro_n_2759306.html)


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In American history, particularly in antebellum times, most African people came

unwillingly, brought by the slave trade and later on as indentured servants, which also was a

submissive and dependent situation (sometimes worse than slavery itself since they were not

“property” and their loss would not affect the master’s wealth). More recently the immigrants

came moved by economic, political reasons or just the hope and faith in the American dream:

a land of freedom, of opportunity, a cultural and racial melting pot. Very often, realities were

not that simple and easy for many newcomers and particularly black people.

A presentation of “blackness” would not be complete without mentioning that the

color black and the most frequently associated notions (dark, shade, night, but also evil and

death) have always been linked with evil, ignorance, bestiality and ugliness just to name a

few. We can wonder if that is a reminder of the ancestral fear coming from the times when

human beings were likely prays for stronger predators lurking in the shadow or the night, or

more generally a fear of the unknown or the other as being different from the European or

Mediterranean people, and becoming “natural foes” in the conquest for living spaces and

wealth. To be complete, this color can also be associated with power, elegance and

refinement, but only the first of these more positive notions is coined to black people, and

often to show their supposed potential dangerousness.

What we also could find interesting to mention is that, according to the latest

paleontological research findings, the origins of man (as homo sapiens) as opposed to the

Neanderthals, Denisovans or other human species he conquered and eventually destroyed

(while keeping some genes from them) come from Africa.

This means that we, all human species, most certainly share common African black

ancestors regardless of our present skin color13. Of course, these evidences will never be able

to compete with extreme religious or racial prejudices for those who are comfortable with a

more convenient, history backed (even though criminal and absurd) racial stratification. Let

us face it, most people rely on stereotypes and sometimes prejudices when it comes to deal

with little known “others”

13 Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. (http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/one-species-living-worldwide)


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1.1.1.2. Stereotypes, so Useful, yet so Damageable

Are Stereotypes Good for You?

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, stereotypes are “a standardized mental

picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified

opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment”14, they precise that stereotyping is “to

believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same”.

This could need us to think that all stereotypes are inaccurate and negative, except that

this would be another stereotype, meaning excessive generalization. In fact, most stereotypes

are based on observation, sometimes on extensive research, and help people understand the

“other” and their environment.

We could agree that “the existence of a stereotype not only doesn't tell us anything

useful about any individual, it doesn't even tell us anything useful about group

differences. All they tell us is that there is a common shared perception about a group

difference. The perception may be either accurate or false." 15 The problem is with the

excessive generalization: a widely accepted (even partial or not totally accurate) truth can be

useful but only if we admit all the possible individual diverging from the stereotype, and if

we are willing to change our opinion when reality proves that the stereotype is wrong.

The trouble with stereotyping is that it is often self-fulfilling in the sense that most

people will be more willing to look at the elements confirming their (prejudiced) opinion,

rather than trying to understand a more complex situation or behavior even though that would

be more accurate and fair. We could call that a lack of time, motivation or just interest, since

most stereotypes are favorable for the viewer’s group and negative towards the others, thus

helping to build common values, reinforcing the social group’s culture and the self esteem of

its members.

Being generally negative against other social groups, stereotypes can often lead to

prejudice, which is literally a "preconceived judgment or opinion", leading to "an adverse

opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge", and as a

consequence the "injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in

disregard of one's rights; especially: detriment to one's legal rights or claims” because of “an

irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed

14 (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stereotypes) 15 Psychology Today, LYUBANSKY Mikhail Lyubansky. Between the Lines: Perspectives on race, culture, and community. (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/between-the-lines/201112/are-stereotypes-unfairly-stereotyped)


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characteristics" 16 this phenomenon is particularly useful in conflict times, such as

colonialism, slavery or war, each party needing ideals to defend and stand for, as much as

total evils to fight. It is much easier to structure a social group in adversity in a “black/white”

logic rather than acknowledging fifty shades of grey in each camp.

Apart from armed conflicts (even though it could be argued that the fascination guns

exert on Americans could reveal some kind of permanent armed conflict feeling fueled by

fear and the interests of the arms lobbies), the social game of power and influence leads to

prejudice (attitude) and discrimination (behavior) against those identified as disadvantaged

and logically eager to attain the same level of well being as the dominant groups, or at least

the immediately superior position.

Defining discrimination can also be interesting, as “the practice of unfairly17 treating

a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people"; Merriam-

Webster also states that it is "the ability to recognize the difference between things that are of

good quality and those that are not" and "the ability to understand that one thing is different

from another thing"18 . Applied to people, this could mean that discriminating is not

« simply » the fact of recognizing differences between people or social groups, but also

identifying their supposedly better or lesser quality. Indeed, stereotyping is very useful for a

social group to characterize and stigmatize the behaviors and quite logically the people they

want to keep dominated or under control, sometimes even to get rid of. Inserting this way of

thinking in a self justification logic based on stereotypes can lead to all the abuse and

discrimination suffered by (non leading) minorities in general and more particularly by

African American people in the United States.

Some stereotypes may seem positive, such as hard-working Asians or athletic African

Americans, but it is easy to perceive the danger of this generalization and the subsequent

expectations for a non stereotype-conforming individual; or as a means to compel or limit a

social group to some activities, jobs and social roles. In this sense, stereotypes and prejudices

are often self fulfilling: conforming can be the only way to get a social role, unless you can

master the game, which is out of reach for most people.

The most usual negative prejudices, which lead to discrimination, are against women,

race, age, religion, disability or sexual inclination. African American women have to face the

16 (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prejudice) 17 My bold letters 18 (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discrimination)


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double jeopardy19 of being in an adverse situation by being black and female, sometimes also

suffering for one or several other real or supposed characteristics.

African American Women Stereotypes Originated in History.

“In the United States history, after a long period of defiance, white women were

considered as a highly valuable property for their fathers and husbands and depicted as the

"nobler half of humanity", represented as virtuous, pure and innocent”.20 This implied a very

submissive and dependent social role. They were at least supposed to be cherished and

protected, even though the reality was often harsher: being a property conferred the right to

men to decide, abuse and dispose of them.

“African American women have been objectified, not just as "other," but as objects to

be tamed and possessed. As women, they were expected to be servile and obedient. As

African American women, they were expected to be servile, lusty and obedient. As powerless

African American women, they were to be servile, lusty, obedient and available.”21

African American women were in a much worse situation than white ones; confined in

slavery they were considered as immoral and sinful22. Without going to much detail, we can

wonder what loyalty and devotion a slave owner was entitled to expect or demand from a

person reduced to an object-like situation, being separated from their families, husbands and

sons and disposed of in whatever way the owner decided. Giving a good face and trying to

find ways to enhance their living conditions through signifying and discreet deception was

certainly just a survival tool, and clearly not an evidence of evil.

In this context, the temptress aspect can also be interpreted as a means to attain better

conditions or simply to avoid violence; we could consider this more as a Stockholm

syndrome than as a vicious wrongdoing. If we go further with the reasoning, it seems very

likely that the temptress role and attitude they were accused of were in fact an excuse used by

the masters for their guilty sexual impulses. More generally the characterization of the

19 BEAL Frances. "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female". 1969. Essay on Black Women’s Liberation. Black woman's manifesto, pamphlet distributed by The Third World Women's Alliance, New York. 20YARBROUGH Marilyn, BENNETT Crystal. "Cassandra and the "Sistahs": the Peculiar Treatment of African American Women in the Myth of Women as Liars", Journal of Gender, Race and Justice 626-657, 634-655 (Spring 2000). 21YARBROUGH Marilyn, BENNETT Crystal. Ibid 22YARBROUGH Marilyn, BENNETT Crystal. Ibid


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African American women as "ignorant, crafty, treacherous, thievish, and mistrustful" was

used to support slavery.23

In any case the result was and still is that black women cannot rely on law and justice

to protect them against any kind of violence, whether it may come from white people or black

males. Being considered as untrustworthy and prone to lie, the discrimination they have to

face is not only social and professional but also in the courtrooms.

Sapphire, a character from Amos 'n' Andy, radio and

TV show (1928-1956)

Sassy Mammy, a variation of the Mammy stereotype. Sanka coffee ad (Circa 1960)

Mammy, Jezebel and Sapphire, the Traditional Stereotypes

Mammy, a shortcut between mother and nanny, is the oldest most classic widespread

and, dare we say, appreciated woman stereotype (that is by those who do not have to suffer

from it). The African American version embodied by the “Aunt Jemima” advertising

character is the archetypical maternal image, strong, protective and reliable in her nurturing

role for her masters or employers more than for her own children and family. Plump and

considered unattractive, she represents the most conformist role in the traditional society, past

and present. This stereotype was born from slavery and popularized by a minstrel show song

23YARBROUGH Marilyn, BENNETT Crystal. Ibid


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in 1875, registered as a trademark in 1883 as a brand of pancake mix and exploited by

Quaker Oats (shall we mention this also uses a stereotype) since 1937. The brand, the

folkloric fantasized postcolonial Southern way of life, the Mammy stereotype and its

promotion through commercial exploitation still go on, only with a relatively updated mother

figure. Mammy, and her present heiresses are supposed to be good mothers, good

housekeepers and trusty child tenders. Middle aged, “de-sexualized”, “she did not care about

her appearance”24and did not threaten white social rules, nor are the present representatives

supposed to; in the contrary they are expected to be the keepers of social and more

particularly family traditional values, to be happy about it and rewarded by this achievement.

This stereotype discriminates African American women against pursuing a real career other

than basic service, long after the civil rights act of 1965.

The Sassy Mammy is a variation, entitled to lecture and nag the people around her,

white or black. She served as an alibi for the slave and post-slave racial relationship to show

that blacks could express themselves and even disagree with their masters as long as that did

not undermine the social rules set by the dominant class. As such, she represents an

intermediate figure between Mammy and the Sapphire.

From Sapphire to the Angry Black Woman (ABW)

Sapphire also originated in popular culture, as a character from the Amos 'n' Andy

radio and television shows aired from 1928 through 1966 « at best a situation comedy », at

worst an all blacks minstrel show25, “The Sapphire Caricature portrays black women as rude,

loud, malicious, stubborn, and overbearing". Most aggressive against African American men

for their underachievement or sexual appetites for white women, she also can be quite violent

against all who disrespect her. Although this could be considered an understandable attitude

to try and improve her condition and have her rights respected, she is in fact considered as

naturally bitter, emasculating and abusive. More than a harsh view of the African American

women, this stereotype can be seen as "a social control mechanism that is employed to punish

black women who violate the societal norms that encourage them to be passive, servile, non-

threatening, and unseen."26 In fact it is noticeable that all the African American women

24 Ferris State University, Jim Crow Museum (http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/mammies/) 25Ferris State University, Jim Crow Museum (http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/sapphire/) 26 Ferris State University, Jim Crow Museum (http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/sapphire/)


18

showing some personality and willing to succeed trough competition or fight for a cause will

be characterized as ABW at some time.

This stereotype can be quite destructive since it hinders their ability to pursue and

reach legitimate objectives for fear of blame and of appearing not as winners (what people

would have called a majority representative) but as violent and antisocial, which constitutes a

pressure against their success in most social, political and professional fields. All this can

explain that this is one of the most appreciated stereotypes about African American Women

by their foes since it is a very practical tool for contempt about the style and avoid treating

the causes of her attitude and actions.

Jezebel, the All Time Temptress

Unlike the other stereotypes, popularly originated and which might be more specific

to the American history and social organization, Jezebel is a biblical figure, representing the

Phoenician (foreigner and not a Jewish cult follower) wife of Ahab, king of Israel,

embodying all evil through sexual temptation, religious and social deviances. She is credited

with being the all time incarnation of the “lusty moor” described by the British colonists.

"Historically, white women, as a category, were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-

control, and modesty - even sexual purity, but black women were often portrayed as innately

promiscuous, even predatory."27

This depiction, apart from providing a useful excuse for all the abuse African

American women had to endure through history, now finds news ways of expression in the

vernacular culture, considering most if not all of them as sexually available and even willing

for promiscuous relations. This stereotype constitutes a legitimation for the ill-mannered

behaviors and discriminations they have to face as a side effect of being in an underprivileged

social situation, reinforced by popular hip-hop culture and music, which is falling “from

Jezebel to Ho”28.

The worst side effect could be that being stereotyped as less respectable, violent and

liars, they become “natural” targets and victims, thus face the second pain of being less

valued, considered and believed by the law and its representatives. This can even justify in

the eyes of some people the fact of being fearful towards them, which can lead to

27 Ferris State University Mi. Jim Crow Museum (http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/jezebel.htm) 28 MOODY Mia. "From Jezebel to Ho: An Analysis of Creative and Imaginative Shared Representations of African-American Women", Baylor University, Journal of Research on Women and Gender, Volume 4 – March - 2012


19

aggressiveness and even “preventive” murder (killing for fear of being assaulted)29. When

positive (established) law is not adverse to them, they can fall victims of a twisted

interpretation of natural law, supposedly protective of all people regardless of their origins,

but used as arguments against African American women, who have to face more violence and

less protection, so in the end more danger and less rights.30

Other stereotypes can be studied, such as the Tragic Mulatto, and newer

interpretations, more adapted to the present living conditions have been developed by the

media and marketers to help understand and reach black audiences and customers.

Concerning more precisely mixed race people’s black identity or responding to a marketer’s

point of view, they shall be seen in the next parts.

In terms of employment, stereotypes are particularly adverse for black women: it

seems difficult in any professional field to admit as an equal colleague, a trustworthy problem

solving professional and even more as a manager, a person identified as only a superficial,

potentially violent object of lust, or else a poorly educated child and home keeper.

This would require a better knowledge of the individual person and being able and willing to

overpass the negative stereotypes, and consequent prejudices which are not always conscious.

If we consider the working place as a game of rivalry with many actors living their

social relations and as a zero sum game, where a winner necessarily makes a loser, we will

have to realize that those negative images are a daunting obstacle for African American

women’s professional development, even more than for the other women. This is one of the

main dangers and drawbacks brought by popular images.

29Time Magazine online: Noliwe M. Rooks (http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/14/renisha-mcbride-and-black-female-stereotype/) 30YARBROUGH Marilyn, BENNETT Crystal. Ibid


20

1.1.2. African American women in arts

From a marketing point of view, people in art play a double role, on one hand they are

the artistic, ideological and commercial target, being the audience and the customers, those

who will appreciate or not, and make a success of a creation and consequently make the

creator and the art business success. On the other hand the representation of the human figure

and more particularly the female beauty has always been one of the main artistic subjects.

The distance is not very wide in this case between being a subject and an object. The art piece

is the object, along with the representation of real or fictitious people.

In other terms, woman’s beauty, not to say the representation of her body is one of the

main objects of art, where reality and virtuality combine to create an esthetic image or effect.

In this case, voluntarily or not, the artists transmit their representation of women, according

to their personal values and culture and those of their audience. This makes a three party deal

between the artist, the artistic subject or object and the viewer, each one can have her or his

expectations and needs to satisfy.

In a first level, following the Shannon and Weaver communication model31 we can

consider that the artist, as sender is trying to create and transmit a personal but culturally

charged message, since he expresses a social view of the object he is representing and the

artwork can influence the public’s perception. The second actor in human representation is

the model or the performer as an object, in the sense that the creation passes through the

performer, who embodies the creation becoming the creator’s medium, being the middleman

between the artist and the public and accepting some extent of personal alienation to do so. In

this first level analysis we can consider the public (viewer, reader, and more generally

audience) as the receiver in search of an esthetic emotion and providing an appreciation

feedback.

In a more marketing oriented approach, the artist is bound to correspond to her or his

public’s needs if she or he does not want to be rejected: the better the correspondence with

the public’s expectations and emotions, the wider the audience and the greater the material

success and the influence.

As for the performers, they will try to bring their own personal talent and translation

to the piece of art they are transmitting, to try to ensure their fame and success. At the end of

the chain, apart from accepting to arbitrate in their spending choices in favor of an art

31 (http://communicationtheory.org/shannon-and-weaver-model-of-communication/)


21

production or performance, the public receives this cultural consumption as a social marker,

the common appreciation of a precise form of art constituting a binding for social groups.

Art, and more precisely fine arts can also be considered as an investment, the detention of art

pieces means affluence, which is clearly another aspect of the marketing side of art. Art

pieces, like any other product are evaluated, their value relies on the basic law of supply and

demand, and the influence of the market leading actors: merchants, experts, public collectors

such as museums or private collectors such as foundations or affluent amateurs. Their value,

just like for any other commodity is bound to evolve on the stock market, a fad or a trend can

fade away or make a style, an artist skyrocket; not to mention the influence of external factors

such as conflicts or economic situation: art can be a safe haven investment and logically also

a subject of speculation, usually to boost some strategically chosen values.

African American artists generally have a particular point of view about art creation,

most of them (at least for those who attain a certain recognition) consider themselves as

representatives and ambassadors of black people, often testifying or denouncing the

perception and the discrimination they have to face, other African American artists simply

depict or showcase social realities the way they perceive them without judgment or avoiding

stereotypes. Indeed almost all the black artists production deals with stereotypes, sometimes

to condemn, sometimes to take advantage of them since a global acceptance is one of the

ways to success.

We will try to illustrate these assertions by presenting some art production we could

consider as representative in different fields.


22

Renee Cox: Rajé Series

This photography could resemble an advertisement, but it is a personal view of black people

in the American society by Renee Cox32, presenting herself as a Jezebel and Rajé, a Sapphire-

like Superhero, accompanied by a muscular black man (another cliché); setting the popular

characters and products of Aunt Jemima pancake mix and Uncle Ben’s rice free from their

boxes as a (cultural) background. This is made to embody and denounce the most common

and negative representations of black people in popular culture and more particularly in

advertising.

Black women have been represented and celebrated in arts in their original socio-

ethnic groups in many ways, from painting to carving and sculpting through theater and

music. If we focus more precisely on historical North American representations, we will

notice that they most often follow the perception the colonial and slavery society had about

them. These representations corresponded to the stereotypes they had to endure: ugly,

32 Renee Cox, Rajé Series, “Liberation of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben”, 2001. (http://reneecoxstudio.tumblr.com/post/25447859481/renee-cox-raje-series-liberation-of-aunt-jemima)


23

beastlike and unattractive; or on the other side of the coin over sexualized, lustful with

oversized bust and bottom forms, and above all objectified. Many of these representations

can be seen at the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memoriabilia (Ferris State University Mi,

cited).

It would be very difficult to present an inclusive panorama of the art representation of

black women in the USA, so we will concentrate on art photography through some recent

exhibitions, and more particularly “Posing Beauty”. This picture and video exhibition from

the New York University has toured many museums and universities in the USA to show that

until the seventies the image of black beauty has been widely ignored by official and popular

culture, and the way these representations shape the way black and non-black people perceive

African American identity through its images. Deborah Willis, the curator “considers the

interplay between the historical and the contemporary, between self-representation and

imposed representation"33, torn between the need to conform to white standards and the

subsequent self despise and the re-conquest of a long denied pride and self-assumption. She

states that the "contemporary understanding of beauty has been constructed and framed

through the body"34 (black people had to endure a long and difficult fight to access to

education and not staying maintained in some black people’s universities). Deborah Willis

also "invites us to reflect upon the ambiguities of beauty, its impact on mass culture and

individuals".35 (Some of these works can be consulted online on the site of New York

University.36)

Indeed, their difference and specificity in a country where they had been born and

living for many generations lied mostly on physical aspects. Discriminated from classical

culture, they needed to repossess their image and pride and rebuild a more positive image

through their pictorial representations, assuming or rejecting their natural or imposed

specificities, sometimes by excessive fashion styles as ways of expressing themselves, by

pointing out the appeal or the difficulties coming with their -stereotyped- complexion, such

as strong bottoms or nappy hair. In this regard, we should consider Renee Cox’s depictions of

the racism and discrimination of society, often through self-portraits nude and clothed, and

classic and religious European masterpieces revisiting. Her photography literally embodies

33Deborah Willis, curator of Posing Beauty exhibition (http://www.curatorial.com/exhibitions_current/exhib-PosingBeauty.html) 34 Deborah Willis, Posing Beauty 35 Deborah Willis, Posing Beauty 36New York University. (http://www.tisch.nyu.edu/object/PosingBeautySelectedWorks.html)


24

the social perceptions about beauty and social roles she intends to denounce by reversing the

perspectives (the black “Missy at home” with a white servant and a nude self portrait on the

back wall) or show their absurdity (“Black Venus Hott-En-Tott”, a very personal

interpretation of Sarah Baartman to point out the negative traditional image and expectations

about exposing black women’s figure).

Renee Cox: Missy at Home

and Hottentot venus

Renee Cox certainly is one of the best representatives of African American fine arts

performer presenting a non-retouched body, but with a highly symbolical and powerful

staging, to point out that if white is supposed to be spirit and ethereal purity, blackness can

mean power, sensation and desire through physical presence.

We can wonder though if by showing her often nude body, even in a non-lustful but

aesthetic way, she still does not comply with a stereotype of objectification of the female

body in general and the black woman’s particularly. Her choice can in the same time attract

attention and distract from the message she wants to construct, which is epitomic of the way

many African American women expose themselves when they do (more particularly in

popular culture) just as if this assertiveness in an exposure, which could sometimes be

considered excessive was a challenge to the mainstream political correctness. Indeed, this can

backfire by reinforcing stereotypes if considered superficially.

It could be interesting to note that Renee Cox, like many other renowned American

artists is not an American native (she is of Jamaican origin as we can see from many aspects

of her creations). This can constitute an asset for cultural evolution since these perfectly

integrated newcomers bring new expectations and consider a racial equality as normal, with


25

bold but not necessarily aggressive claims: a black African obviously considers her or

himself as a normal (mainstream) person and not a minority representative, in this sense, their

social place and claims are simply “natural” (as far as this term can apply to a culture).

We certainly can agree that the traditional vision of beauty has been constructed by

the dominant group’s social and historical standards, e.g.: white is better and more beautiful

than black; whites’ hair is good, black hair is bad…

Lauren Kelley: Pickin and Bubble-gum wig

In these Lauren Kelley37 creations, black hair is clearly depicted as troublesome,

constituting violence for black women as well as a silent protest against social rules. These

images show the fact that black women experience pressure and suffering from the imposed

inferior image of nappy hair, but that in the same time as they assume their hair as a marker

of identity, turning the violence experienced in the inside into an outward resentment which

could easily have them labeled as “angry black women” if expressed.

In the second photography, we can consider the “bubble-gum wig” as a means to hide

natural hair, thus conforming to the white society of consumption, and its denunciation by the

artist. In both cases, we cannot but feel the shame and burden linked with this social pressure

on natural black (African) hair (this is a topic on its own we will study in the social part).

Most of the time the representation of the black woman in fine arts is a testimony, a

denunciation or a voluntarily distorted view of their social image and roles: motherly,

37 Lauren Kelley – Pickin’ 1999 and Bubble Gum Wig 1999. (http://laurenkelleyworld.com)


26

submissive or seductive, physical subjects or objects, but almost never presented in thinking,

conceptualization or creation other than giving life and nurturing.

It seems that most of their depicted actions should be submissive and compliant. In

some cases the black woman can be presented as a living goddess enjoying her situation, but

even in that case she is showcased as the symbol of a coveted ideal and not often as a role

model nor as a rational and intelligent human being.

There can be images showing a more modern active and toned-up image of the

Mammy or the matriarch which present them as intelligent and evolved, but still not as

professionals, policy makers or thinkers, maybe reflecting the fact that society does not seem

ready to admit them in these roles. On the other side of the coin, most of the time the artistic

protesting of their inferior situation seems limited to a mild and oneiric denouncing.

They also can be shown as having strong reactions to inacceptable situations; but this

embodiment of the “angry black woman” is mainly present (though marginal) in popular

photography.

Sculpture: a Particular and Revealing Point of View

Kara Walker: Sugar Mammy Sphynx and Sugar Babies


27

Kara Walker’s installation is called “A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby

an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from

the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the

Domino Sugar Refining Plant.” 38 (Pictures from the Huffington Post39).

This is certainly one of the most noticeable recent works of art about the slavery

heritage in the USA. Set inside the Domino Sugar factory in the Williamsburg section of

Brooklyn, her sculptures present a huge nude “Sugar Mammy sphinx” covered in white sugar

with exaggerated black female features to show the exploitation and objectification of black

slave women in the production of sugar; and a group of “Sugar babies” covered in molasses

and presenting raw unrefined sugar. The former is disturbing in showing the exposure and

victimization of the black women, this being reinforced by the lewd commentaries and

supposedly “funny” pictures taken by some (too many) lowbrow viewers of both races. The

latter cannot but evoke, with the melting of the molasses, the horror of the remains of lynched

black laborers. Many (younger) visitors indeed do not notice these dramatic aspects either

and are tempted to serve themselves in the baskets or lick the smaller sculptures.

Sugar, just as much of the early industrial development of the country has been made

out of blood. Such a reminder can only be perceived and appreciated by those already

informed and feeling concerned about the darkness of history, and highlights the difficulties

to render people conscious of the weight of their history. Anyway it is worth trying and

denouncing the damaging stereotypes and subsequent prejudices, and not letting those be

considered as normal with the discrimination that implies. Let us not forget to mention the

fact that refined here again means crystallized and turned white, in other words:

whitewashed.

Most understandably many black artists (and many black viewers) have very strong

feelings concerning their heritage and the reactions people (white or non-white) can have

about it and about their art; they are bearing testimony, not just expressing their feelings or

their talent. They are much needed opinion leaders. Even when their word can sometimes be

shocking or excessive they play the role of memory passers and conscience awakeners.

Yet, to attain success art must be appreciated if not necessarily understood; the shock must be

positively felt, the emotion has to be pleasurable. In that sense, the best artists follow 38 Washington Post. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/27/going-to-see-kara-walkers-subtlety-read-these-first/) 39 Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jaime-rojo-steven-harrington/kara-walker-sphinx_b_5277269.html)


28

(willingly or not) a common path with marketing: even though they generally do not start by

studying their audience, they want to impact it and have to respond to some kind of need.

Black Women in Popular Art and Culture

It is not easy to find a precise and official definition of the notion of popular (Pop)

culture, inexistent in the main dictionaries, Pop-Art being an excessively restrictive view of

this phenomenon. Ashley Crossman Ph.D. offers this one: "Popular culture is the

accumulated store of cultural products such as music, art, literature, fashion, dance, film,

television, and radio that are consumed primarily by non-elite groups”40, whereas the Urban

Dictionary41 flatly states that "Pop Culture simply denotes a widely accepted group of

practices or customs."

This entices us to propose an interpretation: Popular culture could be defined as the

common shared beliefs, perceptions, attitudes and practices, more particularly applied to

commercial arts and media and the consumption of the related recreational and leisure

products. In other terms, popular culture is based on commonly accepted stereotypes and

activities and defines what is fashionable or not, acceptable or not, what are the “dos and

don’ts” of social playing. It results from the aggregation of observed opinions and practices

and the acceptability of marginal behavior.

Quite naturally, marketing is based on popular culture: marketers have to find and use

the social trends to offer products corresponding to the expectations or longings of their

target markets, going to the fringes to draw attention but not as far as being considered

offensive, as we will see in the third part of this study.

Some important remarks should be done at this point: popular culture is not reserved

to middle or lower classes, the “elites” are part of it and are customers and consumers of

many commercial products in their daily needs and social interaction.

The trend setting (commercial) and most popular artists are the first to use and benefit

from popular culture as well as contributing to its evolution in a good or sometimes more

questionable direction. The most advanced and intellectual artists owe their success to their

talent to invoke, question and revolutionize pop culture as the mandatory reference; or else

they will find themselves limited to a restricted circle of “connoisseurs”, which can be

considered as another form of cultural ghetto.

40 CROSSMAN Ashley Ph.D. (http://sociology.about.com) 41 Urban Dictionary: a collaborative dictionary of urban slang and popular expression (http://www.urbandictionary.com)


29

Popular culture should not be limited to the usual cultural products listed above, but

the focus needs to be expanded to (show business) sports such as football, or baseball,

language and social evolutions (evolution of race relations, “retrocolonization”42 by foreign

cultural elements or minorities social markers, acceptance of LGBT --Lesbian, Gay,

Bisexual, Transsexual). In a world where money makes everything go round, material

success is the foil of recognition and popular esteem.

In popular photographic depictions women and particularly black women are shown

as objects of desire for (mostly black) men and linked with homely, partying or shopping

activities.

On the border between art and marketing we

may find some pieces of work testifying of the

general and commercial point of view about black

women. In a 2004 advertising campaign for Louis

Vuitton, the photographer David Lachapelle 43

presented some pictures of the rapper Lil’Kim

naked and totally covered by brand labels (Louis

Vuitton), instructed to pose “like a fifties pinup”.

This photography could be considered as

representative, showing the black woman as a

fashion victim, brand addicted and above all a self-

assumed object of desire and a powerful attention

teaser for marketing; in the words of Lachapelle:

“I wanted to photograph her as a high-priced luxury item”44 which indeed is one of the most

popular representations of the black woman.

About this photography Nili Goren, Curator of The Tel Aviv Museum of Art stated

that: “When he photographed rapper Lil Kim for the Louis Vuitton campaign (…) he created a sales-

promoting attraction while, at the same time (being) part of the array responsible for commodification

of the female body. The "brand-name rush," the pursuit of fashionable designer items, the obsessive

manicuring of the body in an attempt to resemble the figures on the catwalk or in the Oscars

42 We can call “retrocolonization” the fact of adopting cultural elements (food, customs, fashion) from culturally or economically dominated foreign countries (such as Tex-Mex food, piñatas or soccer football). 43 (http://www.lachapellestudio.com/portraits/lil-kim/) 44 Rolling Stones Magazine, Sep. 30, 2004


30

ceremony—all these rituals, as means to acquire a social status, make for the body's transformation into

a label, and the conversion of the human figure into advertising space.”45

This is a particular, but emblematic image of the black female: in popular culture (and

particularly in hip-hop music) she is presented as a status seeker playing an ambivalent role

of willing victim of her need of social and seductive attraction, and at the same time as the

“legitimate” reward and trophy of the social play winners.

This virtual life clearly is a projection of the traditional game exploited by show

business in general (and noticeably Hollywood) that we could sum up by “the winner gets the

girl”: nothing very new or specific to African American women, but we must notice the add-

on brought by the historical stereotypes of seeming more physical, lustful and available than

their white counterparts.

The only game the black woman seems to master in pop culture is the seduction game

to attain a certain superficial luxury, but at the price of appearing as a consumption product

and symbol herself, with the consequent risk of being despised and dominated in the end,

which is not very far from the usual Jezebel stereotype.

Some top performers such as Beyoncé have indeed attained a strong and durable

success and can write themselves against this negative perception (we will examine them as

possible new role models later on). Apart from these exceptional personalities, the popular

representations most often give a very partial and superficial image of the African American

women, so do not help them find their real place in the American society in social and

professional aspects, which are closely linked.

Image coming to terms

If we refer to the terminology commonly used concerning women in pop, and

particularly hip-hop music, where female performers (particularly non singing dancers) are

often barely or outrageously dressed, the admiration sometimes expressed by coining the

term “goddess” is most often followed by the qualifying adjective “sex” and black women

are much more commonly called “big booty hoes” (for a birthday present!46), sluts or bitches.

45 Goren Nili, Curator, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art. “Post Modern Pop Photography”. Jul. 23 – Nov. 20 2010 46 2 Chainz - Birthday Song (Explicit) ft. Kanye West, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y34jC4I1m70 (This video seems to be most representative of the pop-culture depiction of the female image and relationship promoted in hip-hop music)


31

These usually insulting terms are somehow accepted, even claimed by popular female

performers or celebrities, not to mention quite many female fans. Even the milder terms of

cat, chick or vixen have very strong connotations. We can put aside the word chick, just good

enough to get plucked, cooked and eaten (with all the senses these terms may imply). Being

bitchy or catty can be considered as revenge or resistance attitudes; but the most interesting

term certainly is vixen: in the same time “a shrewish ill-tempered woman, a female fox and a

sexually attractive woman” 47. This complies with the objectification, the animalization (both

in the fox and the shrew) and the Sapphire stereotypes, but it does have a good side for it

recognizes shrewdness and intelligence, even though it does not consider leading abilities or

great human value.

We also can consider that the “twerking” fashion claimed as an identity marker by

some African American women, and the outcome of other African vernacular dances

participates to show (particularly young black) women as not only available but also inviting,

or at least teasing (the difference might not be very clear for some viewers and we can fear

that this can seem to encourage or falsely legitimate a rape culture). It might be worth noting

that these dances are not traditional but vernacular in West African countries and belonging

not really to a legitimate historical culture but rather to popular leisure.

The leading female hip-hop (self-proclaimed) queens or princesses are quite

archetypal: if we consider the performances of Lil’Kim (see picture by David Lachapelle) or

Nicky Minaj, self-objectification, lewdness and provocation seem to be the rule. These artists

claim their right to be “different” even though they conform to and participate to crystallize a

stereotype of black female child (should we say bratty?) minded and physically objectified.

In this respect, the “Sucka Free” (April 2008) Minaj album cover release is particularly

epitomical:

47 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vixen


32

48

On her latest album release, “Anaconda”, the singer shows her almost bare bottom

and claims her right to do so by explaining that such images are considered “acceptable” for

models.49

Hip-hop supporters consider their music and culture mean freedom, power (of money

and influence), and a way to opposing and refusing to conform to white dominant models.

This might be right for the (top) performers, but it certainly is misleading and dangerous for

younger viewers, both male and female since it legitimates bad perceptions and behaviors

(e.g. street harassment) against women in general and more particularly black ones.

In fact, present popular representations, if not always as sexually explicit, most often

showcase black women as childish, shallow, rude and self-centered. This does not show

much evolution in the representations of the last half-century, if we except that there does not

seem to be much respect or good taste left (even though these terms do not have much

meaning in pop culture) in such depictions.

We can consider these presentations as the expression of freedom of thought and

speech, but on the other hand it can also be considered that it does not show a very wide

difference between popular, vernacular and vulgar50 in the sense that it does not promote the

most valuable aspects of the human behavior.

The working-single-parent lifestyle many black women (and often the singers and

listeners’ own mothers and sisters) have to cope with everyday simply is not hip or

“glamour” enough to help anyone dream, evade or just want to relive on a screen.

By advocating a non-conformist, hedonistic and social status seeking attitude, we can

consider that pop-culture artists and audiences are not at the moment they do or watch these

48 Complete image can be found here: (http://www.ddotomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/suckafree_whiteLARGE.jpg) 49 MTV site. (http://www.mtv.com/news/1878772/nicki-minaj-anaconda-art-supermodels/) 50 (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vulgar)


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creations in search of enhancement, but rather of diversion from reality for the viewers and,

by exploiting these needs, of material achievement and recognition for the performers.

Considering hip-hop as a single track movement would certainly also be a stereotype;

in fact some artists intend to give a higher quality product and offer a more positive message.

In this regard, we can cite among others the name of Erykah Badu. She stands as a proud

representative of the black women of America, but can also resort to marketing-like

techniques to make her point, like in her “window seat” musical video51 in which she strolls

down the street in Dallas where J. Kennedy was shot (a strong historical evocation), while

getting totally undressed to advocate standing alone against social pressure (which may in

fact seem mainly commercial). We can consider this as evidence that very different messages

can resort to very similar ways. At this point, we can wonder if a message can have any

chance of success without conforming to some stereotypes and using marketing techniques.

Reality has not much appeal for a vernacular, mainly black, culture rejecting the

dominant social order where they do not find satisfactory solutions for their social and

material needs, thus trying to rearrange it following their own codes and longings.

Reality Television:

If we are to mention “reality TV”, it does not feature reality but scripted ordinary lives

to try and turn them exciting, attractive or mildly shocking to comply with the audience’s

voyeurism. No wonder if we cannot but find in these digital realities the usual images aimed

at proving that the viewers’ pop culture prejudices built and transmitted by the media are

founded.

This can be particularly observed in the black (so-called) reality TV shows such as

Real Housewives of Atlanta, Love and Hip Hop, and Basketball Wives, which “reinforce

harmful racial stereotypes and teach viewers to disrespect black women”. The danger is not

only about how these shows are influencing adult viewers, but also how they are impacting

the minds of children”; let us not forget that TV watching is (often an important) part of a

child’s education.52

51 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVp47f5YZg) 52 The Grio. Excerpts from (http://thegrio.com/2013/06/05/from-julia-to-nene-thoughts-on-the-impact-of-reality-tv-on-black-women/)


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Another post from the Grio explains that “The current popular depiction of black

women on television is caught between two extremes”: “an emotionally complex, intelligent

and self-made woman in the character of Olivia Pope on the ABC show Scandal” and “At the

other end of spectrum, there is the gimmicky, low-rent version of Olivia Pope, mostly seen

on “reality” television”. “From the perspective of superficial appearances, these black woman

seem to operate from a somewhat similar privileged segment of society” 53 not having to cope

with the harsh realities most black women experience.

These very successful shows (and “out-of-show” relations) feature more temper

throwing, shallowness, ego-conflicts, gossiping and catfights than expected from mature

public personalities; we can wonder if the audiences really appreciate and consider as normal

behavior these demonstrations of immaturity or if they just enjoy seeing them making fools

of themselves and forget for a while their own problems.

“We Need More Women (and Black) Superheroes” (Esquire Magazine) 54

A popular culture review would not be complete without mentioning Comics

characters. Some comics have been made aimed at black people, some general public

oriented feature black characters, usually with a not leading role. Black women are not very

present in comics as writers or artists either; “in this industry dominated by white men, these

women have to make their way by writing their own rules"55 and publish in independent of

self created networks. Mainstream comics are evolving though: Marvel Comics, the leading

brand is renewing its “cast” of superheroes, as they use to when the characters start aging.

This time, Marvel Comics has made a more diverse choice by introducing a new black

character for Captain American and a woman to be the new Thor. In past times, some

diversity representatives had been introduced: a black Green Lantern in 71, a black Hispanic

Spider-Man in 2008 (following Obama’s election), and even a Muslim girl as Ms. Marvel in

2013, not to mention the female versions of male heroes like Supergirl or She-Hulk56.

To this date all the diversity has been very appreciated and brought a surge in sales:

"It's not like it doesn't come from a place of good-heartedness, but if we didn't get the kind of

53 The Grio (http://thegrio.com/2013/03/31/womens-history-month-reality-tv-and-the-changing-image-of-the-african-american-leading-lady/) 54Esquire is a magazine for men. (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/more-women-superheroes) 55The Post Racial Times (http://thepostracialtimes.com/2014/01/28/black-women-in-comics-a-panel-discussion-at-nycs-annual-black-comic-festival/) 56 (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/more-women-superheroes)


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response we do every time we try to introduce one of these characters, we wouldn't keep

doing it" explained Marvel Comics executive editor Tom Brevoort to CNBC.57

We can suppose that it will not be too long before a main superhero character will be

a black woman (such has already been the case for DC Comics’ Cat Woman, which also

became a movie). In comics, just as in many forms of fiction, the audiences are in fact

expecting and welcoming more diversity.

