Women shouldn't buy into constructed idea of beauty
Surya Deva says their co-operation only profits the beauty companies
Recently, one of my students started her presentation on The Body Shop by saying: "I am a girl, so I have to use many cosmetics." This was quite telling - not merely about the images created and sold by companies, but also about how such images have become ingrained in our day-to-day lives.
How could one otherwise explain the substantial fee paid by four middle-aged Hong Kong women to a DR beauty clinic to undergo blood transfusion therapy?
Calls have been made to introduce or tighten regulations governing such clinics. While legal regulations are necessary, they might not address the real problem, which lies in the social construction of beauty as a uniform standard. As Naomi Wolf argues in her book The Beauty Myth, the objectification of women's bodies to satisfy an objective and universal standard of beauty is inherently problematic and disempowering for women.
A look at the adverts at any MTR station provides many examples of a woman's body presented as a product which can (and should) be perfected. "Body sculpting" is promoted as if women's bodies were a piece of art. Then there is "contouring" to achieve a "V-shaped face" or augmentation of different body parts, and Botox injections are used to tighten skin. It is a common in Hong Kong to see women applying multiple cosmetics on the go. This is beauty obsession at its best.
If ageing and wrinkles are natural and irreversible, diversity in body shapes and sizes is evidence that humans are not produced in factories. Different stages of life and the uniqueness of physical attributes should be socially acceptable.
Nevertheless, many women still feel tempted or compelled to spend money on slowing down or reversing these attributes. What for? To meet a beauty standard set by "others" - usually men.
The whole exercise becomes a trap. Women strive to achieve the impossible and the resulting failure lowers their self-esteem and confidence. Even if they achieve a goal, there is always another target to aim for. That's to say nothing of peer pressure or the desire to stand out from the crowd.