#GirlsCan Accomplish Their Goals Without Makeup
This post originally appeared on March 17, 2014 written by Gretchen Edwards-Bodmer.
Have you seen the new Cover Girl ad featuring celebrities like Ellen Degeneres, Pink, Katie Perry, Queen Latifah, Sofia Vagara, Janelle Monet, Becky G, and female hockey player Natalie Wiebe telling us that #GirlsCan do anything? How awesome it is that advertisers are using feminist rhetoric in their ads! Or is it?
Does this feel a little like Virginia Slim’s “We’ve come a long way baby” advertisement of the 70’s, during the height of the second wave women’s liberation movement? That slogan served to signify to women that they had accomplished all they needed to and they should just sit back, relax and enjoy a cigarette. Unlike the Virginia Slims ad, Cover Girl’s message serves to encourage girls to move forward, not sit on their laurels. So, in that sense, we have come a long way, but don’t call me baby.
Granted, there are some really powerful statements and inspirations in Cover Girls’ ad. For example, Ellen Degeneres points out that when someone says a girl can’t do something, “sometimes you hear it, but more often you feel it”. This is very true. You feel it at your core when others say you can’t accomplish something worthwhile. I love Ellen because I think she uses her fame to help those who have faced hardship, while calling out sexism and homophobia, and even inspiring us to be good to each other. However, I was a little disappointed when she became a Cover Girl. I’m disappointed more in the system, not her personally. More on that later.
MT @COVERGIRL: @Upworthy joins #GirlsCan http://t.co/LEzcVJWq0w — tell a girl she "can't" & discover a girl who "will" #AdsWeLike
— Upworthy (@Upworthy) March 12, 2014
Queen Latifah tells us about time she was told girls can’t rap. She used that negatively to fuel her passion for music. Latifah not only became a famous rapper, but now owns her own business and produces and hosts her own daytime TV show.
Natalie Wiebe, an elite level women’s tournament roller and ice hockey player, as well as an elite level mens’ league ice hockey player, was told that girls can’t check. She sure proved them wrong!
Yes…it's an ad. But the message speaks our language and the execution is fantastic. #GirlsCan http://t.co/xB4NPE8jxT
— UniteWomen.org (@UniteWomenOrg) March 11, 2014
I would definitely share this video with all the women in my life. It’s an awesome message to follow your dreams, no matter what anyone else says. However, the fact that their selling makeup, even with its wonderful women’s empowerment message is problematic for me. Girls are taught from a very young age that they need makeup to look beautiful. But all of these awesome women who have accomplished so much in their lives have done so without makeup. I wonder if Natalie Wiebe needs makeup to kick butt on the hockey field?
The beauty industry makes billions of dollars off of our low self-esteem that, mind you, they help to cultivate. The usual message in makeup ads is that we’re flawed and need to be corrected, and that we can be beautiful if we just buy their products. They beat us down just to build us up with a false sense of self so they can make a buck. Dove started a trend of using women’s empowerment to sell their products and now Cover Girl wants to do the same. They’re co-opting language used by feminists to empower women to make their money.
it's smart business for beauty companies to use their influence to empower girls/women-big emotional buy @ProcterGamble @COVERGIRL #GirlsCan
— MichaelaAngela Davis (@MichaelaAngelaD) March 4, 2014
Have you ever heard of “Girls Can’t What?” That’s an online business of gifts and tees showing examples of girls doing a variety of non-traditional jobs and activities that was started after its owner was told girls can’t do web design. I’m not saying that Cover Girl intentionally ripped off “Girls Can’t What?” or that they even knew it existed. However, I’m starting to see a pattern with marketers.
Remember those Special K commercials that showed women stepping on to a scale that told them they were “awesome” instead of telling them how much they weighed? That was totally ripped off of a feminist artist who made “Yay Scales”. More on that here. That wasn’t all Special K has done to co-opt women’s empowerment rhetoric around healthy body image to sell their weight loss products. Here’s yet another example.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather marketers use empowering language than the usual rhetoric that tells girls and women we’re not good enough. I’m just exhausted from trying to undo all the damage that has been done by the media at the expense of girls’ self-esteem. But I march on.
Corporate media’s goal is still to sell makeup and keep our focus on making sure we’re “beautiful” while checking a hockey player, rapping, dancing, singing our asses off, and while telling hilarious jokes. Can’t we just be awesome and do the things that make us happy without taking the time out of our day to put on lipstick all while shoving out cash, of which only serves to oppress women? Yes, I said oppress. I’m sure my friend who loves to wear makeup is cringing right now, so let me explain further.
Omg I'm so stupid! Duh "be courageous" is the way to get over gender oppression! http://t.co/5YpxYM2Hri #girlscan
— Suey Park (@suey_park) February 27, 2014
@suey_park because a company that makes billions of dollars off of women's insecurities is exactly who I look to for help with empowerment
— Anne Thériault (@anne_theriault) February 27, 2014
Recently I put on a “Go Natural Day” event encouraging girls and women to go a day without makeup and get their picture taken. I made sure that they knew I was/am not wagging my finger at women who wear makeup everyday but at the oppressive system that tells us we need makeup to be valued in public. If you want to participate in an event like this of your own, I encourage you to use the #NoMakeupMonday hashtag and post a selfie on Twitter! I know some makeup can be used as a form of expression and I think that’s great. I just want women to feel respected, valuable, and empowered to pursue their dreams without that nagging thought that they better put their “face” on before going out into the world. Can you imagine if the same messages about beauty standard were marketed to men?
My goal here is to ask you to think critically about the messages and products that you are consuming before handing over your money in efforts to boost your self esteem with bottles of foundation, blush, eye shadow, mascara and the various other “beauty” products on the market. Cover Girl tells us to “make the world a little more easy, breezy and beautiful”, but I say make it a little more supportive, empowering and equal, and for goodness sake make it less about women’s appearance and more about their character, accomplishments and contributions to our world.