I work at a Hispanic advertising agency that primarily focuses attention on multicultural, socio-economic issues that prevail in today’s society and that avidly works to support those individuals and unities bringing about positive cause and action within those impactful issues. From this, I get a first-hand look at the hot button issues that individuals are so passionate about voicing.
One dominant issue, for example, is racism – racism, prejudice, inferiority, all the same, but equally hurtful. So, I began to ponder about the roots of this particular injustice and the reasons for a person to cast inferiority, or superiority, against certain individuals. Racism, sexism and classism are products (I believe) that stem from people who support, and have supported for centuries, an ‘ideal’ image within society.
Trabajo en una agencia hispana de publicidad que se enfoca principalmente a problemas socioeconómicos y culturales tan frecuentes en la sociedad actual y que trabaja arduamente para apoyar aquellos individuos y unidades que efectúan causas y acciones positivas dentro de esos impactantes problemas. Es gracias a ello que tengo un conocimiento de primera mano acerca de esos problemas candentes que las personas discuten con pasión.
Un problema dominante, por ejemplo, es el racismo- racismo, prejuicio, inferioridad, todo es lo mismo e igualmente hiriente. Yo empecé a meditar acerca de las raíces de esta injusticia y las razones que una persona pudiera tener para sentirse superior a, o considerar inferior a otras personas. El racismo, la discriminación sexual y la discriminación de clases son producto, creo yo, que emana de aquellos que apoyan, y por siglos han apoyado, una imagen “ideal” dentro de la sociedad.
I randomly stumbled upon the latest news topic: Twiggy’s air brushed photo for Proctor and Gamble product, Oil of Olay. This photograph caused a huge stir because it’s not a real image; it’s been ‘tampered’ with. Then I recalled the recent May 2009 NYtimes.com article where photographer Peter Lindbergh shot a series of covers for French Vogue that caused a stir because they included no airbrushing. But, since we live in an image-based society, due to the media shoving it in our faces for decades, people want that perfect beauty. Whether it’s the color of your skin, gender, or particular class, there is an ideal image to uphold and people frown upon you if you don’t fit that description.
The theory of beauty, which is studied with aesthetics, was no-doubt a phenomenal aspect of Ancient Greece as evident from the works of the earliest Western philosophers. Socrates viewed beauty as a product of the good, serving a rational end upon the security or the fulfillment of man. Plato viewed beauty as associated with things, and the emotional, sensuous pleasures those things induced within the person. Plato believed in an absolute beauty, a purity, as associated with the true and the good, very much like Socrates. Furthermore, and similar to the minds of the Western philosophers, the architecture of Ancient Greece was built upon symmetry and proportion, which coincided to the principles of beauty and attractiveness. Buildings of equal harmony were more pleasing than those not, and suggested the absence of defects. The ancient Greek word for beautiful, came from the concept of, “being of one’s hour,” a ripe, youthful age. Strikingly, hundreds of years have passed, and cultures around the world, especially the American culture, have clung to the beauty concept, only it has become a theme of survival, a driving force of materialism and superficialism that harbors human life.
To compliment my train of thought is Nancy Etcoff’s 1999 book Survival of the Prettiest. This book ascertains the modern culture of beauty, explains why people are infatuated with it, why people value it, why and how it drives them, and how it has become the epitome of human identity.
Etcoff explains beauty as residing in the mind, in the imagination, so as to recognize an ideal beautiful human form when paths crossed, though no manner of manipulation can create a human incarnation. “Looking to the object of beauty, we confront centuries of struggle to capture beauty’s essence” (Etcoff 9). As stated directly pertaining to magazines and cinema, images of beauty are created out of parts of many, with no beautiful wholes. Models and actresses in the earlier years needed a double that had beautiful parts to compliment their parts, to create the most pleasing image as possible. Now, technologies such as airbrushing and digital alterations make it possible to alter and perfect images without the need for a double. Airbrushing and digital alterations rule the majority of magazines and commercials people see in today’s society.
People care so much to keep an ideal image because they want to find a perfect mate. People want to improve social status, money, love and overcome the scrutinizing gazes of other people, whether it’s envious or admirable.
American culture usurps an image-based, materialistic, expensive and unsympathetic society. The media propagandizes beauty in the most torturous, yet influential of ways, sucking in every living human, especially women. The message that the media displays so heartily, and plagues everyone’s minds, is the world revolves primarily on pretty, fit, individuals – “survival of the prettiest.”
