women's history discussion

Educating the Eye of the Beholder: American Cosmetics Abroad Author(syf . D W K \ 3 H L V s Source: Daedalus, Vol. 131, No. 4, On Beauty (Fall, 2002yf S S 9 Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20027809 Accessed: 26-06-2017 02:34 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms American Academy of Arts & Sciences, The MIT Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Daedalus This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Kathy Peiss Educating the eye of the beholder American cosmetics abroad When the Taliban were forced from power in Afghanistan, American news media delighted in reporting the sure signs of freedom in Kabul : popular mu sic could be heard again, videotapes re appeared, men shaved, and, not least, beauty parlors reopened. Deliverance from theocratic oppression went hand in hand, it seemed, with the cultivation of female beauty. The New York Times pho tographed makeup supplies hidden for five years and showed Afghan men hold ing up posters of film stars and models. Such news coverage has not been unique in recent years. Similar accounts of women's newfound right to beautify appeared in the 1980s and 1990s when the Chinese government instituted eco nomic reforms, communist rule ended in Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union Kathy Peiss is Nichols Professor of American His tory at the University of Pennsylvania. A leading scholar of women s history, the history of sexuali ty, and gender in the United States, she is the au thor of many books and articles including "Cheap Amusements : Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York" (1986yf D Q d "Hope in ajar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture" (1998yf 6 K H L V D O V R W K H H G L W R U R I 0 D M R r Problems in the History of American Sexuality" (2001yf . dissolved. Identified in socialist ideology as a corrupt bourgeois practice oppres sive to women, cosmetics-use then marked a turn away from totalitarianism to Western-style individualism and au tonomy. Comparable stories measured the apparent progress and success of de veloping nations in the global economy by highlighting the promotion and con sumption of American beauty products in South American rain forests and else where. Americans have exported now ubiqui tous images of glamorized, sexualized female beauty - images of the healthy and exposed body, made-up face, direct and inviting expression - for over seven decades. In that time, the commercial problem of selling beauty became entan gled with a set of ideological positions that supported the larger political and economic goals of the United States in the world. Freedom, democracy, and modernity were signified by an image of artificially enhanced female beauty, youth, and glamour - an image identified not simply as Western but more specifi cally as American. As a commodity for ex port, this odd coupling - of the broadest ideals of American politics with notions of female beauty and cultural practices typically dismissed as trivial - deserves a closer examination. D dalus Fall 2002 IOI This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Kathy J_/ong before the American beauty in on dustry emerged on the global scene, im beauty ages of beauty tied to national identities circulated as a kind of currency in the West. Early modern global trade in herbs, chemicals, dyes, and prepared cosmetics sometimes used place names or symbols to convey a sense of the exot ic or an aura of exclusivity. Even more important, throughout the period of Eu ropean nation-building, exploration, and colonization, female beauty types pro vided a symbolic shorthand with which to articulate perceived social and cultur al characteristics of different 'races' and nations. Coded onto female faces and bodies were the Frenchness of fashion ability, the Englishness of hygiene, and the sensuousness of Orientals and Medi terraneans. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these beauty types, imported and readily employed in the marketing of beauty products in the United States, eased American women's reluctance to use cosmetics by linking them to a worldwide tradition of cos metic arts. The beauty images that Americans im ported would not be the same ones they exported. By the start of the twentieth century, a domestic beauty industry had begun to take shape. The emergent American look - visible in Gibson Girls and the New Woman - conveyed an im age that was natural, youthful, healthy, and wholesome. It was also associated with a modern outlook, represented by freer sexual expression, a social life out side the home and family, and individu alism. These images were successfully adapted by manufacturers, druggists, and beauty salons to promote the sale of skincare products. The emergence of Hollywood further legitimized an image of American beau ty that included makeup and 'natural ar tifice' in the years during and after World War I. Makeup, lighting, camera work, and the choice of actors came to gether to create an aura of glamour that went beyond symmetry of form and reg ular features. At the same time, Holly wood replaced elite