This should not mislead us into excessive conclusions: Marvel Movies will not feature

a new cast with (even) more diverse leading superheroes for the moment; they are not

convinced the audiences are already willing to accept that; movie production is very

expensive and implies higher risks. Marketing is not meant to be socially disruptive, their

strategy is more trying to sense the evolutionary trends and exploit them.

Black Women in Cinema: Hollywood (also) is a Man’s World

Hattie McDaniel appeared in more than 300 movies, she won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as

Mammy in the 1939 epic Gone With the Wind

57 CNBC site: Everett Rosenfeld, Jul. 24 2014 "What Marvel Comics' new era of diversity means for sales", (http://www.cnbc.com/id/101865761)


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According to the 2013 Women’s Media Center’s Annual Report58 on the status of

women in TV, news, movies, and even social media, Women are less present (about 30% of

the speaking roles), less paid, less likely to have leading or even speaking roles in the movies,

and much more likely to appear naked; with very little evolution if any since 1999. Here

again, the main discrimination lies on gender disparity more than ethnicity: lower paid, less

leading roles in movies and series.

Black actresses face even harder times: in show business, black women are only 14%

of the female performers, none of them ranking among the top ten in fame or earnings59.

They are often still portrayed according to the traditional images and roles. Unfortunately,

Affirmative Action policies (or the more up-to-date “diversity”) seem to have led mainly to

giving away the least positive, important and interesting roles to black people, thus

comforting the negative image of the minorities.

Besides popular culture, some movies do show a different point of view; in this field

we can cite Dear White People60, bearing the point of view of “a black face in a very white

place”61. The film follows four black students at a predominately white Ivy League where a

popular "African American themed" party takes place” 62.

Apart from the social and race-relations message, this movie is interesting by the way

it has been financed and received: Justin Simien, now 32, the director presented a first trailer

in 2006. It made the buzz and was seen more than a million times on Internet. He then

proceeded to raise funds in 2012 through the crowd-funding63 Web site, Indiegogo64, where

he raised more than $40,000, enough to make a more professional trailer to obtain the

financing and support needed for a full size production.

Presenting the vision of educated black (girls and boys) millennials, the movie, shot in

three weeks, has received the Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014,

raising controversies.

58 San Diego University: LAUZEN Martha M. (http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/files/2013_It%27s_a_Man%27s_World_Report.pdf) 59 Forbes Magazine site. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2014/08/04/sandra-bullock-tops-forbes-list-of-highest-earning-actresses-with-51m/) 60 (http://www.dearwhitepeoplemovie.com/) 61 Justin Simien in (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/post/dear-white-people-hollywood-are-you-listening/2012/06/20/gJQAIIH3qV_blog.html#) 62 Indiewire. (http://www.indiewire.com/article/project-of-the-day-dear-white-people-race-riot-in-an-ivy-league) 63 Investorwords. (http://www.investorwords.com/19355/crowd_funding.html) 64 Financing non-profit or with an uncertain return on investment projects is very difficult, bankers are not philantropists. This is why many projects resort to crowdfunding. Indiegogo (founded 2008) is one of the leading crowdfunding sites, aiming at raising funds for any kind of project. (https://www.indiegogo.com/)


37

As Justin Simien puts it:

"There are some knee jerk reactions to the phrase "Dear White People" and I get it.

No one wants to be called racist, and some folks are still waking up from the fantasy that

having a Black president means America has somehow become "Post-Racial."65

After these presentations, the distribution "was picked up by Roadside Attractions, who has

slated an October 17 (2014) release date"66. Movie making is indeed a long and often

winding road for black people to attain success. This success can be awarded on a great

synopsis, a lot of will and a clever use of social media and networks, teaming with a

multiracial and dedicated team to reach viewers and convince producers and distributors67.

This is one of a (scarce) kind (we can mention “Boys n’ The Hood”) of black movies

appealing to more general audiences, even though we can wonder if a “college flick” can be

able to appeal to mass audiences: this is “quality”, not totally “popular”.

Lupita Nyong’o, Oscar winning actress of 12 Years a Slave and America’s 2014

“sweetheart” is one of the few trees that hide the forest in Hollywood; some African

American top performers have been or are very successful in major blockbusters, even

though their incomes come to fractions of what the mainstream actors get, and generally not

with a leading role. A special place should be made for black movies. History based (from

Roots to Black Venus, Invictus or 12 Years a Slave) films can be very successful and they

can participate in turning the whole audience more conscious about race relations and history,

but they hardly promote an evolution in the image of the black people as a whole.

In both contexts (blacks for blacks, and blacks for wider audiences), to succeed in art

and media, black people and even more black women need great talents, a huge amount of

work and embodying the roles they are intended to play night and day. This is not very

different from their mainstream counterparts, but African Americans are limited to much

fewer opportunities and market segments.

Some evolution is showing though: “In 2005, Franklin Leonard surveyed almost 100 film industry development executives about their

favorite scripts from that year that had not been made as feature films. Since then the voter pool has grown to

about 500 film executives”. “Over 225 Black List screenplays have been made as feature films. Those films

65 Justin Simien in (http://www.indiewire.com/article/project-of-the-day-dear-white-people-race-riot-in-an-ivy-league) 66 Indiewire. (http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/racially-charged-college-satire-dear-white-people-challenges-audiences-at-sundance) 67 Filmindependent. (http://www.filmindependent.org/blogs/how-dear-white-people-went-from-script-to-sundance/#.U9Xv7ajEreY)


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have earned over $19BN in worldwide box office, have been nominated for 171 Academy Awards, and have

won 35, including Best Pictures SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, THE KING'S SPEECH, and ARGO, and seven

of the last twelve screenwriting Oscars.” 68

Even if this is not specifically a list of “black talents” (my italics), Ebony magazine

explains that it constitutes a “script-database service dedicated to finding and promoting

unknown writers (which) has done what agents and film executives couldn’t: give diverse

candidates a chance” 69.

Interesting as this evolution can be, black movies and those featuring black main roles

still are particular creations and not an integrating part of Hollywood mainstream message, so

the influence on the evolution of the image of African Americans is limited. Individual

successes are only (noticeable and positive) little waves on the sea of established perceptions

and practices.

Black Women in Soaps and Series

Once again, a difference should be remarked between mainstream and black series. In

the former, the lack of diversity and the fact that the leading roles are usually not played by

black people are blatant.

Several networks are currently dedicated to black programming, there has not been

always so; in the early days of television, black actors were only found in stereotypical roles,

explains Complex, a pop culture network. The first all-black situational comedy was that

Amos 'n' Andy (1951-1953) this show was stopped because of complaints that it continued to

perpetuate stereotypes70.

“Black sitcoms were largely dormant until the '70s, then finally hitting a stride in the

'80s. In the '90s, that stride became a sprint, with networks scrambling to reach black

audiences. This coincided with a celebration of black culture, as Afrocentrism was embraced

by hip-hop and it became commonplace to see Malcolm X hats and Howard University

sweatshirts in music videos and in the streets. It felt like the perfect marriage of African-

American culture and popular culture.”71

Complex observes a great decline in the number of black sitcoms but states that many

of them left an important legacy, and more particularly the “Cosby Show” from the eighties, 68 Blacklist. (http://www.blcklst.com/) 69 Ebony. (http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/could-the-black-list-change-the-game-for-black-hollywood-writers-032#.U9JqPqjEreY) 70 Complex. (http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/02/best-black-sitcoms/) 71 Complex. (http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/02/best-black-sitcoms/)


39

generally recognized to be one of the best all-times TV show, featuring the African American

successful family everybody would love to see72.

Apart from this one, sometimes considered too mainstream by those who would have

preferred a more militant stand, most black sitcoms present black people, families or groups

in a more complicated, often more pessimistic light, and not necessarily more realistic. But

we have mentioned that realism is not the first element of attraction for the audiences.

Some newer series try to present a positive view of the black family, let us mention

the case of “black-ish”, a series presenting a successful black family concerned about their

identity in a modern and diverse society: the father, Andre Johnson (Anthony Andersen) is a

successful black man trying to raise a family that’s “real,”73which in his perception

means "black and not black-ish"74

“I didn’t want to tell a story about a family that happened to be black, but about a

family that was actually black,” black-ish creator Kenya Barris told The New York Times. “I

felt like race was being talked about less than ever, when I feel it should be talked about

more.” 75

Some other series try to present personal or creative views of black realities. In this

sense, we can mention “The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl”76 a successful series

created by Issa Rae (28) and meant to become a big screen movie: her assumed awkwardness

is what makes her attaching and in her own perception, her series “fills a void in American

TV”77.

Very few series dare or seem interested to portray real day to day specificities of

African American women’s lives, so it would be worth noting the choice of the creators of

“how to get away with murder” in showing some real life hair care “rituals”78 thus presenting

them to a more diverse audience and helping black women seeing these practices as simply

72 Bill Cosby's past personal misconduct should not devaluate the merit of the series of showing a black "normal" and succesful family as a possible aim and model since the eighties. 73 The Daily Beast (digital native newspaper). (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/24/black-ish-keeps-it-real-about-the-invisible-black-man.html) 74 Black-ish series trailer: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IufXnZ3gSPc) 75 Daily Beast. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/01/black-ish-is-the-new-modern-family.html) 76 RAE Issa. (http://awkwardblackgirl.com/) 77 Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/05/issa-rae-awkward-black-girl_n_4209313.html) 78 Fusion: (http://fusion.net/story/52053/how-to-get-away-with-murder-excels-at-revealing-slices-of-black-culture/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialshare&utm_content=desktop+left)


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normal. Black women’s hair can be considered as a beauty asset or not, in any case it clearly

is part of their identity and culture.

Two other very successful recent series should be mentioned. Scandal (ABC) presents

a complex, intelligent and interesting black woman’s leading role in an upscale setting, while

Empire (Fox) features (ex)criminal and violent black people, leading some columnists to

consider they push black stereotypes and should aim at higher levels for black people’s

image. Others contend that this kind of black people exist, so it would not be logical to ignore

that totally in a TV show: “black characters are free to be as flawed as any other human

beings79".

Another recent success in series with black actors is called “Orange is the New

Black”, featuring the lives of female prison inmates. This is yet another series presenting

more problems (namely crime and consequences) and ways to cope with, than positive views

and hopes of social evolution for black women. In all these TV features, women are

portrayed with complex and unbalanced couple and family lives. More generally we can

acknowledge that there seldom can be found a positive portrayal of black women in TV

shows.

Most audiences are supposed to make a difference between these fictional

representations and real life, but we all know that impregnation and constant showing of

marginal behavior can lead to consider them as normal and acceptable references if not

necessarily models to follow.

From a need of diversion, and the subsequent wants in terms of TV programming,

marketing is leading to a higher marginalization of the black women; white females can be

found playing fools on TV but this is not as dominant as it is for African Americans, so the

differentiation is easier to make outside the black community than for them.

79 Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/11/the-cookie-conundrum-is-empire-wrong-to-portray-blacks-as-criminals.html


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1.1.3. African American Women in advertising and media

1.1.3.1. Media and black women’s image

After examining the fiction creation presented in the main media, in this part we will

focus more particularly on the editorial, iconographic and commercial aspects of media80.

Media business as any other business is meant to bring profits to its owners and

financers, but it also constitutes a very strong influencing force on public opinion as well as

on purchase decisions. The American media are usually presented as the “Fourth Estate”,

they play an important role as democracy’s watchdog, a role guaranteed by the U.S.

Constitution, adopted in 1789. In 2010, a Mediamark Research survey revealed “98% of

Americans have a television; 82% of those watch "prime time" and 71% cable programming

in an average week. 84% percent of Americans listen to radio regularly. 79% percent are

newspaper readers.”81 In 2014, the figures concerning the use of Internet are overwhelming:

280 million users, 86,75% of the population are connected82 via computers, smartphones,

PDAs or digital TV principally.

Black Women’s Image in Mainstream Media

We have seen that the usual representation of fictional works featured in media is an

important part of the maintaining of mostly negative stereotypes and prejudices against black

women, despite some higher quality features. But fiction can have its rules to attract and

retain its audiences without pretending expressing truths or exerting pressure on the readers,

listeners or viewers to conform to standard reference models. Fiction can be influential but it

still is fantasy by essence; advertisements are known for presenting facts and products in the

most profitable way for the announcer, not the most loyal or trustworthy; but media and

particularly journalists are normally expected to being loyal, objective and well informed,

and credited with being such unless otherwise proven.

This is not always true since media can be purely informational (even though real

objectivity seems impossible) but they can also sustain opinions, parties or interests, playing

the part of being the voice of a lobby or simply expressing personal points of view. This can

particularly be noticed in the blogosphere where the opinions expressed can be those of

recognized journalists or renowned specialists, but also the right of self-expression exerted by 80 Pew Research Center’s State of the News Media 2015 : African American media. (http://www.journalism.org/2015/04/29/african-american-media-fact-sheet/) 81 USA embassy in Germany site: (http://usa.usembassy.de/media.htm) 82 (http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/)


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everybody without any other control than the readers’. In this part, we will concentrate more

precisely on established media, comporting an editorial staff and not just a single person’s

work, even though the difference is not always easy to define in terms of content.

Media, and particularly press media are in great financial turmoil; many, not to say

most written titles are scarcely or not profitable, being under pressure because of the advent

of digital media. After having been compelled to publish partly or totally free digital editions,

many newspapers are becoming all-digital since paper press is often no longer viable.

Profitable or not, business or non-profit, all media from radio to TV have to rely on

advertising (sometimes also on grants and donations) to make ends meet. In this logic they

have to adapt their editorial line not only to their target audience (who does not necessarily

want objectivity but sometimes a specific orientation), but also to the objectives and demands

of their financing partners.

Editorial staff, owners, advertisers and other financial partners are the many internal

stakeholders who shape the organ’s discourse to meet the waits and respect the opinions and

feelings of their audiences and other external stakeholders (society, economic interests,

policy-makers…). Moreover they have to attain and maintain a positive image and avoid

taking chances with public confrontation or legal action. This certainly is a very narrow and

tricky path to follow, so it is no wonder that most media keep a high political correctness and

disavow or take sanctions against their spokespersons or representatives when they are

considered offensive by one of the stakeholders.

In this context, we could hope that media would behave as models of diplomacy and

deep thinking. Such is often not the case except for the most important mainstream

informational titles. We might explain this by the fact that people do not want simply news

and data, but processed information to fit into their knowledge and value system, which

obviously implies interpretation and thus introducing bias and judgments according to the

stereotypes they have adopted and the prejudices they believe in. Information that would not

fit with the receptor’s beliefs would risk causing a cognitive dissonance, and so would be

rejected or reinterpreted for moral comfort. In simpler terms, media cannot but give the

audiences what they expect and are ready to accept, not necessarily genuine truths.

Another aspect to consider is that news and reality have to be timed and showcased to

maximize impact and appeal to the attention and memory of the audiences in order to sell

(copies or advertisements). In other words we could consider that whereas reality TV

presents scripted stories trying to resemble reality (but with a more attractive setup), media


43

information and analysis present true realities but are also compelled to do it in an attractive

way (the attraction comes from the emotions raised: surprise, joy, sadness, fear, anger or

repulsion). Modern media can in this sense be considered as a show business; this seems the

price to pay to succeed in transmitting a message and attaining the communication objectives

of the organization (this last point will be developed later in the marketing part).

At this point it may be useful to precise that we are not considering Internet and the

social media as being of a different nature than the other (older) ones: they allow creation,

transmission of information, and more generally communication. The main differences are

obviously immediateness and interactivity, permitted by the information technologies (IT),

bringing with them an access to many more actors and being able to obtain a much wider

feedback in terms of opinions and in financial possibilities, as the filmmaking by crowd-

funding example has shown. Yet the people and the needs (getting information and

opportunities, appreciating, reacting) do not change fundamentally with technical evolution.

In all media, the cultural references and opinions of their own social groups influence

the publishers who cannot avoid coloring the information contents. Most of the time this

editorial angle is chosen and assumed. Black media have (and have always had) a particular

role to play in informing, emboldening, empowering and helping black people stand for their

rights and cope with social realities.

Black press history is almost two centuries old, with the first black newspaper being

published in 1827 by Rev. Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm. At that early (antebellum)

time “the established press routinely denigrated African Americans in print, even to the

extent of questioning both the integrity and morality of the entire race." 83 Even though white

people would sometimes take a stand to defend blacks, “the editors of Freedom’s Journal

proclaimed in the first issue, “Too long have others spoken for us ... We wish to plead our

own cause.”

Since the 1990s, technical evolution linked with IT brought harsh times for all media,

particularly press, caused black media to lose audiences, market shares and announcers. The

massive consolidation movement in the media sector did the rest, forcing many of them to

sell or worse, go bankrupt and disappear: In 2014 there is not a single black-owned full-

83 National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA): African American owned media. (http://nnpa.org/about-us/black-press-history/)


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power TV station, and a scarce 15% of the low-power stations, now under the very serious

threat of being ousted by the cell-phone companies in search of development.84

Black print press is important in the USA, even though they have been forced to

evolve from print to create a digital part. Some of them have been able to keep only the

digital part (such as Jet magazine gone all-digital in 2013) and several publishers have from

scratch developed a digital-only approach (madamenoire.com or theGrio.com). Magazines

have a particular appeal and influence on their readers; several magazines aimed at black

people have a total circulation of more than one million copies each (O Oprah can boast

more than two million, Ebony aimed at black people, and Essence aimed at black women,

more than a million copies each). As for (black) business magazines, the leading

representative, Black Enterprise sells more than a half million copies of each issue.

Most of these magazines face hard times, most of them experienced a decrease in their

circulation, and even those that maintained or raised it a little knew a decrease in their

advertisement income85.

The other main black redacted and oriented magazines are Black men (for male

readers), Uptown ("Upscale and Trendy"), Sister 2 Sister and Today’s Black Woman (both

women’s) to name only the general themed.86 The other women’s magazines obviously also

are a source of information and inspiration for African American women, most of them

embrace some extent of diversity but they unavoidably are mainstream oriented to be able to

appeal to enough readers or internet surfers. It would be interesting to mention that some

digital publishers do publish specific parts specifically redacted by and aimed at African

American people, if we should cite only one, it could be the Huffington Post (Black Voices)87

Radio Broadcasting: Commercial or Non-Commercial,

Even though the traditionally popular radio broadcasting is not as hot as it used to be

among black people because of the advent of new communications media. Radio can also be

listened online from most new. Nowadays the African-American Public Radio Consortium,

AAPRC 88 has focused since the 1990′s, on representing, consulting and training "stations of

color" to "bring voices of color and cultural diversity to the industry". In 2014, 72 stations are

84 (http://www.freepress.net/blog/2013/12/20/sorry-moment-history-american-media) 85 (http://www.journalism.org/2014/03/26/state-of-the-news-media-2014-overview/) 86 (http://www.allyoucanread.com/top-10-black-magazines/) 87 Huffington post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/black-voices/) 88 African-American Public Radio Consortium AAPRC. (http://aaprc.org/)


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part of the AAPRC, and 55 among them broadcast their productions. "70% of all African-

American Public radio stations (and 70% of all NPR stations) are licensed to universities."89

Media and Black Women’s Image

The first remark we must make concerning the depiction of African American women

in the media is certainly the lack of diversity in most mainstream broadcasting and

publications (i.e. not specifically targeted at black audiences), black people, among other

minorities are clearly underrepresented, and when they are the picture is neither accurate nor

flattering.

These mostly negative and widely aired depictions obviously are not good for the

evolution of black women’s perception and social place. Some journalists and creators

consider there is nothing wrong with depicting rude uneducated and uninteresting black

people since these profiles do exist, but the trouble is that this all too common depiction can

and is considered by many as the normal or average image of all African Americans. Indeed,

it would not be realistic or possible to always present all black Americans positively, but the

more influent black media actors can legitimately expect and demand a more diverse, more

accurate and less reductive presentation. This problem can bear very negative consequences

in terms of access to culture, job seeking and professional promotion, particularly concerning

black women, even in case of police or legal intervention: black people are systematically

considered as inferior or evil unless otherwise proven.

A lot of research and publication have been made about this topic and they all

conclude in the same way: a negative depiction and an adverse influence on black women’s

social place and self-perception90. One of the most precise reports seems to be the one

published by Essence in October 2013. This comprehensive study surveyed 1200 participants

about the images of black women in media. These images broadcasted mainly by TV, social

media, music videos and other media are:

89 AAPCR (http://aaprc.org/?page_id=36) 90 MOODY Mia. "From Jezebel to Ho: An Analysis of Creative and Imaginative Shared Representations of African-American Women", Baylor University, Journal of Research on Women and Gender, Volume 4 – March - 2012


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“overwhelmingly negative and fall into categories that make us cringe — Gold Diggers,

Modern Jezebels, Baby Mamas, Uneducated Sisters, Ratchet Women, Angry Black Women,

Mean Black Girls, Unhealthy Black Women, and Black Barbies”91.

These negative depictions appear on the media more than twice as often than the

positive ones. The typologies that are the most embarrassing according to their black women

respondents are the greedy Gold Digger and the sexual Modern Jezebel. Even though these

can be most despective and insulting, the more violent ones can be more negatively

impacting might be the Sapphire (and its modern versions such as the angry black woman)

since it showcases black women as being not only uninteresting but also obnoxious, rude and

even threatening. This can lead not only to disrespect and lack of consideration but even to

crime since some people feel frightened when they are confronted to women they identify as

such92.

The study also reported that in the contrary the typologies black people consider most

representative of the black women they know in real life are positive: Real Beauties, Modern

Matriarchs, Girls Next Door and Individualists.

Such is not the perception held by non-Hispanic white women who consider that the

most accurate depictions are the negative: mainly Baby Mamas, Angry Black Women,

Unhealthy Black Women and Uneducated Sisters.

According to the study, younger women (18-29) from all origins are more aware of

these negative typologies against black women, but also consider them more compelling.

Among them those who considered these negative stereotypes more compelling also viewed

lighter skin and straight hair as being the most beautiful. “This may be because younger

generations consume more media overall, especially digital media, where many of the

negative types run rampant"93. This is a fact we will examine in the beauty (second) part, and

which is worsened by the fact that according to the same study, in the African American

women’s self-perception the most important and satisfying seem to be their natural beauty

and appearance along with their spiritual lives. This last statement confirms the positive

perception black women have about their body and their seduction potential: criticized,

sometimes despised but all in all satisfactory and a reason of pride and self-assumption. In 91 Essence. (http://www.essence.com/2013/10/07/essence-images-study-bonus-insights) 92 Time. (http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/14/renisha-mcbride-and-black-female-stereotype) 93 Essence. (http://www.essence.com/2013/10/07/essence-images-study-bonus-insights)


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other terms, even if media and marketing have been trying to sell them a whiter shade of

beauty, trying to impose them an unattainable European so-called “perfect” model, with some

success, most black women do not want to change for a whiter complexion and morphology.

This has a positive consequence: black girls seem to be less negatively affected by the

unhealthy models promoted by the media than their white counterparts.

People, and particularly young people spend a lot of time exposing themselves to

media, whether classic or digital social media (31 hours a week in front of a TV set, 17 hours

listening to music, 3 more hours at the movies and 4 hours reading magazines, plus 10 hours

online), which sums up to 10 hours and 45 minutes a day94, more than school, sleep or any

other activity or influence. Media socialize people, shape culture, opinions and values, set the

dos and don’ts. If they do not necessarily make the trends, they obviously choose those that

suit them better and amplify what they think will be good for their audience numbers and

bottom line. The messages have to be able to cause the shocks needed to attract and retain the

audience, to be remembered; they also have to obtain a general agreement among their

general or specific audience. Their explanation is the same that will be given by the ad-men:

they have to give their customers what they expect, what they need. Indeed they broadcast

what they think the audiences want or accept to receive, not necessarily what may satisfy

genuine needs and particularly educational or socially positive ones.

Most media do not portray black women accurately according to their real place and

achievements95. In the contrary they seem to convey the message that women in general and

particularly women of color do not have the ability and legitimacy to exert power and

decision. Very often media focus on petty facts about public personalities, sometimes more

than on their professional achievements, and more specifically on how they look and the way

they relate to others, they can become very derogatory about leading women: no male leader

losing his temper would be accused of experimenting “PMS”96 or being “moody”; while

dominant men have leadership, women are called “bossy”. Only 3% of the top positions in

media and advertising and 16% of the leading places of movie industry are held by women,

which is certainly not enough to change the message or just prove that their presence is

natural. African American top performers, directors and managers are very scarce, less paid 94 The Representation Project. A site about movies and social transformation. (http://therepresentationproject.org) 95 Usa Today. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/11/black-history-black-women/23266115/) 96 Pre-Menstrual Syndrome, supposed (my italics) to "explain" women's strong reactions in any situation.


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than their white counterparts and generally oriented towards black audiences. Even if this last

point should not be considered as a marginalization, but rather as the expression of an

identity, it cannot have a deep influence on turning society more open and ready to accept

differences.

The main message youngsters from an early age receive from the media is that human

value lies on power, money and appearance. The compelling message is that the main, if not

the only way to judge and value a woman, is her beauty and seduction, a message received

and internalized by girls as well as boys. In both cases the pressure is very strong to conform

to social models, which for the girls are mostly focused on their physical appearance.

Professional and media success is much less likely to be attained by women and

particularly by black women than by men, but when the media depict these great achievers

having shattered the double glass ceiling of being female and non-white, the portraits are

usually admiring, thus bringing high expectations about their performance in every aspect,

not only professional, but also personal and in terms of role models.

Black Women in Media

Women are vastly underrepresented in media, at every level, and particularly in the

higher or creative positions. Women are only 3% of the top performers and executives in

media, about 16% of all creative staff. On television they are mainly present in front of the

cameras to hold a representation role where they are requested to correspond to all the social

clichés an exposed woman is meant to conform to and principally attractiveness. They are

more than other people subject to criticism about their expression but above all their

appearance, and have to face bullying about their weight, clothing and hairdressing. Their

reactions have to be very politically correct, or else they could simply be fired.

Some top performers have been and are very successful in the media business, but

they do not set a real trend: Oprah Winfrey or Tyra Banks are more symbolic than epitomical

in her huge success.

Media influence

We have seen that people, and particularly black women spend a lot of time exposed

to media, and are influenced by their messages about what is important or not, and their own

social place and value along with what they are supposed to act or to look like. We can


49

wonder though about how much they are really impacted, considering that a September 14

Gallup report explains that American people’s “confidence in the media's ability to report

"the news fully, accurately, and fairly" has returned to its previous all-time low of 40%97”.

The media can be accused of not orienting concerns towards the important issues, yet we can

wonder if sometimes the audiences do not feel more concerned by sheer appearance: an

example would be the importance of popular personalities whereabouts compared with

political decisions (how boring!), or the looks of First Lady Michelle Obama’s praised or

despised for her “toned arms” not to mention other symbolic parts… It seems that humankind

has not much evolved since ancient Romans’ longing for “panem et circences”, i.e. food and

distractions.

We should certainly add another very important point, belonging: the need of social

acceptance and appreciation which leads what people want to eat, dress, watch and speak

about. The media lecture their audiences about what to “do and don’t” each and every

moment of the day, about the biggest and smallest decisions they have to make concerning

everything from health to beauty, from love to career driving and money placing. Marshall

Mac Luhan explained that “the media is the message98”, we can consider that each

broadcasting company and editing staff conveys a specific message that its receivers will

interpret and make theirs, since they have chosen the media. The same can be said for the

“global village” since many messages and accepted “truths” are global and follow worldwide

patterns even though each social group can filter, interpret them and accept them more or

less, this stands for traditional media as well as for digital and peer-to-peer social networks.

1.1.3.2. African American women and advertising

This is (again) a Man’s World

We could start by mentioning that advertising like many other fields is a white-male

dominated world, black women are a small minority and they have to face the gender gap as

well as the race gap. Quite naturally, decision makers naturally hire, join, discuss with and

trust those who are like them, so black women have to lean in to be accepted and to push

their ideas. In the other hand, in advertising, like in all media related jobs and in most

97 Gallup. (http://www.gallup.com/poll/176042/trust-mass-media-returns-time-low.aspx) 98 Marketing Magazine. (Toronto Canada. http://www.marketingmag.ca/uncategorized/the-medium-is-still-the-message%E2%80%93revisiting-mcluhans-prophecies-on-his-100th-32605)


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creation and decision making jobs African American women try to help each other succeed,

not hesitating to advise, support and mentor them whenever they can.

This creates a strong solidarity and empowerment feeling which helps them overcome

obstacles and succeed. It is hard to find precise references for this statement, but many black

women testimonials confirm it, coming from rookies as well as from well-established

performers. This is particularly right in mainstream agencies addressing to general markets.

Indeed ethnically specialized agencies flourish to benefit from their purchasing power and

specific needs, or maybe just from the specific way to address their not-so-different needs

since apart from some fashion and beauty products, the real difference often lies in the

addressing more than in the product itself.

Advertisements and women

Advertisements have long been a very misogynistic exercise and spectacle, women

were not supposed to be intelligent and successful but on the contrary homely and very softly

attractive, always eager to catch and then please and serve their husbands. Along with social

perception, this showcasing of female roles and potentialities has evolved towards a better

recognition of their professional capacities as well as their intelligence and ability to solve

problems by themselves. Yet, social perception does not change totally, and advertising does

not either.

Jean Kilbourne has made since the 60s a very extensive research about advertising, its

dangers and downsides, concerning principally the social roles devoted by ads to women and

more recently children99. Her works, and principally “Killing us softly100” along with

“Missrepresentation” denounce the “steady stream of sexist and misogynistic images and

messages". Her studies summarized by M. Moore 101 state that the most common

representations of women compose a particular ideal and unattainable portrait: artificially

corrected and enhanced so that no normal woman can resemble it and must feel frustrated and

eager to use all offered products to get closer to that unrealistic objective. The second point is

the objectification that comes with dismemberment and partial focusing on specific parts,

such as lips or eyes, but more often legs, breasts and buttocks; women are not presented as

intelligent and sensitive human beings but rather as shapes and curves ready for male use or

consumption.

99 (http://www.jeankilbourne.com) 100 KILBOURNE Jean. Killing us softly 4: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMyUqgRBnt8) 101 Cabrillo University, CA. (http://www.cabrillo.edu/~mmoore/imageswomen.html)


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Sut Jhally explains that “in advertising women are treated largely as children" while

being shown as sexually available and unable to be in control, but rather placing themselves

under man’s protection102. The male is supposed to embody the power and the female is

supposed to have access to it only through him. In his analysis, this kind of relationship does

not reflect reality but some kind of fantasized relations and emotions of both genders

corresponding to the “conventionalized portrayals of the 'culturally established correlates of

sex'103”and social roles, and contends that sexual objectification (and self objectification) can

bring at the same time gratification and danger of violence. These two aspects clearly are

present in many advertisements and this game of provocation and threat, transgression and

risk with impunity seems to unconsciously appeal to many people, female as well as male,

prompting them to buy the product offered in order to participate in the game.

The arrival of new gender standards does not seem to be deemed to change the social

play, even if some roles can be different, the whole game will likely be mostly the same,

since the deeper social constructions do not evolve as quickly as the acceptation of new

margins.

AdAge.com (Advertising Age), one of the leading professional media of ad-men has

issued a presentation of the evolution in the portraying of women in American

commercials104; it does show some evolution: in the fifties and sixties’ advertisements, the

concern seemed to be if a woman could understand anything else but home keeping; in the

seventies, women were shown empowered to go out and seduce men with their physical

appearance; in the eighties, commercials also showed professional women even though their

looks still appeared much more important than their job. The nineties brought physically

active and fit women and young girls, yet the main interest of sports for the former was

becoming attractive for males.

The new century brought a new approach of beauty and self-assumption: all types and

body shapes were “legitimate”, a trend led by Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" (2004)

where ad-men seemed to realize that “real women had real curves” while airbrushing them to

be flawless (a point we will develop later on).

In 2014 Always discovered that empowering their customers could be more profitable if they

forgot about the “periodic” troubles and stood against girls stereotypes (and self-stereotyping)

to show that every physical activity, from running to fighting could be well done “like a girl”.

102 (http://www.sutjhally.com/articles/whatswrongwithalit/) 103 (http://www.sutjhally.com/articles/whatswrongwithalit/) 104 Advertising Age. (http://adage.com/article/news/a-back-portrayals-women-advertising/294756/)


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This constitutes an interesting evolution since Olympian sportswomen’s performance is

perfectly well known by the public but advertisements still showcased these same athletes as

reduced to a pretty face and a nice body, as if their physical achievements would render them

less feminine, which implies considering that this term means soft and non-threatening.

Indeed the audiences seem to need strong female role models to represent a winning

America, but also to expect these ladies to return to a submissive and esthetic role as soon as

they have left the track or field.

Objectification and Self-Objectification

The higher social acceptability of pornography has led to consider people of both

genders as consumption products solely led by their impulses or submitted to some other’s,

this can be considered as a personal choice and freedom but in the same time reinforces the

objectification induced by the advertisements’ messages105. Objectification is the fact of

presenting people as available and disposable and objects, this can be the result of a built-up

scenery showcasing games of dependence or violence, sometimes inspired by the most

conservative family roles, but sometimes by pornographic scenes including bondage and

gang rape.

Another form of objectification is showing body parts and not the whole person; this

can take several forms from the milder picture of a foot to present a shoe to reducing people

to a specific and often sexualized part and particularly mouths, cleavages, legs and buttocks

revealingly represented or barely covered.

We also can mention that in many cases the models show a very void or absent glance which

does not lead to consider them as intelligent human beings and equals but hints that any

damage done to them can be considered as unimportant. The doll (invariably sexy and often

evoking a sex toy) role is a variant that can be considered since it showcases another form of

the available and submissive woman.

Objectification also induces adaptive behavior: to be seen as “normal” and to consider

themselves as such, many women and teenage girls comply with these representations if not

the whole scenes and self-objectify themselves. Some women, particularly fond of relations

105 Beauty Redefined, a site promoting a wider definition for all kinds of beauty. (http://www.beautyredefined.net/lessons-from-porn-women-are-objects/)


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of seduction contend that this role-playing is empowering106 and a way of gaining personal

value, maybe in an easier way than confronting an ever present glass ceiling. Their

assumption is that they control the will of their male counterparts (and the consequent risks)

and so get an edge on them.

Feminists are generally opposed to this point of view107, arguing that objectification

can be acceptable only if the objectified person has the power and decision in the intercourse,

and pointing at the permanent harassment women have to endure daily, the ever present

sexual violence they are exposed to and even the fact that showing them as superficial,

seductive and weak can only lead to legitimate their social domination and the violence done

to them in a context of rape culture endorsed by some advertisements and social networks.

The second dangerous trend in this regard is the fact that models are used and

customers targeted as “women” since a very young age, grown up fashion, seduction and

sexiness are now imposed on female children and tweens, and their parents as normal

behavior while the brands and retailers claim such is not the case108.

Let us never forget that behind an ad-agency and its clever or ill-conceived

advertisement there necessarily is a paying client, a marketing department from a company

thriving for the bottom line of its brands. A national advertising campaign on TV costs

millions of dollars, there can and there will be risk taking but at this level, nothing is done by

chance. Marketers do not really care about making women’s roles evolve; they would rather

use the existing patterns since this is easier and more profitable for them.

Black People in Advertising

African American people and principally women are very useful and interesting in

advertising: the have been and still are props and sidekicks to enlighten whiter actors, they

are presented as less educated, less successful, more savage and spicy; and naturally they are

more, and more often naked, animalized and objectified than their whiter (Caucasian, Latino

and Asian) counterparts. African American people in advertising are still (unconsciously?)

considered following the traditional stereotypes, highlighting the contrasts with the “plain,

106 Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/the-sexy-lie-tedx-talk-sexual-objectification_n_4597316.html) 107 Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philososophy. (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-objectification/#PosPosObj) 108 (http://www.beautyredefined.net/victorias-little-secret/)


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bland or boring” pale white reference, with bad differences (the welfare queen or the thug)

and “good” ones: “pumped”, exotic, hip, cool and spicy109.

Including diverse people in advertisements allows the company to show a visual or

content contrast, to aim at a diverse market or just to show that they consider and value

diversity. In most cases the black people present in the commercial are chaperoned (i.e.

controlled) by white ones and whitewashed110 (a point we will develop in the beauty part).

Some black models contend that the place of black women in magazines and fashion

has never been high and reserved to some top performers having an “almost European

aspect” (straightened hair, thinner traits, fairer skin, thin figure) to constitute a variation, or in

the contrary exploited and “animalized” for their composed savage or animal looking,

representing non-conformity or resistance, or even making them sport animal dotted clothes,

presenting them in exotic settings, or as the exotic part of a scene. Even though the casting is

more “popular” in advertising (the models should look like idealized selves for the viewers),

the representations are widely similar.

In many group representations, the

“black one” is the “mean” person or the

“badass”. In this military recruitment

advertisement the black woman’s attitude is

clearly not seducing or inviting, representing

the strong, potentially “angry” black woman

evoking more violence and dirt than brain

(we can wonder if we are supposed to

consider brain as being more suitable for the

white man “in gear”?).

(On the left: recruitment advertisement from the US

Air National Guard, USAF)

(Ill conceived) Historical Heritage

109 The society Pages, University of Minnesota, WADE Lisa. (http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/04/11/from-pale-to-pumped-with-racial-stereotypes/) 110 The society Pages, University of Minnesota, WADE Lisa. (http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/04/11/from-pale-to-pumped-with-racial-stereotypes/)


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From time to time, advertising still shows minstrel inspired pictures: white and

sometimes black models dressed and painted or wearing makeup to make them look like in

the colonial or slavery times depictions, to look more “exotic”.

This generally sets up a strong protest reaction and most of the time the advertising

company has to issue an apology, sometimes not even realizing the insulting and racist image

broadcasted, which shows that the internalized stereotypes are still largely present among

non-blacks.

Some extremely objectifying advertisements should be cited, from American Apparel

brand for instance who featured in their advertisements very young girls, often from their

company’s staff in very suggestive poses, including black ones and even a “blackened”

ebony girl with racist evocations. This precise case is interesting because the company’s

founder and CEO, Dov Charney, seemed very certain to be able to present overly sexy and

objectifying pictures and that it was going to be considered as acceptable. The other

shareholders finally fired him in June 2014, not because of his misdemeanor (many sex

harassment suits) but because the company was not making as much money as they wanted

to, and its very existence was threatened. As long as sex sold and could handle complaints

there were no major objections, but as soon as selling slowed down, all the old cases surfaced

and led the troubled CEO111 to an end.

Advertising, needs and social inclusion

If we refer to A. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (work cited), as soon as vital needs are

satisfied, people will experience very strong social needs, belonging at first, then appreciation

from the group, which means finding the right place and role in it. Even though this analysis

is limited and has been widely challenged it is useful for a first decoding.

