Day: March 23, 2021

Diary Of Systemic Injustices: One-Size Fits All

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The systemic injustice that I have already written about and want to shed more light on is the idea of one-size fits all when it comes to clothes and clothing stores. I’m sure many have heard or have had the issue of some stores having one-size fits all clothes. This is a common issue due to the fact that no one is one-size therefore  exempting certain body types from being able to wear certain clothes they should be able to wear.

One store that has a lot of controversy around their sizing issues has been Brandy Melville. Brandy Melville is a store that I believe has become very popular all across the nation. This store has a certain brand to it, and it hasn’t changed nor will it ever probably since little to no change has happened so far. Brandy Melville is known for their branding, pictures and models being skinny, white girls with little to no diversity mixed in. Their brand and store was obviously made for a target audience so why not make clothes for that target audience only?

I’m not going to sit here and act like I have never shopped from them before because I have. They have cute and trendy clothes which is so unfortunate that they had to ruin it by sticking to the one-size fits all façade. A lot of people, including myself, have stopped shopping there since this controversy and have spoken out about the fact the brand discriminates certain body types. I hope one day they will try to be more inclusive to not only all body types, but also all races as well. Brandy Melville has had a lot of people try to reach out about this problem of only subjecting to one type of body image but has not really had a response (The Campanile). Times have changed and many brands have adhered to the fact that all bodies are beautiful. A prime example of this is Aerie, a brand that came from American Eagle and really puts the idea out there that all bodies should be excepted and celebrated. Even Victoria’s Secret has changed their brand of models to be a bit curvier because they have a lot gone through a lot of controversy about not representing all body types as well. Hopefully Brandy Melville in the future will learn from these mistakes and look at their competition for some good advice.

Article on real life encounters with Brandy Melville:

https://thecampanile.org/2020/10/20/brandy-melvilles-inclusivity-dilemma-controversies-surrounding-one-size-fits-all-and-blm/

Systemic Injustices In The Beauty Industry

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For the past several weeks, I have become very aware of the injustices in our society, and specifically, in the beauty industry, and it’s something I cannot unsee. I have always liked beauty products and never saw an issue with brand diversity until I began to look for it. I realized I had never noticed beauty diversity because I was never affected by it, because most, if not all beauty products were marketed to people who shared the same skin tone as me. 

I first noticed the extreme and gut-stirring lack of exposure of darker skin tones on the Ulta Beauty website as I browsed through several products. Here is a screenshot I took a few weeks ago. Notice anything?

Each of the product images used as the cover photo to market the products is for an individual with fair skin, which is ultimately for white individuals. There are countless concerns I have with this screenshot, as it delves into a deeper issue of beauty standards and how ideals have been built on white beauty standards, making black individuals feel less applicable of said “beauty”. Not only are many products marketed to white people, but also we see products that have words like “lighten” or “whiten” complexion, which suggests that having darker skin isn’t beautiful. In an article that explores these issues and how companies have slowly started to combat these injustices, Osman writes, “there’s a booming market for skin lightening products, despite the moral and physical concerns associated with some cosmetics”. The issues that surround beauty ideals with a light skin complexion, come from far wider reasons than cosmetics. For instance, in the realm of status representation, lighter skin was a social signifier for rank and superiority (Sankaran 2017). European women who were already white would even try to be paler

by ingesting arsenic wafers to lighten their complexion (Adamu 2019). Issues surrounding beauty ideals with fair skin have stemmed from centuries ago and it’s an injustice that has been furthered by beauty brands and society. In Ortiz Cofers story, “The story of my body”. She mentioned many of her physical attributes that established her beauty as she grew up. Cofer has memories of others looked at her skin and she mentions hearing a pregnant Puerto Rican woman say, “I hope my baby doesn’t turn out prieto” (slang for dark and black” (Cofer pg. 2) Cofer also has an unforgettable memory with her skin complexion when the supermarket clerk calls her skin dirty. Lighter skin has been a beauty ideal for many generations, and marketers have used these ideals as a way to market to consumers. Beauty brands are furthering these injustices by the ways they choose to market their products. All skin tones are beautiful and valid, and every person regardless of what color they are should feel valid to make themselves feel even more beautiful with makeup. 

 

Worked Cited

Adamu, N. (2019, March 21). Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/ee63db55ad29f4e9078a5244e9f23f8c0be4f9dd_arsenic-complexion-wafers-smithsonian.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&w=1338&h=

Osman, N. (2019, April 4). Under the skin: How lightening creams exploit the beauty myth. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/skin-lightening-creams-are-they-exploiting-beauty-myths-south-sudan

Ortiz, Judith Cofer “The story of my body”

Sankaran, S., Sekerdej, M., & Von Hecker, U. (2017). The role of Indian caste identity and caste inconsistent norms on status representation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00487

Ulta Beauty product page,  https://www.ulta.com/makeup-face-concealer?N=26y6

 

Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase – Sam Faingold

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         Bachelor host, Chris Harrison has been in the news lately after stepping away from the show. This removal came on the heels of Harrison defending last season’s Bachelor winner, Rachael Kirkconnell after racist content came out of her, including photos of her at plantation parties and wearing the confederate flag. 

         Harrison’s defense came during an interview with former Bachelor contestant, Rachel Lindsay, who is Black. Harrison consistently spoke over Linsay and defended Kirkconnell’s racist actions (Longeretta).

         While defending the photos of Kirkconnell at an Antebellum themed party, Harrison said, “Well, Rachel [Lindsay], is it not a good look in 2018? Or, is it not a good look in 2021? Because there’s a big difference.”

         This interview was dually problematic as Harrison, a white man, continually challenged and disregarded the ideas and concerns of a Black woman. It is impossible not to notice the intersectionality of both people’s racial and gender identities and the power dynamics associated.

         Harrison has since apologized and, of course, stepped away from the show, but that was likely not a decision he made of his own volition. 

         Further, Harrison’s reactions to the racist actions of a white woman, vying for the love of a Black man (who broke up with Kirkconnell upon the surfacing of her old photos) and his claims that the world has become more politically correct in recent years, demonstrates the ignorance of white people to Black struggles in this country. 

       Although legislation has been put into place since the days of MLK and John Lewis, racism and white privilege are still persistent issues. White people do not want to feel guilty about what their ancestors did and the foundations they laid that continue to harm Black people today.

         In order to remedy this dissonance and absolve themselves of guilt, many white people, like Harrison, grip to this narrative that respecting Black people and their history and denouncing white supremacy is new. They act as though this respect is something they shouldn’t have considered before because no one told them, so they should not be punished for their past abuse.

This mindset is incredibly problematic and is used as an excuse to not take responsibility for racist actions. However, by teaching people a more accurate account of America’s racist history through the works of people who experienced it, like March by John Lewis, we may be able to convince people to confront reality and help people gain respect for Black Americans and the struggles they have, and continue to endure.

 

Works Cited:

Lewis, John, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. March: Book One. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf Productions, 2013.

Longeretta, Emily. “A Timeline of Chris Harrison and Rachel Lindsay’s Interview and the Fallout.” Us Weekly, 4 Mar. 2021, www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/chris-harrison-and-rachel-lindsays-interview-fallout-a-timeline/.