distance and the ex clusivity of beauty with the knowing look and accessibility of Everywoman. The relationship of these images of fe male modernity to American identity was neither certain nor untroubled: ex treme flappers were often condemned as a national disgrace - even as winners of a new commercial venture, the Miss America Pageant, came to represent both civic and beauty ideals. These im ages circulated internationally through the distribution of motion pictures and magazines, and, in some places, through the efforts of local businesses and gov ernment. In Japan, for example, the Meiji gov ernment encouraged Western dress, hairstyles, and cosmetics-use as part of its project of modernization after 1868. Women of the higher classes continued to present a traditional image of Japan ese womanhood, using lead-based white powder that covered the skin, but such traditional practices as shaving eyebrows and blackening teeth declined. By the 1910s and 1920s, Western-style powders, including transparent white and skin toned powders, became more commonly used to create the everyday face of re spectable middle-class women; the tra ditional white face, like the kimono, be came more a ceremonial style. In the late 1920s, the 'moga,' or 'modern girl,' took elements of style from American flap pers as they created their own personae of assertive, public, working women. American cosmetics firms had little to do with these developments directly, but some Japanese businessmen were at tuned to their methods. Arinobu Fuku hara founded the firm Shiseido in 1872, modeled on the American pharmacy; his son Shinzo - educated at Columbia Uni 102 D dalus Fall 2002 This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms versity, employed two years in a Broad way drugstore, and devoted to modern art - took over the business in 1915 and made it one of the leading cosmetics firms in Japan. He integrated American methods of retailing and marketing with French and Japanese design in advertis ing and packaging. Japanese women wel comed Shiseido's melding of Japanese looks and Western modernity - but in the first half of the twentieth century, few of them purchased American-made products, or embraced the unmediated image of American beauty such products promoted.1 It was not until the 1930s that American firms began to cultivate foreign markets for their beauty products. Relying on methods that had worked in the United States, they conducted market research, established foreign subsidiaries and agreements with local agents, and drew up advertising campaigns. Pond's fol lowed up its success in the United States selling inexpensive face cream with an expansion into Canada, Europe, and Lat in America, and investigated sales op portunities in India and Japan. Max Fac tor, 'makeup artist to the Hollywood stars,' created an international division less than three years after the brand's national launch in 1927 ; ten years later, Max Factor's exports (primarily to Eu rope and Latin Americayf D F F R X Q W H G I R r 28 percent of its total sales.2 In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Pond's commissioned the advertising firm J. Walter Thompson to gather con sumer data in a number of countries. Al though the reports varied in quality, some of them offered a detailed ethno graphic description of grooming habits in a variety of different social, economic, and political contexts. The reports iden tified a number of daunting problems the firm would have to face in its efforts to sell cold cream abroad. In 1932, for example, the Berlin office sent back discouraging words about Pond's odds in Germany, citing the eco nomic effect of the worldwide depres sion and the country's cultural climate. It discussed the current German empha sis on bodily health and strength, the growing stress on naturalness and sim plicity, and the rise of nationalism, all of which made "the whole business of 'fixing up,'" as one German woman put it, morally and politically suspect. Not only were Pond's American origins a problem, but also its international ad campaign, featuring testimonials from American and European socialites, was doomed to fail in a nation on the brink of Nazi rule.3 An even more fundamental problem American firms faced in selling abroad was the unsuitability of their notion of the 'mass market.' In the United States, catering to that market meant address ing a large enough mass of middle-class consumers to produce volume sales. But in non-Western countries, only a tiny fraction of the population was able to afford cosmetics. In Bombay, market researchers for Pond's made clear "we are not speaking of Indian women as a whole," but only "Indian women of the better class" who Educating the eye of the beholder D dalus Fall 2002 103 i See Lynn Gumpert, ed., Face to Face: Shiseido and the Manufacture of Beauty, 1900 - 2000 (New York : Grey Art Gallery, New York University, 2000yf . 