Why the hype?:
A sociological analysis of body perfection and industry success.
We strive to look our absolute best, as our image speaks volumes about us as individuals. Women in particular are placed under a microscope of continuous scrutiny and are expected to hold themselves in accordance with societal expectations. We hold the power of self-choice and control how we conduct behaviour - but we do not adjust our image appearence in this light. The methods we take for image maintainence are without doubt not done for the pleasing of ourselves, but rather for the pleasing of others. Deborah Harris-Moore presents the idea of self-governance and agency as being at best, a simulation, where the advertising of weight loss methods, cosmetic and surgical procedures are advertised as doing it "for yourself" as an individual right or reward. But this illusionary tactic taken by media and cosmetic industries is a false promise and portrayal of their aim.
"In a society that sets standards for normalacy, power, beauty, and other ordeals,
doing anything for yourself is impossible; agency is, in this area, at its best, a simulation." (Deborah Harris-Moore. "Media and the Rhetoric of Body Perfection", 27.)
It is this embedding of falsity within society that allows the industry to maintain its success.
"Representation and fiction a have meaning... they portray events that have been staged... they have power in the way that they shape people's understanding of others and thenselves, and when an image gets shown and published in the media over and over, one comes to believe in that image." (Joseph H. Hancock et al. "Fashion in Popular Culture: Literature, Media and Contemporary Studies", 150).
The industry constructs and feeds its consumers the desire and the means to fulfill these needs of attaining an unrealistic ideal of perfection. Supplemented with the addition of marketing campaigns and advertising tactics that create ideals of beauty and heighten our societal need to maintain our image through consumption, "... it is no surprise that television shows and other media have elevated plastic surgeons and weight loss gurus to the status of genius rogues or selfless heroes."(Ibid, 28) This reinforces the idea of our capitalist society, media corporations, medical and cosmetic industries working as the controlling forces which create ideals of perfection, and gain a religious and devoted following through the construction of false attainability. David Chidester gives insight into how elements of popular culture become converted into religious purposes, where "... as a prominent if not defining factor of (north) american popular culture, consumerism has resulted in 'selling God'... and even fostering 'religio-economic corporations such as Amway, Herbalife and Mary Kay Cosmetics..."(David Chidester, "Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture", 31. There exists a contradiction within our culture, where the North American society prides itself on the contradiction of capitalism and 'equal opportunuty.' There is no real ultimate attainability of body perfection and the perfect, ideal image. The beauty industry functions and thrives on this aspect of competition which permeates our society and modern popular culture.
Beauty as Religion
The Power of Social Media: The Gurus of a Gorgeous Image.
"The towering goddess in the thick eye shadow could not seem to turn her eyes to look down at me. Their beauty kept them distant, unrecognizable, less human." ( Leslie Leyland Fields. "The Power and the Glamour: Searching for Beauty amid Hollywood's Beautiful People")
We all wish to keep in touch, stay up-to-date with the latest news and the business of others. Modern popular culture gives much credit to its livelihood through the power of social media and online networking - a vehicle which allows individuals and groups to stay connected via a virtual world. Social media, in its application to popular culture and how lifestyle and inolvement in beauty works as a form of religion, functions as a platform for participation and practicing within the network of other common lovers and devotees of the fashion and beauty industry. Social media aids in allowing the shared worldview of beauty lovers to exist and thrive outside of which it is an inner individual passion. Religion is understood as being "... about sacred symbols and sacred systems of symbols that endow the world with value and meaning... the sacred name, the sacred formula, the sacred image, the sacred object... has been at the center of a popular American system of religious symbolism." (David Chidester. "The Church of Baseball, the Fetish of Coca-Cola, and the Potlatch of Rock and Roll", 744). The meaning of beauty, and the value it holds to members who take part in its practices and rituals is represented by symbols of sacred objects and names that are reinforced through the medium of social networking. Popular cultural forms of religion are referred to as 'religious institutions, "... that maintains the continuity, uniformity, sacred space, and sacred time of American life" (Ibid, 745), whereby pop cultural groups that demonstrate devotion display the same implications as those within the church. The vast number that participate in the following of the beauty industry through social networking mediums demonstrate how pop cultural followings can be described "... as the "faith of fifty million people" (ibid, 745). Top beauty vloggers, showing channel subscribers within the millions is quite astonishing.
Furthermore, social media acts as a reinforcing component in fostering unity and a sense of belonging. Pop cultural devotion "... supports a sense of uniformity, a sense of belonging to a vast, extended American family that attends the same church... by sharing a fabric of beliefs, symbols, and mutual agreements."(Ibid, 746). A term that neatly describes this sense of placement and unity felt among religious groups is referred to as a 'collective effervesence', where the shared belief system and practicing of rituals among a number of believers creates a heightened sense of emotional response from within oneself, felt by all, demonstrating how devotion toward and participation in the realm of beauty through social tools allow for the same senses to be felt from within as those who attend a religious service or gathering.