To conclude, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. And if people can look a little deeper in the eyes of other people, they will understand that they are just another person equally trying to keep to an image to survive in this world. Whether they are Caucasian, Latin American, Asian or African American, all individuals have a unique beauty that makes them different from everyone else, gives them identity. People need to put aside, the media’s ‘ideal’ image and empathize with their fellow human beings. What is superiority? Is it real? Or just an image created by powers that be.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Callisto Griffith.
Callisto Griffith is a student, free-spirit, model, and world-citizen striving to analyze as much information about the universe she resides in as possible. With an inquisitive take on people, places, culture, current events, history, nature, the space-time continuum, and the simple pleasures of living, Callisto is always one to share her thoughts, opinions and philosophies and converse with fellow contemporaries.
Casualmente tropecé con el último tema en las noticias: la fotografía retocada de Twiggy para Oil of Olay, un producto de Procter & Gamble. Esta fotografía causó sensación porque no es una imagen real, ha sido manipulada. Luego recordé el artículo reciente, publicado en Mayo de 2009 en el New York Times, acerca de la serie de fotografías que tomara Peter Lindbergh para las portadas de la revista French Vogue y que causaron furor porque no fueron retocadas. Pero, como vivimos en una sociedad que se fundamenta en la imagen, gracias a los medios informativos que nos han estado restregando la imagen por décadas, la gente anhela la belleza perfecta. Tanto si se trata del color de su piel, su sexo o clase en particular, hay una imagen ideal que hay que sostener y las personas no aprueban de usted si usted no encaja en esa descripción.
La teoría de la belleza, que se estudia con la estética, fue sin duda un aspecto fenomenal de la Grecia Antigua, como se hace evidente en los trabajos de los primeros filósofos occidentales. Sócrates consideraba la belleza como un producto del bien, sirviendo a un fin racional sobre la seguridad o la realización del hombre. Platón veía la belleza en relación a las cosas, y los emocionales y sensuales placeres que esas cosas inducían en la persona. Platón creía en una belleza absoluta, una pureza asociada con la verdad y el bien, a semejanza de Sócrates. Además, y similar a las mentes de los filósofos occidentales, la arquitectura de la antigua Grecia estaba fundamentada en la simetría y la proporción, que coincidía con los principios de belleza y atractivo. Los edificios de armonía simétrica eran más atractivos y sugerían la ausencia de defectos. El vocablo del griego antiguo para bello proviene del concepto de “estar en la hora exacta”, la plenitud de la juventud. Es asombroso que a pesar de haber pasado cientos de años, muchas culturas en el mundo, especialmente la cultura americana, se han aferrado a ese concepto de la belleza, solo que este se ha convertido en el tema de la supervivencia, la fuerza motor del materialismo y superficialismo que alberga la vida humana.
El libro de Nancy Etcoff, publicado en 1999, Survival of the Prettiest (La Supervivencia de lo Más Bonito), complementa mi idea. El libro determina la cultura moderna de belleza, y explica porque las personas están enamoradas de la belleza, porqué la valoran, cómo y porqué la belleza les impulsa, y como se ha convertido en el epítome de la identidad humana.
Etcoff explica que la belleza reside en la mente, en la imaginación, para poder reconocer una forma humana hermosa e ideal cuando la encuentra, a pesar de que ninguna forma de manipulación pueda crear una encarnación humana. “Al contemplar un objeto de belleza, nos enfrentamos a siglos de lucha por capturar la esencia de la belleza” (Etcoff 9). En las revistas y las películas, las imágenes de belleza son creadas con piezas diversas, sin que exista ninguna belleza completa. En años anteriores, las modelos y las actrices necesitaban de un doble que tuviese partes hermosas para complementar las suyas, para crear la imagen más placentera que fuera posible. Ahora, las tecnologías como el retoque y las alteraciones digitales hacen posible alterar y perfeccionar las imágenes sin necesidad de recurrir a un doble. El retoque y las alteraciones digitales son utilizados en la gran mayoría de las revistas y los comerciales que la gente ve en la actualidad.