2 Pond's international trade is documented in the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Collection, Hartman Center for Advertising History, Duke University Library, Durham, North Carolina [JWT] ; Max Factor Papers are held in the Proc ter & Gamble Company Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio. 3 J. Walter Thompson Company, "Pond's in Germany, 1932," Reel 224, Research Reports, Microfilm Collection, JWT. This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Kathy "use certain cosmetics such as face ^ss cream." Dividing India's population into beauty classes based not only on wealth, but al so race, national origin, and proximity to Western modernity, they identified 'whites' - British, American, and Ger man residents - and Anglo-Indians, the mixed-color children of Indians and Eu ropeans, as the major market for West ern cosmetics. Both groups emulated the beauty-conscious English upper class. Among native-born Indians, market re searchers identified only upper-rank Parsee women as a potential market. "Their standards of beauty are slightly different, for instance, they have thick black hair usually heavy with oil," the report observed, but their interactions with white women - at the Billingdon Club, for example - taught them to take pride in their appearance, dress well, and look after their complexions, all positive signs for the sale of Western-style cos metics : "The more westernized they are the more European they become in their standards of beauty."4 The narrow consumer base for Ameri can products did not deter such compa nies as Pond's from using mass-market techniques to promote Western habits of beautifying. As they had in the United States, they placed advertising in wom en's magazines and produced displays for pharmacies and other retailers. In India, Pond's ads appeared in English language newspapers, and generally fol lowed the format and language of the company's advertising in Great Britain, although with more exegesis than would have been necessary for British or Amer ican consumers. One 1934 advertisement for Pond's face cream featured the usual image of a beautiful English socialite, but included an explanatory inset: "The Apple Tells the Story." Pictures of a smooth and glossy apple at its peak, soft and spongy past its prime, then wrinkled and discolored, were intended to clarify the ad's confusing headline, "Amazing - but it's true - you have TWO SKINS," referring to the dermis and epidermis. These English-language print ads reached but a tiny fraction of the Indian population. Low literacy rates, the diver sity of language groups, and a govern ment ban on commercial radio program ming constrained American advertisers. Skeptical of the value of advertising in vernacular newspapers, they tried run ning commercial shorts in movie the aters and sent demonstration vans into the countryside. These vans attracted crowds of people - but few of them could afford to buy imported beauty products. Before World War II, most American firms were caught in a paradox : unable to develop a mass consumer base abroad, they exploited a tiny market of elite women - frequently tied to colonial rule - who were keen to cultivate an im age of international sophistication. But it was French cosmetics - Coty, Houbi gant, and the like - that were most asso ciated with such fashion knowledge and style. There was limited demand for American beauty aids, and marketing efforts did little to change deeply en grained patterns of consumption. In the years after World War II, these early, uncertain efforts to export Ameri can cosmetics gave way to a full-fledged market expansion. American firms established subsidiaries, contracted with local import firms, licensed products, and built factories in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. They faced challenges common to other industries in international trade : consti tuting the relationship between U.S. 104 D dalus Fall 2002 4 J. Walter Thompson Company, "Report on India, Burma & Ceylon" (Bombay, June 1931yf , Reel 225, JWT. This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms headquarters and foreign subsidiaries and agents, establishing global brands, and finding sales appeals appropriate to consumers from different cultures. Solv ing these business problems had impli cations for the projection of American beauty ideals around the world. It was during World War II that Amer ican cosmetics firms for the first time self-consciously promoted their prod ucts as distinctively American. On the homefront, cosmetics were marketed as morale boosters. Women were invited to regard their lipstick as a 'red badge of courage,' and the U.S. government backed off efforts to ration beauty aids for the war's duration. Cosmetics firms linked their products to American for eign policy as well, in, for example, Pond's "Beauty Over the Americas" ad vertising campaign in the early 1940s, inspired by Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy. In these ads, women from "all the 19 sister republics of this young, vigorous and vibrant hemi sphere" found common cause in the rit ual of skin care, following the "same gra cious pattern of fastidious womanhood" from Alaska to Cape Horn. Max Factor made the nationalist appeal explicit, ar guing that the 'democratization of cos metics' was an American project. Just as American actresses had sold war bonds, made patriotic