People experience a very important need of belonging to social groups: family,

gender, ethnicity, educational, professional, religious, political and so on. A person does

obviously not belong to a single group but is a patchwork of social identity elements; each of

them allows relating to a precise group at any given moment. A person will be a member of a

family with a precise role in the morning, then a professional with a precise role (leader,

teammate, trainee but also accountant, marketer or engineer…) and a representative of a

company, and in the evening a fitness addict, a particular series fan and so on, while being at

111 Chief Executive Officer: Top manager of a firm


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the same time female or male, black, white or else, college graduate in a precise field or

not… each and every group has its own culture and codes to be respected and followed.

In the USA, maybe more than in other countries social pressure is very strong and

compelling, non-conformity can quickly lead to exclusion from a social group. This fact has

certainly not been created by the media, but they clearly act in the same way and reinforce,

amplify and dramatize this social trend. Media will make and destroy reputations, images and

social roles, creating role models who will have to comply to what is expected from them or

be banned. Personalities will be extremely praised and at the same time be exposed to harsh

criticism: they will have to be flawless. In a much lesser scale, most social groups follow the

same pattern with their leaders and their members with decreasing constraints according to

their place and roles.

Society and more precisely social groups are judgmental, and according to their

judgment each individual can belong or be rejected. In fact, every perceivable element of an

individual constitutes a social marker, in other terms, your appearance shows your social

place, and it can mean belonging, appreciation or rejection by a precise group.

You shall be physically perfect, or a perfect housewife.

From the beginning of advertising, women have been required to be flawless. To be

precise, the message concerns principally their appearance: physical attractiveness, clothing

and attitude. The other main image and role women and more particularly black women are

required to conform to is being a perfect mother, wife and home-keeper totally devoted to her

loved ones. This is more a social issue and a message about behavior and submission than a

beauty or a personality matter.

The two other possible roles, seductress or professional most generally also display a

submissive role towards males and white people.

In all cases they will have to be flawless, whether physically, for beauty-related or

male oriented products, whether socially in the sense that they must be perfect in their social

role: when the advertisement implies professional or social interaction apart from child

caring, being flawless usually implies a smiling, soft and welcoming hostess profile.

The stakes are high: actual and potential customers must relate to the projected image,

they may recognize themselves in the models and the setting, they may view that as a model

they want to reach; when choosing a product, they will consider not only their personal


57

satisfaction but the image of themselves they will project by using the product as well as its

potentially inclusive effect.

Flawless: what a great concept!

By the way, being flawless is a very interesting concept for marketers because it

implies that being flawed is the normal original state, just as if it evoked an original guilt or

an uncomplete process. This is done to create a state of dissatisfaction so the customer’s

logical objective and achievement is becoming flawless by using all the ways and means

supplied by marketing to be perfect in the way they promote.

On the other side, perfection, as much as quality is not a definitive state that can just

be reached and kept, it is a dynamic and permanent process that implies effort, time and of

course many products; that is why marketers promote and love flawlessness so much.

The other aspect of being flawless112 is that this concept can bear many different

senses according to the culture and feelings of each woman; it can be an empowering concept

to support each other or to feel stronger, a real feminist term if we believe Parul Sehgal’s

article in the New York Times Magazine (published March 24, 2015): every woman of any

color deserves being called so and can attain it by reaching some kind of perfection.

Here we will have to consider superlatives as being not relative but absolute: in this

case women should no longer be expected to be better, stronger or more beautiful than any

more-or-less attainable reference but simply great, awesome, which might be the only way to

escape from the diktat of advertisement.

You Are What You Look Like, You Will Be (according to) What You Buy

Advertising is all about images in all the senses of the term; the issue is conforming to

what the advertising agency and their client think their customers are supposed to be like or

want to look like. Marketing departments spend a lot of time and money collecting huge

amounts of personal and collective data in order to understand and predict consumers’

behavior. When they get what they are looking for, which is a satisfactory representation of

their target, they make products corresponding to their segment’s expectations; or else they

will try to present their product as corresponding to these supposed expectations. When the

whole process works, the targeted people will be led to think that the proposed product is the

one that will satisfy their needs. 112 New York Times. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/magazine/how-flawless-became-a-feminist-declaration.html?_r=0)


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Customers also perceive the brand’s image through the message, what we can call

brand positioning. In other words, the message sent to the target is that they will be what they

consume. The force of marketing and advertising lies in a large extent on the fact that people

think they will be judged and will belong or not, obtain or lose a social place according to

their appearance and consumption habits. In this logic, advertising’s task is persuading

customers that the promoted product and no other is the key of the needed image.

Advertisement is a very hard judge for women; in fact it seems to have ever been so if

we judge from the first years of commercial posting. Women were portrayed as dumb,

shallow and gullible, but very soon also irresistible if seductive (which does not prove a high

appreciation for men in their relations to women either): products and particularly cars

targeting men for example were presented as out of reach for women, who would not have

been able to operate them correctly; on the contrary, family cars ads explained that even a

woman could manage the household thanks to them…

More generally, women have always been were required to be perfect mothers,

housekeepers and partners, totally devoted to their husband and family, and having only one

aim in life if they still were bachelors: getting married so they could start a “whole new and

fulfilling life of home servicing”113. To attain this coveted and respected status of wife (and

soon-to-be mother) they had to attract and retain the lucky “Mr. Right” and to do so

advertising told them they had to be not only good and smart but downright flawless: any

defect of whatever kind would immediately lead to shaming and rejection. Please note that

this deliberately stereotypical and ironic presentation is nothing more than the impression

men and women could get from watching commercials, and maybe an extension of what

society expected from women. When women were portrayed as consumers, they frequently

were either seductive party-goers, or else homely, compulsive shoppers or even well-off

middle aged women enjoying their husband’s social status.

We should note that in this case, no professionalism was required, and the

professional women depicted in advertisements were maids and hostesses. The place of black

women was that of servants, family keepers and particularly cookers or child keepers, or just

exotic models as long as they did not represent an important target in the marketers’

perception. Nowadays women, and among them African American ones seem to be able to be

113 We hope it is clear enough that this is totally ironic and does absolutely not reflect our opinion ;-)


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anything in advertisements as long as they are flawless, or better yet that their supposed flaws

can easily be fixed simply by purchasing the advertised product.

The game of advertising is clearly revealing (if not creating) a problem and offering

the product as the convenient only solution.

With some humor, we could say that thanks to advertising we can find solutions for

problems we would not have without it. Yet this would be an excessively manicheist way of

presenting things: most marketers agree on the fact that it is impossible to create non-existent

needs, but that they rather transform existing needs in the corresponding wants for the

advertised products as a (new and better) way to satisfy such needs114.

The very high level of new products failures clearly shows that a campaign is more likely to

fail than to succeed, independently from the advertising pressure. Indeed, the successful

products are those that genuinely bring a needed service to the customers who are very aware

and used to decrypt advertising messages.

Exposure to beauty products advertisements certainly can be damaging for women’s

self appreciation, but we can wonder whether this can lead to a depressive state of mind or on

the contrary to compensation buying, which is obviously the objective pursued by marketers.

To summarize the effects on African American women, we could say that their image

projected towards other categories is unsatisfactory and leads to maintain and confirm a

subservient situation, while emphasizing on the fact that beauty and success are better meant

for white people. This logically brings a general dissatisfaction among black women who

show a remarkable resilience in their body image appreciation and self-esteem as individuals

as well as a social group with specific characteristics and needs. If marketers and advertisers

want to sell them meaningful (and not simply useful) beauty and fashion products they have

to address them specifically and respond to their distinctive identity (this is a point we will

develop later on).

Interracial Advertisements

They are a particular form of mixed race party involving an interracial family. As they

are not very common, they sometimes have a particular appeal with audiences. Some

combinations seem to be more acceptable than others: a white male with a black (or other 114 KOTLER Philip T & KELLER Kevin L. Marketing Management, 14th. Edition. 2011. NJ. USA: Pearson - Prentice Hall (2011)


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minority representative) female and their children115116 does not seem to bother particularly

the audiences. On the other hand a black father with a white mother and a mixed race child

advertisements for Cheerios cereals117: "Gracie”118 raised a lot of criticism, and also a lot of

support.

Cheerio’s Gracie

1.2. Identity: Being an African American Woman

1.2.1. Being an African American Woman in the XXIst Century

Many myths seem to stick to black women in the USA: “We were always defined as

workhorses, strong. We carry the burdens, we carry the family. We don’t need. We don’t

want.” 119. In December 2011, the Washington Post published a survey conducted with the

Kaiser Family Foundation120. Their results show a complex image of American black

women: they feel confident yet vulnerable; they consider physical beauty as important and

have high self-esteem. Family and religion are particularly important and they find career

115Cadbury Egg 'n' Spoon Shake advertisement: How To. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn-X9m5ihTM 116 Swiffer advertisement. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuQ_jbyQc7I) 117 Cheerios: Just Checking. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWaEKkpfJFA) 118 Cheerios 2014 Game Day Ad : Gracie. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB6r_j55iVs) 119 Washington Post, NELSON Sophia. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/survey-paints-portrait-of-black-women-in-america/2011/12/22/gIQAvxFcJQ_story.html) 120 Washington Post. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/nation/black-women-in-america/)


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success more vital than marriage or even than being in a good romantic relationship,

compared with their white counterparts.

Control.

That seems to be the magic word for black women. In the times of Michelle Obama,

Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé, they know they can be bold and successful, they have never

been as numerous to reach a college degree, and when they do, they earn nearly as much as

similarly educated white women. If they still have not shattered the gender glass ceiling, they

have almost conquered the race one. Black women executives are now considered a normal

thing, maybe because they are expected to be bolder and more able to cope with difficulties,

which is an upturn from the usual stereotypes.

Besides these good news, some (many) other realities are not quite shiny.

Empowerment, respect (not always easy to obtain) and professional success might be the new

way to attain happiness, and that happiness does not require a male mate. We should certainly

consider this position as an adaptive strategy, since many black women consider that they can

control their professional success through education and hard working, but also that they are

unable to decide on their romantic fate.

All in all, they consider it is a good time to be a black woman in America, even

though they still experience racism, fear being crime victims and as a majority not being able

to pay their bills.

1.2.2. African American Identity and Culture: Many Shades of Black

In America, just like in Africa, there are many shades of black people corresponding

to many original countries and ethnicities. Not all African American people ancestors have

arrived in antebellum times and conditions, many have come in later ages, not only from

western Africa but also from many other parts of the continent. Indeed all these origins are

associated and mixed in one catchall category called “Black, African American or Negro121”

(Capital letters for all racial categories in the census). In the case of mixed origins “no matter

how small the share of “Negro blood” they were to be considered as black people following

the so-called “one-drop rule” appeared in census instructions from 1870, but implemented as

121 The Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project. (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/01/21/race-and-the-census-the-%E2%80%9Cnegro%E2%80%9D-controversy/)


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a social rule from the seventeenth century to justify their enslaving or discrimination even

when they were a white person’s own children or siblings.

As we mentioned it before, black people in America can also call themselves African

American, black American or just black whether they feel more American, more African,

West-Indian or even “Afropolitan” (which sounds more like African intellectual diaspora

than American). Indeed, apart from some of the more recently arrived, most of them have

very little knowledge of Africa or real bonds with any of the countries of that wide continent,

some even view it as a single country.

Being black seems to be their lowest common denominator, as a deep feeling, as a

self-perceived identity or just as a label imposed on them by society. At the opposite, some

people with mixed origins do not comply with this perception and do not feel or want to be

considered as blacks, rejecting this identity an attitude always considered shocking by other

black people.

Race as it is perceived in the USA is clearly a social construct based on history. On

the other side, African American culture as many people would like to refer to also is a

construct: from Rastafarian heritage to hip-hop, along with American black literature and

blues music on the other side of the specter, not to mention the influences of the many

original tribal groups; all this makes a very varied picture of black culture.

In terms of complexion, the variety is very wide too, African origins are very diverse

in skin tone and morphology (from Peuhls to Nilotes and all the Bantu tribal groups or

nations), the common features are certainly not as uniform as some, supporters or haters,

would like to believe.

1.2.3. Colorism, Shadeism and Mixed Races: Black or Blackish?

Some sort of assertiveness, a belief in a common culture and heritage and a pride for

their black identity seem to be the components of their belonging.

Blacks and mixed race people have always been identified in terms of inferiority and

discrimination, this has understandably led to a defensive attitude, being very aware and

maybe oversensitive about anything that can resemble despise or segregation.

In that logic rejecting one’s blackness, being too close to white people their values

and manners can be interpreted as some kind of treason, even if being black in America can

seem to be a second rate identity in terms of social place, it is a very bold and strong one.


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Another heritage from the antebellum times is the fact that whiter is better, at least

seen from the outside; mulattos, quadroons and even octoroons (according to the proportion

of black blood in their veins) could sometimes have enjoyed better living conditions and a

less harsh treatment, with the consequent jealousy of their darker skinned companions. The

“tragic mulatto122” is the tale of mixed race people considered and treated as white and who

discover they are not when they are thrown away back to their black roots and condition.

Black people are torn between the white social and esthetic model imposed on them and the

fact that their belonging to the black community is their only real identity, social bond and

pride.

Many black Americans are not only of African descent, but except those who arrived

lately have some part of white ancestry. Many African Americans would rather accept

considering they have some part of Native American heritage, even though this does not

seem statistically frequent.

The remaining question for many black people is being black enough or as the

television series suggests being just “blackish”, meaning that they do not live according to

what the other black(er) American people would expect from them or want to be considered

as totally black, because they can benefit from that, for example by reaching black audiences

or markets, or appealing to a black solidarity123.

Indeed some African Americans recognize their mixed roots, consider and are

comfortable with that as a specific identity without rejecting their blackness: The usually

despising term of “Oreo” is sometimes adopted as an identity marker. This mixed race

specific identity constitutes another noticeable trend; while usually considering themselves

black, some of them feel different and view themselves as a specific group with particular

needs, these people will be the most likely to interact and mingle with different ethnicities,

not to mention considering having and marrying a non-black partner.

1.2.4. Self-Perception: Body Image, Self Esteem: Positive Against All Odds

Media and advertising transmitted standards of beauty correspond to a certain white

model; obviously not all white or non-white women can fit into the imposed pattern of light

skin and thin figure. In fact most do not (admittedly about 95% of the entire female 122 Ferris University. (http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/mulatto/) 123The Root. (http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2011/02/halle_berrys_baby_and_the_resurgence_of_the_tragic_mulatto.html)


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population124) and this can create a feeling of self-dissatisfaction and lower self-esteem, a

deliberate move by the marketers to create needs and be able to sell beauty enhancement

products; the result is that "8 women out of 10 are not happy with their reflection, and that

starts early: 80% of children are afraid of being fat"(same source). To be accurate we should

point out that the real underlying needs are belonging and appreciation and that

advertisements transform these needs into perceptions, behavior and buying wants.

The problem created is that perceiving oneself or being perceived as unattractive leads

to a fear of exclusion and a degraded body image and general self-perception. Marketers have

very pragmatic (read: bottom line oriented) approaches of customer behavior, it would not be

overly generalizing to say that many of them believe that tormenting the customers125,

creating frustrations is a good way, if not the best to have them go out on a shopping spree to

get the products supposed to make these dissatisfactions disappear. In other terms create

purchase-inducing frustrations based on actual needs.

Being black has long been less socially desirable than being white, so logically black

features have been considered not as attractive and likely to induce sales as white ones,

following socially dominant white centered stereotypes. But the catch might be ethnic

centering: black women perceive themselves as being on average thicker, stronger, maybe

less feminine than their white counterparts, we could explain that on their social status

(strength), on their West African ancestry, or on whatever image (right or wrong) they may

refer or conform to; but the result is that they will be appreciated and judged mainly by other

black people, much more than by mainstream references. This means ethnic pride, and maybe

some kind of defensive self-centering. The outcome is favorable for them: black males say

they consider thicker women more attractive and black women have a more positive overall

body image and self appreciation regardless of all the negative messages sent by media and

advertisers. Unfortunately, we must point out that younger black women and girls are more

influenced by the dominant patterns and consequently are more dissatisfied. This can show a

better integration to society or else constitute yet another cause of frustration and anger.

1.3. Social Issues

1.3.1. African American Women Couple Relations: Endogamy and Staying Single 124 Weighing The Facts. Site about Eating Disorders. (http://weighingthefacts.blogspot.com/2010/02/body-image-statistics.html) 125 BROWN Stephen, "Torment Your Customers (They'll Love It)". Harvard Business Review, Vol. 79, No. 9, pp. 82-88, 2001. (Oct. 1, 2001).


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We could start by mentioning some raw figures: 42% of African American women

have never been married, 72% are living single with or without children, black women are

much more likely to be college graduates and the overall difference between black males and

females is important126, 17% less in average, up to 40% in some cities; the New York Times

tries to find an explanation in an April 2015 article:

They are missing, largely because of early deaths or because they are behind bars.

Remarkably, black women who are 25 to 54 and not in jail outnumber black men in that

category by 1.5 million, according to an Upshot analysis. For every 100 black women in this

age group living outside of jail, there are only 83 black men. Among whites, the equivalent

number is 99, nearly parity.

Other sources127 mention the fact that 21% of black men have not completed high

school, 17% are unemployed and 8% of the 25-34 incarcerated, not to mention other

problems; they conclude that it leaves only about half of black men who can be considered

acceptable by many black women. This is obviously not an accurate figure since the depicted

men most certainly combine several flaws, but it shows the state of mind of many black

women: looking forward to getting married and have children but not finding Mr. Right,

giving a preference to staying single as a default choice or a real one.

Still other sources, such as Angela Stanley for the New York Times128 realize that

spending more time in college, being more career oriented in their younger years, being self-

assertive does not mean they are less interested in settling a lasting and meaningful

relationship or having children, but truth is that finding the fitting mate seems to be harder for

black women more than for any other category.

Some commentators hint that the trouble may lie on their being educated, suggesting

that “ghetto” girls can date and marry more easily and asserting that “black women are

spending too much time and effort going to school, they should be spending that time trying

to get married" 129 contending that their investment in college education is often unsuccessful

and leads to being heavily indebted, and when they do graduate, they will have an even

harder time finding their right romantic fit. This analysis would lead to a “know your place”

type attitude: black women would not be meant to be educated and professionally successful

126 New York Times. (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/20/upshot/missing-black-men.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0) 127 ABC News. (http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/single-black-females/story?id=9395275) 128 New York Times, STANLEY Angela. Black, Female and Single, 10 December 2011. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/opinion/sunday/black-and-female-the-marriage-question.html?_r=0) 129 Beyond Black & White, AKIL Jalia. Jun. 9 2013. (http://www.beyondblackwhite.com/black-women-spending-time-effort-school-spending-time-married/)


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but rather stay in a classic role of family and job submissiveness; indeed, most

advertisements show single black ladies, alone or in a group, or in couple with a leading

partner but are rarely depicted as successful leading ladies. When media feature an

empowering image of them as being successful they very often are single and seeking or

offering peer-to-peer solidarity. This point is interestingly documented by Jan Kemp, mental

health director for suicide prevention at the Veteran Affairs in a statement to Government

Executive online, explaining that “The sense of community among themselves, and the ...

built-in support that they get from each other is something we’re paying a lot of attention to,

and trying to find ways to emulate”130 as an example to study and follow to help other

groups, particularly white male veterans.

On the other hand many black young men seem to be unprepared for playing that role:

more often raised by single mothers and not as educated as their female potential suitors,

more often excluded from the workplace (and particularly from its higher levels), more crime

stricken (as victims or offenders) and having integrated a dual vision of black women

composed of their idealized mothers or grandmothers and the bitchy-angry black woman

presented by the media, they do not necessarily have made fatherhood an important goal in

their lives. For African American men, this seems to correspond to some extent to a culture

of poverty as described by Oscar Lewis131 in terms of adaptive behavior leading many of

them to the social exclusion they were doomed to end in because of geographic, educational,

professional and overall social discrimination corresponding to an ever-present racial

profiling.

Nevertheless black women are not alone, almost never; they have families,

acquaintances, friends; they will not settle down and even less tie the knot with someone who

would not be the correct fit and have a strong preference for black men for many logical

reasons starting by cultural values sharing. Dating outside their race seem complicated for

many of them: for starters they are not necessarily looking for just a date but rather for a

commitment whereas they view their white potential mates as looking for one time stands or

130 Government Executive, CZEKALINSKI Stephanie. (http://www.govexec.com/defense/2012/06/are-black-women-key-easing-military-suicides/56215/) 131 LEWIS Oscar, The Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family. 1961. New York: Random House (1961)


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experiences, considering them as second choice relationships, and not very eager to present

their black girlfriend to their expectedly judgmental family.

Black men dating or marrying outside their race is another conflictive issue for

African American women. Successful black males would be more prone to turn to whiter

women, as a socially more interesting target, thus reducing their availability for black ladies.

Fact or fiction, this seems very irritating for their female counterparts who will criticize,

sometimes with harsh words any such display, in advertising for instance: the Cheerios

“Gracie” commercial132 featuring a black father-white mother family and a cute mixed race

little girl concerned by her father’s health received a lot of support but also many negative

comments posted on their Facebook page by angry black women who considered that

inacceptable (whereas black woman-white partner commercials usually go without criticism)

showing how sensitive black women can be about this issue.

A more comprehensive and deeper analysis would certainly give a far more nuanced

an less stereotypical panorama of these situations but we could note that this being the

dominant perception of most press reports and survey analysis, they create or reinforce the

jeopardy black people have to face, combined with the double jeopardy of being also women,

and at the same time the self-perception of the mating situation for American black women.

Indeed, comparing the profiles and expectations of many black males with those of black

females often leads to explain a situation of anger some media consider exist between the two

categories, which nevertheless want and still hope to meet their significant other.

Thinking about marketing, this situation leads to many press coverage, comments,

editorials, television shows, not to mention the hundreds of advisory articles to find the right

way to cope with being a single black woman, reflecting the importance the phenomenon has

in the black American community. Apart from that it cannot but fuel the need for specialized

dating agencies, but also of beauty and anti-aging products to help the morals and hopes of

usually self-confident women stressed by the biological clock ticking, menacing their ability

to conceive, and their attractiveness in a youth obsessed society.

Black mothers are usually expected to be overinvolved, overprotective, and

overbearing concerning their children’s education, and particularly boys. If we consider the

132 Cheerios: Gracie Commercial. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB6r_j55iVs) (May 2013)


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obstacles and dangers awaiting their male offspring this can seem highly understandable.

Girls seem to be more involved in running their home and helping their mothers whom they

will view as role models and later as allies, forming strong solidarity bonds between ebony

women to face the challenges of life, often without a male referent. With the mating problems

they experience, they also can see each other as potential rivals, outside the household, which

explains some aggressiveness in this respect concerning other black women and even more

non-black ones.

1.3.2. Strong women: a black superwoman syndrome?

Black women are the principal, when not sole bread earner and child raiser in many

African American homes, they have to cope often alone with the harsh realities of everyday

lives as well as a demanding or else a deceptive professional position, not forgetting to stay

well behaved and attractive to avoid criticism on their appearance or social relationship,

while not being your expected “angry black woman”: a complete superwoman program

imposed on them by a an easily rejective society.

There is no wonder in this context if they become or are perceived as “bitches133” or

“badass”134, two rather trendy attitudes. The meaning of the first one ranges from rude to

overbearing, and is claimed as a quality by some (black) women considering that this attitude

is what can earn them respect and not just contempt since it can help them cope with all the

challenges they have to face.

This more positive perception of a usually negative term (generation X non-

conformists have set as commonplace that ‘bad’ means right, just like ‘sick’, ‘ill’ or ‘weird’

can be positive terms in younger generations’ perception) is completed by the fact that it

seems that being “badass” is more hip than being nice and well behaved, or even “cool”.

These terms mean that Millennials in general and Generation Y black women in

particular have often made the choice of being non-submissive and stand for what they

consider as their rights rather than conforming, which is a complicated stand since they also

want or just have to succeed professionally to make a living, as they do not have anybody

else to rely on for that matter. 133 FREEMAN Jo. The Bitch Manifesto 1971. University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago Women's Liberation Union (CWLU) cwluherstory.org . (http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUArchive/bitch.html) This author has documented this notion as being strong, independent, non-committed women, a sense we still can find with little evolution in black women bloggers’ manifestos. 134 The Daily Beast. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/09/this-is-the-most-badass-story-you-ll-ever-read.html)


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Indeed some more complete observers have noticed that black women are at the same

time powerful and great influencers, and vulnerable to depression and breaking down135.

Fighting adversity fatally takes a heavy toll on their health (physical and mental) and balance.

1.3.3. Interracial Relations

Image and Attractiveness: Too Hot for Comfort

‘Too strong’? ‘Not feminine enough’? or on the contrary: ‘Hot, but not sufficiently

available’? Or is it just that some people still expect African American women to be soft and

submissive just like in the ‘good-ole-days’? (this is totally ironical of course!)

‘Too heavy’? ‘Too ghetto’? or on the contrary ‘too educated’? In other terms not the

perfect sexually explicit object some would like them to embody just as if hip-hop videos

were supposed to show reality and not a fantasy of pleasure and easy money?

Seen from the outside (and most certainly also by the inside of black women’s group)

it does take some nerve to hold them accountable for all the myths, fantasies and desires of

American males regardless of realities, not forgetting the respect and dignity due to all human

beings.

Social Pressure, Social Media: a Judgmental Society

As we can see by media comments and social networks reactions, the United States

are a judgmental society claiming to be entitled to praise or criticize each and every

individual or group; indeed, the more people are appreciated and exposed, the higher the

standard of perfection they have to reach and maintain, the harsher the criticism if they are

not meeting these expectations imposed by the audiences. Bullying is no longer a proximity

matter only, since it has extended to social digital and popular media. Anyone, and not only

celebrities can be subject to harassment for any flaw or misbehavior, ranging from being

overweight, rejecting a suitor or just failing to appear as what others expect from their target;

from slut shaming to victim shaming, the digital village can be a really mean place for

ordinary people as well as for celebrities (even though to be fair it also can create these so-

called personalities from not much, and even be a great place to gather and raise energies and

good will).

135 Washington Post. CURTIS Mary C. Apr. 2 2014. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/04/02/powerful-yet-vulnerable-black-women-a-contradiction-rooted-in-history/)


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Hair Issues: Such a Big Deal

For African American women, hair is a matter in itself, not only because its particular

texture and appearance can be considered as awesome or awful (and we can think for most

black women it is both), a racial and social marker, a cause of rejection when it is considered

unkempt by other people, an ever-renewing question of long and difficult to tend or short and

maybe not as feminine, of natural and somewhat undisciplined or straightened and weakened

and not-so-authentic, of braiding and breaking it or letting it free and spending hours

brushing the bush, not to mention the political stand of an “afro” as opposed to the “black-

ish” interpretation done of straightened bangs for instance… Truth be said black women’s

hair is a much more complex and sensitive matter than it can be for other social groups: other

ethnicities seldom have to face criticism or exclusion threats because of their scalps; black

women do, from an early age.

What is Good Hair?

Clearly the traditional message is that good hair is straight, lighter hair, meaning that nappy

hair is the bad one136, implying that with hair texture comes social stratification. It explains

why black women feel very concerned by treating their hair, including by the fact that many

chemical products and hair-do styles are very bad for their scalp and imply severe hair loss

and often wearing wigs.

So it has logically become a picky subject and one of the biggest markets concerning

women of African descent: Shea butter, hair straighteners, conditioners, moisturizers, natural

or artificial weaving and hair extensions, to name just a few…

Keeping a healthy and good looking hair certainly requires more time, money and

effort for black women, but we can wonder why other people seem so often shocked and

aggressed by black hair appearance, to the point that they can overtly condemn the whole

individual because they do not appreciate their hairdo. The other way around, many black

women seem to consider their freedom to tend their hair as they like as a capital racial

identity issue, or else a strictly personal choice and a matter of self assumption in one way or

another.

In march 2014, the US army has released a new grooming regulation concerning

among other topics hair braiding. This has immediately been challenged as being racially

biased and the result was a revision of the regulations to take better into account the

136 The Grio, THARPS Lori. Oct. 9 2009. (http://thegrio.com/2009/10/09/i-know-a-lot-about/)


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particular aspects of black women’s hair137, which shows how important the matter appears

for these numerous army staff members.

We could not finish this topic without pointing out a capital rule: Don’t. Touch. A

Black Woman’s. Hair. (to put it like a trendy blogger would): that is, unless expressly invited

to do so: black women are not dogs or cats, much less sheep, so they hair is not to be zoo-

petted138. This comment is only meant to highlight the interest, and sometimes passion black

hair inspires their wearers as well as other people139.

1.3.4. Racism, Sexism, Feminism and Activism: from Defensive to Proactive

It is another interesting point to note that many people of any color think that cultural

bridges need to be built between blacks and whites to be able to interact normally, which can

be surprising if we consider the fact that many companies have diverse staffing, so in most

places customers are welcomed and served by diverse people, staffers work with many

different ethnicities sharing a common national and corporate culture; yet besides superficial

professional contacts, social interaction and shared activities are not so common for people of

different ethnicities, which can explain some misunderstanding and distrust between blacks

and non-blacks.

These professional exchanges have been illustrated in a very lively and humorous way

by a video series named “The Unwritten Rules140” in which a young African American

woman gets a job with an almost all-white company and documents their sometimes

awkward communication showing how little (some) white people seem to know black folks.

Non-white women more than the others, and noticeably black ones have to face,

sometimes daily unwanted catcalling, in other terms street harassment141 and we can suppose

it is because the common perception does not grant them as much respect and support as

other women; once again the all too common sexism is often worsened by being black. This

is, as Ebony magazine explains part of a rape culture that minimizes male aggression towards

women and particularly black ones, and at the same time turn the shame and blame on the

137 Army.mil The Official Home Page of the United States Army. (http://www.army.mil/article/133794/Army_releases_latest_policies_on_female_hairstyles__tattoos/) 138 The Grio, STODGHILL Alexis Garrett, Oct. 30 2013, (http://thegrio.com/2013/10/30/black-hair-you-can-touch-my-hair-african-american-women/ 139 DAVIS Aasha, The Unwritten Rules: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GxpC-zDywQ) 140 DAVIS Aasha, The Unwritten Rules: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbZjKDwy8vE) 141 Ebony magazine, MAXWELL Zerlina. Apr. 10 2013; (http://www.ebony.com/news-views/street-harassment-catcalling-rape-culture-476#axzz3Zl1qUxFx)


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victim questioning her attitude or appearance as being provocative or inviting. An estimate of

one black woman out of four has suffered sexual aggression, and this permanent threat and

devaluation is all the most painful for them. It can come from all kinds of males who feel

entitled to comment, judge or grope women’s bodies and make lewd propositions while

contending that this is sheer appreciation or just that it is not wrongdoing, not caring the least

about the discomfort and humiliation they impose on their victims, not to mention the bad

image they give of themselves. As the Huffington Post explains it142, street harassment is a

matter of gender domination and space control: in the catcallers’ minds, streets “belong” to

men and women are supposed to comply.

In a feminist logic we could say that models of physical appearance, behavior and

access to wealth and power are dictated by male logic and can only be reached by submitting

to it: women must be soft and compliant, have to please their male masters, patrons and

partners to be accepted as social beings. In a more neutral approach, we should consider that

complying with the social game rules is everybody’s concern in order to be included and not

rejected, appreciated and not marginalized. Social play is compelling for all but particularly

for those who are not “natural” (even though we can wonder if nature has anything to see

with racial domination) winners in it. Learning the rules, how to play by them and how to be

a winner in the social game requires education and adaptive strategies according to social

groups and environments, but also depends to a very large extent on the birth place and

conditions, among them gender, race and family’s social place: each person’s starting

chances are largely inherited as we can see by any statistics.

North American culture, shaped by history and religion states that success is the direct

result of personal merit and effort, with the myth of the self-made man and the conquest of

new frontiers (geographic, racial or just wealth); failing to succeed is not in this approach to

blame on discrimination or lesser chances but to personal flaws and laziness. This leads to

some (more) destructive and ill conceived stereotypes such as “poors are such because of

their personal lack of work and worth” or “black women are naturally ‘ghetto’ and obese”,

regardless of their birthplace and raising conditions”, of the direct link between lower

income, eating “cheap’n’nasty” bad quality products and obesity, and the consequent health

problems with the worsening factor of a lesser access to medical care. In this latest aspect, it

would not be very adventurous to say that even when treated, underprivileged people are not 142 Huffington Post, BAHADUR Nina. Aug. 12 2014. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/12/robot-hugs-sexual-harassment-comic_n_5671532.html)


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taken care of as well as the others. The Obamacare legislation might offer some relief and

progress in the access to medical acre even though not being able to bridge the gap in that

respect.

Some African American female bloggers contend that feminism is a whites-only

movement and that their action often put black women aside. Others acknowledge that they

also have benefited from the empowerment of women in general while having to proceed

with their own struggle.

Democrat president Barack Obama’s election in 2008 and his reelection in 2012

raised many hopes for black people’s uplifting and some fears for white supremacists. Born

to a black African father and a white American mother, he has declared himself black (and

not mixed race). He obviously was not able to change the social play inherited from history to

help African American people to be better considered and more well-off, but he had the merit

to raise questions about race relations and black people’s challenges, and to question the so-

called inferiority of black people by being widely considered as a good president in and out

of the country.

Still his presence and action, combined with these of the First Lady have not really

changed or forced a big evolution in racist attitudes, because they are certainly too deep

rooted in culture to be completely challenged and sometimes people do not even perceive or

acknowledge their acting racist. With the power of social media acting as a powerful

amplifier of public opinions and the general tolerance for blunt expression, the racial trouble

has not been diminished but rather revealed. To be positive, we can see that as a necessary

first step for treating the permanent racial dissension.

1.3.5. Racial Profiling, Crime, Justice and Just Shopping

The black men who have been victims of the police since the gun killing of Trayvon

Martin in Ferguson, Missouri, the 9th August 2014 and the subsequent rioting and looting

have received a very wide media coverage underlining the all-too-usual racial profiling

against young black men even though this is not always perceived by the majority (143 not

academic, just an illustration…), and on the other side many majority people are aware that

they enjoy a “white privilege” of benefitting from police benevolence highlighted by

143 DAVIS Aasha, The Unwritten Rules: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEPd9IhNT5U)


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spontaneous statements and comments on social networks such as #crimingwhilewhite 144 and

#alivewhileblack145 published on Tweeter after Eric Garner’s choke hold killing the 17th July

2014 in New York.

A racial divide appears about this concern: many demonstrations have been organized

to denounce the excessively violent methods often employed by police officers against black

people, unfortunately accompanied by riots and looting, highlighting two American

phenomena: the use of force and guns even when there are not necessary, and on the other

side the pillage and destruction of neighboring facilities linked to any cause of unrest. This

last point is widely observed in most countries and certainly to be linked to a poverty culture

as a manifestation of social discontent.

“African American women are three times more likely than white ones to be

incarcerated (…) and are also disproportionately victimized”146. Indeed (particularly male)

black people are overrepresented in criminal affairs but this leads to an overgeneralization

and the frequent victimizing by police forces of innocent people (this could constitute a

theme to study in itself) and has side effects: black women can also be perceived as

dangerous and threatening even when they are victims seeking for help (we evoked the case

of Renisha Mac Bride147), or consider them as dishonest and prone to theft. Black women

profiling in stores leads to suspicion, being unwelcomed and sometimes even expelled even

when they had done nothing wrong.

On the other side of the court, judges, prosecutors and even the Attorney General

(Loretta Lynch, named after surmounting a strong conservative opposition) are African

American women, thus bringing (hopefully) some much-needed evolution in the procedure.

In a Time article published the 17th August 2014, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar contends with some

reason that the real conflict may not be between races but rather between the richer the social

system is trying to protect, against the poorer it tries to keep down. “Of course, to many in

America, being a person of color is synonymous with being poor, and being poor is

synonymous with being a criminal. Ironically, this misperception is true even among the

144 The Guardian. VALENTI, Jessica, Dec. 5 2014. (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/05/criming-while-white-people-privilege) 145 The Guardian. GALO Sarah, Dec. 4 2014 : (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/04/eric-garner-twitter) 146 GUERRA Maria. "The State of African American Women in the United States". Center for American Progress, Fact Sheet: Nov. 7 2013. 147 Time. ROOKS Noliwe M. Nov. 14 2013. (http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/14/renisha-mcbride-and-black-female-stereotype/


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poor."148 In the other hand, he also acknowledges understandable black-against-white racism

and "blue" (police uniform) racism, which fuel the fear and resentment of police officers and

mainstream population against black people adding to the interracial misunderstanding and

distrust.

1.3.6. Making a Living

Double Jeopardy: No Easy Game

As we have seen, social and professional integration and evolution is harsher for black

women, the access is more difficult and leads to lower levels than their counterparts, this is

worsened by the fact that they face a specific aspect that has been called “double jeopardy149”

by Frances Beal: the more negative judgment of their performance, and particularly their

underperformance, when it happens, compared with all other categories. The author contends

that society does not want to see black women succeed. In this respect, we could mention the

extremely violent critics and sometimes insults addressed to Condoleeza Rice (first black

woman Secretary of State 2005-2009) or more recently to Michelle Obama concerning every

possible aspect of their performance, personality and appearance by people who cannot stand

their political and social role and influence.

Even though this might be surprising at first glance, Pew research center has found

with a summer 2014 survey that racism is not the main social gap in the USA150: "fewer

people perceived there are strong conflicts between blacks and whites than saw strong

conflicts between immigrants and the native born, or between rich people and poor people".

Putting apart the question of immigration (another very important issue to study) which can

to some extent experience a peak of interest, the wealth gap is clearly widening between the

richer and the worst-off who cannot make ends meet even when they have to cumulate two

jobs. Minimum wage is low in the United States (about $7,50 an hour in 2014) and clearly

not enough to earn a living, particularly for a single parent. Some progress is being done in

this field though; several states are raising the minimum wage of civil servants towards $10,

148 Time. ABDUL-JABBAR Kareem, Aug.17 2014. (http://time.com/3132635/ferguson-coming-race-war-class-warfare/) 149 BEAL Frances. "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female". 1969. Essay on Black Women’s Liberation. Black woman's manifesto, pamphlet distributed by The Third World Women's Alliance, New York. Frances Beal is a black feminist and political activist, in this article she states that capitalist system deliberately maintains black people and more particularly black women in an of inferior social status. 150 The Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project. (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2009/09/24/black-white-conflict-isnt-societys-largest/)


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slowly followed by some of the most contended fast food chains and retail chains, sectors

employing a lot of underprivileged people, among whom black women are numerous.

Many African American women are at the same time single income earners and/or

single parents (with usually very little alimony if any), living in difficult areas, farther from

their working place and often submitted to part time jobs, thus leaving them very little chance

to enhance their living conditions; still they thrive and keep a good profile. When we say that

black women have to face a double jeopardy this does not take into account that for many of

them the main enemy is poverty and its social consequences.