The ever-popular Instagram accounts and Youtube channels, especially, are a top form of communication that has contributed to how the participation in fashion and beauty has grown to reflect and function as a form of religious devotion. "In both social and psychological terms, The Girl, whether or not she is really a goddess, certianly acts that way."(Harvey Cox, "Miss America and the Cult of the Girl: The Omnipresent Icon of the Consumer Society", 145). We see top beauty bloggers who are referred to the goddesses and gurus of the industry, whom women idolize and take the advice and product suggestions from and apply it to their own lifestyles and routines, much in the same manner as one who practices any type of religious faith. The number of channel subscribers in itself reflect how top beauty gurus parallel the status of a religious goddess or reigning superior. This type of high status held by an individual within pop cultural groups demonstrate how the beauty realm functions as religion, where the element of belief in a higher superior exists. Shown are just a few examples that demonstrate social media's impact on commitment to the beauty realm.
Beauty Guru: Nicole Guerriero
Subscribers: 2,013,051
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/nguerriero19
Beauty Guru: Casey Holmes
Subscribers: 860,789
"Holy Grail" Products...
Top 10 Holy Grail Beauty Products.
ShadesofKassie
Below are video examples taken from just a few of the many beauty youtube gurus, where hair and beauty products are described extensively for why they are the absolute best they have used and cannot 'live without'. These examples demonstrate how devotion to beauty parallels with the Christian faith, where believers recognize God as the provider of needs for the sustainence of daily life.
"We recognize God as our provider and rely on Him to meet our daily needs. This does not mean that we expect God to literally rain down manna on us but that we understand He is the one who makes our work fruitful, sometimes even meeting physical needs in miraculous ways."(http://www.gotquestions.org/daily-bread.html)
In comparison, top 10 'holy grail' products as deemed needed and testified by idolized advisors of the beauty world demonstrate how followers rely upon the beauty industry to provide products needed to maintain a beautiful image as is societally shaped and expected.
Casey Holmes
*Click here!*
IMATS
International Make-up Artist Trade Show
This convention is held annually in various parts of the world – Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Vancouver British Columbia, Sydney Australia, and London – and features top high end beauty brand exhibitors, internationally known and famous makeup artists who perform makeup application and looks, and host competitions which are held between students of makeup and cosmetology schools in the area. These conventions draw followers of the beauty industry and allow youtube subscribers to meet or personally get a glimpse of their favorite youtube beauty sensations in person who also attend these conventions to personally meet their devoted followers and fans. As described within the course notes, popular culture "... can actually become an expression of authentic spiritual faith for some audiences." Live makeup application tutorials, seeing ordinary people becoming transformed into mythical creatures and amazing characters through the power of special effects makeup artistry, and purchasing from top beauty companies through exhibit booths all under one roof gives fans of beauty culture a sense of reality and meaning from that which exists of their own personal interest in beauty. Events such as these, and the communal aspect that it represents, resonate a religious meaning to fanatics and gives their interest and devotion a sense of true worth. Additionally, many social media beauty stars and gurus attend IMATS across America, some attending more than one nationally and internationally. This allows their followers the privilege to see and maybe personally meet some of the beauty and fashion stars which they religiously devote time in watching and listening. Fans of popular culture can participate similairly in sacred solidarity, "... especially when that community of allegiance is focused on the extraoridinary personality of a celebrity." (David Chidester, "Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture", 33). This idea of community allegiance is reinforced through events such as IMATS which glorifies beauty in its consumption, as an art, and for its central characteristic: the recognization of exterior image as being that which must be a focus and maintained.
Crowned as Beautiful Royalty:
An Analysis of Beauty Pageantry as Religion
Remaining in line with the theme of maintaining one's image and reaching aspirations of culturally constructed ideals of beauty, pageants are in themselves another means which demonstrate how obsession with image is taken to an extreme, where they function symbolically as 'cults of image perfection.' Where exterior beauty is judged based on criteria of cultural construction, and where inner talent supplements a girl's justification for being beautiful, pageants are the epitome of how pop cultural beauty functions as religious devotion. The aspect of competition for a crown which labels a women as the ultimate embodiment of what is culturally considered 'the ideal women' further gives support to the idea the beauty industry operating on both consumer levels of society and women's internal needs to be deemed the ultimate representation of beautiful. It is every little girl's dream to be wear a crown that deems her a beauty queen - she wishes to be recognized for her aspirations, talents, and most of all, be valued by all of society for her image. Beauty competitions are described as more than being an over-publisized scam taken by advertising agencies, they "... represent the mass cultic celebration, complete with a rich variety of ancient ritual embellishments, of the growing place of The Girl in the collective soul of America.."(Harvey Cox, "Miss America and the Cult of the Girl: The Omnipresent Icon of the Consumer Society", 144). The girls represented within beauty pageants are embodiments of the north american feminine ideal, functioning
"... as the source of value, the giver of personal identity... She is a merciless goddess who draws us further and further into the net of accelerated ordeals of obeisance. As the Queen of commodities in an expanding economy, the fulfillment she promises must always remain just beyond the tips of our fingers. " (Ibid, 145).
Thus, our culture indeed creates beauty as a constantly changing and unattainable ideal, where in a consumer society we are in continuous search for the next product or method that falsely promises us the hope of becoming beautiful. We turn to those who embody the image of perfection, who act as the idolized model of what young women should and do aspire to become. These Queens of beauty without doubt resonate factors of religious devotion both within themselves in their aim to become crowned, as well as embedding desire in their followers who attempt to reflect their idol's image through beautifying ritualistic practices and image control.