films, and served as USO hostesses, they now became the face of freedom and democracy, a universal ide al whose success was indexed by the ex panding market of women worldwide "beautifying themselves according to the 'American plan.'"5 After the war ended, cosmetics firms moved quickly to capitalize on Ameri ca's new clout as a world economic pow er. A rising generation of businessmen hoped that national differences would be readily overcome through the appli cation of increasingly sophisticated American marketing techniques. Similar appeals would sell "beauty from Bangor to Bangkok." "Certainly there are differ ences in customs, habits, and lan guages," observed one advertiser, "but the important thing is that the con sumers of the world are also alike in many basic ways.... People everywhere react to the same basic emotions, drives, motivations."6 The Madison Avenue gurus assumed that strategies that had worked in the United States - for exam ple, the use of Hollywood stars in adver tising - would be similarly effective abroad, even in non-Western countries. The assumption that American beauty ideals had an appeal that was potentially universal was widely shared by U.S. cos metic firms and their foreign agents. Up on entering the export trade in the 1950s, for example, Avon insisted that its home office direct product planning and sell its American lines abroad with little consid eration of local selling conditions or market opportunities. Observed one ex ecutive, "We usually chose the products with the best sales history in the U.S."7 A consistent brand identity seemed to require centralized direction from American headquarters. Differences among the world's peo ples were reduced to a matter of con sumer preferences. Climatic and physi cal variations that caused particular skin Educating the eye of the beholder D dalus Fall 2002 105 5 Chesebrough-Pond's Advertising, Howard Henderson Papers, JWT ; Max Factor, Jr., "American Women should be proud of that native heritage," press release, ca. 1940 -1945. 6 William M. P?niche, "Beauty from Bangor to Bangkok : A Brief Review of Chesebrough Pond's World-Wide Advertising," (TS, 1961yf , Sidney R. Bernstein Papers, JWT. 7 Avon Products, Inc. International Division, Merchandising Conference, "Proposal for New Product, Packaging and Development System," March 1968, box 69, Avon Products, Inc. Col lection, Hagley Museum and Library, Delaware. This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Kathy problems and cultural propensities for 0e^ss specific colors and fragrances sometimes beauty required the reformulation of products. Usually American firms simply tinkered with the packaging of products, color palettes, choice of models, and size of ads to address local conditions. When Max Factor created distributorships in many countries after World War II, it continued to use Hollywood stars in its advertising, relying on their familiarity and emulation around the globe. This advertising simultaneously invoked the America of Hollywood, yet subtly refer enced distinct national identities, through the names or looks of the stars : Claudette Colbert was featured in France, Maria Montez appeared in Latin American ads, Lucille Ball archly posed in a 'dragon lady' look for Chinese news papers, while Lana Turner wore a head covering in Egyptian advertising. Such acknowledgements of national differ ences appear also in a series of television commercials Pond's filmed in 1961, which offered a single message of beauty intercut with brief footage of different products and packaging for different countries. The conflation in such ad campaigns of American beauty ideals with universal desires - on the assumption that nation al and cultural differences were, at most, skin deep - caused frequent difficulties in Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere. Cautionary tales of cross-cultural misun derstanding began to circulate through out the cosmetics industry. One market ing consultant quoted "a gentleman from India" who stated, "It would never do to glamourise... a product by utilising a lady in a shimmering white saree with a western style of hair dress in any of the Southern cities [of India]. A cutting of her crowning glory and the donning of white cloth are the insignia of widow hood, a deeper calamity than which there can be none for the Indian woman." He insisted, "When talking about advertising in foreign countries we should in general forget about Ameri can contents, presentation and media of advertising messages."8 Some firms realized that home-office control undermined efforts to under stand local conditions. After a short pe riod of centralized command, Avon reversed itself and granted foreign sub sidiaries more independence, believing this was the best approach to market de velopment "until Avon is calling on ev ery door in the Free World." Thus each branch would act as "guardian of the Parent Company's image," but would have greater control over market re search, product introductions, package design, and marketing appeals. In this way, the American cosmetics industry began to move toward a concept of glob al branding in the 1960s. As an