A lot of progress has been accomplished by and for black people’s condition among

the American society in the last fifty years, but the progress seems to have slowed down in

the end of the period, in terms of education, health or workplace. We could blame it on

harder general economic conditions or more accurately on a widening wealth gap that strikes

all people except the upper classes. Indeed, being part of a shrinking middle class (a few quit

middle class by becoming rich, but many more are simply ousted from it and descend to

poverty151) is still a dream for most Americans, but out of reach for most underprivileged

people, of which black women are an important part. 75% of social programs are used to

relieve the working poor who have to rely on them to eat and be cured since the low wages

paid by the aforementioned retail and fast-food sectors among other low-qualified employers;

this is quite contradictory with the common image of the “welfare queens” but represents the

everyday thrive of many black women. In a recent address on poverty fighting, President

Obama stated that "I think the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges — leeches, don’t

want to work, are lazy, are undeserving — got traction," Obama said152. "Look, it’s still being

propagated." His jab was aimed at Fox news, but the usual demonizing of poorer categories

(as well as the more affluent) is a social constant, that does not help African American

women.

151 New York Times, SEARCEY Dionne and GEBELOFFJAN Robert, Jan. 25 2015; (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/business/economy/middle-class-shrinks-further-as-more-fall-out-instead-of-climbing-up.html?_r=0) 152 Washington Post, BADGER, Emily, May 12 2015 : (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/12/president-obama-on-how-fox-news-teaches-the-middle-class-to-demonize-the-poor/?tid=pm_business_pop_b)


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1.3.7. Jobs and Workforce Dynamics

Women in general have to face a lot of adverse prejudice at work153; they are accused

of being bossy when they show leadership (which has led to the “Ban Bossy 154 ”

empowerment and self confidence building campaign for girls), a fact that cannot but remind

and reinforce the angry black woman stereotype whenever they are assertive rather than

submissive. The other main causes (or should we say excuses) of discrimination are that they

are expected to have kids and quit their jobs, or at least care more about their children than

their work. This has led some high-tech companies (Apple and Facebook particularly) to

offer their top female staffers an egg-freezing program155 to help them concentrate on their

jobs and have children later “when they are ready for it”, these companies expect to attract

high level female employees with this $20000 plus scheme since this is supposed to allow

women to be totally career-oriented while keeping a chance to have children in the future

(even though this is medically quite uncertain). Glenn Cohen wonders if women will "take

this as a signal that the firm thinks that working there as an associate and pregnancy are

incompatible”156. This should not lead us into thinking that companies do not like their

employees being parents, indeed being a father is good for a man’s career157, these enjoy a

“bonus” as opposed to women who are less likely to be hired when parents and suffer from a

penalty of about 20% (in comparison with non married childless women). This bias is deeper

for the lower incomes and constitutes yet another handicap based on stereotypes and

expectations and not observable performance.

Having good soft skills for communicating and team building is another

commonplace for women that can lead to have them confined to less relevant tasks and

responsibilities. In the same logic, there are supposed to have less authority, and if they do

show their dominance, they will fall into the “bossy” trap.

In a more general way their work is often considered as secondary to men’s, their

husbands as well as their male co-workers, which partly explains (but never excuses) why

they are less paid (this being amplified by the ever-present glass ceilings), and more easily 153 Business Insider, FELONI Richard, Mar. 21 2014. (http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-stereotypes-of-professional-women-2014-3?IR=T) 154 (http://banbossy.com/) 155 NBC News, FRIEDMAN, Danielle, Oct. 14 2014. (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/perk-facebook-apple-now-pay-women-freeze-eggs-n225011) 156 COHEN Glenn, co-director of Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Apr. 21 2013. (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/billofhealth/2013/04/21/will-your-law-firm-or-other-employer-pay-for-your-egg-freezing-should-it-online-abortion-and-reproductive-technology-symposium/) 157 New York Times, CAIN MILLER, Claire, Sept. 6 2014. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/upshot/a-child-helps-your-career-if-youre-a-man.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1)


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fired. Most companies still believe, and many women with them that “you can’t do both158”

(succeed in a career and as a parent) and that they have to choose only one, which obviously

is unsatisfying.

Their appearance also is more important than men’s, they are more judged by their

physical aspect and any mistake will be considered more harshly. Men will be fine if clean

and neat, women will have to spend a lot more time and money on their appearance159.

Much more can be said about black women discrimination in the workplace: among

the lesser paid for the same job160 (89% of a black man’s and 64% of a white man’s salary).

No only do they have a higher rate of unemployment (more than 10% in 2014) but they also

face the higher likeliness to be underemployed (imposed part time or hired at a lower position

than their qualification and capacities), so be part of the working poor with high issues to

make a living and properly educate, and sometimes even feed their children. They also face

discrimination in terms of access to employment, as many empirical tests have shown: having

a black (or a Latino) sounding name inevitably leads to lesser job interviews and

opportunities (even though this is not quite scientific, several people have tried to make their

name sound more English, for example Joe for José, or ticked the “white” answer in the

application form with very positive results), which would plead in favor of “blind date” job

interviews. The readers’ comments of the articles are particularly striking in both senses:

black supporters have logically confirmed their lesser chances, evoking their experiences,

whereas some other people had very harsh comments considering that black people were very

advantaged by positive discrimination and had no reason to complain.

Even when hired, difficult times are the rule for the lower wages: general

unemployment hits historical lows but wages do not rise and are kept down for most, while

only the upper levels get richer. In terms of employment fields, “only 11.9 percent of African

American women were in management, business, and financial operations positions161” in

158 The Star, Toronto Canada. INFANTRY Ashante, Jun. 03 2014. Article about KESTIN, Janet and VONK, Nancy "Darling, You Can't Have Both". (http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/06/03/ad_execs_help_women_ignore_the_noise.html) 159 Business Insider. FELONI Richard, Mar. 21 2014. (http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-stereotypes-of-professional-women-2014-3?IR=T) 160 Ebony. MAXWELL Zerlina. Nov. 21 2013. (http://www.ebony.com/news-views/yes-women-still-earn-less-than-men-405#axzz3a07EWLtI) 161 GUERRA Maria. "The State of African American Women in the United States". Center for American Progress, Fact Sheet: Nov. 7 2013.


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2012 (the general women’s rate was 41.6 percent), another point that lessens they chances of

being hired along with their chances of being well paid and considered.

When they cannot express themselves or succeed in their job, many will start their

own independent activity: « African American women-owned businesses continue to grow

despite significant financial and social obstacles », these 1.1 million businesses employed

272,000 people and generated close to $45 billion in revenue in 2013, which shows a good

entrepreneurship spirit even though most of them run small companies.

With (or despite) the present economic recovery, access to or maintaining in middle

class seems more and more difficult for most African Americans and particularly for women.

The last explanation we could find for all these bias is very down-to-earth: Employers hire

people they could be friends with, according to the Huffington Post162, which tells a little

about human behavior and a lot about the remaining way to go for diversity integration in

American society before all the listed bias can disappear.

1.3.8. Living Conditions: Money Matters in the End

The wealth gap, is much worse than the wage gap163, black households own, save and

can face adversity about 13 times less than white ones in 2013, the wage gap has widened inn

the last ten years, because of the depression and its aftermath, more favorable for the more

privileged. The consequences are that black families fall more often into foreclosure when

they have had a chance to buy their homes, save less for their children’s education, can afford

less health care; they are the most threatened by job and general insecurity, and live in

precariousness.

Solidarity and caring about relatives, as well as trying to help other minority

representatives can have their drawbacks; for the former, willingness to help and share can

mean less affluence, take their toll on their income since it has to be shared with more

people164, who will more often than not be unable to give it back; for the latter, it usually

leads to criticism and jealousy from people who consider that affirmative action is in fact an

162 Huffington Post, BINDLEY Katherine, Nov. 30 2012, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/employers-hire-people-they-want-to-be-friends-with_n_2212295.html) 163 Pew Research. KOCHLAR Rakesh, FRY Richard. Dec. 12 2014. (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession) 164 Washington Post. MUI Ylan Q. and JENKINS Chris L. Feb. 5 2012. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/for-some-black-women-economy-and-willingness-to-aid-family-strains-finances/2012/01/24/gIQAGIWksQ_story.html)


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unfair discrimination against mainstream applicants, regardless of personal value (in one

sense or another).

An inclusive report on African American women living conditions165 has been

published by the Center for American Progress NPO in November 2013. It confirms that

even though significant progress has been accomplished, the disparities they face are still far

from solved.

In terms of health, for instance they are much more than the other categories menaced

by hypertension, death by mammary and cervical cancer, sexually transmitted diseases while

been much less insurance covered.

They also experience much more often underage and/or unintended pregnancies and

more pregnancy related health problems along with a higher pregnancy-related mortality and

having underweight, premature children and a higher rate of early age casualties. Teenage

pregnancy is steeply declining among black girls, but it remains higher than for other

categories; fact is that they are more careful, more aware of all the troubles brought by an

excessively precocious pregnancy.

Another problem can be related to this one, with health, sexual and image

implications (both self-perception and projected image) in a society fantasizing with youth

seduction: girls are entering puberty earlier166 with three causes reinforcing each other:

obesity, stress and hormone ingestion in most foods and particularly in cheap processed ones

(this last cause is medically contended and not really documented in one way or another; but

the actual presence of growth hormone cannot be denied).

The most important figure certainly is that 28,6% of African American women live

below the poverty line versus 10,8% for white, non-Hispanic women.

1.3.9. Education Matters (but is not always enough to succeed)

Concerning education, African American women are less often college graduated than

their white or Asian American counterparts (in 2010, 21,4% held a college degree, as

compared with 30% of white women). They are underrepresented (only 2% of them) in the 165 GUERRA Maria. "The State of African American Women in the United States". Center for American Progress, Fact Sheet: Nov. 7 2013. 166 New York Times. GREENSPAN Louise and DEARDORFF Julianna. February 5 2015 : http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/opinion/what-causes-girls-to-enter-puberty-early.html?_r=0


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more promising fields of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) where

the higher wages and best job opportunities can be found167.

We also could mention many other obstacles to a serene living for black women, from

bad housing to poor feeding, from overcrowded homes with three generations living on a

single budget (and sometimes even the millennial children who have to come back home

after adverse working experiences), all this does not give much space and calm for studying

for the youngsters. The school system itself seems quite biased, a report from the National

Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)168 explains that black girls are

more harshly punished following the adverse stereotypes adopted by most educators who

think they need to be more disciplined than other groups. This, combined with lesser

expectations and maybe perspectives makes them have lower marks and are less oriented

towards the best educational programs. African American children are nearly 39% living in

poverty and 45% live in poverty-stricken areas concentrating economical, social, security

trouble and schools having fewer resources, more difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified

and experienced teachers. These inequities begin as early as pre-kindergarten.

167 GUERRA Maria. "The State of African American Women in the United States". Center for American Progress, Fact Sheet: Nov. 7 2013. 168 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) is the country’s first and foremost civil and human rights law firm. http://www.naacpldf.org/files/publications/Unlocking Opportunity for African American Girls_0.pdf


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We will conclude this part by noting that all poverty elements are concurrent to

adversely affect many black people, less access to satisfactory housing leads to neighborhood

profiling, for finding a job or even shopping, along with credit profiling and being considered

in the so-called “subprime” category, thus paying much more for credit for a car (poor

neighborhoods are far from job places) or buying a home.

Black women have an important history of community leadership but are scarcely

represented in all levels of government as well as State and Federal representative instances.

Still, thanks to their willpower and resilience many black women have succeeded in history

and others and do succeed and constitute role models for their community. Harriet Tubman

for example has just169 been elected by an unofficial poll to be on the $20 bill; Loretta lynch,

has been named US Attorney General since the 27th April 2015, after a long and tedious

opposition from the GOP; and Michelle Roberts, the new head of the National Basketball

Association (NBA), a notoriously male dominated world of money and power, embraces her

strength and effectiveness by stating that "My past is littered with the bones of men who were

foolish enough to think I was someone they could sleep on."170 In a more colloquial manner,

we can say that besides her being brilliant and totally committed to the causes she has

embraced, she certainly is not an “angry black woman” but clearly a great “badass” in the

most positive assertion of this vernacular term: a good lesson to all and a great model for

African American women.

First Lady Michelle Obama, picture Win McNamee/Getty Images by usnews.com

169 NBC News. JACKSON Hallie, Apr. 15 2014. (http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/will-harriet-tubman-be-first-woman-20-bill-n357936) 170 New York Magazine. LEITC Will, Nov. 30 2014. (http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/michele-roberts-the-hero-of-progressive-sports.html)


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2. Beauty and Beyond

2.1. Beauty, a Social Construct

2.1.1. What is Beauty?

Beauty. A universal concern, but not necessarily a universal concept, it seems to be

more like a social construction, a personal search of self-image and social valorization.

Natural or acquired, beauty is a topic that interests everybody and concerns each one. Indeed,

the search for beauty seems to be of the highest importance if we can judge by the place

media, personalities and consumers give it, but not always being able to agree on a common

definition.

The definition of beauty is necessarily subjective because beauty is a two-party play:

an attractive person (and particularly a woman, the subject we will focus on) and a potentially

attracted audience: as Merriam-Webster’s171 and other main dictionaries explain it, beauty is

the quality of being attractive and bringing “pleasure to the senses or the mind”; this implies

that as the saying goes “beauty is the eye of the beholder”, in other terms it depends on the

viewer’s opinion but also that it cannot exist without an observer, or would at least be totally

useless.

Beauty also deals with self-perception and appreciation and is directly linked with

body image and self-judgment. A person who does not fit with he commonly accepted

standards will not be treated and considered as well as one who is seen as more attractive.

This will inevitably lead to damage body image, thus to a lesser self-esteem with the

consequence of feeling unfit, uncomfortable with the others’ gaze and can eventually lead to

stress, depression and eating disorders in one way or the other (anorexia nervosa or

overeating for compensation), a fact we will more closely study in the consequences part.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall: the Real Beauty Mirror is the Others’ Glance

Self-appreciation is very important for a balanced and fulfilling life, yet the main

judge of one’s attractiveness is not oneself but rather the feedback from other people. In other

terms, your mirror might not be your most important influencer: Women are supposed and

conditioned to please men and their peers, which they view as teammates and competitors at

the same time and who can be their greatest supporters or their harsher critics.

171 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beauty


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Beauty, they say is in the beholder’s eye: This saying usually means that each

individual may have a different appreciation about beauty, a point of view which can be

challenged by the fact that there are widely shared constants regardless of races, ethnicities

and social groups. Many studies have been made on this topic, and we could summarize their

findings with this excerpt: « Assessment of facial attractiveness does not vary by race (Cunningham et al. 1995; Moss,

Miller, and Page 1975). Moreover, there is at least some evidence of cross-cultural consensus in rating

facial attractiveness (Cunningham et al. 1995). This cross-cultural consensus is often interpreted as

providing evidence that preferences for physical attractiveness are universal evolutionary adaptations,

and insofar as physical attractiveness may be linked with reproductive potential such evolutionary

adaptations are plausible. Indeed, there is evidence that individuals with symmetric features are

preferred as partners and symmetry is associated with parasite resistance (Thornhill and Gangestad

1993) 172.

If we believe evolutionist psychologists, physical attraction lies on reproductive

potential, in other terms, what turns on males concerning women’s beauty would be the

perspective of giving birth, what we could call a “stallion appeal”. Other interpretations,

about the interest for breasts, or a taste for more generous curves for instance state that this

could be caused by the longing for a lost maternal haven. Still another interpretation could be

a need for power or domination, which could to some extent offer a hint of explanation for

many borderline trends and even perversions. The last idea on this series can be the sheer

quest for pleasure, but it would be very difficult to find where this pleasure lies on each one’s

minds, apart for the common search of beauty and the fact that most people can agree on the

fact that a woman has or not some kind of beauty. In this respect we could consider that

indeed beauty is to some extent universal.

The universe, or at least people on earth are divided in two different and

complementary groups “coming from Venus and Mars”173 to mention a very well known and

controversial book about gender understanding. Even if we do not necessarily subscribe to all

its principles, one truth is clear: men and women do not perceive things nor do they react to

them in the same way; in particular, they do not have the same approach of beauty. If we dare

present a few commonplaces while hoping that does not mean doing abusive generalization,

172 Psychology Today. MC CLINTOCK Elizabeth Aura, Mar. 19, 2014. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/it-s-man-s-and-woman-s-world/201403/is-beauty-in-the-eye-the-beholder) 173 GRAY John. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. 1992. New York: Harper Collins Publishers (1992).


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men would be after beauty and very often also female dependence on them, while women

would be after power, wealth and some kind of protection. Whether this is natural (which

could be a primitive instinct linked with finding less physical strength in women than in men

in average), or more probably cultural since most, not to say all human societies are male

dominated, one fact remains: female beauty is socially very important, certainly much more

than male’s (even though some kinds of female domination or male-consumption by women

do exist, they are out of our study range).

In general terms self-beauty is not appreciated the same way as the others’174; more

particularly it seems that people in general and women more particularly notice and focus on

their flaws and what they identify as physical defects, while men view and appreciate them in

a more global way, in terms of attractiveness. Yet attractiveness is not a totally global thing:

men will focus on the specifically feminine features and parts to decide and measure the

attraction they feel towards a woman.

The appreciation of female thickness can be measured by clothes sizes and body mass

index (BMI): women consider thin females (size 8) as being the most beautiful, men prefer

slightly curvier proportions (size 12), while the US average is a size 16.

Apart from the size, proportions and global harmony can be determinant for the

perception of beauty; just like face symmetry.

The classic hourglass shape is still the most appreciated, corresponding to a waist-to-

hip ratio of about 70%, which is not the average. This implies a certain amount and

repartition of body fat (on the thighs and buttocks and not on the abdomen), which is

perceived very differently according to the cultural references of each group (fitness amateurs

are logically less fond of body fat, for instance). Evolutionary psychologists contend that this

would be caused by the fact that fat location on the hips and thighs would be a better

reproductive asset.

Willingness for social intercourse, openness are beauty factors, and so are body

language and postures conveying the same messages. Let us finish this part by mentioning

that feeling confident and happy is also an important beauty factor. We can conclude by

saying that beauty is composed of many different physical, moral and even social elements

that hardly can be codified, let alone reduced to precise standards.

It can be interesting to notice that men’s appreciation of women’s beauty is not

primarily an esthetic concern or a personality thing (but this can lead to stronger 174 This has been highlighted in Dove's campaign "sketches" showing that women are their own harsher judges, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrHoDJinMQI)


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commitments), but rather a matter of sexual attraction. The other way around, women have

been conditioned to seek this kind of appreciation and accept this judgment, even though in

most cases it is sublimated and maintained in a “socially correct” frame of social and

professional intercourse.

2.1.2. Universal Beauty?

We have mentioned that beauty appreciation and some references seem to be quite

universal. Yet we certainly should precise that beyond these generalities, the eye of the

beholder is influenced and the appreciation shaped by cultural references which can be

widely accepted but also socially challenged by each social group if not necessarily by each

individual. We must mention that people tend to get used and appreciate what they are raised

in and what surrounds them, while being influenced by wider standards. To start by an

example, pacific islanders are traditionally strong people who worship power and thick

figures in women as well as in men: "Thinness has never been a beauty criterion for Maori

women" was I told: "this is quite recent and corresponds to occidental standards". We all also

have in mind the very specific beauty artifacts scarifications and alterations some particular

groups have adopted, often when isolated from other ethnicities and responding to peculiar

living conditions (such is the case for Surma women’s lip plates in Ethiopia, for instance but

also for some weird modern piercings and body alteration for modern urban “tribes”).

Studies have shown that outsiders coming to live within a group adopt the group's

standards while sometimes keeping their own original group ones. What we can infer is that

social groups will maintain an appreciation for what they have been used to and is adapted to

their environment and culture while also adopting the dominant groups references in a

melting pot or as an alternative. The danger lies in the fact that the new references can be

considered as superior and become compelling, becoming social markers of success or

contempt. In many societies beauty standards, as well as dressing and language codes have

served as a base for social layering, newer global (occidental) standards are adding new

layers to this not always so digestible social pastry.

This is the part where marketing plays a strong role: it reinforces the importance of

visible symbols, emphasizing what can be considered as imperfect, what can be modified by

the purchase and consumption of goods and services to fit the commonly admitted standards

the marketers have contributed to set and turn compulsory.


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Not That Many Differences

Photographic airbrushing has been done to shape the average female face in many

countries of the world by digitally mixing the features of hundreds of national

representatives. They all are attractive regardless of their not so important differences in

shape, features or skin tone. The other way around, a young woman sent her photo to many

countries to have it airbrushed to correspond to their own local standards of beauty, which

once again shows that the differences are not very pronounced for the "beauty of average" all

around the world.

As we have mentioned, beauty is in the “I” of the beholder175 (meaning its inner self

and references), but since it is impossible to know each and every people, we have to deal

with stereotypes to try and confirm or challenge them. The first one, created by marketing

and media is that being natural is not beautiful or sexy enough. Marketing finds in this

process the way to promote beauty products of all kinds: from cosmetics to food, from

garments to surgery, from dietary drugs to fitness programs. Media gains audiences by

explaining natural flaws and more or less artificial ways to correct them imposing trends by

following opinion leaders such as personalities or (real or made-up) specialists or just the

personal appreciation of their journalists. As we have noticed in the first part, this is

completed in digital 2.0 logic by peer opinion in the net-surfers expressed opinions and social

pressure. In this regard trends have often replaced traditions but are no less compelling.

Beauty ideals have logically evolved with social changes; if we focus only on the last

century, the evolution of the perfect body shape in the USA (and a global model) is

striking176. It started with the corseted “looping figure-8” sporting a round soft body with a

small waist, popularized by the illustrator Charles Gibson: the Gibson Girl of the early 1900s.

By 1920, the ideal had evolved towards the “flapper” style: “flat-chested, (…) streamlined,

petite, and straight as an arrow”. The great depression of the thirties brought a more feminine

“warmly curved” soft figure, which transitioned to the post-war “Star-Spangled girl”: “a

long-limbed, taller, and squarer silhouette, (…) taller, more commanding, possibly echoing

women’s expanding role in the workforce while men are on the battlefield”.

This evolution to fuller shapes culminated during the 1950s with the “hourglass” body

ideal, skinny girls were advised to “take weight-gain supplements to fill out their curves”. 175 Psychology Today, DILLER Vivian, Jan. 13 2011. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/face-it/201101/is-beauty-in-the-eye-or-i-the-beholder) 176 Greatist, fitness and health oriented site. HART Maria, Jan. 15 2015. (greatist.com/grow/100-years-womens-body-image)


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“Playboy magazine and Barbie were both created in this decade, echoing a tiny-waisted,

large-chested ideal”. The 60s saw the same kind of swing as the 20s: the hip look became

doll-faced, “girlish, and androgynously trim”. The new ideal: “doll-faced, super slender, and

petite”. That not necessarily natural “slim, flat-stomached look had to be achieved through

diet”. This explains the founding of Weight Watchers in 1963.

The 1970s disco trend with more revealing new synthetic fabrics prompted a still

slim-hipped, flat-stomached lean body but a slightly more curvy body ideal comparable with

the 30s’. This 70s decade also sees the appearance of “black pride” and “black is beautiful”

movements following the end of legal discrimination times, with the first black women

featured in mainstream magazine covers (e.g. Beverly Johnson, Vogue Aug. 74) and

commercials (e.g. “Charlie” fragrance from Revlon featuring Naomi Sims), sending the first

hints that “black beauty” could be just beauty.

The 1980 welcome the advent of supermodels, including black ones (Naomi

Campbell for instance), along with a healthier and dynamic look. This was at the same time

empowering and discouraging for women since it implied more beauty standards to follow

and more time and money to devote to these new rules: gyms, sports garment, specific

training products to swallow…

During the 90s, the supermodel had

shrunk to a “heroin chic” waif-like, unathletic

and again more androgynous, before going

back at the turn of the century to a more sporty

appearance; besides personal trainers and

omnipresent fitness joints, we can fin some

cheating: airbrushing, spray-on tan and abs are

invented to become the norm. 177

The 2010s seem to be the decade of booty sporting. Black, mixed-race and Latino

artists and personalities have brought the “bootylicious” bodies mainstream. When natural

and exercise-toned, this “exotic” characteristic, adopted by most media as the reference can

show a wider diversity and a better acceptance of admittedly (even though not necessarily

rightly) black curves adopted by non-blacks, but it also can lead to dangerous invasive

surgery as we will show later on. We can wonder is this butt-showing trend is really

empowering in terms of self 177 Animated gif showing body ideal evolution, (http://greatist.com/sites/default/files/styles/half_content/public/BodyImage_Kim.gif?itok=4O4zSKGW)


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Greatist.com, a site devoted to health and fitness (where the information for this part

comes from) concludes that beauty is part of pop culture, so body ideals are trends and not

universal: “The media’s idea of beauty is subjective and changes, but confidence is always in

style”178, a way to remind that beyond physical appearance and mainly beyond all marketing

conniving, self confidence and a good body-image are universal and timeless beauty and

balance assets.

This seems to hint a cyclical evolution in beauty ideals just like in fashion which is

directly linked to them (and vice-versa), and it would be interesting to study the social and

economic influences on these changes. To put it broadly beauty and attractiveness are related

not solely on reproductive schemes but also on natural environment adversity, gender roles

and social and racial stratification; all factors that explain the existing links between beauty

appreciation and social place.

2.1.3. Beauty and Social Place: You Are What You Look Like

Beauty and attractiveness are not only personal characteristics influenced by culture,

not only a subjective aesthetic matter, but they also play an important role in social

integration. Logically social integration depends on the way people are viewed with their

own characteristics, qualities and flaws that may constitute their perceived value as

considered by their social groups of belonging. In the same time some of their characteristics

and behavior are considered as social markers and have them classified according to the

stereotypes applying to the groups they are identified as belonging to, whether these are

accurate or not for that particular person. In simple terms, everybody is (correctly or not) seen

as a member of some precise social groups, thus sharing their characteristics; and inside these

ones as a specific person, but only if the viewer goes to that extent of attention and interest.

If we refer to A. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (work cited), as soon as vital or needs

are satisfied, people will experience very strong social needs, belonging at first, then

appreciation from the group, which means finding the right place and role in it (even though

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs analysis is limited and has been widely challenged, we will

consider its use for a first decoding).

In the USA, maybe even more than in other countries social pressure is very strong

and compelling; non-conformity can quickly lead to exclusion from a social group. The

178 Greatist. HART Maria, January 15, 2015, (http://greatist.com/grow/100-years-womens-body-image)


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media certainly have not created this fact, but they clearly act in the same way and reinforce,

amplify and dramatize this social rule. Media will make and destroy reputations, images and

social roles, according to what they think is socially acceptable or not, creating role models

who will have to comply to what is expected from them or be blacklisted. Publicly known

personalities will be extremely praised and at the same time exposed to harsh criticism: they

will have to be flawless or face criticism. In a much lesser scale, most social groups follow

the same pattern with their members, leaders and followers.

Since society and more precisely social groups are judgmental (with sometimes very

different cultural references and values for different groups), according to their judgment

each individual can belong or be rejected. Every perceivable element of an individual

constitutes a social marker, in other terms, appearance shows social place, and it can mean

belonging, appreciation or rejection by a precise group.

There is a very important need of belonging to social groups: family, gender, ethnic,

educational, professional, religious, political and so on. A person does obviously not belong

to a single group but is a patchwork of social identity elements; each of them allows relating

to a precise group at any given moment. A person will be a member of a family with a

precise place in the morning, then a professional with a specific role (leader, teammate or

trainee but also accountant, marketer or engineer for instance) and a representative of the

company or public agency, and in the evening a fitness addict, a particular series or a football

fan and so on, while being at the same time female or male, black, white or other, college

graduate in a precise field or not… each and every group has its own culture and codes to be

respected and followed, or else.

For their reproductive interest, or simply because of the pleasure of the eyes, beautiful

people have certainly always enjoyed a better treatment and place than average looking ones,

not to mention those considered as ugly or unfit to the social role they were meant to play

because of physical defects, even when these are just in aspect. Consumers will choose

among those they can afford the seemingly perfect product on the shelf, leaving aside the

flawed ones, so it is for social and sentimental relations; when perfect is not available, people

logically tend to choose the “best in show” according to commonly admitted standards, and

when they cannot reach it, they will satisfy themselves with a conservative widely acceptable

choice. These same standards will have them judged by the outsiders through their own

choice of relations, people are supposed to mingle by likeness. In this sense, models and

references are useful and even necessary to brig social coherence. This also explains that


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average is preferred rather than extremes, which could be considered unfit by some or most

according to the importance of the deviance.

A beauty premium is granted to more attractive people compared to average or lesser

attractive ones, whether they are women or men. In fact, many studies and articles lead to the

same conclusion: there is an important positive discrimination in favor of those considered

beautiful179. To be more precise, according to Vox.com (they summarized on a short video180

most of what has been published on that topic) we should consider that cute babies get more

affection and so get a better development, better looking children benefit from higher

expectation from their teachers, get better grades and are more likely to complete higher

education, have more chances to get a job, better wages and promotions, of being elected, just

because they are seen as more intelligent, competent, kind and trustworthy. Lifelong earning

differences can add up to more than USD 200,000; more particularly, heavier (than BMI 23)

women earn less than their lighter counterparts. This discrimination goes as far as

professional sports earnings or court decisions (smaller fines or higher compensations). This

leads Vox to conclude that the overwhelming $160 billion industry of beauty products is

explained by economic incentives for the customers. Another study181, published by the New

York Times contends that a good make up does help women appear more capable, reliable

and amiable. Should we mention that the study has been paid by Procter and Gamble, a

leading cosmetic company pushing its interests well publicized by a leading media bearing its

paying advertisements? False or true, these commonly admitted assertions cannot but

reinforce the importance of buying beauty products and participate in the conditioning of

women more particularly.

On the other side, beauty and unfair advantages can lead to jealousy and hatred, or

sometimes considering beautiful people as being excessively concerned by their appearance,

thus shallow and maybe even less intelligent (who has not heard about blonde jokes, and

usually not about ugly ones…). More often, attractive people benefit from a halo effect

meaning that good looks would imply being globally better than less pretty ones.

Fashion, clothing trends and professional dress codes are part of a person’s beauty and

appreciation, all these elements are closely linked with social roles. Even though Hollywood

179 Psychology Today. WILLIAMS Ray, Aug. 18, 2012. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201208/im-successful-because-im-beautiful-how-we-discriminate) 180 Vox.com, Jul. 16, 2014. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_gx2Uc95os) 181 New York Times, SAINT LOUIS, Catherine, Oct. 12, 2011. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/fashion/makeup-makes-women-appear-more-competent-study.html?_r=0)


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could have let us think that clothing, hairdressing and make-up should always be upper scale

and perfect at all times, a message confirmed by many commercials hinting that we are

supposed to live in an idealized world which required each of us to be absolutely flawless or

face shame and rejection. It is not what most people really expect from their colleagues,

acquaintances, or family, but marketers have succeeded in turning many women into their

worst critics and can only see flaws and defects in their mirrors. In the same time the mirror-

mirror syndrome182 is the embodiment of an American myth: whatever you want to be or to

have, you can (provided that you spend enough time, will, talent and money for that aim),

this particular twist of the self-made-man myth which might have originated in the protestant

belief that people deserve what they have or happens to them: successful people are God

blessed, unsuccessful ones just have not deserved it by being too lazy or just bad. This seems

an easy way to legitimate winners as well as losers and maintain a stable social order

forgetting that birth and education play the most important part in success. Personal

exceptional achievements are precisely exceptional, referring to them is a way to confirm

social determinism while letting people think that all (the best) is possible and that they have

just not worked hard enough to get it.

This certainly can be applied to beauty: apart from birth and raising conditions (which

are often determinant), one beauty myth is that is you are not beautiful enough (which means

flawless according to the present standards), the reason is that you have just not tried or spent

enough time, money, sweat for that.

Once again, the other side of the coin is logical: so-called losers have developed their

own specific subcultures183 inside the bigger one, they sometimes constitute variations,

sometimes opposition and provocation, deliberately adopting behavior and styles considered

disgusting, unacceptable or just plain ugly by mainstream standards. The aim can be an

identity claim or quest, or just a means to reach success in terms of popularity, power or

wealth (or the three of them) in the social group, and maybe in mainstream society if the

trend can influence pop-culture. This can logically lead not only to specific music (such as

rap or hip-hop), dance and other arts, but also to distinctive beauty and fashion standards

which may be initiated by minorities and then sometimes conquer mainstream standards (as

we will see in more detail in the black beauty part). When it does stay a specificity of a

minority group, and a social marker of belonging to a lower image subculture, it may result in 182 Psychology Today, RUFUS Anneli. Dec. 23 2008. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stuck/200812/mirror-mirror-syndrome) 183 The term of subculture is to be read as a distinctive culture of a specific group within a wider culture called mainstream, it does not here mean any judgment of value


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a cultural ghetto184 by implying imposed and sometimes self assumed discrimination and the

subsequent rejection of the main group.

Being beautiful and even flawless in the sense of what marketing imposed as models

is the compelling objective every woman has to adopt, by buying and using products -goods

and services- meant to help get closer to the models while keeping them unattainable to

maintain frustration (might we say need in marketing terms) an purchasing will. But there is

an interesting catch in this logic: women should not identify with the models, being too

skimpy dressed, too sexy or just too attractive will inevitably have them criticized, sometimes

even fired185 for distracting their male (and disturbing their female) co-workers or students.

This will constitute an excuse for harassment and even rape and domestic jealousy-related

violence and is related to the ever-present objectification186 and self-objectification of women

observed in media and advertising. In other terms, it is difficult of not impossible to be really

attractive and really professional, which would mean that a woman has to choose between

conforming to beauty standards and professional ones; a no-win choice that reminds the

almost impossible aim of balancing a successful career with a fulfilling personal and family

life 187 . This situation is particularly jeopardizing for black women since they are

stereotypically (and wrongly, should we precise!) perceived as more available while at the

same time subject to more demanding professional standards with less pay and professional

evolution, and in the same time having to struggle more often with having to balance work

with family constraints, being single parents and single income providers.

Still, we need cultural references, positive and negative images to conform to or

reject, and even stereotypes to shape our perception and behavior. Since these references do

not come as much as before from religion and tradition, we can acknowledge that media,

marketing and social networks have taken the relay on these issues to form a post-modern

reference frame188 we have to adjust to and be rather adaptive for the non-written-but-

commonly-admitted has a high power in shaping judgment and social admittance. This is

184 By cultural ghetto, I mean a place, physical and/or symbolic where people are willingly or not maintained separated and discriminated from the main social group or culture. We could consider the fact that most if not all minorities experience some extent of cultural ghetto, which can sometimes constitute advantages, but always an imposed differentiation. Stereotypes participate to creating and crystallize cultural ghettos. 185 New York Times. MELTZERNOV Marisa. Nov. 29, 2013, (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/fashion/Some-women-are-fired-for-being-too-attractive.html?_r=1) 186 Stanford University. (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-objectification/) 187 Daily Beast. GALINSKY Ellen. Mar. 28 2013. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/28/you-can-t-have-it-all-more-of-feminism-s-outdated-phrases.html) 188 BAUMAN Zygmunt. Liquid Modernity. 2000. London: Polity Press (2000).


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certainly why people need pop-personalities, their achievements and mishaps in an attraction-

repulsion play where the least conscious dig and adopt behavior models (this could be the

case for the lesser informed ghetto-culture black youngsters) forgetting or unaware of the

differences between stage and city, between fantasy and real life, thus claiming a right to

adopt the styles they can see on the screens without realizing that can create identity bonds in

their own reference groups but cut them from mainstream society and the subsequent

educational and professional integration. These choices are more or less conscious, more or

less constrained by their microenvironment, can constitute more or less an adaptive reaction

to the rejection they feel from mainstream models, adapting to one’s subculture is as

important as adapting to the main one, and sometimes the only possible choice, there lies the

ghetto.

2.1.4. Selfie Times

We life in public times, living discreetly is considered as a no-life, as much as living

only in virtual universes (such as video-games). Nowadays you have to reach people and

expose yourself through digital means as well as physically. The studies conducted on this

topic have all concluded that numeric and direct contacts are not (as we could have feared)

exclusive but complementary. Exposure means a way to socially exist but also to accept

being judged and being granted the right to comment upon and judge others in an interactive

logic: social networks are social intercourse and cyber-bullying is no worse than ordinary

bullying. Existing for young people and pop-personalities means exposing oneself by

expressing one’s feelings but also by showing personal pictures and composing a virtual

image that will extend in real life and social intercourse. By being virtual, this personality

avatar -not limited to the identity picture chosen- becomes an alter ego or a mask that exposes

and protects at the same time by creating a screen between the sender and the receivers.

Beauty is here the representation the subject wants to give of itself, which completes the

physical --and less controlled-- appearance. Digital expression allows enhancing, creativity

and fantasizing for each participant with a permanent but distanced view of the omnipresent

other. We could imagine this as a relatively free and uncontrolled place without much

marketing; in fact the control and sometimes censorship (for good or bad) is permanent too,

as well as the personal data collection to try and influence the users with commercial


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offerings supposedly adapted to their needs and wants; no real freedom here, Big Brothers

(Big Business and NSA189 particularly) are always watching you.

Still this apparent freedom of expression can lead to raise self-esteem, as well as turning

marginal or less socially admitted opinions commonplace, this has certainly played a role in

the wider acceptance of LGBT for instance, but also in the open expression of sexist or racist

opinions with more or less control, reaction or outrage: it is easier to express oneself behind a

screen without direct confrontation.

2.2. Models: Mainstream Compulsory References

As we have seen beauty is a universal concern, but viewed and experienced very

differently in different cultures and ways of life, we will concentrate our study on female

American beauty and its marketing. This will lead us to examine the different socio-cultural

models of beauty in the USA, with a particular look on Afro-American beauty; the way the

consumers live the models and respond to them, and the adaptive strategies of the marketers.

2.2.1. Classic US Models: Vintage is Not Necessarily Outdated

We have seen that beauty models and conditioned expectations have widely varied

with time, a general explanation is offered by The Daily Mail190, with some interesting

statements which certainly can be extended to the US in a global environment: in prosperous

times men seem to prefer more girlish-looking women, while recessions bring them closer to

more comforting maternal figures, and in all cases these are generally preferred rather than

Barbie lookalikes or athletic types, more marginally appreciated.

Anyway, as we have mentioned models are needed and we could start by mentioning the

more classical ones such as Rosie the Riveter and Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jean Baker)

among some others as real milestones.

The first ‘perfect woman191’ elected, Elsie Scheel was celebrated by the press in 1912:

full figured but not fat, with “171 pounds, 5 ft. 7 in. tall she had similar proportions to the

famous Greek statue, Venus de Milo” she would be called overweight by present standards.