Las personas se preocupan tanto por mantener una imagen ideal porque quieren encontrar la pareja perfecta. Quieren mejorar su posición social, tener más dinero, ser más amadas y superar las miradas escrutadoras de los demás, tanto si esas miradas son provocadas por envidia o por admiración.La cultura americana usurpa una sociedad materialista, costosa y antipática, dominada por la imagen. Los medios informativos hacen propaganda a la belleza en las formas más tortuosas pero influyentes y succionando a todo ser viviente, especialmente a las mujeres. El mensaje que los medios informativos propagan con tanto entusiasmo, y que plagan las mentes de todos, es que el mundo gira primordialmente en derredor de los individuos bellos y en buena condición física – “la supervivencia de lo más bonito.”
Para concluir, la belleza radica en los ojos de quien la contempla. Y si las personas pudiesen profundizar un poco más en los ojos de otras personas, podrían entender que son solo otra persona que igualmente intenta mantener una imagen para poder sobrevivir en este mundo. No importa si son caucásicos, latinoamericanos, asiáticos o afro americanos, todos los individuos poseen una belleza singular que los hace diferentes a todos los demás, que les da identidad. Las personas deben hacer un lado la imagen “ideal” de los medios y empatizar con sus semejantes. Qué es la superioridad? Es real? O es solo una imagen creada por las autoridades establecidas.
Las opiniones expresadas en este comentario son únicamente las de Callisto Griffith.
Callisto Griffith es un estudiante, un espíritu libre, un modelo y ciudadano del mundo que se esfuerza por analizar la mayor cantidad de información acerca del universo en el que reside. Con su naturaleza inquisitiva, observa las personas, lugares, culturas, eventos actuales, la historia, la naturaleza, la relación entre el tiempo y el espacio, los placeres sencillos de la vida, comparte sus pensamientos, opiniones y filosofías y conversa con sus contemporáneos.
January 8th, 2010 at 4:27 am
Bravo! I am very proud of you.
January 10th, 2010 at 6:17 am
“American culture usurps an image-based, materialistic, expensive and unsympathetic society.”
I think we should to be more careful in the casual use of the term “American” without a qualifier.
Those of us who live or were born in Central or South America are very much Americans. And I think that if one were to spend time there, they would find that “image-based, materialistic, expensive and unsympathetic” are quite the exceptions, not the norm.
Tell a working-class Venezuelan or Bolivian or Ecuadorian that they are materialistic and image-based.
It may just be nomenclature, but I would think a website called Red Brown and Blue would be particular about this distinction. Especially if an article’s author works at a Hispanic ad-agency.
Due diligence, please. It may be the internet, but it still matters.
January 10th, 2010 at 6:35 am
And though I have singled out South American countries, my main criticism in the term “American” lies in the neglect and overlook of the Mexican culture.
Though some northern states like Chihuahua, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon have taken some cultural cues from the United States, Mexico is a very big and diverse country. You have five million “Americans” who live in Guadalajara. You have over ten million more “Americans” in DF.
And something tells me that a movement like the Zapatistas didn’t arrive from a rebuke of materialism.
Sorry, just a pet peeve.
January 12th, 2010 at 4:15 am
Alejandro, I agree with your point that a qualifier should be used with the term American, because it neglects fellow North Americans, Central Americans, and South Americans.
To address your main criticism term of the term American which you state neglects and overlooks Mexican culture.
Were you referring to Mexican culture in the US or Mexico? Your paragraph about Mexican states suggests the scope of this article was intended to portray all Americans (North, Central, and South). In which case the term American would be used appropriately, but the article would have as you put it overlooked Mexican in addition to the 20+ other American cultures that do not share this unfortunate image based materialistic society.
If the term American was used to denote United States culture, which I believe is clear from the from the text – but that may be my own cultural bias, then the term was an unfortunate offense by the writer. I do not believe that this mistake takes away from the essences of the article which aptly describes a serious issue in US culture. I hope that you found value in this article despite how offensive the misuse of American may have been to you.
Side note: Although the Zapatistas did not arrive out of a rebuke of materialism their ideology supports such a notion. The EZLN believes in the concept of mutual aid as evidenced by one of their slogans “Para todos todo, para nosotros nada – For everyone, everything, for us, nothing.”
August 9th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
I’ve frequently thought that makeup was much like your colour palette and your face was the canvas. It never fail to amazes me precisely what masterpiece you can easily come up with on a person’s face.