executive described it, "an international brand is more of a way of working than a product description" : it maintains corporate identity by addressing supposedly uni versal consumer needs even while it re sponds to local conditions.9 vJver time, the demands of global branding have deepened the interest of American cosmetic firms in promoting a variety of specific national and ethnic images of beauty. Whatever the domi nant image of American movie actresses, lo? D dalus Fall 2002 8 John Barnhill, "Some Environmental Aspects Affecting Advertising Abroad" (i960yf , Q W H r national Department, Samuel W. Meeks Papers, JWT. 9 H. D. Naideau, Keynote Address, Avon Inter national Division, General Manager's Confer ence, Rye, New York, June 1963, 7-8, box 69, Avon Papers ; "Establishing a Unilever-Thomp son International Co-ordinating Operation for Lux Toilet Soap" (TS, 1965yf E R [ ( G Z D U G * . Wilson Papers, JWT. This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms television stars, and models at different times, even more important has been the ease with which U.S. corporations have mixed images of national types of beauty and femininity, choosing to ac centuate certain representations of dif ference and to slight others. Thus Amer ican manufacturers increasingly used an extensive but incoherent iconography of the world's people to sell their products, adjusting them for specific national and local markets. To introduce its "Elusive" brand of fragrance in Japan and Mexico in the 1970s, Avon depicted a blonde American model wearing harem clothes and elabo rate jewelry to create a vaguely Persian look of luxury and mystery. In Avon's Ja panese catalogue, the only Japanese models were children, some in tradition al dress and others in Western-style suits and jumpers. In Mexico, however, Avon's advertising was tailored for the perceived Mexican consumer, with dra matic scenarios, images of sensuality and passion, and a close focus on dark hair and full lips. Even more important than the mix of national types and looks in selling Amer ican cosmetics abroad has been the use of local agents and beauty experts who reconciled American-style beauty im ages with the concerns, appearances, and aspirations of their countrywomen. Product demonstrations and woman-to woman advising had spurred the growth of the U.S. beauty industry after 1900 ; teaching women how to use cosmetics, ritualizing the use of makeup, and bring ing beauty aids into the public eye were as crucial to American beauty culture as the circulation of beauty images in ad vertising and mass media. American firms used similar tech niques abroad. Max Factor did not rely solely on the powerful image of Holly wood stars to sell its products, but orga nized 'Art Schools of Make-up, ' where Educating hands-on demonstrations drew women l^e ^?{, into the department stores and pharma cies of Havana, Medellin, Bangkok, and other cities. A company photograph al bum from the mid-i940s records the im ages of impeccably groomed local wom en applying foundation and lipstick, as women crowd the store counters. These saleswomen did not have the pale skin or Western features of American movie actresses, but signaled their identifica tion with Hollywood stars through un mistakable signs - plucked and arched eyebrows, discernable eye makeup, and well-shaped, dark lips. Their sense of themselves as performers putting on a show is palpable. Mediating between a faraway U.S. corporation and local wom en, the 'Art School' demonstrators sug gested that if the Western beauty ideal was itself unattainable, the aura of American glamour could be created with the help of imported cosmetics. Similarly, Avon has become one of the most successful international cosmetics firms through the use of native sales agents who address local customs and concerns even as they project fantasies of American beauty. In the United States, Avon used door-to-door sales to expand from a primarily rural clientele in the late nineteenth century into cities and then suburbs after World War II. It experienced two waves of international expansion - the first from the late 1950s through the early 1970s, establishing wholly-owned subsidiaries in Latin America, Europe, and Australia, and the second after 1990, when it entered post communist Eastern European countries and Russia, as well as developing mar kets in South America and Asia. The International Avon Lady, as she developed in the 1950s, had much in common with the American ideal : a woman who was energetic, self-moti D dalus Fall 2002 107 This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Kathy vated, of good reputation, and well onlSS groomed. But she also needed to under beauty stand the lives of the women to whom she sold and to speak to them in their own idiom. "Many complex factors, such as language, habit, traditions, stan dard of living, cultural background, in dustrial development, peculiar sensitivi ties and Nationalism make each market ing area peculiar unto itself," American executives at Avon acknowledged. As the U.S. headquarters came to recognize, people in each locality saw themselves as unique and different, and