189 The National Security Agency - Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) core missions are to protect U.S. national security systems and to produce foreign signals intelligence information (official definition). 190 Daily Mail, MACRAE, Fiona, June 11 2009; (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1192142/Gentlemen-prefer-Miss-Average-The-perfect-centrefold-body-ousted-homely-shape-girl-door-new-study.html) 191 Huffington Post, GRAY Emma. Dec. 27 2012. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/26/perfect-woman-1912_n_2365529.html)


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An active student and “ardent suffragist” she represented a model of female strength that was

promoted some years later in the traits of Rosie the Riveter, a fictional character created by J.

Howard Miller in 1943 as an “inspirational image to boost worker morale”192, which later

became a feminist icon. Rosie’s myth inspired a song popular at that time and the famous

American illustrator and icon creator and Norman Rockwell offered a personal and humorous

interpretation for the Saturday Evening Post (May 29 1943) depicting a “brawny and larger-

than-life193" wartime role model showing that the strong but feminine “ideal” woman was not

only a matter of physical beauty. Miller’s empowering symbol has been promoted and reused

and in a zillion ways (thanks to the fact that it was not legally protected) because of the

power of its message: daring, muscle flexing and male challenging (not to say more). Among

others it has inspired black artists Kelly Rowland (shot by famous photographer Derek

Blanks in January 2010) and Beyoncé to name only the black ones, and spoofs featuring

Marge Simpson (in Utne Reader Jan-Feb 2011) or Michelle Obama (for recovery.gov), not to

mention many advertisements and political campaigns from both sides194 (this is part of pop-

culture too). These strong women can remind us of the American pioneer spirit, evoking hard

times when women were fully partners of their spouses or teammates.

Rosie the Riveter: a WWII Propaganda Character with many different sequels

192 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Do_It!) 193 The Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/journey/rosie-transcript.html) 194 University of Southern California, SCALAR (http://scalar.usc.edu/students/rosie-the-riveter-archive/index)


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The third and most important inspiration in American women’s image and models is

the epitome of the pin-up generation: young women drawn from photographed models, made

to inspire American males and lift their spirits at war. Marilyn Monroe has a very interesting

personality and is a great symbol of attractiveness, which has prompted fantasies to millions

of men, has inspired millions of women worldwide, and still does. Marilyn had an innate

sense for show and seduction, a great lack of affection and a huge need of love; her body

certainly was close to perfection from 50s standards and so was her face enhanced by plastic

surgery, hair dying and makeup. A very affectively immature and fragile being, she died at a

young age leaving her legend untouched.

Unsurprisingly, she still is an unavoidable reference when it comes to beauty and

seduction. From amateurs to would-be artists and even many major performers have

impersonated or copied one or several of her iconic traits and body parts. We could certainly

consider Marilyn as the first virtual beauty and sex symbol of the modern ages. People

certainly have fantasized about art representations from the darkest ages, and the ancient

Greeks already had evoked the fact of falling in love with art pieces but none of these

masterpieces of beauty has reached the renown and appeal of Marilyn. Now she is indeed no

more and no less real than any digital perfection or any other pop-personality most people

intimately know but only from the image made by their media. In this sense it is quite clear

that these personalities need press coverage to exist and maintain their star status shining.

Their income (wealth and power) is directly linked with the interest they present for the

audiences, through the contracts they can sign with producers, fashion designers and

advertising brands, which want them to embody the image they want their customers to relate

to.

Attracting attention can often mean going to the limits and sometimes too far, the

smartest have a talent to feel what they can and should do, the others rely on public relations

agencies to guide them in this path. Black performers are obviously bound to follow this

logic, all the more that they have often “started from the bottom” and their success is fragile.

Show business, popular media and advertising, three aspects of mass marketing make their

success, while objectifying them to be what the audiences expect from their role-playing

(classy, rebel, sex symbol…). In the lower steps of the ladder, reality television (a highly

scripted exercise) and now also online videos (a very free expression where success comes if

their performance meets a public) rely on (digital) media and marketing techniques as much

as the more traditional ways of expression. Even if marketing does not really do much for

customers, it certainly is the (sometimes elusive) path to glory for the best adaptive art and


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sports performers. This is not unlike Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest in the show

business jungle and a modern version of the American myth of the self made man.

2.2.2. Modern References We have established a definition of beauty so narrow that almost no one can live up to it.

Women struggle to fit within the constrictions of social expectations of thin, youthful, sexuality as

constricting as a Victorian corset. We display these paragons of beauty from billboards and magazine

covers and Victoria Secret ads with the full knowledge that because of the use of photo-enhancing,

lighting, makeup, and other morphing techniques, the women shown are as real as the CGI-created

Hulk in the Avengers movies. ABDUL-JABBAR Kareem195

2.2.2.1. ‘Young Thin White Must Do’

‘You Shall be White(r)’

Whatever your age, race and body structure, you shall be young, thin and white to

comply with this general frame model. This implies adopting (developing and selling) anti-

age, slimming and whitening cosmetic products, not to mention hair dying and relaxing.

Beauty has for a long time been whitewashed: “The mainstream beauty ideal is almost

exclusively white, making it all the more unattainable for women of color” 196. To ensure

success, black artists will whitewash their image: fairer skin, straightened hair, slimmed and

toned to reach that white beauty ideal: “when we do see women of color represented as

beauty icons in media, they almost always already fit white ideals (…): light skin tones, light-

colored, straight hair, ideally “white” facial features, thin figures, etc". Unsurprisingly, most

of these black personalities have in fact multiracial origins. As they still are not white

enough, they will have to resort not only to intense and specific exercising but also to plastic

surgery and digital manipulation197.

195 Time columnist ABDUL-JABBAR is a six-time NBA champion and league Most Valuable Player. He is also an author, filmmaker and education ambassador. Jul. 20, 2015. (http://time.com/3964758/body-shaming-black-female-athletes/ ) 196 Beauty Redefined. First published Feb 1 2010, updated 2014. (http://www.beautyredefined.net/beauty-whitewashed-how-white-ideals-exclude-women-of-color/) 197 Beauty redefined, Ibid.


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Beyoncé for L’Oréal 2003 (left) and 2013 (right)

As all commenters have noticed, the complexion evolution or alteration is always to

appear more “Anglo” and less negroid (a term that in fact sounds quite negative): thinner

straighter features, overall body shape and hair (with the exception of a rounder booty which

deserves a particular treatment as the only positively perceived black characteristic). The

other way around, white ideals have evolved from a pristine white complexion (it was a

historical way for noble women to differentiate themselves from the more tanned working

classes) to a healthier, leaner, slightly tanned skin tone. The same could be said for totally

straight hair with the expensive and complex hair-dos white women go through to have a

more wavy flowing hair.

We have seen in the first part that colorism is not only a matter of beauty but on the

contrary a matter of social place and discrimination. In this sense, whitewashing for fame and

commercial success cannot but make us think about the brown paper bag test198, which

constituted the infamous supposedly objective standard for acceptable color, and might still

unofficially and unadmittedly be implemented in many places199. As we have mentioned, this

preference for a fairer complexion could be found in many traditional societies long before

present globalization, for instance Indian social stratification is based on that “Aryan” model,

which has been used as an inspiration to justify WWII atrocities.

198 Ferris University. (http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/feb14/index.htm) 199 Huffington Post, CARTER Jarrett L. Jun. 11 2013. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jarrett-l-carter/bringing-back-the-brown-p_b_3059700.html)


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Only very recent years have seen darker, more traditionally West-African types such as

Lupita Nyong’o or Alec Wek considered as really beautiful.

‘You Shall be Young’

Media and fashion favor a beauty model of youth, there is no particular value or

respectability in aging in modern societies, which value dynamics and change before wisdom

and experience assuming that these are reserved to young people. Traditions are only good to

be swept away (sometimes with reason, but obviously not always) and aging people are

compelled to be young-ish and keep being trendy if they do not want to be very quickly

considered as undesirable has-beens. There seems to be a two fold movement in this respect:

on one side, aging celebrities are still “hot” (according to media and advertising agencies)

maybe because they do not look old and maintain a very high profile in terms of beauty ideal:

At 50, Sandra Bullock is the oldest “World’s Most Beautiful Woman” ever. This is a strategic

choice for People magazine in April 2015200, she does not look or act like the usual

Hollywood stars, but magazine readership (and general population) is aging as well and so

does general acceptance of a more mature image and respond to the emergence of the so-

called “silver economy” even though this might end up being considered as a segmentation

and not a genuine mainstream evolution.

On the other side of the mirror, actresses in their thirties are considered as old,

sometimes even too old. Celebrities not only have to pick every occasion to expose

themselves and their assets, but they also have to come more and more often with new

“schticks” and publicized on and off-stage acting to respond to general boredom and novelty

demand, as a parallel to marketing’s (technical or design) planned obsolescence designed to

force people to purchase new products even though the former ones still should satisfy them.

This is nothing new, for the first noted industrial agreement on that matter has been recorded

in 1924 for electric bulbs201, but the trend is accelerating at the faster pace of innovation and

need to sell new things to saturated consumers in order to keep business rolling (always

more) profitably. One of the side effects of this trend is that latest ‘starlets’ well could rapidly

become late ones with the advent of newer ones competing on the same fields, and with the

higher online reactivity, even faster in social media and digital videos.

200 Daily Beast, Apr. 23 2015. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/23/is-sandra-bullock-really-the-most-beautiful-woman-in-the-world.html) 201 IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. KRAJEWSKI Markus, Sep. 24 2014 (http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/history/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy)


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‘You Shall be Thin’ (and toned!)

Being fat is a positive sign of affluence in traditional hunger-stricken societies; such is

not the case in developed countries. We have mentioned that in prosperous times, thin body

standards are considered ideal. Even though poverty stricken people are numerous in present

times (capital has taken a decisive edge on labor, and the poverty gap is huge and widening),

still, access to food is not a challenge for most (apart for homeless and excluded people who

are invisible in terms of model making and most often only shown as freakish), much less a

social marker in Western countries. Being overweight is more usually viewed a sign of

laziness and insufficient self-care or even a sign of belonging to an underprivileged group,

which by no means can constitute an ideal. Industrial processed food based on growth

hormone raised meat, grains and vegetables, including (soon to be banned?) trans fats and

excess sugars and salt do induce fat stocking mainly for less privileged people in terms of

purchasing power related eating choices. To put it simply, the poorer (and among them a high

proportion of African Americans) are often the fatter and that implies yet another

discrimination factor, more stress and a lower self-perception, to end up with health (and not

only image) threatening eating disorders (anorexia or bulimia nervosa).

Nowadays, muffins (tops) belong to the kitchen, fat is a no-no, skin stretches are a

put-down, cellulite is a deadly sin… Flaws, flaws, flaws: women have always been

(considered as) imperfect human beings. Such a vision has always been a great way to keep

them under religious and male domination. If we should believe media and marketing, now

their main faults are their physical imperfections (behavior mishaps and deviances are more

commonly admitted as new trends and social evolution in a less morally judgmental society,

apart from some taboos), and their main interest is that these so-called defects induce

frustration, thus needs and wants for products and services. In this logic, average figured and

noticeably the average BMI women are clearly overweight and must be shamed to compel

the culprit (or victim) into running to a fitness gym, dieting, skin creaming (even though

slimming and anti-cellulite creams have proven ineffective) for the rest of their stressed lives.

Or bust. (While we are at it, let us mention that big-busted girls feel that they should be less

busty and small-busted ones that they should have more; both feelings are great for business

and awful for the girls self appreciation).

Many not necessarily youth-oriented brands and even some dating services have made

the choice of addressing solely to thin people by limiting their garments’ size choices or

finding a fit only to thinner customers. This constitutes an obvious and illegal discrimination


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but it is very hard to uproot it since it corresponds to a pride and a belonging feeling for the

happy chosen ones who become accomplices of this commercial targeting.

2.2.3. Model References

2.2.3.1. The Barbie Model, an Inspiration for Generations of Bimbos

Barbie, the doll was designed at the end of the fifties and launched in 1959, with roughly the

same unrealistic proportions as today. A successful product from the very beginning, the doll

met very quickly her market of young girls wanting an adult like fashion doll and not only

baby shaped ones. Ruth Handler, the creator and founder of Mattel Inc. designed it after her

daughter’s longings and named the doll after the girl’s name, Barbara. Barbie was redesigned

from a German adult targeted doll, “Lilli” and enjoyed the services of a marketing team and a

fashion designer since its launching202.

The classic Barbie doll proportions are close to the 1950s ideals: very slim but busty,

with lengthy limbs and very thin neck, ankles and wrists. She also has thin Caucasian

features, blond long straight hair in a ponytail and is fair-skinned. An idealized model, her

proportions have been deemed as unrealistic, a living woman could not attain that figure in

natural ways and a full-size Barbie doll looks creepy. Some women have tried to impersonate

that model, by many plastic surgery interventions, with a result unfit to real life but some

success in stage and social network performance.

Barbie model has been and is despised because it may cause frustration to its young

fans; girls who cannot totally make a difference between a toy and real life have been led to

think that this was a beauty ideal for them. There is no doubt that Barbie is a global cultural

icon and it is surprising to see how much passion has been revealed by Barbie appreciations:

from the biggest best-seller in toy history (American girls own an average of 10 Barbie

dolls), trough all the embodiments that have been done by costumed amateurs and artists, to

the violent attacks done about her catastrophic influence on “young girls psyche”203 which

has been called the Barbie syndrome. Most commenters agree on the fact that Barbie alone

may not be the cause for a distorted and frustrating body image and eating disorders, but also

that the doll is part of a general trend of setting unrealistic beauty objectives.

Barbie contenders argue that ‘she’ also gives a shallow vision of women, mostly

interested by physical appearance. In that respect, it could be contended that a fashion doll is

202 Association for Natural Psychology, about Barbie and body image: THOMPSON Eualalee. Updated April 11, 2015 (http://www.winmentalhealth.com/barbie_history_books_and_body_image.php) 203 Association for Natural Psychology, about Barbie and body image: THOMPSON Eualalee. Ibid


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meant to present fashion and beauty rather than human content or skills, outside instead of

inside beauty. There are many other complementary educational toys and Mattel has made its

doll live more than 150 careers including doctor, astronaut and presidential candidate and

sends empowering “I can be” (whatever they want to be) messages to girls.

Another stone in their backyard is that the company imposes a Euro-centered vision of

beauty. Black Barbie dolls have European faces with their darker skins, and ethnic or national

Barbies are often grossly stereotyped. Yet, this Euro-centering does not stop many black

artists from wanting to embody the plastic beauty symbol. Besides the general Barbie

syndrome, it can be contended that reality-TV African American female celebrities look and

behave like black Barbies, some would say like black bimbos (superficial, sexy, appearance

and beauty obsessed young women) which could have been another Barbie induced distortion

of social roles if that had not existed at all times. Here, the icon only indicates the standards,

but we can wonder if by following such a superficial pattern these women do not put

themselves at risk of ending just like old Barbie dolls: broken and forgotten in the bottom of a

drawer.

Barbie’s whitewashing has not

stopped several artists from presenting

personal interpretations of the Barbie model

either: black celebrities Kenya Moore and

Nicky Minaj among many others have done

it.

(On the left: Kenya Moore impersonating Barbie and

Ken plus a broken doll in the same set, shot by Derek

Blanks)

Barbie doll is not so hot nowadays: the sales are slumping, Mattel CEO has recently

been fired by angry shareholders for a lack of results. Apart from the numerous copycats,

several more realistic evolutions have been developed by competitors. To name just a few,

we can mention “normal looking” Lamilly, African American dolls with more African

features and kinky hair which can be braided; a Nigerian version “Queens of Africa” that

should arrive shortly to the US after conquering its home market and the European African


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diaspora, and a “plus-size” Barbie-type doll which raises controversy (the overweight model

would not be better than the skinny one)…

2.2.3.2. Fashion and Advertising Models: it is All About Money

For many girls and women, fashion and particularly high fashion is a world of

dreams: dream of becoming a model, or even better a top model and so being a renowned

celebrity simply by being shot at, dream of being successful enough to belong to the happy

few invited to the catwalk presentations and enjoying the pride of wearing the best

productions from the prestigious “haute” brands. The reality is much harsher, as it often is for

dreams: models are compelled to comply with the strictest esthetic rules, more precisely

being non solely photogenic and able to showcase the creations, but also tall and naturally

skinny and following strict diets to become “unhealthily underweight”, or be excluded from

that “heaven”. Such has not always been the case: top models of the 1990s looked fit and

toned, but the trend of presenting always younger and skinnier models does not seem deemed

to stop spontaneously, but rather under legal pressure at the initiative of outside organizations

concerned by models’ health. It sometimes seems that fashion designers forget that they are

working with and thanks to human beings and not pieces of mobile furniture; some editors

contend that most of them being gay artists, they love their art and creations more than their

female employees and clients.

In any case fashion shows and their impact through media certainly goes in the sense

of a “thinspiration” a term coined by digital social media to emphasize that skinnier would be

better, not hesitating in shaming all those they judge too fat by their own excessively

restrictive standards. Most, not to say almost all African American women with a West

African biological heritage do not have a chance to fit those criteria (maybe closer to some

East-African ethnicities’ figures) but will find themselves under pressure and shaming

because of fashion diktats.

A few high-level black models do stroll up and down the catwalks though since the

nineties. Some are still on demand, but to tell the truth, apart from mature Naomi Campbell it

would be very difficult today to name a single really successful black model, meaning that

diversity is still absent from high fashion204 and confirming that it is a highly segregated

world, as it always has been and even more today than it was some years ago. For the few

black models present, the appearance spectrum is very narrow, having to present precise traits 204 Daily Beast, JOHNSON Beverly. Sep 12, 2013. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/12/beverly-johnson-asks-where-are-all-the-black-models.html)


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corresponding to white employers’ expectations in what certainly constitutes a racial bias205

while invoking aesthetic motives.

As for the designers, the diagnosis is not very different: “of the 260 shows on the

men’s and women’s wear schedule, only three with any global reach are by African-

American designers"206, which means that we must acknowledge that in fashion black people

are whether absent or marginal. That leaves very few non-white references and opportunities

for black women in fashion modeling or creation.

Commercial models may not be that extreme and will present a more diverse choice

of figures and skin colors to better correspond to public’s expectations. Still, clothes models

including lingerie ones are overwhelmingly white and small sized, and at the same time taller

than average. In more general use products, as we have seen in the first part there is as much

wider diversity as the different market segments aimed at: most are mainstream, some present

diverse actors. Big business marketing is meant to reach most if not all, and minorities are

gaining presence in the American society, earning at the same time advertising visibility. This

is clearly a factor of better social inclusion, visible from a young age to senior citizens.

At the other end of the spectrum, plus sized models (usually below the average

American BMI207) are increasingly present and since that corresponds to a necessarily wide

demand (no puns intended as would say the journalists) for adapted products and services not

strictly limited to fashion but in food, leisure and general well-being too.

2.2.3.3. Beauty Pageants: Too ‘Perfect’ for Viewers’ Appreciation

To have any chance to enter the competition, and much more to stand a chance to win,

beauty pageant contenders are required to be very thin and tall. Most of these young ladies

(being unmarried and aged below 25 is compulsory) have been surgically enhanced to fit the

standards, so in a sense they already are not (totally) real, giving a biased idea of what beauty

is supposed to be. Some pageants request a “natural” beauty (which does not exclude makeup

and hair straightening but only invasive surgery), but the main ones do not.

Beauty contests also have to correspond to local and not only global expectations: too

dark, too fair-skinned, not “pure-local-breed” will ruin any success chances in a national 205 WISSINGER Elizabeth. "Managing the semiotics of skin tone: Race and aesthetic labor in the fashion modeling industry" Economic and Industrial Democracy 33(1): 125-143, Feb. 2012. 206 New York Times-Fashion, FRIEDMAN, Vanessa, Feb. 11 2015, Fashion’s Racial Divide. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/fashion/fashions-racial-divide.html) 207 Above a 25 BMI, an adult is considered overweight, above 30 obese: (http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html)


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scale and cause much turmoil (in fact much more than a sports selection). Not unlike sports

international finales, these beauty elections are great moments of pride, chauvinism (and

voyeurism), but as ego-busting as they can be for female viewers sporting an average size 14,

they are unsatisfying as well for male audiences, who –if we are to believe the numerous

comments sent- would prefer more meaty figures. In any way that we may want to turn it,

excessively thin women do not attract men and we can wonder if by trying to be perfect, the

very perfection of the contestants does not turn them less attractive for most male viewers.

2.2.3.4. Girl Next Door is no Plain Jane

Playmates et al.

More popular (in the sense of pop-culture) beauty models inherited from the classic

pinup times are built and broadcasted by adult magazines such as Playboy among many

others. They showcase local unknown or very famous beauties more or less “artistically”

undressed. This has grown to be a kind of tradition and does not seem to cause much adverse

buzzing for the models in most cases (except for some representation professions such as

teachers, who are compelled to hold a higher profile); in fact it seems that “gracing the

pages” of such a magazine can be considered as an acknowledgement of celebrity for some

models, and a career booster for those seeking more fame or just to create some buzz around

their name. For the unknown as well as for the more famous, being pictured in adult

magazines is the recognition of having attained some kind of perfection as a sex-object

beauty.

Hugh Hefner founded the magazine Playboy in 1953, presenting Marilyn Monroe’s

naked pictures purchased from a local printer; with success coming, he explained in an

interview that the typical girl presented is "never sophisticated, a girl you cannot really have.

She is a young, healthy, simple girl – the girl next door (…) She is naked, well-washed with

soap and water, and she is happy”208.

This perfect “girl next door” image has evolved with society’s expectations trough the years:

less curvy, more toned yet still very feminine and often busty, and seemingly inviting or

submissive.

208 Small Business Pool. May 26, 2013. (http://smallbusinesspool.net/2013/05/26/the-playboy-bunny-case-study/)


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Playboy spokesman Bill Farley explained to Associated Press that "As time has gone

on and women have become more athletic, (…) and more inclined to put themselves through

fitness regimes, their bodies have changed, and we reflect that as well"209.

Playboy’s seemingly natural “buxom and blonde" model of beauty seems to be as

fictitious (should we say artificial or even virtual?) as any other so-called ideal: the models

are said to be quite siliconized. Some more research has revealed that the playboy company

effectively used to pay for their plastic surgery procedures as a sort of investment for the

quality of their product210. ‘Plasticopedia’, the educative part of ‘Make Me Heal’, a site

devoted to plastic surgery, boasting more than 8 million members and 1.5 million visitors

monthly (this to show the importance of the phenomenon), states that between Playboy and

plastic surgery, there is a win-win game to convince women and men that large breast

implants are the new ideal. “It should not be forgotten that Hugh Hefner and his Playboy empire have played an important

role in spreading plastic surgery to the masses by featuring women with large breast implants and

broadcasting the message that this is the modern man’s ideal of female beauty. Playboy has helped

reshape the female standards of beauty and make the breast implants look very appealing to men and

women. The plastic surgery industry is forever indebted to Hefner for his contribution in popularizing

breast implants. Hefner helped build the plastic surgery world and plastic surgery has helped build the

house of Playboy." 211

Besides the standard model, there sometimes can be found a black woman

corresponding to the very same standards, corresponding to what their African American

male potential partners are supposed to appreciate according to mainstream models. We can

wonder if the permanent display of a white female ideal, unfit for almost all black women

cannot constitute one more factor of dissention and dissatisfaction between African American

men and women.

Moreover, we must assume that the silicone-enhanced “girl-next-door” ideal is still

not perfect: the photographs are heavily retouched, in fact it seems that airbrushing is not

only very frequent but conveys a lot of criticism towards anything that would remain

natural212: The magazine wants perfection, the photograph wants a perfect art piece, the

209ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125506) , Original article 2006 (updated Dec. 20 2014 ?) 210 Make Me Heal, a site specialized in “all things plastic surgery, beauty enhancement, and anti-aging" (self defined). (http://news.makemeheal.com/celebrity-plastic-surgery/hugh-hefner-pays-for-playmates-plastic-surgery/1684) 211 Make Me Heal. (http://education.makemeheal.com/index.php/Hugh_Hefner) 212 Jezebel. CARMON Irin. Photoshop of horrors. Nov.19 2010. (http://jezebel.com/5693656/how-your-playboy-centerfold-sausage-is-made-nsfw)


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model may appreciate the result but not the implied criticism about her flaws. Concerning the

viewer, he should be appreciative and unaware of the fact that there seldom is anything real

in the picture and her female partners cannot but be victims of the unfair comparison and the

pop-culture message: women living “next-door” (which means all nubile females) are sex

objects which should be sexually compliant and should look perfectly sleek and shaped

according to the model. Such a perception is not very far from black women’s perception

inherited from antebellum times and extended to all women. That does not even ring a bell

for criticism for most people, because of its consistency with the other media conveyed

models: there is no cognitive dissonance in the models but rather a coherent (and destructive)

system.

Cheerleaders

Cheerleaders are another American model of beauty and attractiveness devoted to

attract male gaze and pleasure as well as setting a model for young (and would-be young)

women. Their role is to bring (more) excitement to sports games. Another beauty and sex

symbol, these girls are athletic in terms of physical performance (in acrobatic gymnastics),

their training is very strenuous and demanding, they also must be great show performers and

above all present an irreproachable figure that never seems slim enough to embody young

American women’s ideal (they can be fired for gaining a few pounds and being considered

“chunky” at a size 4 --see image below right--). Some of them are college students, others are

professionals, all experience a sense of pride and appreciation but above all an overwhelming

pressure and an ever-present threat of rejection and injuries. As a model for active and sporty

young girls of any race, there is no need to demonstrate how self-objectifying and frustrating

this (yet another) almost unattainable objective can be in terms of self-imposed starvation

while enduring a very hard preparation, sometimes from a very young age. They logically

have to resort to health threatening food complements (including those banned in competitive

sports) and plastic surgery.

Fitness Beauty

Other models of female beauty have sporty ways and means, along with all the

performance sports paraphernalia and constraints but with the sole objective of attaining

another model of physical perfection: bodybuilding competition (not to be mistaken for

competitive aerobics, which is an athletic discipline which could be linked to cheerleading in

terms of physical performance) has long been considered only as a show but is presently


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considered as a competitive sport and is trying to enter the Olympics. They represent a

stronger, maybe less feminine image of beauty even though it would be difficult not to find

body (and self) objectification in their stage performance based on intensive use of cosmetics,

dietary (slimming, delineating, mass gaining) products and again surgical enhancement.

Women sports figures are often quoted as androgynous and top athletes are requested

to be attractive according to the usual standards, treated like show-business celebrities and

even invited to undress, maybe to prove their compliance with a reassuring (for the

audiences) normality. To attract more fans, or possibly just spectators and advertising

budgets, some sports, such as beach volley-ball (desperately) try to keep female athletes in an

objectifying position by imposing a (very small) maximum size for the bikini bottoms they

have to wear when competing, something they obviously would not dare (or care) do for

male players. American pride likes it when American women are sports champions, but loves

when they are above all beautiful objects, and criticize them when they are not. Indeed,

beautiful losers can get more press coverage (or rather: exposure) than average looking

winners: talent is nothing, or at least not much without a sexy image.

Fitness programs seem to follow a different logic: the ever-present pursuit of

perfection can be considered as physically and morally empowering. For fitness addicts,

being ‘hot’ is not restricted to physical appearance. They are presented as self-acknowledged

“badasses” (we have seen how positively this term should be understood), in search of power

and self-assumption. Their role models are larger-than-life women aiming at being equal or

superior to (seemingly unnecessary) men, feminist and sometimes lesbianism apostles. This

constitutes another female model, which is gaining momentum in more LGBT-friendly times.

Most female fitness addicts certainly do certainly not go to extremes but they do share a need

for empowerment and self re-appropriation against alienating imposed models: strong and

bold while staying feminine and professionally successful can certainly be considered a

positive ideal in terms of social inclusion and self-fulfillment. Nike among other sports

equipment companies has clearly made a choice to encourage (and benefit from) this trend

and commercial demand advocating thicker, stronger and more muscular female ideals,

closer to biological and social realities and much more diversity-inclusive (see image below

left). However, some may contend that sending the message that bearing the sole

responsibility of your body appearance (you “make” it) means criticizing and shaming those

who do not for any reason.


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“Chunky” cheerleader (CBS Houston Website)

“Badass” fitness addicts (Nike advertisement)

2.2.4. Beauty Models and the Media

In the same time media (and even more blogs) also play the role of gatekeepers and

bellwethers by giving sounder advice to their receivers.

213 Business Dictionary definition: Customer of a professional service provider, or the principal of an agent or contractor. (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/client.html)

Media are the first users and abusers

of airbrushing (digitally altering

photography to make it look perfect

according to the client213’s standards) in

their (sometimes desperate) pursuit of

audiences and announcers.

They bear a high responsibility

concerning the fact that models are totally

unrealistic while influencing their readers

and viewers that these are the unavoidable

truths, trends and must-dos.

They might be more destructive

than marketing because people trust them

to a certain extent and consider them as

opinion leaders.


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In fact, some magazines practice whet they call ‘reverse airbrushing’ (instead of the usual

thinning manipulation) to make the models appear plumper or simply less unhealthy when

they are excessively skinny.

There certainly is something schizophrenic about this: some editorial parts might be

on the behalf of readers while others sport announcers’ messages and visuals. As for the

blogs, they can be a less-formal, more direct way of addressing customers for brands, or

reflect their creators’ opinions whether these are sane214 or not. People are supposed to trace

reality from fiction, manipulation from information, truth is that it is not always so simple,

even for well informed individuals (for instance, what can be good or bad for your health

usually is proven by scientific studies and medicine doctors, but these are most often financed

by manufacturers or lobbies -but this goes far beyond our present study and would deserve a

specific one).

Tyra Banks is very epitomical of this schizophrenia: a top model of all the most

prestigious runways, the first black model on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazines, she

turned to beachwear and lingerie modeling to avoid having to starve for her figure, and

incidentally inviting the critics to “kiss her fat a**215” when she showed some slightly over-

the-standard bare skin. She has been an actress and was the television host and producer of

the Tyra talk show aiming at empowering (particularly black) young women, but is also the

leading person of America’s Next Model, a reality TV show where aspiring models have to

conform to beauty standards. She dares to appear without makeup while her cosmetics

commercial site promises to “transform what you’ve got…into what you want216”. This

recently Harvard graduated celebrity embodies and advocates at the same time commercial

beauty and self-assumption.

Airbrush to ‘Perfection’

We should not think that airbrushing stops at the media virtual or glossy paper pages,

many social media self-portraits are manipulated (‘photoshopped’, to cite the most famous

retouching software) by the senders, and even some high schools ‘enhance’ their image by

retouching school ID shots. We must understand that we live in a virtual world concerning

people’s broadcasted appearance. It could be seen as an interesting adaptive reaction to media

and marketing falseness if it did not mean at the same time that we lie to our acquaintances, 214 A very interesting approach for a re-appropriation of women’s image and self-perception can be found at (http://www.beautyredefined.net) 215 (http://www.biography.com/people/tyra-banks-16242328#reality-tv-and-other-work) 216 Tyra Bank's site: (https://www.tyra.com/www/en/us/about-brand)


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and ourselves, which does not show a high level of self-assumption. Without going to the

extremes of condemning any kind of makeup or grooming, we can wonder about the effects

of this split image between real-life social intercourse and virtual self-representation. People

love to see ‘shocking’ pictures of celebrities without makeup or trashed-up, this dual image

can now affect most individuals.

Leaving (almost) Nothing to Imagination

On their part, celebrities have become used to bare all or almost all: in magazine

photos but increasingly on the so-called ‘red-carpet’ events gathering all the audience-

attracting VIPs. For several of them, and not necessarily the most extreme or usually

shocking ones, (unique but somehow alike) high-fashion dresses have come to look like stage

costumes made of almost nothing than glitter. Whether people find them empowering or

objectifying, they are meant to and succeed in attracting all attention. They necessarily have

to appear perfect on the unavoidable snapshots taken on the spot and give yet another model

of overexposed perfection.

Celebrities also are increasingly fond of baring all or almost all on the pages of

mainstream and adult magazines, and constitute an interesting model for aging (or refusing to

age) perception since top performers are appreciated for staying ‘amazingly young’ or “aging

gracefully” if not always naturally. Silver power (of purchase) is being increasingly courted

as they also represent new needs and wants for more specific versions of goods and services

ranging from healthcare to leisure and obviously anti-aging products. This is not really a new

market but certainly one with a development potential, which is not true for many other

segments.

Feminism and Beauty

For some feminist authors, beauty is only a myth aimed at keeping women under

men’s domination and maintained in an inferior situation. Naomi Wolf 217 particularly

contends: "what we call “beautiful” is a cultural myth that has been framed (…) to keep

women under control by imprisoning them in their bodies". For her, the traditional myth of

domesticity has left place to the beauty myth as a means of social control by “poisoning (…)

controlled, attractive, successful working women” with self-hatred, physical obsession, terror

217 WOLF Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. 1991. New York: William Morrow.


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of aging and dreaded lost control218”. While we can agree that social roles and beauty

perception are linked, it seems more difficult to believe in a deliberate plotting to keep

women inferior, but it seems more likely that marketing and media mostly reflect (and maybe

amplify) society’s perception and social values, for good or bad and certainly in both ways,

stirring interest and sometimes passion since these make audience and consumption. In any

case, beauty (whatever the definition) and attractiveness searching undoubtedly respond to

deep-rooted human needs, favor social relations and are necessary for bonding and thus

satisfying belonging and appreciation needs. The difficult part seems to be avoiding to

become prisoners or hostages of the appearance game.

Get Real!

American society is obsessed by youth, or maybe terrified by the perspective of aging

and dying, but an aging society. Obsessed by thinness as a sign of health, youth and

innocence and fat-shaming supposed avidity or laziness while being overweight or obese for

two thirds of the overall population (37% of women are overweight, 30% obese219; black

non-Hispanic women are 5 points above women’s average 220 ). Obsessed by breasts,

omnipresent in media and advertising to the point of considering implants as normal, but in

the same time stating that showing nipples and public breastfeeding are shocking or obscene.

Obsessed by booties to the point of having such “serious” papers as The Daily Beast (digital

native linked with Newsweek), Vogue (“The big booty has officially become ubiquitous"221),

and the New York Times declare that 2014 has been “the year of the butt”222

It might be a reaction to those frustrating models, or just that audiences not only need

dreams and ideal images and references to try and live beyond they day-to-day hassles, but

documentary movies and videos, and even media seem to be increasingly portraying normal,

flawed people. Tyra Banks, trend-setting once again coined the term “flawsome” (flawed but

still awesome) to describe a more realistic approach of beauty and well-being: something and

more particularly someone who is awesome with or because of its flaws. It can give a

218 WOLF Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. 1991. New York: William Morrow. 219 Time. (http://time.com/3929990/americans-overweight-obese/?xid=newsletter-brief) 220 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics: "Healthy weight, overweight, and obesity among U.S. adults". (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/databriefs/adultweight.pdf) 221 Vogue. (http://www.vogue.com/1342927/booty-in-pop-culture-jennifer-lopez-iggy-azalea/) 222 Daily Beast. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/30/year-of-the-butt-how-the-booty-changed-the-world-in-2014.html)


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“powerful sentiment of self-acceptance”, and “doesn’t idealize one particular body image”

223. This has led to a better acceptance from the media and the claim of a higher dignity and

respect of all women. Plus sized models and actresses are finding their place in magazines

and catalogs, and get leading roles in big-shot movies. It should be noted they usually still are

below national average and some editors and social networks comments still call them by

such ‘elegant’ names as tractor-sized or hippos, but let us remark though that professional

indelicacy is more and more condemned and support is increasingly shown instead of (or

besides) the usual shaming.

Women do come in very different sizes, body shapes and proportions; admittedly

there is not only one kind (or color) of beauty in real women. They increasingly dare to have

their real image published being average ‘Plain Janes’, considering themselves and being

considered as attractive and not being denied sexiness because they do not (cannot or will

not) conform to ideal standards, their so-called flaws (particularly curves) indeed becoming

their assets.

Reality can cohabit with ideal as long as everybody is conscious that each one is what

it is. In this sense we can consider that we are living in times of higher acceptance for not-

totally-conforming beauties. When men have been surveyed on this matter, they clearly

answered that they perfectly realized the (moral as well as physical) defects and flaws of their

significant other, while acknowledging that their mate also could expect more and better from

them. Their conclusion is quite heartwarming: a high proportion of them would like their

female partner to look and behave better, but would not change her.

Even if people may fantasize about perfect and unreal images of beauty, they choose

reality: Ideal beauty, as the term coins it, is and is meant to stay an image (an idea) rather

than a reality. Even when they dream of Ferraris, they do take, keep and enjoy “Chevies”.

This is only logical: if people do not have what they are supposed to consider as beautiful or

desirable within their reach, they will appreciate the beauty in what and those they can access

to (any other position would be unsustainable and utterly frustrating). This makes people

much more resilient and happy than we could fear and than what marketing would like it to

be; and this is true for males and females as well, in terms of what can be accomplished and

the people we choose to relate to.

223 Hello Giggles. (http://hellogiggles.com/tyra-banks-new-phrase-flawsome-one-using/)


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This trans-generational reality is more than a trend, and we can think it will confirm

for the coming generations: along with ‘mini-miss’ pageants and excessively young models

and sports champions often having their lives wasted by early age sexiness or physical

performance, we also find a lot of encouragement and self-assumption promoted by ‘moms’

who reject the social stereotypes that limited their personal and professional development.

The traditionally despective and discriminating expression “like a girl” has been

reinterpreted by Procter & Gamble marketers (showing that it is emerging as mainstream)

featuring sporty girls: running, fighting and throwing. This campaign has been awarded by

the advertising profession as one of the best224. The fact that the same company also sells

female-objectifying products and images should not surprise us: each brand and each

customer segment is managed on its own and both make profits, they do not oppose, they pile

up earnings for shareholders’ sake.

2.3. Models and Consequences Even though Americans spend the most on cosmetics in the world, we are ranked only 23rd in one

list of “satisfaction with life.” In a futile effort to fit this mythical ideal of beauty, millions of American

women torture their feet with high heels, undergo unnecessary cosmetic surgeries, starve themselves,

and make themselves physically and mentally miserable—all over an imaginary ideal they didn’t even

create. ABDUL-JABBAR Kareem225

2.3.1. Beauty Pressure

The pressure for beauty, the stress of never being beautiful enough, the search for

perfection while seeing only one’s flaws are permanent and can turn obsessional. Obviously

that is the objective aimed at by marketers and the result of their work. New products and

new trends (total grooming or a thigh gap for instance) regularly come to revive and reinforce

the corresponding needs and wants, generating adaptive behavior, some new social groups,

and sometimes creating strong reactions with non-conforming groups (e.g. staying hairy or

overstuffing).

There are lots of pages explaining the dos and don’ts of personal care, for seduction

and for work. If we focus more particularly on the latter, the rules are generally clear:

employers and co-workers expect a clean, professional, dynamic appearance. “Good

grooming means taking care of your hair, skin, face, hands and your total body; can lift your

morale and help increase your self-esteem; means that you are taking care of yourself, and 224 Creativity-online. (http://creativity-online.com/work/always-best-of-2014-1-tvfilm-like-a-girl/36202) 225 Time. Jul. 20, 2015. (http://time.com/3964758/body-shaming-black-female-athletes/)


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that is important!”226. The Huffington Post gives another series of advice227 and particularly

"Don't look tired at the office" which would be "a major workplace sin" while avoiding any

potentially distractive element that could make the others and oneself feel uncomfortable

(like revealing clothes, heavy makeup or perfume, for example). The list of beauty products

these articles generally suggest or recommend is quite lengthy and we must understand that

social and noticeably professional appearance is very important for people’s judgment and

highly coded.

The first result is that more than $7 billion are spent each year in the USA on cosmetic

products and $12.4 billion in esthetic surgical procedures. All that money will not go to

tuition or retirement even though these can be considered more important on the long run.

2.3.2. Groomed Body: Beauty is Only Skin Deep

After all the “You Shall be” series, beauty rules “You shall dos” (We will study only

some of these many rules)

Cosmetic Products

Women apply products on each and every part of their body. “Research by Bionsen, a

natural deodorant company, found that the average woman's daily grooming and make-up

routine means she 'hosts' a staggering 515 different synthetic chemicals on her body every

single day"228. Besides their (supposedly but not always proven) beauty effects, most of them

contain several dangerous chemicals that can cause allergies and hormonal disruption for the

most common, threaten their fertility or induce skin cancer for the most severe

Some other results seem interesting in the latest studies: cosmetics do enhance beauty, but

certainly much less than usually expected, the effect mainly comes from a better self

confidence inducing more a more positive approach in social intercourse 229. Another

interesting point would be that by amplifying contrasts, makeup could create a more feminine

appearance, which might be the only real beauty enhancement it brings230. In fact women use

cosmetics more for comfort reasons than real effects, "the sensation of wellbeing gained from

226 University of Illinois Extension. (http://extension.illinois.edu/dress/04pers-groom-01groom.cfm) 227 Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/14/grooming-work-rules_n_4096132.html) 228 Daily Mail. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/beauty/article-1229275/Revealed--515-chemicals-women-bodies-day.html) 229 Today. (http://www.today.com/health/makeup-not-key-beauty-what-really-makes-us-more-attractive-1D80418580) 230 Science Daily. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091020153100.htm)


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eliminating or reducing feelings of worry and guilt, which is the factor with the greatest

impact," 231, explains the author.

Marketers have noticed that even though women do trust that their cosmetic products

really help them for being more attractive or staying younger, they expect more from their

cosmetic products: “The demand for more multitasking, harder working, greater value

products is evident". Women realize that "eating the right food" and "drinking lots of water"

play a crucial role as well. 232

All these do not clearly advocate for dropping cosmetics at once, moistening creams

seem necessary for instance, and particularly for dryer black skins, as well as sun protection

(dark skins do burn and can develop sun related cancers), but as for most products and

services, marketing is behind trends to convince women they need more, newer and more

expensive.

Grooming

Hair grooming is another interesting social phenomenon: women have been led to

think that they must be totally hair free (except for the top of their head) including the pubic

region, to appear neater, younger (seemingly following pornographic images) maybe even

childish. Being hairy is traditionally linked with virility, beastliness, or downright

unkemptness. This usually feminine trend has to some point extended to (particularly

metrosexual) men following trendy artists and media aroused athletes. Shaving or waxing

legs and armpits has been the norm in western countries for more than a generation, creating

an important specific market for both techniques. Even though a more “natural” style is

sometimes advocated by some celebrities, grooming does not seem to be on a path to

reversal. This also has to be considered as cultural: Brazilian bikini waxing allows women to

go carefree to the beach (but many Brazilian women use to bleach their leg hair rather than

getting rid of it --this is a post-colonial racist heritage: in Latin America, keeping leg and arm

hair was a way to show European descent, since natives and black women were supposed to

have very little body hair). Black women have to follow the same grooming rules and spend

time and money on this issue, but they might for once hold an advantage when they actually

are almost body-hair free and can use only cream hair remover (yet another product…);

231 Science Daily. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110721095846.htm) 232 Marketing Week. (http://www.marketingweek.com/2012/03/07/women-want-cosmetic-brands-to-work-harder/)


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unfortunately since many African American women have mixed origins, this does not apply

to all.

Spanx and Fakes

Containing and shaping girdles, padded underwear and fake enhancements have long

been used and sometimes recommended to correct what mother nature and sometimes a

defective health or living style could not get well-looking enough. More recently colored

contact lenses allowed everyone to have the right eye-color, usually fairer than the original

one. Shapewear (Spanx is the best known brand) is the new it, it delineates women’s curves

without letting anything bulge out or look flabby. Unfortunately and just like old-time

corsets, these pieces of underwear compress people’s internal organs thus having an adverse

effect on their normal functions, and decrease blood circulation while giving the wrong

feeling of being muscularly toned233. Shapewear has been enthusiastically endorsed by many

beloved personalities such as Oprah Winfrey or actress Octavia Spencer, who explains that

“it gives the illusion of the hourglass shape” but can also be very uncomfortable234 if you

overuse them or do not choose the right fit.

We cannot finish this part without evoking hair care, a problem for African American

women that has been seen in the first part. Fact is that black hair, just as black skin is dryer

and needs more care than others textures. "In 2014, the market value of haircare

products formulated for Black consumers was estimated to be worth $774 million. A rise

Mintel (market research firm) attributes to hair playing a vital role in shaping image"235.

Besides these figures, African Americans also resort to “general market brands,

weaves, extensions, wigs, independent beauty supply stores, distributors, e-commerce, styling

tools and appliances”. If all of those were taken into consideration, the total could reach a

whopping $500 billion dollars from Mintel’s estimations236, and these figures only represent

the width of the black beauty market only for hair care.

2.3.3. Disciplined Body: No Pain, No Gain

Apart from cosmetics and hair tending, if we want to go deeper inside beauty and its

body effects, we will have to deal with weight and dieting. 233 Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/spanx-shapewear_n_4616907.html) 234 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7gTKkuqXrU) 235 Cosmetics Design. YEOMANS Michelle, Sep. 23 2014. (http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Market-Trends/Mintel-reports-ethnic-haircare-market-as-still-being-heavily-invested-in) 236 Huffington Post. OPIAH, Antonia, Jan. 24 2014. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/antonia-opiah/the-changing-business-of-_b_4650819.html)


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We already mentioned that unavoidable and compelling beauty models could lead to eating

disorders because of a lower self-esteem and the consequent moral discomfort.

The main causes for being overweight (illness causes apart) are excessive calorie

intake (often linked with a high proportion of processed food) and insufficient exercising,

thus stocking the excess as body fat. At any moment of the year, we can consider that almost

a quarter of the American population is engaged in some form of dieting, often (for nearly

two out of three people) on the long term or making four to five attempts a year. The US

weight loss industry concerns more than 100 million dieters, among whom 85% are women.

The annual revenue generated by the weight loss industry is over $20 billion from diet

programs and food, diet books, diet drugs and weight-loss surgeries237, this figure can grow

up to $60 billion if we also consider weight-loss spending in exercise. Indeed, most people

rely principally on dieting and consider exercising rather as a complement. Most dieters have

attempted dieting by themselves, by eating less, and in a lesser proportion by controlling

portion sizes, calorie control and avoiding sugar238 (A complete overlook of the weight losing

possibilities can be found in this article from Markets and Markets239).

In the last years, it seems that the number of dieters has slightly decreased, and this

could be linked with the Americans being more aware that dieting is not easy, and not always

as effective as it should, let aside the devastating yo-yo effect most dieters have to endure

afterwards240.

Another factor plays a growing role: overweight people are much less than before

considered less attractive than leaner ones, according to market research company the NPD

Group: “coming to accept and appreciate larger bodies will lead to higher body satisfaction,

and in turn, less dieting241”. This could also lead to a decrease in the all-too-frequent and

sometimes dramatic eating disorders.

Black women have particular issues with dieting, frequently living in less privileged

conditions and places, they have less access to healthy food and exercise, are less informed

and more stressed because suffer from racism and discrimination. Besides being tedious,

237 ABC News, May 8 2012. (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/100-million-dieters-20-billion-weight-loss-industry/story?id=16297197) 238 Gallup. SAAD Lydia, Nov. 28 2011. (http://www.gallup.com/poll/150986/lose-weight-americans-rely-dieting-exercise.aspx) 239 Markets and Markets. Feb. 2015 (http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/weight-loss-obesity-management-market-1152.html) 240 National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD). (http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/) 241 Huffington Post, BAHADUR Nina, Jan. 9 2013. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/diet-research-industry-decrease-study_n_2434316.html)


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diets imbalance hunger and satiety sensations and favor cravings as well as guilt feelings with

women who on average need more effort to lose weight than white ones242. All these factors

combined with a possible genetic and cultural predisposition contribute to African American

women being more often overweight and obese (82% of them243), more likely to suffer from

diabetes or high blood pressure244. Concerning this problem, again black women seek

solidarity solutions like specific blogging and advice, and mainly peer support in their

struggle for feeling better, and better accepted.

Apart from a wider body range acceptance, another sign of hope is given by the sharp

decrease of obesity rate for children245 (about one in nine for black children, compared with

one in twelve in average, and one in six for Hispanics -- but plump children ‘gorditos’ are

still highly appreciated in Latino culture), which should mean healthier adults.

Fitness Model

Fitness and exercising are relatively recent practices, first reserved to not-too-tired

elites since most of the effort had been devoted by most to earn a living in one way or another

or training for combat. Fitness practicing for fun and health has now been widely adopted as

a means to be more toned and appear more attractive in the first place, sometimes to help

(re)build an ego or a positive image of self. Yet exercising routines and programs are often

seen as difficult or boring, not everyone enjoys effort, it depends on natural dispositions and

certainly a cultural and educational environment. Women have traditionally been expected

not to be ‘excessively’ toned, strong and bold thus less ‘feminine’, since that would

undermine men’s difference and social domination. It seems that this ‘meant-to-be inferior’

perception of women still stands in many (not always) unconscious cultural references. With

society’s evolution though, women have gained the right to empowerment and gender

equality, but implementing it is often difficult, particularly for African American women.

Black women in average exercise much less than other ethnicities and notably much

less than the recommended 150 minutes a week. They have a specific issue about exercising

242 Huffington Post, JETVIG Shereen, Jan. 4 2014 (figures from Reuters Health). (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/04/african-american-women-weight-loss_n_4541535.html) 243 Food Research and Action Center (2011-2012 figures). (http://frac.org/initiatives/hunger-and-obesity/obesity-in-the-us/) 244 FRIDAY Leslie, "Exploring the Causes of Black Women’s Obesity". Boston University, BU Today (Nov. 29 2012) 245 New York Times. TAVERNISE, Sabrina, Feb. 25 2014. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/health/obesity-rate-for-young-children-plummets-43-in-a-decade.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=health&_r=0°


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because of their hair: “They may not want to wash their hair more than once a week246 to

keep their hairstyle, and may avoid sweating because of that". Black women see their hair

care as tedious and costly, so “about a third of the women said they exercise less than they'd

like because of their hair, and half said they have considered changing their hair for

exercise”247.

As a response, many black women’s health, fitness and hair-care oriented sites offer

advise and encouragement for those who want to work-out248, having to choose specific hair-

dos and pay special attention to their hair, which clearly is a constraint for exercising.

Fitness, just like many other activities is also a matter of measure and common sense.

Extremes may seem rewarded by increased attractiveness and popularity but they often carry

adverse health consequences, as we have seen in the fitness model part. Black women

performers are no exception in bodybuilding for product intake and surgical procedures, often

combined to unbalanced and unhealthy dieting.

2.3.4. Altered Body. Want a Movie Body? Cut!

Reconstructive surgery and orthodontics are a matter of physical and moral health, the

rest of plastic surgery is “all about vanity” explains a well documented special issue from

Time Magazine (Nip. Tuck. Or Else. June 29 2015) which concludes that “cosmetic surgery

is the new makeup” hinting that everybody is doing so why not you? Indeed, 70 percent of

plastic surgery is cosmetic rather than reconstructive249.

Plastic surgery industry (a $7 billion plus business) seems quite far from medicine

when you consider their ways and means to attract potential customers: this is pure bottom

line oriented marketing.

On the other side, body appearance is an important, maybe the main working tool for

many celebrities, media and public relations professionals, as well as an asset for all

representation activities. Considering the overwhelming pressure, permanent stare and

judgment (not to mention self-appreciation based on unrealistic ideal models) imposed on

246 The specific texture of African hair implies that it should be treated regularly but not washed too often, and not necessarily more than once a week (my readings and observations). 247 Huffington Post, from Reuters Health, last updated Feb. 17 2013, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/18/black-women-hair-avoid-exercise_n_2321539.html) 248 One page among many others, from Livestrong: Chandler Brynne, Aug. 16 2013, (http://www.livestrong.com/article/132295-how-care-african-american-hair-after-exercise/) 249 Az Central (Arizona State official site). (http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/business-profit-side-cosmetic-surgery-29169.html)


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public and public-related personalities, but more generally on everyone, considering invasive

or non-invasive esthetic surgery solely as a ‘vanity’ issue would certainly be excessively

harsh. Many of those who “have undergone such procedures say the money they spent has

led to benefits in their professional lives250”. It is revealing to realize that this article comes

from the ‘Wealth Matters’ section of the newspaper and presents such procedures as a

professional investment.

Time Magazine special says that for plastic surgery results pictures “people

consistently rated the post-op photos as higher (than before being operated) on things like

social skills, likeability, femininity and overall attractiveness (…) not to mention

trustworthiness and risk-seeking251". Apart from correcting real or supposed flaws, surgery is

often meant to hide aging, but according to viewers’ appreciation, it does not seem to

‘forgive’ more than some three years.

The most popular (nearly 1.7 million in 2013) surgical procedures are liposuction and

tummy tucks (i.e. looking thinner without dieting), breast augmentation (being more sexy, or

sultry?), nose and eyelid surgery, (conforming to a specific Eurocentric model) and facelifts

(trying to conceal ageing). The main nonsurgical (more than 13,4 million) procedures in 2013

concerned aging (Botulin injection and soft tissue fillers) besides laser hair removal and skin

interventions252. All this amounts to more than 15 million permanent or temporary253

cosmetic procedures, which is a lot but clearly a long way from being able to say

‘everybody’. We can wonder whether Times’ title is simply provocative or if some business

interests might lead to that conclusion in order to furthermore develop the market…

Another approach could be concluding that seeing cosmetic surgery as trivial can be

considered as the ultimate body objectification, reducing it to interchangeable parts at envy.

This part cannot be finished without mentioning that just like any other surgical

procedure, cosmetic interventions can have disastrous consequences not only in terms of

appearance results, but may lead to important health and sometimes life threatening

complications254.

250 New York Times. SULLIVAN Paul, Apr. 24 2015. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/your-money/noninvasive-cosmetic-surgery-can-deliver-confidence-at-a-cost.html?ref=topics&_r=0) 251 Time. (http://time.com/3814422/plastic-surgery-likeable/) 252 American Society of Plastic Surgeons, press release Feb. 26 2014, (http://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/2014/plastic-surgery-procedures-continue-steady-growth-in-us.html) 253New York Times. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/fashion/what-a-difference-a-day-makes.html). (These temporary-lasting interventions can be considered as close to ‘makeup’ or padded underwear) 254 Healthline, Feb. 4 2015, (http://www.healthline.com/health/most-common-plastic-surgery-complications#1)


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The specific concerns of black women about cosmetic surgery will be more precisely

seen in the next part about black beauty.

2.4. African American beauty

Some of the body shaming of athletic black women is definitely a racist rejection of black women’s bodies that don’t conform to the traditional body shapes of white athletes and dancers. No one questions the beauty of black actresses such as Kerry Washington (Scandal) or Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) because they fit the lithe image perpetuated by women’s fashion magazines. The body shaming of (Serena) Williams and (Misty) Copeland is partly because they don’t fit the Western ideal of femininity. But another cause is our disrespectful ideal of the feminine body in general. (-) The social norms (is) the man as the strong protector and the woman as the childlike, weak dependent. (Hence, all the “romantic” portrayals of men swooping up women in their arms and carrying them to safety or bed.) (-) Perhaps the muscular, athletic woman symbolizes physical and mental self-sufficiency, which threatens the cozy ideal of beauty as soft, fragile, and weak. ABDUL-JABBAR Kareem255.

2.4.1. The doll test

Sad story. Black children aged 5 to 9 were asked to choose between (otherwise

identical) black or white dolls: Which one is the good doll? Which is the bad doll? The ugly

255 Time. http://time.com/3964758/body-shaming-black-female-athletes/ (Op. Cit.)


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one? The dumb one? The mean one? Most of the time white was good, black was bad, the

chosen one was white, the rejected black256. The subjects were all black children. Sad.

Revolting to see and hear how they had internalized racial discrimination. Against

themselves.

That was in the nineteen forties, just a test meant to help abolish school

segregation 257 . More than sixty years later, schools have long been non-segregated.

Officially. Sharing the same spaces, being involved in the same activities for part of the

school or the workday are not enough to break racial barriers and prejudices. Social

segregation often maintains the status quo.

Many times, the same test and other versions have been undertaken with the same

question: how racist are children from an early age? The opinions of most white (and Latino)

children have not really changed: dark skinned kids are dumb, mean and ugly.

Racial stereotypes are even more adverse for black girls than they are for white boys:

these can be considered as cool and sporty, the girls as loud and obnoxious. Black kids have

learnt to protect themselves by developing a pro-black identity that diminishes the impact of

this adverse racial bias258. In a country where physical appearance matters a lot, being

considered unattractive is no trifle, so it is no wonder that black women are very sensitive

about this issue, have built a specific African American beauty culture and claim their (being)

right to embody another form of beauty.

Mainstream pressure still is very important, more often than not black women are

confronted with beauty ideals that are unfit for them, starting by fair skin259. As we have

seen, most of the time this directly leads to ethnic pride and moral support between black

females, but also to colorism, sometimes black identity rejection, and a far from absolute

black male support. In fact, many black men seem to appreciate the elements of black female

figure, but more in terms of pleasure than in real terms of partnership.

Two elements go on that sense: black women’s beauty is most of the time depicted or

showcased in pop-culture black artistic creations or discourse as desirable rather than

256 The Doll test, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkpUyB2xgTM), from "A Conversation About Race", documentary from MSNBC by Bodeker, Craig. Full movie : (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNRVL8tibOo) 257 The Root. (http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/05/the_brown_decision_s_doll_test_11_facts.html) 258 CNN. (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/05/19/doll.study.reactions/index.html) 259 Columbia University. (http://cswr.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Bryant.-The-beauty-ideal-The-effects-of-European-standards-of-beauty-on-Black-women..pdf)


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respectable (like in hip-hop videos) and many black men seem to show a preference for fairer

or white women above all others.

If we go back to children’s appreciation, since beauty does not necessarily mean

nubile or sexy, women have to and do develop a sense of self empowerment made of wit and

self assumption starting from cradle260, this being an important achievement for their usually

very caring mothers (this sounds like another stereotype, but trans-generational black female

solidarity clearly is one of their most valuable characteristics and assets).

2.4.2. Multicultural but Divided Society

American people can seem quite surprising for foreigners, whatever their origin and

race, they are American above all, they feel and appear to become nationals faster than

immigrants in many other countries. Yet in this great all-including country, people often live

separate lives. Seen fro the outside, the melting pot looks much more like a patchwork of

non-miscible elements: you are this or that, and particularly you are black or white. Being

Latino, Indian, Oriental or Native also are very strong cultural identities and differences, with

their own ways of life, prides, fears and attached stereotypes, but none as marked as the

black/white divide.

Whites have inherited a general feeling of superiority against black people, and fear of

their supposed violent behavior. Blacks have developed resentment and a feeling of injustice

as a reaction. Mixed races people do not have it easier: too light skinned for being real blacks,

too dark for being whites. If not always tragic, ‘mulattos’ may have some trouble finding

their place: no wonder that they often opt for being black (abiding by the single drop rule),

whether this corresponds to a real choice or to a rejection. Those who feel the most

uncomfortable may reject their blackness and long to become just white to the uttermost

outrage of other black people, who cannot accept, let aside understand what they experience

as nonsense and insult.

2.4.3. A definition of Black Beauty, if Any

African American women suffer from an undervalued image, and endure more

adverse conditions; they have to face the double jeopardy of being women in a male

dominated society and black in a predominantly white one. They are darker skinned, thicker

in figure and features on average, with naturally less flowing hair: mainstream Caucasian 260 ANTOINE Sonya: "a little boy called me ugly" video of her daughter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL_m5Mvfzyw


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beauty standards do not totally correspond to them in a world based on conventional

appearances and stereotypes. We certainly can admit that their beauty is less ‘classical’ than

the usual ‘ideal’ standards. This can even sometimes lead to classify them as “less attractive”

by people who cannot make a distinction between prejudice and ‘scientific’ reality.

Mainstream perceptions are evolving towards new models more open to diversity, and

marketers are finding new ways of success by targeting them.

Meanwhile, African American women have to find their own way between white

beauty ideals and the way they are perceived, and their own appearance, possibilities and

culture. Black women have beauty ideals on their own, as well as beauty myths, that can be

relatively right or wrong.

Concerning black women’s appreciation of their own beauty, Essence magazine has

conducted a series of marketing surveys (step V in 2011) showing that

“African American women generally feel more positive about their beauty: "I think I am a

beautiful woman". (84% AA vs. 41% GM --AA stands for African American, GM means

general market), African-American women are celebrating their beauty more than the

General Market (61% AA vs. 52% GM) and they are feeling less challenged. (39% AA Vs.

48% GM)". 261

Allure magazine beauty poll (also 2011) confirmed that “African-American women

were three times as likely as Caucasian women to rate themselves at the hot end of the

spectrum262". In terms of female attractiveness "African-American men are directionally

more likely to embrace and aspire to curviness, they say they want curvier hips and a higher

and rounder butt or a larger butt", which is good, since "African-American women are (the)

least likely to be on a diet or watch their weight263".

The Essence study highlights the wide diversity of African American women, not

only in skin color and hair texture, but also that they can be distinguished by “mindset,

product usage, and knowledge” (discerning four different marketing archetypes which will be

examined in the third part). We can notice here that media play the part of empowering black

women and helping them cope with their troubles, and in the same time turn them into sheer

261 PR Newswire (Public Relations). (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smart-beauty-v-essence-reveals-new-insights-on-african-american-women-and-beauty-119837849.html) 262 Allure. (http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/2011/american-beauty-census#slide=3) 263 Racked. (http://www.racked.com/2011/2/15/7773471/the-2011-allure-beauty-survey-reveals-64-say-women-of-mixed-race)


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marketing targets; but this last aspect may be the condition to be able to address black women

and help them build up.

Ethnic Beauty and Exotic Appeal

Being labeled exotic or ethnic implies a ‘non-normal’ status, it means that the so-

called person does not belong to mainstream or does not correspond to its standards, even if it

does not necessarily mean rejection, it certainly looks like discrimination. ‘Ethnic’ beauty can

be a derogatory label and is often perceived as the forbidden fruit rather than worth a

meaningful relationship, so there is no wonder that black women are sensitive about it.

Anyway, diversity is increasing, and so is the number of mixed race people and their

influence on beauty perception264: “64% think women of mixed race represent the epitome of

beauty. 70% of those (women) who wish to change their skin color wanted it to be darker",

This comes with the fact that "74% of those surveyed believe that a curvier body type is more

appealing now than it has been over the past ten years".

2.4.4. Black Beauty and Consequences

Specific black beauty standards are particularly the so-called best parts of being black:

darker (should we say healthier-looking or with a better tan shade?) skin tones; and, by the

way as “blacks don’t crack” a better (but not total) skin resistance to sun exposure and

passing time, fuller lips (supposedly more sensuous), a more attractive (considering how

many people have to comment on it and want to touch it…) hair (black people know how

much trouble and concern black hair can be), and of course, last but not least “a figure that is

held up as "ideal" for black women : narrow waist, ample bosom, thick thighs and prominent

rear265".

‘Round booty’. ‘Junk in the trunk’. Several expressions depict what seems to be the

most noticeable characteristic of black women and their main physical asset (no pun

intended). In fact, African American women are expected to, and highly appreciated if they

are ‘phat’266, a term Merriam-Webster’s defines as “very attractive or appealing", considering

264 Racked. (http://www.racked.com/2011/2/15/7773471/the-2011-allure-beauty-survey-reveals-64-say-women-of-mixed-race) 265 The Root. (http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/02/black_beauty_standards_just_as_unhealthy_as_white_ones.html) 266 (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phat)


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that this constitutes a “probable alteration of fat”. The Urban dictionary267 defines ‘phat’ as

“cool” and points out that the acronym stands for "Pretty Hot And Tempting". If we had any

doubt about the fact that ‘phat girls’ (or ‘girlz’) applies particularly to black women, checking

the race of the eponymous movie protagonists or viewing the people pictured under those

terms at Google images would dispel it. The word ‘phat’ should not be misleading though:

even if some women would legitimately like to considerate that they are beautiful even when

(very) overweight, we certainly should understand that the common perception is more about

a globally thick (but not fat) and toned figure with an ample, round and toned bottom. Black

or ‘Nubian’ ‘goddesses’ are so because of their great internal beauty according to other black

women, but black men’s ideals seem to point at thick fitness or dance shaped female bodies

with low waist to hip ratios. Since we are talking about ideals rather than common realities,

these ‘phat’ black princesses are requested to be exempt from skin stretches and cellulite but

cannot be flat bottomed…

Let us face it, there is a real fetishization of black women’s behinds in general pop

culture: from media to advertising, from videos to butt padding or enhancements: all eyes are

supposed to be focused on these round (still or moving) targets. Many, not to say most

pictures and videos showcasing pop-culture celebrities are deliberately centered on their

round bottoms. The interest and will to have women sporting a shaped behind appears to be

widely shared among males and females (the former for their pleasure, the latter to attract

attention), as well as in most races, particularly for blacks and Latinos but also among whites

and others.

This last part can sound like gossiping, but it does have important consequences.

These specific standards are as compelling as mainstream ones: a black woman will endure a

high pressure to conform to one or the other ideal, according to her natural dispositions and

social background, and since she is black, should sport a round rump. Concerning women’s

expectations about how they would like to be, unsurprisingly almost all want to weight less

and feel particularly concerned by their belly appearance268. Combining a round bottom with

a flat stomach and no stretches or cellulite seem rather unattainable for most, unless they

resort to a lot of specific exercising (which costs a lot of time, effort and money), dieting or

cosmetic procedures.

267 (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=phat&defid=64020) 268 Allure. (http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/2011/american-beauty-census)


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Black Beauty Consequences

Let us start by a positive point: African American women “don’t crack”. They endure

and stand a lot of pressure and adverse factors from many sources, and they are very strong.

Physically they also enjoy the privilege of aging more gracefully and considering themselves

attractive beyond sixty, about ten years longer than their white counterparts. That better self-

confidence allows then to endure less fear and stress about aging and seldom wanting to use

anti-aging treatments or procedures269.

We have extensively commented on hair attraction and problems, but cosmetic

products also are an important concern for black women. Most cosmetics were designed for

white skins and did not always apply correctly to the very wide diversity of black skins.

Finding the products for their skin needs and matching their skin shades can be challenging,

but many brands have developed to serve (and cash on) black women’s needs, initiated by

black creators and businesspeople and the offer is currently wide for black skin cosmetic

products270. Indeed black women seem to have some specific needs, because of the higher

melanin content in their skin, which is linked with having dryer skin (and hair) and possible

color unevenness. This implies using some specific products carefully chosen among wide

ranges of seemingly unavoidable products271 (but that also is the discourse companies and

business supported media shall have for all women)

The most successful ones will follow the globalization logic: as markets develop, turn

more profitable and need more investments, they attract bigger players and may have to open

up or be bought by global brands and firms. An interesting example is black hair care brand

Soft Sheen272-Carson273 owned by the L’Oréal group by the end of the last century to enter

and dominate black hair market, principally in the USA.

Having a whiter skin can be considered desirable and many people have been tempted

to bleach theirs, with bad results: this unprotected, damaged skin may be lighter in color but

does not offer the needed protection and often result in severe burns. Some extreme practices

269 Allure. (http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/2013/the-allure-aging-survey#slide=7) 270 Multicultural Beauty. (http://multiculturalbeauty.about.com/od/Black/tp/Top-12-Black-Beauty-Products.htm) 271 Cosmopolitan. (http://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/beauty/a39873/best-beauty-products-for-black-women/) 272 Funding Universe, a site to help raise funds and get advice for young businesses. (http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/soft-sheen-products-inc-history/) 273 Funding Universe. (http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/carson-inc-history/)


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can be as weird as genital or anal bleaching with the health threatening results we can

imagine on these vulnerable parts274.

The main cost and the main dangers come from cosmetic surgery, and particularly

when people seek low-cost services: skin care burns can be devastating and invasive surgery,

particularly bottom enhancement can lead to dramatic consequences such as limb loss and

even death from inconvenient products injection or non-prophylactic procedures275 which

leads a The Root276 editor to say with some reason that “black beauty standards are just as

unhealthy as white ones”, a conclusion which certainly can be extended to any compelling

and rigid model.

African American women can less easily adapt and follow beauty ideals that do not fit

them (but should they?), so in turn they have developed a remarkable resilience against the

moral and physical violence implied by mainstream models: they have a better opinion of

their beauty and seduction power, are less prone to follow dieting, cosmetic and surgery

extremes. They also cope in a better way with their specific constraints with a higher

solidarity between black women and trans-generational. Black people and particularly black

women also have designed the tools they need to satisfy many of their needs: cosmetics, hair

care, informational and social media. For these issues, like for most, they are less and less

willing and likely to accept being pressured and criticized, while usually staying very

dignified and positive.

2.4.5. Black Success and Role Models

Black success is made of social facts, often based on individual achievements and

their media coverage. Instead of starting from general cases, we will examine some personal

cases and try to show their impact on African American women.

Many African American women live in underprivileged conditions; many others do

reach success. The symbolic and social importance of the self-made man myth in a ‘land of

274 Healthy Black Woman. (http://www.healthyblackwoman.com/what-women-are-undergoing-anl-and-vagnal-bleaching/) 275 CNN. (http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/01/health/diy-plastic-surgery/) and Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/08/wykesha-reid-homicide-butt-injections-_n_7539464.html) 276 The Root, D'OYLEY Demetria Lucas, Feb. 4 2014. (http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/02/black_beauty_standards_just_as_unhealthy_as_white_ones.html)


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opportunities’ and “dreams”277, is paramount to maintain social order: if you really want to

succeed, you will (provided you are good enough). This founding legend, initially designed

for white people to conquer and develop the country, and not complaining about the

harshness of their living conditions, has naturally been transferred to black people: it is up to

you to succeed; if you do not, do not complain or find excuses, that just means that you have

not tried hard enough. Despite being born and raised in often adverse conditions, many black

women have been able to make their way to success, wealth or fame in many different ways.

Many African American women have obtained recognition for their professionalism and

leadership against all odds and particularly prejudice. As we have mentioned in the first part

some are very successful in politics, sports management and competition, arts creation or

performance, but also in science and space conquest278, and even a four star admiral:

Michelle Janine Howard was promoted to Vice Chief of Naval Operations on July 1st. 2014.

She is now the highest-ranking female in the Navy’s history, the No. 2 top officer in the US

Navy, the first woman and first African-American to hold that position. Noticeably, black

women often are groundbreakers both for women and for minorities, achieving hard earned

positions despite the ‘double jeopardy’279 and criticism attached to every black woman

leader, when “success is not borne of race, gender or religion, but of skill and ability280”

Harriet Tubman has been widely supported to appear on the new $20 bill, which

should figure a woman281 showing that American people are aware of the struggles and

accomplishments of black women. For all their great achievements these outstanding ladies

constitute the necessary role models, or at least an important inspiration for all their thriving

sisters.

Pop Celebs and Role Models?

From Lupita Nyong’o to Beyoncé, from Rihanna to Erykah Badu, from Nicki Minaj

to Tyra Banks, from Wendy Williams to Oprah Winfrey, female popular black celebrities

have an important influence on people and not only on youngsters, in terms of public opinion, 277 Brand America Campaign and Land of Dreams tourism promotion video show the way Americans want to represent themselves as a multicultural and integrating country: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUA1CXIku8) 278 Some examples offerered by The Grio. (http://thegrio.com/2012/07/26/black-women-making-their-mark-in-space-and-science-slideshow/#Jeanette%20J.%20Epps%20PH.D%20%20recently%20graduated%20from%20Astronaut%20Candidate%20Training). 279 Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/black-women-leaders-face-double-jeopardy-criticism-leadership-roles_n_1879254.html) 280 Stripes. (http://www.stripes.com/news/howard-becomes-navy-s-first-female-4-star-1.291494) 281 NBC News. (http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/will-harriet-tubman-be-first-woman-20-bill-n357936)


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but also dressing codes or acceptable stances, not forgetting the possibilities of attaining a

huge success, power and wealth. Pop celebrities from stage or media (usually both) and

social networks have their say on black women’s beauty and lifestyle. They bring self-

assumption and confidence as well as empowerment to black women by showing the ways to

success. They may be early adopters of new trends or downright promoters of what they

think is fit or not for them and/or their sisters, and often have a wide influence on votes,

generally for Democrats considered as more liberal and better promoters of diversity. Apart

from their clear advocacy and support to black women’s causes, many of them have made the

choice of appearing physically closer to mainstream standards, by having their features

surgically thinned and turning their skin lighter. In general terms, many of them are plastic

surgery adepts, just like the other show business celebrities. This could be explained by the

need of widening their audiences to attain more celebrity and success rather than being

labeled blacks-only artists. Most of them are very successful businesspeople exploiting their

image and influence to sell or advertise specific or non-specific products ranging from

cosmetics to magazines at first row but extended to almost anything, provided the product

and message is not offensive or degrading for core (black) audience and thus for their image

(read business). Some mixed-race performers have gone to the extreme of rejecting partially

or totally their black heritage (for instance: Raven Simoné or Stacey Dash) responding to

personal or political stands, which automatically cause outrage among African Americans

who feel betrayed. These choices are marginal, most black celebrities show a deep concern

for black causes, even though by sometimes being outrageous and self-objectifying, they do

not always act in a positive way for black women.

Black Wonder Women: Sports business

We have seen in the beginning of this part that female sports champions were

requested to also look feminine and sexy, most of them have been invited to appear more or

less, or totally undressed in adults or general audience magazines and social media to show

that despite being the strongest at some physical performance, they still can be considered as

desirable and even objectified, a feminist analysis could conclude that it is a way to keep

them vulnerable and dominated. We know that American people do not usually view this

kind of display as degrading but rather as appreciative, but we can wonder if besides the

money they receive for that exposure, the surge of popularity they obtain really is

empowering.


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Sports are a great way (provided that the subject has great physical dispositions, great

talent and ability for her practice, plus endless hours and years of sometimes traumatic and

painful practice to reach top level) to succeed starting from the bottom (as hip-hop singer

Drake would say) without having to go to school: a perfect image for the ‘land of

opportunity’, but in reality reserved to very few particularly gifted and strong-willed

individuals. Sports are very profitable for top performers not necessarily because the practice

itself or even the titles are very highly rewarded (Olympics are not), but rather because of

brand endorsements which can pile up to many million dollars, with some strings attached:

the champions are requested to behave as perfect ambassadors of their ‘favorite’ products, be

part of numerous promotional events and join the red carpet personalities in the image

supportive events their sponsors are involved in while maintaining their level of performance,

to ensure their influence on consumers. To appeal to the public and secure their sponsors

contracts, they have to be ‘hot’, that means popular, appealing, able to make people relate to

them and feel close to them, some journalists flatly call that “sexploitation”: exploiting their

ability to appear sexy. It is measured in media coverage, tweets and Facebook followers and

likes282, they have to become celebrities, because that means opportunities to reach their

targeted customers for the brands. Athletes sell their image, they brand themselves to

companies which will benefit from their popularity to convince consumers to adopt their

product just like they have adopted the champion. "How we look is just as important as how

we play. And is that fair?”283 Certainly not, but that is the way society goes and most people

willingly or not comply with it. Sports stars have become pop-celebrities and live

accordingly. Along with beauty and pop-celebrity, sports give another almost unattainable

ideal for people to keep trying against all odds and logic to resemble their favorite stars and

buy all the products for that purpose, as well as those endorsed by the champion, even with

no direct link with her performance. The positive aspect is that it can help build a will to

practice sports and adopt a less unhealthy way of life (we have seen that the fitness model is

not perfect either), sometimes giving an inspiration to girls to follow a competitive way.

The values promoted by and through the black female champions are those of

Wonderwoman: superiorly gifted, strong personality, sexiness; let us face it, they have to

282 Lolo Jones' interview on "Branded" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVjPA6eclKk), from ESPN’ Nine For IX "Branded" documentary series on image branding by female athletes. 283 The Daily Beast. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/08/27/branded-selling-sports-stars-sexiness.html)


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embody comics superheroes (there is no wonder that sporty black women join the armed

forces, a place more likely to appreciate their being tough and resilient).

We can wonder if marketing uses (and drops) black champions, or if these use

marketing to succeed. It certainly is both, but once again the path is narrow and winding for

the athletes, with their existence linked to the success of the brands they have endorsed and

threatened by their evolution. Most brands believe in the appeal of champions and more

generally personalities to average people to speed up their sales, but they can stop the

relationship if the athlete does not live up to their expectations or makes a communication

faux pas.

Serena Williams (along with her sister Venus) is a very interesting and particular

figure: an exceptional athlete, very powerful, strong-willed and a real "badass" on a court, she

also has a great communication talent (or should we call it skill) to show that she is a normal

person with her feelings, pleasures, doubts and weaknesses. She certainly has spent (we

should say invested) more time on a tennis court than outside and shows no intention to step

down from her world top performer place. To those who do not find her feminine enough,

she has shown many pictures at all kinds of occasions from very formal yet sexy gowns, to

her bikini body showing all the right curves in the right places for a black woman and even

some nude pictures. She uses her body as an instrument, feminine and sometimes slightly

overweight when not competing, very strong and muscular at play. Some contend that she

has undergone facial and butt surgery (did she at any time need collagen injections?). We

certainly can doubt it, but even in that case, this would only show that she acts in a

comparable way to many other pop-celebrities in terms of image management. She certainly

is one of the best embodiments of black female beauty and success and a great role model,

for all the dimensions of her success.

Still some concerns can remain about the use of her blackness: when invited by David

Letterman to play tennis with him in a New York street wearing a tight dress and stilettos,

and to smash a shop window with her powerful serves284, it cannot but raise the question of

the perception of her blackness: this was at the same time very childish and a evocation of

violent delinquency (obviously all this was perfectly organized with the full agreement of the

284 The Root. (http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/08/watch_david_letterman_and_serena_williams_break_a_deli_window.html)


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shop owners). The (sexy) mean black girl stereotype was out, and we would not imagine this

done by a white champion, so this could be considered as a kind of discrimination.

