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

2006:1067 Stealing Beauty 1095
separate the perceptions of the adult assessors of beauty in Langlois’
study from the media representations to which they had been exposed.
And Singh’s conclusion that we universally believe that women who
have smaller waists than hips are more beautiful would not have been
true five-hundred, or even one-hundred, years ago. 170
Even so, these studies do suggest a uniformity among different
cultures that contradicts the idea that different societies and cultures
value different physical traits. These conflicting ideas can be reconciled.
With the advent of mass media, our culture is becoming more and more
global—for better or for worse. 171 Given Hollywood and American
media’s global audience, it could be said that the media has imposed a
standard of beauty upon the entire world. 172 American movies and
magazines are frequently accused of being “awash in interchangeable
blonds with hungry mouths and empty eyes.” 173 Meanwhile, fashion
models—the media’s prime specimen of beauty—routinely wear
temporary, washable UPC codes on their skin so that fashion designers
can differentiate between them enough to know which model wears
which ensemble. 174 In short, because American media is so omnipresent
on a global scale, many cultures that once had their own independent
notions of beauty have adopted—or at the very least acknowledged—the
global media’s homogenous standard of beauty. As a result, it seems that
male face appears “more mature and socially dominant.” See Bower, Darwin’s Minds,
supra note 167. These characteristics are clearly not innate, but imposed by society and
culture.
170. See Maxted, supra note 168.
171. For an in-depth analysis of this concept, see Scott R. Olson, The
Globalization of Hollywood; Global Aesthetic Is a Reality, INT’L J. WORLD PEACE, Dec.
2000, at 3 (asserting that Hollywood has become a global aesthetic to which all members
of society can relate). A perfect example of this global change occurred in a Kenyan
beauty contest held in the early 1990s. See Keith Richburg, In the Eye of the Beholder,
WASH. POST, Dec. 2, 1991, at A12. Some questioned Kenya’s annual beauty contest
because of public belief that the contest winner did not adequately embody its country’s
standard of beauty. See id. Had the Kenyan people had a say in determining which
woman won the title of Miss Kenya, it is highly likely that the woman would have more
resembled the majority of women in Kenyan society, rather than the winner, who
possessed more Western, Hollywood-like characteristics. Id.
172. See Righter, supra note 149 (asserting that Western culture is creating a
homogenized global beauty standard).
173. Manohla Dargis, Glamour’s New Orientation, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 5, 2004, §
2, at 1; see also Joanna Briscoe, Haven’t I Seen You Somewhere Before?, GUARDIAN
(London), Jan. 17, 2004, at 24 (asserting that a combination of cosmetics, plastic surgery,
and Hollywood aspiration has created a uniform look—usually blond and improbably
slender—that women strive to obtain for themselves).
174. Tricia Bishop, At 30, The UPC Scans More Than Just Cans, BALTIMORE
SUN, Jun. 29, 2004, at 1A.