Considering the point that Wollstonecraft makes in chapter two regarding Dr. Gregory’s claim that women should “cultivate a fondness for dress,” I believe that Wollstonecraft would argue against the makeup and cosmetics industry. Wollstonecraft believes that a woman’s “fondness for dress” is “not natural; but arises, like false ambition in men, from a love of power,” explaining that women like dresses because it is one of the few ways that they can exercise any amount of power in a social setting. The main argument Wollstonecraft makes is for leveling the playing field between men and women by providing women with an education; the implication could be made that once this playing field is leveled, women would not longer have a fondness of dress because they would not longer need that mode to exercise power - they would then have education.
I believe that Wollstonecraft would take a similar stance on the makeup and cosmetics industry; the industry exists both so that women can conform to traditional standards of beauty (primarily for men) and so that women can possibly assert some control in how they present themselves (as with dresses). Wollstonecraft would likely argue that, if all else were equal in terms of access to social power, women would no longer desire makeup, and the industry would naturally fade out of society.
I completely agree with your analysis regarding how Wollstonecraft would react to the current cosmetic and makeup industry; she would see makeup as a mechanism for women to, once again, assume the role which society has forced them into. I can specifically imagine her reacting strongly to the plastic surgery industry where people are literally and physically altering how they look in order to fit in with the beauty ideals that are ascribed to them through the media.
ReplyDeleteThe counter argument (which is prevalent in modern times) against Wollstonecraft’s view is that cosmetics are often used as forms of self gratification. This idea stems from the notion that women use makeup to change their appearance for the sake of viewing themselves in a more positive light and NOT for anyone else’s sake. Though I personally understand the merit of this viewpoint, I think Wollstonecraft would likely respond in the following way: women only feel this sense of self gratification as a result of the social structure they were born into. Meaning that women only value having these characteristics because they were taught to calculate their value and self worth through the eyes of a man.
This actually reminds me of a theory I learned about in my sociology class by Charles Horton Cooley’s called the looking glass self. His theory about the formation of the self mainly rests on the following three components: 1. We imagine how we must appear to others, 2. We imagine and react to what we feel their judgement of that appearance must be. And 3. We develop our self through the judgements of others. The main thing to note here is that the self is being entirely constructed based on external factors. Wollstonecraft would agree with this sentiment in that women who ascribe to the buying into beauty industry are only doing so because they are creating their own version of self based on how they perceive that men react to them. Thus, it is completely understandable why a woman would think she is putting on pounds of makeup for herself.