demanded a sales encounter that spoke to those dif ferences ; just as important, local sales agents believed that they were uniquely positioned to address those differences. At the same time, this apparent respon siveness to consumers' desires - ratified in the company's self-promotion and enacted by local Avon agents - was linked to American-style beauty, eco nomic goals, and even freedom. Even as the Cuban Revolution took place, Avon's Havana in-house magazine Panorama imported an American dream image to feature on its cover - an Avon Lady knocking on a door, against a backdrop of identical suburban tract homes. "To wards a better future," the magazine proclaimed, as it pictured the hostess sets, lawn chairs, and dinettes Avon rep resentatives could earn as sales premi ums.10 JJor women in many countries, Ameri can-style beauty culture has become tied very directly to economic opportunity and modernization, even as it presents a feminine ideal that is often difficult to emulate. In Guangdong Province, which has been an engine of the market revolu tion in China, women sell Avon to mid die-class consumers for whom Ameri can-made products signify urbanity and sophistication. In Amazon mining camps and river towns, Brazilian women sell Avon as an alternative to traditional women's work, often taking foodstuffs, gold dust, or bartered services as pay ment instead of money; such women welcome the freedom from patriarchal authority and the sense of self-respect that selling offers. In Thailand, young women who sell Avon and Amway beau ty products are perceived as a vanguard of modernity whose independent income repositions them in relation to family and kin. Working for a multina tional corporation also connects women to the world outside their local commu nities, not only through the images they see but also in their opportunities to travel and meet other businesswomen.11 At the same time, the global marketing of American beauty culture has more troubling implications. For example, American firms have aggressively mar keted skin lighteners to African and Asian women, implying that the use of these products will Westernize the body and enhance class mobility, by making a woman more attractive to higher-status men. As historian Timothy Burke writes, these products were banned in post colonial Zimbabwe and in South Africa because of their associations with white power and the denial of black African collective identity. Ironically enough, African women themselves have struck up an informal transatlantic trade in 108 D dalus Fall 2002 ?o H. D. Naideau, Keynote Address, 3 ; Panora ma Avon, no. 2 (1959yf D O V R Q R L \f, box 82, Avon Papers. h Nicholas Kristof, "Let a Thousand Lipsticks Bloom," New York Times, 3 May 1992, section 9, 2 ; James Brooke, "Who Braves Piranha Waters ? Your Avon Lady ! " New York Times, 7 July 1995, A4 ; Ron Harris, "Avon is Calling and It's a Jungle Out There," Los Angeles Times, 28 August 1994, Ai ; Ara Wilson, "The Empire of Direct Sales and the Making of Thai Entrepre neurs," Critique of Anthropology 19 (1999yf : 401-422. This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms these and other cosmetics, facilitated by immigrant women and tourists to the United States ; they especially prize the brands formulated for black American consumers, products not readily avail able in the European or local markets.12 Interviews with women from Camer oon by historian Yvette Monga suggest that selling and using American beauty products not only represents economic opportunity, but signifies a larger vision of black affluence, cosmopolitanism, and hope for the future. Although Afri can women express reservations about U.S. race relations and poverty, she writes, "to plug in to [American] culture and the dream is at once to escape from the menace of geopolitical marginalisa tion that hovers over Africa and the in visibility syndrome that afflicts its in habitants."^ f?Teo7 In short, American beauty products tne benoider betoken cultural dominance - and sym bolize opportunity and freedom. In dif ferent locales, imported cosmetics dif ferently mark class identities, especially among the emergent urban middle class es of Asia and Africa. They express a woman's growing distance from patriar chal families and local traditions, even as they inspire conformity to Western ide als of beauty. As it did in the United States, the American cosmetics industry has capitalized on and fostered these contradictions throughout the world. By linking aesthetic ideals and beauty ritu als to the 'American way,' it has made cold creams and lipstick and skin light eners into improbable emblems of wom en's modernization and independence. D dalus Fall 2002 109 12 Timothy Burke, Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women : Commodification, Consumption, and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe (Durham : Duke University Press, 1996yf . 13 Yvette Djachechi Monga, "Dollars and Lip stick : The United States through the Eyes of African Women," Africa 70 (2000yf . This content downloaded from 54.84.104.155 on Mon, 26 Jun 2017 02:34:29 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms