by: danah boyd
Please watch this video. It is a depiction of how beauty is crafted for print. It's made as part of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Below are the before/after images (tx to BoingBoing).
I will never forget the first time that i did a magazine shoot. It was for a glossy girls magazine and they dyed, curled, teased, plucked, shoved, stretched, and pinned me into a perfect static place. And then they airbrushed me to normalcy cuz i refused to cut off my raver neckless and my hair was purple. (Business mag shoots have always been a bit more civil.) During a bathroom break, i wandered the halls and found a Playboy shoot where i saw how unhappy the model was trying to sit perfectly still as wind was blown on her to keep her nipples perky. The plastic face looked perfect but her eyes showed how miserable she was.
This video depicts that process in the most compelling way i've ever seen. I'm not saying makeup is bad, but i think that it's critical to understand what we're modeling ourselves after. Girl power is a crafted narrative meant to make us consume. The images of perfection we're sold are a fabrication. Most of us know this at some level, but do we really get it?
I realize i don't own the copyright on this commercial but i think that it is too culturally important to stay locked down. Please watch it.
There's this wonderful artist, Jessica Lagunas (well, she's my wife...), that also works with the theme of make-up and beauty "standards". She has a series of videos where she applies make-up for one or 2 hrs continuosly. http://rj-studio.com/jessica/
Sorry about the plug, but we saw the ad a couple of days ago and think it's great. And important for everybody to see!