Stealing Beauty: Pivot Point International v ... - UW Law School

1068 WISCONSIN LAW REVIEW
as “classic beauties,” 5 others blame these representations for everything
from low-carb diets 6 to eating disorders. 7 Regardless of how people
align themselves in this debate, one thing is certain: everyone seems to
recognize that the media has created a standard of beauty that we, as a
society, simultaneously covet and abhor.
This dominant standard of beauty can be seen in the relatively
uniform designs of commercial mannequins. Since their widespread
introduction into the commercial sphere, mannequins have largely been
designed pursuant to the media’s representations of what is beautiful. 8
Some consumers have responded negatively to designers’ attempts to
emulate these media representations of beauty in their designs. 9
Ostensibly in response to such criticism, several designers have
reality, and with it a new aesthetic that has spilled over to the way we see female
beauty.”).
5. Perhaps in attempts to justify our culture’s obsession with beauty by
suggesting that our standards of beauty have existed indefinitely, magazines as diverse as
Vogue and Essence have used the term “classic beauty” to describe their subjects in the
past year. See, e.g., Sally Singer, Model & Supermodel, VOGUE, Sept. 2004, at 746;
Mikki Taylor, Absolutely Fabulous!, ESSENCE, Apr. 2004, at 80, 80. Newspapers have
also gotten in on the fun. See, e.g., Nicole Piscopo, Is Julia Roberts Really a Pretty
Woman?, PALM BEACH POST, June 21, 1997, at 1D. While the term “classic beauty” is
somewhat of an abstraction, it is often credited to the ancient Greek appreciation of
symmetry, established proportion, and regular features. See, e.g., Editorial, No Need to
Break the Mirror, HARTFORD COURANT (Conn.), Apr. 16, 1994, at B10 (citing Helen of
Troy as a classic beauty); Diana Loercher, Feminine Beauty: Defining an Enigma,
CHRISTIAN SCI. MONITOR, Jan. 13, 1981, at 15.
6. See, e.g., Jennifer Davies, Low-Carb Feast; Consumers Beef Up Sales of
Diet-Friendly Products as They Turn Away from Bread, Pasta, and Juice, SAN DIEGO
UNION-TRIBUNE, May 2, 2004, at H1 (claiming that media representations of celebrities
succeeding on the Atkins diet are a primary reason why the diet is so successful).
7. See, e.g., Eating Disorders; Officials See More Eating Disorders in Men,
WOMEN’S HEALTH L. WKLY., Oct. 24, 2004, at 28 (“Nationally, health officials estimate 1
million men have eating disorders, a 30% increase since 1972. . . . [T]he increase of
eating disorders among men is caused by unrealistic images of the male body in the
media.”).
8. See, e.g., Rita La Perla, Front Row, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 9, 2003, at B9 (stating
that mannequins of a given decade are representative of the reigning notions of beauty of
that decade).
9. See, e.g., Lisa Guenther, We Allow Brainwashing Regarding Body Image,
ARGUS LEADER (Sioux Falls, S.D.), Jan. 17, 2005, at 2D.
I went to the mall a couple weeks ago, and to my dismay, I noticed an array
of department store mannequins that had one similar trait—they were all
extremely and unrealistically thin. Even at Lane Bryant, a store that caters to
plus-size women, the mannequins were thin. I am tired of being compared to
impossible standards of beauty and thinness.
Id.; Patricia Corrigan, Women Beginning to Take a Larger View of Beauty, ST. LOUIS
POST-DISPATCH, Nov. 1, 1997, at 38 (“If shop mannequins were real women, they’d be
too thin to menstruate.”).