She has millions of (unconditional) fans, but maybe almost as many despisers among

those who do not like her strength, her assertiveness, her not corresponding to the usual

standards, maybe even her color. The other effect of having to compete at the higher level

and look gorgeous out of the court imply intensive muscle building exercises and product

intake, which are not good for her health and may eventually add up to her other health

concerns. Champions’ bodies are like racecars, performance threatens safety on the long run,

and she is no exception. She might even be more threatened by being more extremely ‘tuned

up’, but it would be difficult to contend that marketing and not more globally the evolution of

society’s expectations is what makes and breaks would-be champions from an early age.

Serena Williams, a powerful role model (Nike advertisement)

Black Role Models

Another top performer and great role model for African American girls is Misty

Copeland (the Under Armour ad girl285-- just a joke to highlight her recognition by

mainstream audiences), after having been named the second black soloist ballerina and the

first black principal286 dancer (in 2015) for the American Ballet Theater in its 75 years

history.

285 Under Armour Ad. "I Will What I Want", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY0cdXr_1MA 286 New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/arts/dance/misty-copeland-is-promoted-to-principal-dancer-at-american-ballet-theater.html?_r=0


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Ballet dancing was not made for black

girls287; it has always been a white thing

with white standards. When Misty

Copeland applied at 13 to a ballet school,

she was rejected for having “the wrong

body for ballet, and at thirteen, too old to be

considered” (and maybe not the right color).

She is different from the other ballet

dancers, bustier, more muscular and

certainly more talented, dedicated and

strong willed than other ballerinas. She

danced with Prince before being fully

recognized in ballet and will star in

Broadway’s ‘On the Town’ this (2015)

summer.

She also is great at promoting herself in social media and more recently branding her

image. Now, her innumerable young fans, would-be dancers girls of all origins wait in long

lines to catch a glimpse and have an autograph of this exceptional artist. She embodies yet

another absolutely beautiful and highly inspiring role models for black (and all) young girls

with a passion. In her case success, media and marketing are closely linked: she is reaching

the top of her career, publishing (in 2014) a book about her life which was well received by

media and helped her be known and admired by everybody, and that has led her to an

endorsement with Under Armour Sports equipment brand. The resulting video clip has been

viewed more than eight million times. Her fame and success not only will benefit her and

encourage girls to achieve their dreams, but also push sales for the company. A win-win

situation.

Female Black Leaders

We have evoked the cases of some high-level black women leaders and managers.

Many cases could be presented and debated, but we will now only concentrate on a last one:

Michelle Obama. The first black first lady is not really a branded person in terms of

commercial marketing, but clearly a self-directed relationship marketing item in terms of 287 Mashable. (http://mashable.com/2015/05/27/ballet-diversity/?utm_cid=mash-prod-email-topstories&utm_emailalert=daily&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily)


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image management for herself, the causes she embraces and the Presidency. First black

woman to enter White House “without being a maid or a cook” in her own words, she also

considers herself not as a political activist but rather as “mom-in-chief”, with a very familiar,

natural and direct approach of people and facts. “Nearly eight out of 10 black women say

they personally identify with the first lady", and the words used to describe her were

“intelligent,” “strong” and “classy.288”African American women have found a real role model

in Michelle Obama. “The first lady’s racial and gender identity are essential to the deep

connection they feel they have to her ». She has made a good opinion on three fourths of

white women and two-thirds of white men showing that her appeal cuts across racial lines,

even though the racial relevance of her is not considered as much important for non-blacks

who are simply appreciative of her style and personality. Black women prize her for being a

welcomed alternative to racial stereotypes brought by popular media. In fact the first lady has

changed the perception many black women had about themselves and their peers in a more

positive way.

Michelle Obama has also become a popular personality by promoting education and a

healthier way of life for children with her program ‘Let’s Move’. She has appeared in all

possible media from presidency’s official events to most talk shows where she has starred as

a great personality (‘mom-dancing’ with Jimmy Fallon289, dancing290 or doing pushups with

Ellen Degeneres291), positive, cool and classy at the same time.

She has widely and (most of the time appreciatively) been commented for her ‘toned

arms’ and elegant dressing choices, helping by the way to promote some black women

fashion creators. Comments from black women are unsurprisingly full of pride and

gratefulness. “In everything (…) the first lady, (has) been graceful, elegant, very supportive

of her husband .  .  . and always with a smile (…) the opposite of the angry black woman”, “for

a long time all we had was Oprah”, Michelle "Obama has changed the way others see black

women and how they see themselves", are among the most representative comments292.

Yet, some people will be haters, and find ways to despise her, from her black

woman’s bottom to trying to portrait her as the ‘angry black woman’ they would like to find

288 Washington Post. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/african-american-women-see-their-own-struggles-mirrored-in-michelle-obamas/2012/01/19/gIQA5k4DMQ_story.html) 289 Evolution of Mom Dancing (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq-URl9F17Y) 290 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdTn5vD0m8M) 291 Michelle Obama (again) in the Ellen Degeneres Show. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTAIedFfUBU) 292 Washington Post. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/african-american-women-see-their-own-struggles-mirrored-in-michelle-obamas/2012/01/19/gIQA5k4DMQ_story.html)


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in her. Overcoming their prejudices is no easy task, as some feel threatened by any kind of

diversity.

The Evolution of models

Models evolve with society and black women’s appreciation, showing mode diverse

models, more social diversity acceptance.

We could imagine that women’s role models should be strong and generous, along

with being nurturing and conform to traditional gender roles. Such is increasingly not the

case: fictional role models have gotten tough and violent while staying sexy and desirable293

(thus inspiring for women and exciting for men), they no longer want to be victimized and

claim the first roles usually devoted to male heroes. This has been labeled the “superwoman

ideal”, able to activate ambition and independence expectations in female viewers who also

expect their role models to remain nurturing294.

All these factors bear hope for black women, doomed to be strong and even tough to

face gender and race adversities and discrimination, often forced to singlehandedly earn the

bread and raise the children. Their stereotypical desirability and aggressiveness could be

perceived by themselves and the other groups not as something threatening and despicable,

but as a positive sign and proof of willpower and leadership. Women can be winners and no

longer always submissive. That certainly is why so many people love Serena Williams, and

why some, more attached to the traditional roles cannot (under)stand her ways. Brands like

Nike for instance have started capitalizing on strength as well as ‘normal (but hot) bodies’ (in

the sense of average, constituting the real norm) and not only ideal-airbrushed-

overcosmeticized-surgery-enhanced models (which are still leading). Nike apparel

emphasizes strong ‘tom-boyish’ styles for some of its fitness lines, along with also presenting

charming and oh-so feminine champions.

There certainly is an evolution in marketing’s presentation of beauty in general and

black beauty as well: it is not a global one but rather a widening of the spectrum of the

possible: “classic idealized femininity”, linked to the traditional seductive, professional-

hostess and family caring roles, but also a “strong-overachieving champion” model not only

to admire but also human and familiar enough to relate to and inspire the customers. The

third marketing model could be the “normal-plus-size-but hot”, showcased by Lane Bryant 293 The Guardian. Dec. 12 2013. (http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/dec/12/female-action-heroes-katniss-role-models-women) 294 National Post. Apr. 1 2011. (http://news.nationalpost.com/news/attractive-and-violent-women-seen-as-best-role-models-study)


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lingerie brand295. The last one with a general appeal would be the “classy-educated-

successful-professional-social interacter” embodied by TV hosts and anchors and most of

their ‘celebrity’ guests, Michelle Obama would be the epitome and the best black

representative of this category.

We could add a more marginal marketing target as “hip-hop-belles”

What can be particularly interesting in these categories is that besides the last one

(and maybe even that one) many not to say most women can at some moment be part of all

but one of these categories depending on their personal style: They can be traditionally

feminine at one moment, fitness addicts at another while being overweight or not, play their

family role and want to be classy and/or hip-hop hotties at other times, depending on

circumstances and the social groups they belong to at a precise moment (and certainly many

other roles not necessarily related to beauty and marketing). People, and black women are not

schizophrenic but de-structured, being totally involved in many different situations and

occasions and playing many different roles while staying themselves in these role-plays.

African American women do not seem to be victims of Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid

modernity296, they benefit from their specific culture and solidarity to build a strong stable

identity, find a balance and fight adversity without being drawn, rolled and crushed by the

flow of permanent changes imposed by media and marketing. They do follow trends and may

adopt fads without losing their soul or being limited to that playing, in other terms, and

maybe more than other categories, they are not limited to their appearance or their

consumption. We can legitimately hope that most reality-TV stars, even though totally

immersed in that ocean of superficiality are able to keep their minds above their performance

and not be submersed by their roles.

295 This Lane Bryant advertisement has been banned by ABC and FOX (for being too hot, or for featuring unconventional seduction?), (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMxyZQfMmM4). 296 BAUMAN Zygmunt. Liquid Modernity. 2000. London: Polity Press (2000).


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John W. Mosley, Atlantic City, Four Women c. 1960s,

from "Posing Beauty in African American Culture" exhibition297

297 (http://vmfa.museum/exhibitions/exhibitions/posing-beauty-african-american-culture/)


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3. Marketing Beauty to African American Women

3.1. Old Techniques and New Tools

3.1.1. From Principles to Strategies

Marketing and its Limits

Marketing is no magic, nor is it an aim or a philosophy, not even an ideology in itself.

Marketing is no ‘Big Brother’ watching us and imposing how people are supposed to act and

look like, what they should want and lust for. Marketing is temptation, consumers fall for it

or not. Marketing techniques can influence people’s choices between products meant to

satisfy their needs and longings; commercials try to convince them that the promoted product

is the one they need and want rather than any other product, rather than not buying.

Marketing is creating dissatisfaction and revealing needs, because dissatisfaction is

dynamic whereas satisfaction and serenity are stillness. Moving to buy, to order a product, to

spend time effort and money purchasing a product means discomfort; so marketers have to

convince people that shopping (and e-shopping) is pleasure by creating frustrations and wants

that will be satisfied by acquiring and using products.

To be effective, these appeals have to respond to a need experienced by the receiver.

Some needs are almost universal, such as the need to be safe and secure, to have an

acceptable level of comfort, to be accepted by others. All these needs are felt in very different

ways and acuteness according to each individual and each social group’s values. This is why

marketing cannot appeal to everyone with the same message, and explains that marketing

arguments will be received very differently by different people; and sometimes not at all if

they do not feel the corresponding need or are convinced that the solution to their need is not

the product (for example if someone feels a need for security but is convinced that guns are a

cause of insecurity and not the solution, she will therefore not be interested by NRA’s or gun

dealers’ messages)

The clearest indication of marketing limits is the very high rate of product failure

despite the investments made on their launching and development: wants and purchasing

power certainly are more limited than marketers would like to think.

By the way marketing is not the leading function of most companies even if it might

have been. Research and development (based on innovation, market studies or both),

production management (to enhance quality and/or reduce costs) and marketing (including

advertising) are now totally under the control of finance: return on investment (ROI) and

share value are the leading values of business and even drive public policies. In this logic,

successful and much needed products will be mercilessly abandoned if profitability is not


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judged satisfactory enough. Obviously, in this logic employees and customers (not to

mention environment) are only considered as means (and often as just costs and constraints)

to reach financial objectives, they (and their needs) will be highly appreciated and tended for

if that means profit, totally ignored if it does not.

Marketing: from a need to a profitable offer

Managing a product is usually composed of four complementary elements called

marketing mix: the right product (good or service, often a combination of both) to correspond

to a segment of customers needs, the right price to have them pay not too little (think bottom-

line but also image of quality), the right promotion (ranging from advertising to in-store

promoting, endorsement and public relations), and the right place (or placement, which

means the right distribution to make the product conveniently accessible for its customers).

Beauty is a very wide and competitive market composed of world giants and more

modest businesses aimed at specific niches such as ethnic beauty, health and care products.

Just like most mature markets, beauty is undergoing a strong concentration trend: growing

companies need financing and have to open their capital which can eventually lead to being

controlled by a global firm, big companies concentrate their activities to benefit from

economies of scale, experience and synergy effects to be more competitive. This has favored

the development and availability of ethnic products, less harmful and more adapted to new

ways of life, so in that sense African American women can consider that marketing has

helped them. For instance, marketers have not invented or created a need for (no lye!)

relaxing or treating black hair: this is a social want borne by social pressure, but the

development of a better knowledge of black hair and black women’s expectations has led

black businesspeople to launch and develop these products.

This example shows the way marketing works: identifying a need and the subsequent

wants, targeting the specific segment concerned by the need and the product, offering the

marketing mix adapted to the customers and capable of bringing a good return on the

investment.

The other way around, marketing also can start by an innovation and the

corresponding market: marketers will find the needs their new technique can respond to and

develop the products to satisfy them, then develop or even create a demand for their new

products. Research and development imply important investments, so there has to be a

financial return.


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Marketing: exploiting and empowering

The main term to qualify the feelings of people concerning advertising and marketing

are distrust and contempt. This might not be totally accurate since commercials can also be

perceived as interesting when they are funny, creative or informational, when they take a

stand to support causes or are empowering while promoting business. Such is the case of

Dove’s campaigns for ‘Real Beauty’ (featuring attractive and self-confident plus sized

women --with real curves but not exempt from airbrushing--, aging or other non-conventional

beauties, and among them black women).

These campaigns appeal to the need of esteem as described by Maslow’s works298.

They are aimed at helping women to have a better perception of their beauty, are not

specifically directed to black women but they can have a positive outcome for them, just as

Dove’s ‘Love your curls299300’ campaign can help boost black girls self-confidence301 and

African hair acceptance. Some people contend that too few black women have been

presented (and in some visuals making a fool of themselves, unlike white ones), but we can

consider that for a mainstream company, featuring a statistically representative group of

298 Ad Strategy. (https://adstrategy.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/maslows-hierarchy-of-human-needs/) 299 Creativity Online. (http://creativity-online.com/work/dove-hair-love-your-curls/38610) 300 (http://promo.dove.us/loveyourcurls/LoveYourCurls.pdf) 301 D’aller Naturel. (http://dallernaturel.com/2015/01/25/did-dove-miss-the-mark-in-their-new-curly-hair-campaign/)


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women is fair, and better than most. Let us not forget though, that Dove brand belongs to

Unilever, also known among many other brands for its Axe particularly offensive (to women

and intelligence…) advertising.

Dove’s ‘Love your Curls’ campaign: embrace your black hair just like your mother does

3.1.2. Marketing Beauty to Women

Marketers, and particularly beauty marketers sell consumers not only products, but

also some quality of self-perception, a way to judge the others and themselves as socially

acceptable, or else, and as a means of social stratification. In this sense, we can consider that

beauty marketers mainly sell social integration and to some extent social status. They also

promise comfort in terms of feeling good and self-confidence.

This is not totally true since marketers often resort to reveal or create frustrations first,

before offering their own (profitable) solution. Once again, blaming all the process on

marketing would be excessive and too hasty. On one side, economic activity and growth is

based on continuous increase of value creation, thus offering new products and induce

spending. The general philosophy of the capitalist system is creating as much wealth as

possible and outlawing all that can limit or stop business making. It is commonly admitted

that this system is the best known to guarantee individual freedom, increase general wealth


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and enhance living conditions for most (not unlike democracy for politics302). Marketing can

legitimately be considered as just a (main) tool to keep economic activity going and attain its

development objectives.

It has been said that advertising is ‘the great con job’ and marketing the way to have

people confused between having and being, material possession becoming more important

than human and social value. This can’t but raise an important question about how human

value is supposed to be judged, for example in social terms. In other words, what marketing

could help us find are the indicators of social acceptability and value, the elements that

constitute the interest a person should deserve, her or his value for the society as a whole, or

just for the social groups he or she belongs to, or wants access to. In that respect, my

postulate is that socially, human value (self perception, image perceived) is mostly made of

social appreciation and integration.

If we accept as widely admitted that affluence makes power (not only purchasing

power) and attractiveness, we can consider wealth as a precise, sometimes accurate and

objective indicator of human value, yet it has many limits and flaws and cannot be considered

as the only index or aim, it is insufficient to explain the importance granted to individuals.

Among the elements that seem to be able to constitute an individual’s value and social

integration we also will find beauty. As we have stated, beauty is an important asset for

success, which can be considered not solely as a natural characteristic, but as the result of

processes (care, exercise…) and the use of products. In this respect, marketing can be seen as

a (sometimes tedious and costly) way to be successful and correcting (or hiding) some natural

disgraces.

The importance given to beauty by the marketers, and the extent of the corresponding

markets prove there is a very widely shared and profound need to attain it. In other words,

beauty is a need. In a material world, marketing may be the answer to that need, just because

it seems to have answers to all (or at least most of) the questions, and particularly about

beauty. In a universe of doubts about oneself and the others’ eye, such an assertive view is

needed, even though care (and some skepticism) must remain. If we need a proof of its

usefulness, suffice it to see the financial importance of beauty marketing, which indicates the

central place beauty has.

302 Churchill's famous dictum: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." (From a House of Commons speech on Nov. 11, 1947), the same could certainly apply to capitalism and marketing.


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3.1.3. Knowing the Market

In order to serve customers and offer them the right products, the first step is knowing

them, their needs, living conditions and purchasing habits. The power conferred to the

marketers by Information Technologies and data processing must not be underestimated, but

on the other hand, no commercial offer will be answered if it does not correspond to a need.

In fact the question is obviously what needs are the consumers really trying to satisfy through

the products (goods or services) they are been offered as a solution for their wants. A good

promotion is one that answers the wants and satisfies the underlying need.

If we consider more precisely African American specific needs in terms of beauty, we

certainly will have to deal with the way they are perceived and treated by mainstream society

and their social role, along with the way black women respond to that. Marketing has to care

about the lack of respect and recognition they feel to sell products meaning integration and

dignity for those (most) seeking to blend in, turning them “mainstream-compatible”,

sometimes at the expense of their identity or even their health. Marketing also has to care

about the fact that most of them want to reclaim their black heritage and Afro-American

culture and have it accepted as normal and by no means inferior, offering products and ways

of promoting them compatible with their legitimate pride. For other segments, Marketers care

about those, less mainstream-integrated or more sensitive about these issues, who may want

to stress out their differences in more marginal and anti-establishment ways through music,

clothing or hairdressing, to mention a few among the most marketing related. In other terms,

as Misty Copeland puts it “black girls rock” but they can do it through ballet and classical

music, R&B, hip-hop and many other ways and wants. We live in a material world,

consumption is a way to exist and express identity, sometimes individuality. The many

choices marketing has to offer correspond to as many ways of expressing oneself in the eyes

of others, whether these are insiders or outsiders of the social group the individual belongs to.


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Black ballerina Misty Copeland’s advertisement for Under Armour

Knowing the market traditionally means knowing the competition (present and potential),

using tools such as Michael Porter’s five forces analysis303 to take suppliers and buyers

power into account along with the threat of substitutes: if you do not want to relax your hair,

you can choose to braid it, add extensions, cut it short, dye it among other alternatives to a

hair relaxing product. Products can often be combined to attain the desired effect: many

products are complementary (e.g. relaxing, dying and curlers).

3.2. Targeting Black Customers

Another approach for a company is to know and understand actual and potential customers

needs and wants304 corresponding to its present and projected products. Some interesting

hints can be found in Faith Popcorn’s works305: even though any predictive work runs the risk

of making mistakes, her trend-revealing analyses are often thought provoking and interesting.

Among other projections in her seventeen-item ‘trendbank’, she is persuaded that women will

gain power in the next years. She explains this trend she calls ‘eveolution’ by them being

better at developing relational skills, team working and caring for others. These abilities

mean proximity and cannot be offshored, let aside transferred to robots. Black women are

credited for being good at the jobs needing these qualities, so it should be positive for them.

303 PORTER Michael E. "The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy", Harvard Business Review, January 2008, p.86-104 (https://hbr.org/2008/01/the-five-competitive-forces-that-shape-strategy) 304 KOTLER Philip T & KELLER Kevin L. Marketing Management, 14th. Edition. 2011. NJ. USA: Pearson - Prentice Hall (2011) 305 POPCORN Faith. (http://www.faithpopcorn.com/trendbank/)


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We also could point out some other trends such as ‘anchoring’ to spiritual roots, ‘clanning’

and ‘cocooning’, which correspond to the usual values and ways of living of many black

women turning their centers of interest towards family, spiritual and identity groups. Two

other trends could favor a rise in black women’s confidence and integration: ‘Cashing out’,

meaning that people could become less workaholic and give more time and interest to the

other aspects of their lives, and ‘Save our Society’ "a social conscience of ethics, passion and

compassion" black people always have proven even in the most adverse and dramatic

conditions (the last awfully tragic example is Charleston church shooting306). Two other

trends are particularly meaningful from a black women’s standpoint: ’99 lives’ (at a time)

expressing the stress and “societal schizophrenia” caused by the fact of having to “assume

multiple roles” in too little time, a state of things African American women already endure

and are used to, and the ‘vigilante consumer’.

This particular attention to consumer facts and companies’ fairness certainly can be

prolonged in the great reactivity black women show on social networks whenever they find

something inacceptable. Dare we say that the times of silence and submission seem over,

giving place to social activism, not excluding understanding and forgiveness? If that should

prove right, we would certainly be right to consider that black women could be the future of

the American society.

For marketing, all this information constitutes very important indications of the needs

black women will probably try to satisfy and the right way to address them corresponding to

their concerns.

3.2.1. Black Beauty Marketing

The first comment that should be done is certainly that big business does not give the

impression of being particularly fond of black people: they are a minority, and mainstream

marketing is aimed at the biggest possible figures to maximize profit. Studying smaller

segments, developing new products that will not fit most people, creating specific

communication towards restricted audiences sound more complicated and less profitable than

serving mainstream markets.

The easier and cheaper way of approaching black beauty market is developing

products suitable for all and black people, hoping that it will be enough to appeal to them.

The second relatively easy step is creating specific communication aimed at convincing them 306 New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/us/charleston-families-hope-words-endure-past-shooting.html?_r=0


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that a product, though not specifically designed for them is ‘black friendly’ and assuming that

African American customers will find their fit within the range of choices. Such can be the

case for cosmetics made by big brands who consider that there is not a specific black skin,

and that black beauties should find what they need in the brand’s offering. In fact it can be

rather tedious and challenging for a black woman to find the right texture, tone and brilliance

in the mainstream cosmetic range, not to mention hair care (it can be right in terms of hair

health, and not for its dressing), which also demands specific products. A variant would be an

African American promotional message for a general product implying that the product has

been approved by a black people’s panel (or else!).

The most interesting move obviously is when a brand (independent or established)

decides to develop a specific line for black customers. The New York Times suggests that

aiming at a ‘niche’ (a small segment of consumers) can develop into a wider market and even

end up being a ‘moon shot’ (unexpected huge success)307, which is inversing the path to

success from usual marketing (finding general wants and then declining the product in

different lines to reach non-mainstream users).

3.2.2. Black Beauty Market: to be Considered

Aiming at black consumers can be a paying move since according to Essence’s 2009 Smart

Beauty research study "African-American women spend $7.5 billion annually on beauty

products, (…) 80 percent more money on cosmetics and twice as much on skin care products

than the general market308 ". The explanation does not seem to point out that black women

would be more eager to use them or less confident about their seduction, but rather that they

have to keep trying many products before finding a suitable one. Let us not forget that ‘black’

skin and hair comes in a very wide range of colors and textures and that what can be perfect

for one woman is not necessarily good for another one.

Hair concerns seem to be a constant preoccupation and sometimes an agony for many black

women. A very interesting testimonial study has been published by Sheryl Thomson, from

Michigan University309 where she explains how and why black women spend so much time

and money on their hair care: specific texture and social implications.

307 New York Times. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/technology/search-for-a-market-niche-and-you-might-find-a-crowd.html) 308 Women’s Wear Daily (WWD). (http://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/marketing-trends/essence-panel-explores-beauty-purchasing-2139829/) 309 THOMPSON Cheryl. Black Women and Identity: What's Hair Got to Do With It? Ann Arbor, MI: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library. Vol. 22, no. 1, Fall 2008-2009. (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.ark5583.0022.105)


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“African Americans spent $507 billion (out of our total estimated buying power of $836

billion) in 2009 on hair care and personal grooming items, according to an annual report

published by Target Market News”310. Madame Noire might be absolutely right or not, the

fact is that black women overspend on an asset (or a curse) directly correlated with social

stratification. They need and want ‘good hair’, whether that means for them straight

European-type or a more natural identity linked style that can be perceived as a way of

protesting.

Products meant for black hair, from (Indian) extensions trough (African) shea butter

are in the hands of many companies from many parts of the world and benefit from black

women’s concern sometimes without doing much marketing. Their fame and awareness are

often brought by beauty bloggers. Some of these blogs are very successful; while others have

to strive and buy the products they want to test. It seems that brands accept to send samples to

them only if they can guarantee enough traffic to be able to be considered as a promotional

media. In a sense this can be logical. Companies are not willing and cannot send samples to

each and every blogger, regardless of what they are likely to publish. Bloggers, on their side

contend that big brands discriminate311 them or try to put a pressure on what they publish in

order to avoid having bad reviews. In any case, (black) beauty bloggers have an influence on

the opinion and wants of African American women that can be considered as a counter-

power. We could say that this almost peer-to-peer way of expression, if we consider

customers’ feedback can balance brand marketing communication.

‘Exotic’ (meaning non-white) markets develop with the uprising of emerging

countries and the better integration (or at least higher spending power) of minorities in

western countries.

Big brands have increasingly developed specific lines for exporting and domestic

minorities. This development is amplified by the fact that business and markets have become

global with worldwide economic and social models, helped by our living in the global digital

village insistently inviting to (not to say imposing) western models of beauty and

consumption.

In the USA important evolutions have been noticed by professionals as we can see

from this Advertising Age article: 310 Madame Noire. (http://madamenoire.com/57134/what-spending-a-half-a-trillion-dollars-on-hair-care-and-weaves-says-about-us/) 311 Clutch Magazine. (http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/10/are-cosmetic-companies-biased-to-brown-beauty-bloggers/)


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"In the past four or five years, hairstyle trends have changed dramatically," said Cyrus

Bulsara, CEO of Professional Consultants, which analyzes beauty with a particular focus on the salon

hair-care category. "Blacks used to have straight hair, relaxed hair or curly permed hair. They used to

do a lot of chemical processing. But now natural, 'fro and locs are the three top trends."

Only around 20% of African-Americans currently straighten their hair, Mr. Bulsara said, down

from as high as 70% at one point. "And all the ancillary products that were used, like neutralizing

shampoos, sprays and conditioners," he said, "sales of those have gone down."312

This shows that people are far less dependent on marketing than on social acceptability and

fashion trends.

3.2.3. Segmenting Black Customers

"Black buying power is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, according to

Nielsen’s State of the African-American Consumer Report313" (within these, black women

represent more than $760 billion). This is clearly no longer a ‘niche’ but a ‘top-dog’ market,

as we have seen.

“Blacks consistently place a higher emphasis on grooming and beauty categories and at the

top of that list is ethnic hair and Beauty aids (haBa), which Blacks purchase nine times more than

others. Hair care is serious business in the Black community at all income levels314”.

According to this report, the lower income (70% of average) and the recession have

translated into a high percentage of spending for retail products (30% more than average).

This can be considered as logical since lower income implies short-term choices (e.g. less

saving and home owning) and very interesting for marketers, particularly if they advertise

through black media, and pay endorsements by black celebrities, both enjoy a much higher

level of confidence than general influencers315. Nielsen’s 2014 edition316 also states that black

customers expect cultural recognition from brands and are very (much more than average)

reactive on social networks and sharing customer’s experiences. This constitutes

opportunities for brands willing to reach African American women, considered as

particularly interesting and often self-identified as trend setters. 312 Advertising Age. NEFF Jack, April 06, 2015 (http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/shaking-ethnic-care-aisle/297922/) 313 Louisiana Weekly. (http://www.louisianaweekly.com/african-american-buying-power-nears-1-1-trillion/ 314 National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). http://nnpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/African-American-Consumer-Report-2013.pdf) 315 (http://nnpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/African-American-Consumer-Report-2013.pdf) 316 Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI). (http://www.popai.com/Research%20Library/Nielsen%20Essence-2014-african-american-consumer-report-Sept-2014.pdf)


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Apart from blacks and non-blacks, and women-men segmentation, marketers have

defined different categories among black women customers. For instance the Examiner317 has

directed a survey that identified 6 mains segments to reach in distinctive ways318. If we are to

believe the Examiner, African American women would be either “Ultraviolets” mainly

interested by financial success (so sell them status) or “401 Kays” concerned by their future

success and comfort, and their children’s (so sell them a bright future for them and their

children).“Proud Marys" are the most numerous (21%), "highly connected to their cultural

heritage and involved in social and community activism”, they also care for “spiritual

growth” so expect meaningful products. “Personal Beths” base their lives on personal

relationships to help others find happiness; they will appreciate the benevolent aspects of

marketing. The last category is described as “Mother Earthas” focusing on their children and

family unity.

Beyond this necessarily stereotyping segmentation, the message is to try to identify all

relevant categories, address to each of them in terms of their own values, longings and

expectations and do not treat them as a monolithic ensemble.

It is very clear that any segmentation has to take into account not only the racial

aspects but all the other factors likely to influence their perception and decision making

(demographic, income, religious beliefs…) for that kind of product. In other terms,

segmenting has to be taylor-made to precisely meet its targets.

General marketing discriminates children (consumers and influencers of their parents

buying decisions) from teenagers, young adults and so on towards golden age. It also takes

body image into account selling self-assumption or vanity sizing according to the target.

Mothers for instance can be reached in their different roles of professional, home-keepers, car

drivers and parents, but also as seductive, fitness addicts, weigh-concerned or else… This

multiplicity of roles implies a very diversified approach of the same segment, according to

the kind of product or occasions to use it, as well as a diversified marketing for a product in

relation to all the segments aimed at.

It should be worth noting that black girls are targeted, particularly for their hair care

from a very early age, in order to have accustomed to use and need specific black hair care

317 The Examiner is a contributing site. Usually sensationalistic, but this contributor seems to bring an interesting approach. (http://www.examiner.com/list/study-identifies-6-micro-demographics-among-black-women-worth-marketing-to/martketing-to-ms-501-kay) (no longer online) 318 (http://www.examiner.com/list/study-identifies-6-micro-demographics-among-black-women-worth-marketing-to/martketing-to-ms-501-kay) (no longer online)


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products. A move we could find comparable to the use of addictive sugar in children's food.

In one case it can lead to unhealthy eating habits and the consequent weight problems, in the

other, it often leads to hair fragilization and eventually loss, implying a very long and uneasy

process to let their hair regrow and become healthy again, while following society's

appearance rules. Marketing has found here another way to stress out that natural hair is not

good (enough) and has to be treated to conform to mainstream ideals in order to raise and

maintain on the long run the profits needed by the companies and the advertising agencies.

Dark and Lovely Advertisement for Kids

Approaching black customers is logically as complex and rich in possibilities as for any

other population. The customer has the last saying for the products and brands she wants to

trust, try and adopt, or not, but resisting the pressure is no easy task.

3.3. African American Women and Marketing

Not much research seems to have been published on the relation between African

American people social place and consumption patterns. The most often cited was published

by Michele Lamont in 2001 and contains some conclusions worth examining some fifteen

years later: Marketing professionals actively shape the meanings of the category of ‘the black consumer’ for

the public at large; promote powerful normative models of collective identity that equate social membership

with conspicuous consumption; believe that African-Americans use consumption to defy racism and share

collective identities most valued in American society (e.g. middle-class membership); and simultaneously

enact a positive vision of their cultural distinctiveness".319

319 LAMONT Michele, MOLNAR Virag, "How Blacks Use Consumption to Shape their Collective Identity: Evidence from marketing specialists", Journal of Consumer Culture 2001; 1; 31.


154

The first assertion is that black people perception by general audiences is largely influenced

by marketing. We certainly can agree to some extent if we consider advertising and media

(particularly magazine and recreational television) coverage as avatars of marketing or at

least directly linked and to some extent submitted to it: black people are widely depicted as

less ‘socially advanced’ (if we dare use this expression) than white audiences. We can

consider though that this mainly follows historical and social patterns (including income) that

have become commonplace, but not necessarily an objective reality. In this respect, we must

acknowledge that in social perception objectivity is an almost unattainable objective.

A more accurate vision certainly would be to consider that marketing uses and

exploits stereotypes and by doing so reinforces and confirms them because it is very

convenient for marketers to have a simplistic and widely shared approach without

questioning the truth or correctness of the images they use.

These last years though, a strong movement of reaction has been developing to

constitute a counter-power to marketing and business abuse in general. There is little

regulation for business in the USA since corporate freedom and economic development are

prioritized. On the other side, journalists (even though they may be limited and sometimes

controlled by advertisers) and even more bloggers play a very important part for denouncing,

alerting public opinion and sometimes impulse legal action. In this respect, black women play

an important role and will certainly not lower their guard.

Lamont second assertion about black people adopting a Veblen style ‘conspicuous

consumption320’ (ostentatious) to show their material and thus social success seems to

presently apply more to pop-celebrities and some of their underprivileged fans (stereotyped

as a ghetto culture) than to middle-class black families, as confirmed by Cassi Pittman’s

study in 2012321. These seem more eager to be accepted by mainstream society (while

keeping their identity) and living according to more traditional (professional, family,

spiritual) values even if global society, marketers (and police forces) do not seem to have

realized it. Indeed it appears that the rejection and contempt is directed towards the less

privileged ones and their possible deviances, or to put it (certainly too) simply, many people

may think that black means poor and poor means bad. In social terms, underprivileged and

320 VEBLEN Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. 1899. New York: The Modern Library (1934) 321 PITTMAN Cassi. "Race, Social Context, and Consumption: How Race Structures the Consumption Preferences and Practices of Middle and Working-Class Blacks". Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. 2012.


155

lower-middle class whites sometimes express outrage at positive discrimination, contending

that the beneficiaries are unfairly taking the benefits from them. An understandable point of

view, but they are generally not aware of all the jeopardy black people and more particularly

black women have to face.

The third and fourth conclusions indicate a will to accede to and be accepted by the

American middle-class while valuing their cultural distinctiveness, which can certainly be

considered as still accurate. Being equal in value and professionally though different in

culture and beauty ideals and self-care correspond to what we have been observing in this

study. Cassi Pittman322 explains that black people’s consumption patterns constitute external

and internal cultural markers: what they eat, how they dress and their body care practices can

reveal and reinforce their identity: black people want to mingle, but not to dilute, they had

rather participate to a harmonious patchwork than to a catch-all melting pot where they

would lose their culture without sharing it. Pittman exposes that black people have developed

a "bicultural competence" (we can think sometimes a multicultural one, for those more

recently arrived).

Studies about immigration and ‘creolization323’ have shown that first and second

generation immigrants largely rely on popular media and advertisements as well as

consumption patterns to integrate their new country’s culture and be able to adapt to it,

developing a hybrid culture. In this sense, marketing and media can play a positive

integrative role in the same way as schooling does for traditional curriculum.

Marketing Wrongdoings

On the dark side of the force we will find many sad and sometimes dramatic examples

of ‘shopping while black324’ (along with driving while black, getting a loan or buying a home

while black, see part one) showing that everyday racism is far from over and that African

Americans have it much harder in many financial respects. This racial profiling is costly and

limits their possibilities to live a normal customer’s life, explaining their more important use

of networks, higher confidence in black media and leading (endorsing) personalities and

sometimes reluctance towards usual outlets. Marketing is certainly not the cause of all these

troubles, but businesses do not hesitate in cashing more when they know the (black or other 322 PITTMAN Cassi. Ibid 323 As we have seen for arts, first and second generation immigrants can bring new ideas and more open visions about social evolution and what could be considered as normal, for instance racial relations or stratification. 324 Reformed African American Network (RAA). TISBY Jemar. Nov. 1 2013. Shopping While Black: The Problem of Racial Profiling. (https://www.raanetwork.org/shopping-while-black-the-problem-of-racial-profiling/)


156

minority) customer does not have a choice, or when the companies consider (rightfully or

not) that they are running a higher risk (for instance in loans or mortgages). This constitutes a

clear discrimination against the poorer and less informed.

Another particularly critical wrongdoing is the toxicity of many black-beauty related

products for the consumer, even it may seem this is much less than before (hair relaxers do

no longer burn and destroy hair and scalp but still damage them). According to the Campaign

for Safe Cosmetics, toxic products are present in many black beauty products, particularly in

skin lightening and hair care: “In the United States, it’s perfectly legal for products that we

use every day to contain chemicals linked to breast cancer, hormone disruption, birth defects

and other chronic health problems that are on the rise”. 325 These toxic products cause

diseases in hair and nail care salons workers, often overlooked because these are the lower

paid and considered employees, sometimes illegal immigrants.

Good Hair, Documentary Comedy about "the wonders of African-American hairstyles"

With Chris Rock, Maya Angelou, Al Sharpton (2009)

325 SafeCosmetics.org, (http://www.arso-oran.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Toxic-products-marketed-to-black-women.pdf)


157

ELEMENTS OF CONCLUSION



dominated society and black in a predominantly white one. They do not correspond to all of

western mainstream beauty standards imposed by marketing and media in a world running on



as a good self-esteem. The other way around, we also can consider that marketing and media

provide the information and means needed to reach these psychological and social aims, thus

may play a positive role, but at a high cost.

The question we should answer is: Are African American women victimized by marketing,

or do they benefit from it?

Right: Mae Jemison, PhD and Astronaut (N.A.S.A. picture)

Left: “Louis Vuitton Nasty”. Model: Princina, unidentified

photographer


158

Very Different Images of African American Women

None of these pictures represents the black women as a whole, simply because they

are very different and these images only can represent extremes.

Brand addict? Overexposed? Sexploited? The photography on the left is a

comprehensive cliché of the African American woman as stereotyped by pop-culture and the

corresponding media and arts. We can think that this is a modern way of keeping her in a

submissive and inferior condition by ‘buying her’ presence and availability. Physical

violence (not always) apart, this image is not so far away from the antebellum view of black

women.

Yet some of them consider this oversexualization as an asset in a game they think they

control. Unfortunately, apart from very few top performers, modeling is more often a

deceptive way to use a woman’s beauty than the path to her success. The verbal and

sometimes physical violence shown and endured by pop-celebrities particularly from music

videos and reality TV show that for black women popular success is a dog-eat-dog jungle

where many will be destroyed in one way or another while enjoying affluence and a VIP

status for as long as they can attract audiences. This is an effect of media marketing. Only a

few top performers are able to use this marketing and media system to attain and keep fame

and wealth.

The effect is not always good for the viewers either. Audiences will receive this

negative perception of black women: luscious, available, buyable, disposable objects. Such a

social model cannot but be destructive for females and their male surrounders.

The other extreme (right picture) is Mae Jemison, the great scholar, business manager

and astronaut an exceptional black woman can be. Between them, the huge majority of

African American women strive to work and maintain their family, to find their place in

society and to maintain their cultural heritage. In this sense media and marketing can play a

positive role by highlighting role models and turning them accessible, so people can feel

inspired by their achievements and want to do and be better.

African American meet marketing everywhere: from their breakfast cereals to their

head-scarf or bonnet to keep their hair for the night. Marketing tells them what they should

do, wear and look like to be socially integrated (try successful), to be attractive (aim at

flawless), to be themselves (unique black women) by offering the corresponding products. It

is expensive (particularly the beauty --hair!-- part) long and not easy, but black women do

have a choice. They can now choose between many hair styles (as long as nobody can call


159

that ‘unkempt’, which would be a deadly sin) and have no more pressure for a dressing code

than other women.

More generally African American women's consumption patterns can be those of their

social category (middle-class is the most frequent objective and reference) education and

neighborhood. The difference appears whenever they want to live their specificities, in their

choice of media, meals (according to their specific origins if they can trace their ancestors),

or leisure for instance.

As we have said, marketing seldom creates or causes trends and needs, it can

influence social movements and perceptions only by exposing, broadcasting and amplifying

them. What is considered real (sometimes unconsciously) or logical in the sense that it only

extends an accepted fact certainly can be favorably received (it causes no cognitive

dissonance); but on the other hand, what is seen as unacceptable (illegitimate, insulting or

discriminating) certainly is no longer tolerated. This can apply to ideas and opinions as well

as to marketing messages.

Overreaction certainly can be observed, from people turned very sensitive about any

manifestation of racism, sexism or any other perceived attack, but it hardly can be considered

illogical in times when free expression unleashed by digital networks (and the need of media

to go on existing) can reveal and emphasize torrents of hate and racism. We can wonder if

racism really is omnipresent in almost everybody even when people do not realize it. We also

can wonder if the hyper reactivity and sensitivity shown by black people’s advocates does not

sometimes border on (an understandable) paranoia. Both cases seem likely and certainly do

not exclude each other. Racial relations still have a long way to go, strong reactions are

sometimes needed and acceptance is certainly not the way to reach a positive evolution

towards equality and social acceptance. The trouble is that African American women aware

of their challenges and wanting to progress towards better conditions will certainly go on

being accused by some of acting as “angry black women”.

We certainly should consider that nowadays African American women are no much

more (and no less!) victims of marketing than other women in terms of influence. Their

specific needs that can be satisfied by marketing are socially related and reflect the society

they live in, as well as their identity, choices and values. To be successfully integrated,

feeling good about themselves and embrace their identity, African American women need the

products marketing has to offer them. To be successful, marketers and media have to deliver

the expected value. It should be a win-win system, even though it is not always so.


160

Serena Williams, Nike Advertisement 2013

The theory of marketing is solid but the practice of marketing leaves much to be desired.

Philip Kotler Black girls rock!326

326 BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc. is a non-profit youth empowerment and mentoring organization established to promote the arts for young women of color, as well as to encourage dialogue and analysis of the ways women of color are portrayed in the media. (http://www.blackgirlsrockinc.com/)


161

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164

Webography

Sites mentioned in the research work, listed in alphabetical order of keywords.

Presentation from each site’s own publications, unless otherwise mentioned.

http://aaprc.org/ African-American Public Radio Consortium AAPRC: “We are the vanguard

of audience diversity in public media. Over the past two decades the African-American

Public Radio Consortium and its key leadership have developed and joined initiatives that

have made public media more inclusive”.

http://abcnews.go.com/ ABC News is the news division of the American Broadcasting

Company (ABC), owned by the Disney Media Networks division of the Walt Disney

Company.

http://www.acrwebsite.org/ Association for Consumer Research. “The mission of the

Association for Consumer Research is to advance consumer research and facilitate the

exchange of scholarly information among members of academia, industry, and government

worldwide".

http://adage.com/ Advertising Age "is the leading global source of news, intelligence and

conversation for the marketing and media community. Ongoing coverage of strategic topics

like CMO Strategy and data-driven marketing is complemented by breaking news on digital,

social media and more".

https://adstrategy.wordpress.com/ Ad Strategies. Discussion of Advertising Strategy led by

Kent State University (OH) students taking Creative Advertising Strategies in the School of

Journalism and Mass Communications.

http://www.allure.com/ Allure magazine. “Connect with the beauty expert at allure.com, the

authoritative Web resource for skin-care, hair, and makeup information. Through how-to

videos, product reviews, award-winning runway-beauty coverage, and more, allure.com

offers information without bias and advice without judgment so users can truly engage the

world with confidence". (Conde Nast Group-NY)

http://www.allyoucanread.com/ Welcome to AllYouCanRead.com, the largest database of

magazines and newspapers on the Internet, with listings for about 25,000 magazines,

newspapers and top news sites from all over the world.

https://cdn.americanprogress.org/ Center for American Progress: A think tank offering policy

proposals, talking points, events, news and columns and “dedicated to improving the lives of

all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted

action".


165

http://www.anad.org/ National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.

“ANAD advocates for the development of healthy attitudes, bodies, and behaviors. ANAD

promotes eating disorder awareness, prevention and recovery through supporting, educating,

and connecting individuals, families and professionals”.

http://www.army.mil/ The Official Home Page of the United States Army. News, career

information, publications, photographs, and links to other Army and Department of Defense

sites.

http://www.arso-oran.org/ The African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) is “Africas

intergovernmental standards body formed by OAU (currently AU) and UNECA in 1977 in

Accra Ghana. The fundamental mandate of ARSO is to develop tools for standards

development, standards harmonization and implementation of these systems to enhance

Africa’s internal trading capacity, increased Africas product and service competitiveness

globally, and uplift of the welfare of African consumers as well as standardization forum for

future prospects in international trade referencing”.

http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/ azcentral.com is Arizona's No. 1 site for news and

information. Azcentral.com is the home page of Arizona State, with in-depth and updated

local news, business, sports, things to do, travel and opinions.

http://banbossy.com/ The Ban Bossy campaign is a television, radio, and magazine

censorship advocacy campaign launched in 2014 with the mission of eliminating the use of

the word "bossy" from the English language due to the campaign's claim of its perceived

harmful effect on young women (Wikipedia)

http://www.beautyredefined.net/ Beauty Redefined. “Taking back "beauty" for girls and

women everywhere". Lexie and Lindsay Kite: “We have a passion for helping girls and

women recognize, reject and resist harmful messages about their bodies and what “beauty”

means and looks like”.

http://www.beyondblackwhite.com/ Beyond Black & White – “Chronicles, Musings and

Debates: The premier online publication for black women interested and involved in

interracial relationships, and the men that love them”.

http://www.biography.com/ Biography.com: Famous Biographies & TV Shows. “Every life

has a story. Biography.com captures the most gripping, surprising and fascinating stories

about famous people”.

http://blackdemographics.com/ BlackDemographics.com: an attempt to create a blueprint of

Black America. A single resource for information about African Americans, and how we

work, live, learn, vote, and pray.


166

http://www.blackgirlsrockinc.com/ BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc. is a non-profit youth

empowerment and mentoring organization established to promote the arts for young women

of color, as well as to encourage dialogue and analysis of the ways women of color are

portrayed in the media.

http://www.blcklst.com/ The Black List - Find scripts. Get found by industry … “Where

filmmakers find great material to make, and great material finds filmmakers to make it”.

http://www.bu.edu/ Boston University publications

http://www.businessdictionary.com/ BusinessDictionary “is the leading online business

resource, featuring over 25,000 definitions spanning across critical business-related topics

including management, small business, economics, human resources, entrepreneurship,

recruiting, and corporate strategy”.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ Business Insider is a fast-growing business site with deep

financial, media, tech, and other industry verticals.

http://www.cabrillo.edu/ Cabrillo College – “Breakthroughs Happen Here: A dynamic,

diverse and responsive community college in Aptos, California, dedicated to helping all

students achieve their academic, career, and personal development goals”.

http://www.cdc.gov/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is one of the

major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Service. "CDC

conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against

expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise".

http://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/ The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film

at San Diego State University “is the most widely cited and trusted source of information on

the representation of women in film and television”.

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/ Clutch Magazine “Clutch offers commentary, critique,

and analysis of everything from fashion, sex, politics, and beyond - through the eyes of

today's forward-thinking Black woman”.

http://www.cnbc.com/ CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic

cable and satellite business news television channel owned by NBCUniversal News Group.

http://edition.cnn.com/ The Cable News Network (CNN) is an American basic cable and

satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time

Warner (source: Wikipedia).

http://cswr.columbia.edu/ Columbia University School of Social Work (NY). The Columbia

Social Work Review (formerly the Journal of Student Social Work) strives to enrich the

scholarly nature of our school by providing a forum for the exchange of innovative ideas


167

from the perspective of social work students, and giving students the opportunity to be

published in an academic journal as master’s students.

http://communicationtheory.org/ Communication Theory: The resource site for A First Look

at Communication Theory. All About Theories for Communication.

http://www.complex.com/ Complex is a New York-based media platform for youth culture.

“Making Culture Pop: The latest in music, style, entertainment, sports and sneakers”.

http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/ CosmeticsDesign.com USA is “the leading and highest

read North American news website in the cosmetics industry. The website publishes daily

online news for cosmetics manufacturing companies on a free-access basis”.

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/ Cosmopolitan magazine “targets contemporary women,

featuring beauty, fashion, career and sex advice”.

http://creativity-online.com/ “The best in advertising, design, and digital creativity.

Creativity is the leading resource covering all things creative in advertising and design. We

provide a showcase of the best ideas across all areas of consumer culture, an exploration of

the talent and techniques behind the work and insight on the people and the trends shaping

brand creativity”.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/ The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion

website focusing on politics and pop-culture. “A smart, speedy take on the news from around

the world”. Owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid

newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord

Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The

Sun327.

http://dallernaturel.com/ D’aller Naturel: “Go Natural, Go Healthy, Go Happy”. A blog

about natural (black) hair care. “Natural and transitioning hair topics & natural hair features.

Black culture, news, celebrities, & real talk discussions"

http://www.ebony.com/ Ebony magazine is one of the oldest African American magazines

and most successful. It provides business, health, fashion, sports, entertainment and general

news about African Americans.

http://www.ebony.com/ The nation's oldest African-American lifestyle magazine--still in

print and also on the web. Ebony.com is the premiere online magazine destination for

African-American cultural insight, news and perspective.

327 Source : https://media.info/newspapers/titles/daily-mail


168

http://www.esquire.com/ Esquire - Men's Fashion, Cocktails, Politics, Interviews… “Esquire

is your destination for the latest news headlines, political developments, celebrity interviews,

men’s fashion advice, and food & drink recipes”.

http://www.essence.com/ Essence Magazine: “The Black woman’s guide to what’s hot now

— our stars, our style, our lives". "Essence is a monthly magazine for African-American

women between the ages of 18 and 49. The magazine covers fashion, lifestyle and beauty,

with an intimate girlfriend-to-girlfriend tone, and their slogan "Fierce, Fun, and Fabulous"

suggests the magazine's goal of empowering African-American women". (Wikipedia)

http://www.examiner.com/ Examiner.com is a dynamic entertainment, news and lifestyle

network that serves more than 20 million monthly readers across the U.S. and around the

world. “Real People. Real Knowledge. Examiner.com is fully powered by thousands of

writers who are independent contributors”. (A sensational media, Brittons would call it

“popular”)

http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/ Ferris State University, Jim Crow Museum of

Racist Memoriabilia: “Using objects of intolerance to teach tolerance and promote social

justice”

http://www.filmindependent.org/ Film Independent is a non-profit arts organization

supporting independent film and filmmakers. “Championing and supporting diverse,

innovative and unique independent filmmakers”.

http://www.forbes.com/ Business news and financial news by Forbes.com. Core topics

include business, technology, stock markets, personal finance, and lifestyle.

http://frac.org/ The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) is "the leading national

nonprofit organization working to improve public policies and public-private partnerships to

eradicate hunger and undernutrition in the United States".

http://www.freepress.net/ Free Press fights for your rights to connect and communicate.

“We're working to create a world where people have the information and opportunities they

need to tell their own stories, hold leaders accountable, and participate in policymaking. We

fight to save the free and open Internet, curb runaway media consolidation, protect press

freedom, and ensure diverse voices are represented in our media”.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/ FundingUniverse connects qualified entrepreneurs with

active VC's, angel investors and lending sources. “In addition, FundingUniverse provides

services to help entrepreneurs prepare for investment, such as helping them create compelling

business plans and pitches, advising them on strategic business direction, and preparing them

for investor scrutiny”.


169

http://fusion.net/ Fusion is a multi-platform media company that serves a young, diverse,

and inclusive millennial generation across its television and digital platforms. Fusion was

launched as a joint venture between Univision Communications Inc. and the Disney/ABC

Television Network on October 28, 2013.

http://www.gallup.com/ Gallup.Com - Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Politics ...

“Gallup.Com provides data-driven news based on U.S. and world polls, daily tracking and

public opinion research. Gallup delivers analytics and advice to help leaders and

organizations solve their most pressing problems".

http://www.govexec.com/ GovernmentExecutive.com "is government's business news daily

and the premier website for federal managers and executives. Government Executive's

essential editorial mission is to cover the business of the federal government and its huge

departments and agencies".

http://greatist.com/ Greatist covers all things healthy, providing the most trusted and fun

fitness, health, and happiness content on the web — from healthy recipes to workout tips.

http://thegrio.com/ TheGrio.com is a video news community devoted to providing stories

and issues that affect and reflect black America.

http://www.theguardian.com/ theguardian.com is a British news and media website owned

by the Guardian Media Group. “Latest US news, world news, sports, business, opinion,

analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice”.

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ Weblogs at Harvard Law School: law and economics blogs

from the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance that gathers the latest news,

opinion and research.

http://www.healthline.com/ Healthline: Medical Information & Trusted Health Advice.

Healthline Networks is a privately owned provider of health information and technology

solutions for publishers, advertisers, employers, healthcare providers, and health plans

(Wikipedia).

http://www.healthyblackwoman.com/ Healthy Black Woman. A magazine made by and for

black women: “Healthy Mind Body & Soul : Encouraging women to live healthy lives and

have healthy relationships".

http://hellogiggles.com/ HelloGiggles.com is « the ultimate entertainment destination for

smart, independent and creative females. A positive online community for women (although

men are always welcome!) covering news, culture, entertainment, beauty, fashion, and

more”.


170

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ The destination for news, blogs and original content

offering coverage of US politics, entertainment, style, world news, technology and comedy -

Huffington Post is a digital native media.

www.huffingtonpost.com/black-voices/ Black Voices - Huffington Post: Get Black

entertainment and politics news, money and beauty advice, and discuss the issues that matter

most to the African American community.

http://extension.illinois.edu/ University of Illinois Extension is “the flagship outreach effort

of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, offering educational programs to residents

of all of Illinois’ 102 counties – and far beyond. Through learning partnerships that put

knowledge to work, U of I Extension’s programs are aimed at making life better, healthier,

safer and more profitable for individuals and their communities”.

https://www.indiegogo.com/ Indiegogo (founded 2008) is one of the leading crowdfunding

sites, aiming at raising funds. “Indiegogo is the world's funding engine. We empower people

to fund what matters to them. #TogetherDoAnything".

http://www.indiewire.com/ Indiewire: Movie News, Movie Reviews, Entertainment ... “The

latest movie news, TV news, movie reviews, TV reviews, celebrity interviews and how to

guides to filmmaking only on Indiewire”.

http://www.internetlivestats.com/ Internet Live Stats - Internet Usage & Social Media

Statistics. “Watch the Internet as it grows in real time and monitor social media usage:

Internet users, websites, blog posts, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest users”.

http://www.investorwords.com/ Investment and Financial Dictionary. “InvestorWords - The

Most Comprehensive Investing Glossary on the Web! Over 18000 financial and investing

definitions, with links between related terms”.

http://jezebel.com/ Jezebel: “Celebrity, Sex, Fashion. For Women. Without Airbrushing".

http://www.journalism.org/ Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the

public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It conducts

public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical

social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary

of The Pew Charitable Trusts. (see: http://pewsocialtreds.org )

http://www.jeankilbourne.com Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women. “Jean

Kilbourne’s pioneering work helped develop and popularize the study of gender

representation in advertising. Her award-winning films Killing Us Softly (1 to 4) have

influenced millions of college and high school students across two generations and on an

international scale”.


171

https://www.loc.gov/ The Library of Congress “is the nation's oldest federal cultural

institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the

world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its

collections. The Library's mission is to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional

duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American

people”.

http://www.livestrong.com/ Livestrong.com offers authoritative expert content in the diet,

nutrition, fitness, wellness and lifestyle categories that informs and empowers. The

Livestrong Foundation is a Non-Profit Organization that unites, inspires and empowers

people affected by cancer.

http://www.louisianaweekly.com/ The Louisiana Weekly: Newspaper serving Louisiana's

African-American and minority communities.

http://madamenoire.com/ MadameNoire “Black women's lifestyle guide for the latest in

black hair care, relationship advice, fashion trends, black entertainment news & parenting

tips”.

http://news.makemeheal.com/ Makemeheal.com: Celebrity Plastic Surgery, News, Gossip.

“Learn, shop & chat about plastic surgery, beauty and anti-aging”. Plasticopedia:

http://education.makemeheal.com/ : Celebrity Plastic Surgery Encyclopedia. A commercial

site to sell or buy anything about plastic surgery, find a plastic surgeon or clients.

http://collection-mgmt-thoughts.blogspot.com a blog featuring “Thoughts on Management by

Professors and Professionals”

http://www.marketingmag.ca/ Marketing Magazine: Offers a Canadian source of news and

articles on marketing, advertising and media.

http://www.marketingweek.com/ Marketing Week: Marketing Week is a leading UK

magazine for marketing jobs, marketing news, opinion and information. Covering

advertising, media, public relations, online marketing ...

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ MarketsandMarkets : Market Research Company and

Consulting Firm. “MarketsandMarkets is world’s No. 2 firm in terms of annually published

premium market research reports. We specialize in consulting assignments and business

research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications”.

http://mashable.com/ Mashable is a “leading source for news, information & resources for the

Connected Generation. Latest digital, social media, business, tech, entertainment and mobile

news from Mashable.com, the top resource and guide for digital culture".


172

http://www.merriam-webster.com/ Free searchable (US) dictionary and thesaurus, word

games, a word of the day, and many other English language and vocabulary reference tools

and resources. Merriam-Webster, Inc. is a subsidiary of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

http://www.mtv.com/ MTV (formerly an initialism of Music Television) is an American

basic cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Music and Entertainment

Group (Source: Wikipedia)

http://multiculturalbeauty.about.com/ Multicultural Beauty - About.com. “Get makeup tips,

skin care advice and beauty secrets especially for women of color from Multicultural Beauty

expert Gerrie Summers”. About.com: “The largest source for Expert content on the Internet

that helps users answer questions, solve problems, learn something new or find inspiration”.

(IAC/InterActiveCorp)

http://www.naacpldf.org/ National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) is the country’s first and foremost civil and human rights law firm. http://www.naacpldf.org/files/publications/Unlocking Opportunity for African American Girls_0.pdf http://news.nationalpost.com/ National Post: Canadian News, Financial News and Opinion.

“Canada's trusted source for national news, financial news, world news, blogging, twitter,

tweets, opinion, vodcast, podcast, commentary, entertainment...”

http://www.nbcnews.com/ NBCNews.com, formerly known as msnbc.com, is a news website

owned and operated by NBCUniversal as the online arm of NBC News. “A leading source of

global news and information for more than 75 years".

http://nymag.com/ NYMAG and New York magazine cover the new, the undiscovered, the

next in politics, culture, food, fashion, and behavior nationally, through a New York lens.

http://ww.nytimes.com/ The New York Times (NYT) is an American daily newspaper,

founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18, 1851, by the

New York Times Company http://www.nytco.com/ . It has won 117 Pulitzer Prizes, more

than any other news organization (source: Wikipedia).

http://nnpa.org/ National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) is a trade association of

the more than 200 African American-owned community newspapers from around the United

States.

http://stats.oecd.org/ The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

(OECD). The mission of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

(OECD) is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of

people around the world.


173

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/ “The Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic

Trends project studies behaviors and attitudes of Americans in key realms of their lives”.

http://www.plasticsurgery.org/ American Society of Plastic Surgeons

http://www.popai.com/ POPAI: Point of Purchase Advertising International (POPAI) is a

global non-profit trade association representing more than 1,400 members in 60 countries and

18 Global Chapters. (Retail Trade Association)

http://www.faithpopcorn.com/ Faith Popcorn (born as Faith Plotkin) is a futurist (trend

researcher), author, and founder and CEO of marketing consulting firm BrainReserve. She

has written three best selling books: The Popcorn Report (1991), Clicking (1996), and

EVEolution (2000) (Source: Wikipedia)

http://thepostracialtimes.com/ Post Racial Times: Busting the post-racial myth, one status

update at a time. “As much as we’d love to live in a world where all that matters is our

carbon-based commonality, we know that isn’t the case. Race still plays a great factor in all

our lives, whether we realize it or not. Unless we learn to talk about it, fight about it, or even

laugh about it with each other, we’ll never bridge the gap that divides us”.

http://www.prnewswire.com/ “PR Newswire is the premier global provider of multimedia

platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public

affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key

audiences. PR Newswire's news distribution, targeting, monitoring and marketing solutions

help you connect and engage with target audiences across the globe”. (PR stands for Public

Relations)

http://www.psychologytoday.com/ Psychology Today covers all aspects of human behavior,

from the workings of the brain to the bonds between people and the larger cultural forces that

drive our most intimate decisions. PsychologyToday.com hosts more than 800 bloggers.

http://www.quickmba.com/ QuickMBA: Accounting, Business Law, Economics ...

“Collection of tutorials and frameworks in the various subjects of business administration, as

covered by a typical MBA program”. QuickMBA is operated by the Internet Center for

Management and Business Administration, Inc. "ICMBA's mission is to provide quality

business knowledge resources to a geographically dispersed audience via the Internet".

https://www.raanetwork.org/ Reformed (Church) African American Network. “The vision of

the Reformed African American Network (RAAN) is to fuel modern reformation in the

African American community with a multi-ethnic mindset".


174

http://racism.org/ Race, Racism And The Law considers race, racism and racial distinctions

in the law. It examines the role of domestic and international law in promoting and/or

alleviating racism.

http://www.racked.com/ Racked. “The smart source for fashion, shopping, beauty, and

wellness”. Racked covers style, shopping, and beauty as they affect the day-to-day lives of

our discerning readers”. (Vox Media Group)

http://therepresentationproject.org “Using film as a catalyst for cultural transformation, The

Representation Project inspires individuals and communities to challenge and overcome

limiting stereotypes so that everyone, regardless of gender, race, class, age, sexual orientation

or circumstance can fulfill their human potential".

www.rollingstone.com/ Online Version of Rolling Stone Magazine which includes: Music,

Movies, TV, Politics, Culture…

http://www.theroot.com/ The Root: Black News, Opinion, Politics and Culture. “The Root is

a digital magazine that provides thought-provoking commentary and news from a variety of

black perspectives”.

www.safecosmetics.org/ Campaign for Safe Cosmetics-working for safer cosmetics. The

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics works to eliminate dangerous chemicals linked to adverse

health impacts from cosmetics and personal care products.

http://scalar.usc.edu/ Scalar. Website of the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture,

featuring information about the online publishing platform Scalar. “Scalar is a free, open

source authoring and publishing platform that's designed to make it easy for authors to write

long-form, born-digital scholarship online".

http://www.sciencedaily.com/ ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news:

“ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in science,

health, the environment, technology, and more -- from major news services and leading

universities, scientific journals, and research organizations".

http://smallbusinesspool.net/ “Small Business Pool is a business BLOG where entrepreneurs

and business owners could find useful information, advice, insights, resources and inspiration

for running and growing their businesses”.

http://humanorigins.si.edu/ Publications of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural

History

http://thesocietypages.org/ The Society Pages "is an open-access social science project

headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. TSP

brings social science to broader public visibility and influence".


175

http://sociology.about.com/ About Sociology: Research, Theories and News “View the

world as a sociologist with a deeper knowledge of the history of sociology, famous

sociologists and theories, and current research and news”.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/ IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News.

“IEEE is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological

innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global

community through IEEE's highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and

professional and educational activities”.

http://plato.stanford.edu/ Online encyclopedia of philosophy created and maintained by

Stanford University.

http://www.thestar.com/ Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily. Thestar.com is Canada's

largest online news site.

http://www.stripes.com/ Stars and Stripes, independent military news is authorized for

publication by the Department of Defense for members of the military community. However,

the contents of Stars and Stripes are unofficial, and are not to be considered as the official

views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government.

http://sociology.sunimc.net/ SouthEast University Beijing, P.R. of China

http://www.sutjhally.com/ Sut Jhally is Professor of Communication at the University of

Massachusetts and founder and Executive Director of the Media Education Foundation.

http://tephoney.wordpress.com/ “The blog Barbie” about Barbie doll fans: “Don't Just Play

Barbie… Be Barbie!”

http://time.com/ Time Magazine: a leading information magazine featuring “Politics, world

news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science and entertainment news”.

http://www.today.com/ TODAY - Latest News, Video & Guests from the Today Show on

NBC

http://www.uic.edu/ University of Illinois at Chicago. UIC is Chicago's largest university

with more than 27,000 students, 12,000 employees, 15 colleges and the state's major public

medical center.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/ Urban Dictionary is a crowdsourced online dictionary of

slang words and phrases founded in 1999. "A veritable cornucopia of streetwise lingo, posted

and defined by its readers".

http://www.usatoday.com/ USA Today is a national American daily middle-market

newspaper published by the Gannett Company (Wikipedia). "Smarter. Faster. More colorful.

News that's meant to be shared”.


176

http://www.vogue.com/ Vogue: “The latest fashion news, beauty coverage, celebrity style,

fashion week updates, culture reviews, and videos. Vogue places fashion in the context of

culture and the world we live in—how we dress, live and socialize; what we eat, listen to and

watch; who leads and inspires us".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ The Washington Post "provides award-winning news and

understanding about the politics, policies, personalities and institutions that make

Washington, D.C. the world’s seat of power, and is a critical tool and information source for

those who call Washington, D.C. home".

http://weighingthefacts.blogspot.com/ Weighing The Facts. Eating Disorders: Information,

Resources, Recovery. “I've finally come to realize that I've wasted far too much time trying

to achieve society's notion of the perfect female form and that who you are can never be

defined by the reflection found in your mirror”.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ Official White House site presents issue positions, news,

Cabinet, appointments, offices and major speeches. Includes biography, video tour and photo

essays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia

project based on a model of openly editable content. The name "Wikipedia" is a portmanteau

of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word

wiki, meaning "quick") and encyclopedia. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely

anonymous volunteers who write without pay. (Wikipedia self definition)328

http://wwd.com/ WWD.com: Women's Wear Daily “brings you breaking news about the

fashion industry, designers, celebrity trend setters, and extensive coverage of fashion week”.

http://www.youtube.com/ YouTube is a video-sharing website. "Hosts user-generated

videos. Includes network and professional content".

328 Media and corporate Wikipedia articles are often redacted by the concerned companies


177

Index of Proper Nouns and Main Notions Proper nouns:

Abraham Maslow, 55, 89, 142

Adam Smith, 8

Amos 'n' Andy, 16, 17, 38

Beverly Johnson, 88, 104

Beyoncé, 30, 60, 96, 98, 131

Broadway, 135

Cassi Pittman, 152, 153

Condoleeza Rice, 75

Cosby Show, 38

Cunningham et al., 84

David Letterman, 133

Davis Aasha, 71, 73

Derek Blanks, 96, 103

Ellen Degeneres, 136

Elsie Scheel, 95

Erykah Badu, 33, 131

Faith Popcorn, 146, 169

Ferguson, 73

Frances Beale, 15

Gray, John, 84

Guerra, Maria, 74, 79, 80, 81

Harriet Tubman, 82, 130

Hattie McDaniel, 35

Issa Rae, 39

Jan Kemp, 66

Jean Kilbourne, 50, 166

Jim Crow, 17, 23, 164

Justin Simien, 36, 37

Kara Walker, 27

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 74, 97, 115, 123

Kelly Rowland, 96

Kenya Barris, 39

Kenya Moore, 103

Lachapelle, 29, 31

Lauren Kelley, 25

Lil’Kim, 29

Lisa Wade, 53

Lolo Jones, 132

Loretta Lynch, 74, 82

Lupita Nyong’o, 37, 99, 123, 131

Marge Simpson, 96

Marilyn Monroe, 95, 96, 106

Marilyn Yarbrough, 15, 16, 19

Marshal Mac Luhan, 49

Maya Angelou, 2

Michael Porter, 146

Michele Lamont, 151

Michelle Janine Howard, 130

Michelle Obama, 48, 60, 75, 82, 96, 135,

136, 138

Michelle Roberts, 82

Mikhail Lyubansky, 13

Misty Copeland, 134, 135, 145

Moody Mia, 18, 158

Naomi Campbell, 88, 104

Naomi Sims, 88

Naomi Wolf, 112

Nicky Minaj, 31, 103

Nili Goren, 29

Norman Rockwell, 95

Oprah Winfrey, 43, 48, 60, 117, 131, 136

Oscar Lewis, 66

Parul Sehgal, 56


178

Philip Kotler, 2

Playboy, 87, 105, 106

Renee Cox, 22, 23, 24

Rosie the Riveter, 95

Sandra Bullock, 100

Sarah Baartman, 24

Serena Williams, 3, 133, 134, 137

Shannon and Weaver, 20

Stephen Brown, 64

Sut Jhally, 50, 171

Thornhill and Gangestad, 84

Tyra Banks, 48, 111, 113, 131

Veblen, 152, 159

Weight Watchers, 87

Wendy Williams, 131

Zygmunt Bauman, 138

Main Notions

Advertisements, 41, 42, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54,

58, 59, 64, 65, 91, 96, 153

Airbrushing, 51, 86, 88, 107, 110, 111,

142

Angry black woman, 25, 26, 45, 66, 67,

68, 77, 82, 136, 157

Badass, 54, 68, 82, 133

Barbie, 87, 95, 101, 102, 103, 171

Black-ish, 39, 70

BMI, 85, 91, 101, 105

Booty, 31, 88, 99, 113, 127

Bossy, 47, 77, 161

Cheerleaders, 107

Doll test, 5, 123

Double jeopardy, 6, 15, 67, 75, 76, 125,

130, 155, 2

Empowering, 3, 43, 51, 52, 56, 65, 88, 95,

102, 108, 111, 126, 132, 141, 142, 164

Family, 11, 16, 39, 40, 52, 55, 57, 58, 59,

60, 65, 66, 67, 72, 79, 90, 92, 93, 137, 138,

146, 150, 152, 156

Feminism, 4, 71, 73, 93

Fitness, 55, 85, 87, 88, 90, 101, 106, 108,

109, 120, 127, 133, 137, 138, 151, 165,

167

Gibson Girl, 87

Hair, 2, 6, 23, 25, 39, 46, 53, 70, 71, 96,

98, 99, 102, 103, 105, 115, 117, 118, 120,

121, 125, 126, 128, 129, 141, 142, 143,

146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 153, 155, 156,

160, 163, 167, 2

Health, 49, 66, 67, 69, 72, 76, 79, 80, 88,

101, 104, 108, 110, 112, 116, 117, 119,

120, 121, 122, 129, 134, 141, 145, 147,

154, 162, 163, 165, 170, 171

Identity, 4, 6, 10, 19, 23, 25, 31, 39, 47,

55, 59, 61, 62, 63, 70, 90, 92, 93, 94, 123,

124, 136, 138, 145, 146, 148, 151, 152,

153, 157, 2

Image, 4, 6, 8, 16, 20, 23, 25, 26, 30, 31,

32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 54,

56, 57, 59, 60, 63, 64, 65, 72, 76, 80, 83,

87, 88, 89, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101,

102, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113,

114, 118, 120, 123, 125, 131, 132, 133,

135, 141, 144, 151, 155, 156, 2


179

Integration, 6, 64, 75, 79, 89, 94, 143, 144,

145, 146, 149, 2

Interracial, 59, 75, 161

Jezebel, 16, 18, 22, 30, 45, 158, 166

LGBT, 29, 94, 109

Mainstream, 4, 6, 24, 25, 37, 38, 39, 41,

42, 44, 49, 64, 75, 80, 88, 92, 93, 95, 98,

100, 105, 107, 112, 114, 125, 126, 127,

129, 131, 134, 142, 145, 147, 148, 152,

155, 2

Mammy, 16, 17, 26, 27, 35

Media, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 19, 28, 33, 36,

37, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49,

51, 55, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 73, 83, 87, 88,

89, 91, 93, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 104, 107,

110, 111, 112, 113, 117, 121, 126, 127,

128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 135, 136, 138,

148, 150, 151, 153, 155, 156, 157, 160,

162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 2

Mulatto, 63

Needs, 2, 6, 9, 20, 28, 29, 33, 43, 47, 49,

55, 57, 58, 59, 63, 64, 89, 94, 101, 112,

115, 118, 128, 129, 140, 141, 142, 144,

145, 146, 147, 155, 157, 2

Obamacare, 73

Obesity, 72, 80, 113, 119, 158, 159

Objectification, 24, 27, 31, 50, 51, 52, 93,

108, 122

Objects, 4, 10, 15, 20, 26, 29, 52, 107, 108,

156, 164

Products, 2, 6, 9, 22, 28, 29, 41, 49, 50, 52,

56, 57, 58, 59, 63, 64, 67, 70, 72, 87, 88,

91, 93, 98, 100, 101, 105, 108, 112, 114,

115, 116, 118, 128, 129, 131, 132, 140,

141, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149,

150, 151, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 170, 2

Profiling, 4, 66, 73, 74, 82, 153

Racism, 19, 23, 61, 75, 119, 151, 153, 157,

169

Role models, 5, 30, 48, 51, 55, 67, 82, 89,

109, 130, 131, 134, 135, 137, 156

Sapphire, 16, 17, 22, 31, 45

Self-esteem, 6, 59, 60, 63, 83, 94, 115,

118, 155, 2

Standards, 3, 6, 9, 23, 25, 51, 63, 83, 85,

86, 87, 88, 90, 92, 93, 95, 96, 100, 103,

104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111, 113,

124, 125, 126, 127, 129, 131, 134, 135,

155, 158, 161, 171, 2

Stereotypes, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15,

16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33,

38, 40, 41, 42, 46, 51, 53, 54, 61, 64, 72,

77, 78, 81, 87, 89, 93, 114, 123, 124, 125,

136, 152, 155, 170, 2

Success, 5, 18, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33,

37, 40, 46, 47, 48, 59, 60, 61, 72, 86, 91,

92, 97, 98, 99, 102, 105, 106, 125, 130,

131, 133, 135, 144, 147, 150, 152, 156

Thinspiration, 104

Wants, 2, 24, 37, 40, 58, 64, 94, 101, 107,

112, 115, 140, 141, 144, 145, 146, 148,

149, 151


180

NON PLAGIARISM STATEMENT

ATTESTATION SUR L’HONNEUR DE NON PLAGIAT

Je soussigné Jean, Louis KRAEMER déclare sur l’honneur que ce mémoire est le fruit d’un

travail personnel et que je n’ai ni contrefait, ni falsifié, ni copié tout ou partie de l’oeuvre

d’autrui afin de la faire passer pour mienne.

Toutes les sources d’information utilisées (supports papiers, audiovisuels et numériques) et

les citations d’auteur ont été mentionnées conformément aux usages en vigueur.

Je suis conscient(e) que le fait de ne pas citer une source ou de ne pas la citer clairement et

complètement est constitutif de plagiat, que le plagiat est considéré comme une faute grave

au sein de l’Université et qu’il peut être sévèrement sanctionné.

Date et signature de l’étudiant :

Règlement intérieur de l'Université de la Réunion (tel que validé par le Conseil d’Administration

en date du 11 décembre 2014)

Article 9: «Protection de la propriété intellectuelle : Faux et usage de faux, contrefaçon, plagiat»

« Le plagiat est constitué par la copie, totale ou partielle d’un travail réalisé par autrui, lorsque la

source empruntée n’est pas citée, quel que soit le moyen utilisé. Le plagiat constitue une violation du

droit d’auteur (au sens des articles L 335-2 et L 335-3 du code de la propriété intellectuelle). Il peut

être assimilé à un délit de contrefaçon. C’est aussi une faute disciplinaire, susceptible d’entraîner une

sanction.

Les sources et les références utilisées dans le cadre des travaux (préparations, devoirs, mémoires,

thèses, rapports de stage…) doivent être clairement citées. Des citations intégrales peuvent figurer

dans les documents rendus, si elles sont assorties de leur référence (nom d’auteur, publication, date,

éditeur…) et identifiées comme telles par des guillemets ou des italiques.

Les délits de contrefaçon, de plagiat et d’usage de faux peuvent donner lieu à une sanction

disciplinaire indépendante de la mise en oeuvre de poursuites pénales. »


181

ABSTRACT This research work questions several main themes of the American society and way of

life; the importance of beauty in social integration, and the impact of marketing in this

pursuit, but more generally the role and place of African American women in the USA today,

from a mainstream culture made with and partly by marketing and the media, to a

multicultural way of life involving minorities and ambivalent in terms of a high social

pressure to conform to beauty (among other) standards, but on the other hand stronger claims

of self assumption and demands of difference acceptance.



dominated society and black in a predominantly white one. They do not correspond to all

western mainstream beauty standards imposed by marketing and media in a world running on



as a good self-esteem. The other way around, we also can consider that marketing and media

may play a positive role, by offering the information and products needed to attain their

objectives of social integration and maintaining their identity.

RESUME

Cette recherche examine plusieurs thèmes majeurs de la société étatsunienne :

l’importance de la beauté pour l’intégration sociale et l’impact du marketing dans cette

démarche, ainsi que le rôle et la place des femmes afro-américaines dans les Etats-Unis

d’aujourd’hui, d’une culture dominante faite avec et en partie par le marketing et les média, à

un mode de vie interculturel, ambivalent en termes de pression sociale de conformation,

notamment aux idéaux de beauté, mais aussi de reconnaissance identitaire et d’acceptation

des différences.

Les femmes afro-américaines souffrent d’une image dévalorisante et de conditions de

vie plus difficiles ; elles font face au double défi d’être femmes dans un monde d’hommes et

noires dans un monde essentiellement blanc. Elles ne correspondent pas à tous les standards

imposés par le marketing et les média dans un monde d’apparences et de stéréotypes. Cela

crée des frustrations et des besoins, et les femmes noires doivent s’imposer de lourdes

dépenses pour leur beauté et leur chevelure afin d’être acceptées et avoir une bonne estime de

soi. Mais on peut aussi considérer que le marketing et les médias jouent un rôle positif en leur

donnant accès aux produits nécessaires pour atteindre leurs objectifs identitaires et

d’intégration sociale.

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN BEAUTY \u0026 MARKETING

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