Beauty as a Commodity

The average woman today can go to school, build a career, and make a name for herself doing something meaningful, but she can never forget her beauty. In society’s eyes, her beauty is a factor to her worth as a person, without it her value depreciates. Economically, a commodity is a good with value that can be exchanged for something else. In a societal context beauty has become a necessary commodity for women to leverage in order to be seen as valuable. The value of a woman’s beauty is established with the foundational structures of our society: patriarchy and capitalism.

Understanding Patriarchy’s Role

The modern world was structured for men. From their academics, to their careers, men were encouraged to build careers and identities with their intelligence, physical strength, skills, and talents. So where did that leave women? A woman's worth, historically at least, was in her role as a wife and mother. Through a transactional marriage she found a husband to financially support her and in exchange bore his children to continue his legacy. A woman’s pool of suitors depended on the beauty she offered. She negotiated with her looks to get the resources she needed to survive.

Eventually feminist movements gave women opportunities outside the restraints of domestic duties. With this newfound freedom women were seemingly evaluated exclusively on merit and skill, but in reality beauty never lost its position as a factor.

New wave feminism encourages women to participate in society the same way that men do, especially capitalism. They were told to chase financial gain and a successful career, but unlike men their beauty has become an additional commodity they must leverage.

In 2022, social media users provided endless testimony about pretty privilege and the preferential treatment they received in comparison to when they were deemed to be ugly. They detailed how their weight loss and newfound use of makeup led to more kindness from both strangers and people already in their lives. Women observed how they now had doors held open for them, received free items at stores, and finally were noticed at work after their extreme transformations

While some women are rewarded for being beautiful, others are punished for being ugly. Many young girls spent their adolescence being ruthlessly bullied by their peers in grade school for simply not being pretty, only to spend their adulthood chasing what they couldn’t have in their youth. The torturous experience of being attacked as a child for being “ugly” plants seeds of insecurity reminding young women that without beauty they are unworthy of respect, kindness, and social acceptance.

For women of color, beauty can be even more confusing to navigate because they also have to include the eurocentric ideals of the Western World. Not only do they face the patriarchal emphasis of beauty to their self-worth, but they also deal with the rejection of their ethnic features.

An Industry Funded By Insecurity

To avoid any of this pain as an adult, many spend endlessly in makeup stores like Sephora and Ulta, worth $37.2 and $20.42 billion respectively, or even more on skincare which is expected to generate $23.59 billion this year in the U.S. alone. Beauty has become the currency that one must pay to avoid the pain of ridicule and it is only more invaluable to those who have already experienced that pain. The value placed on beauty is no secret to companies, for context: the global beauty industry is estimated to generate approximately $579.22 billion in 2023. This ever growing market consists of companies pushing products that can fix every imperfection conceivable, and customers willing to purchase no matter the cost.

New plastic surgeries are constantly being introduced to the general public for more permanent solutions to beauty issues. Buccal fat removal is the most recent example of trendy cosmetic surgery. A video by TODAY reported that the number of buccal fat removal procedures being performed has increased by 70% in 2021. While some cosmetic surgeries have helped remedy long term insecurities and boost confidence, many “treat” natural occurrences like wrinkles and rounder faces. As more and more patients begin to get procedures like Botox and fillers, these procedures have transformed into preventative measures for an inevitable natural occurrence rather than treatments.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that Botox procedures have had a 28% increase and dermal fillers have seen a 32% increase since 2010 in people ages 20-29. What was once a treatment known for older patients, has become one for younger and younger patients expanding the obsession with beauty even further.

Companies in these exploding industries understand that a consumer's desperation to remedy their insecurities fills their pockets. They understand that these insecurities didn’t fall from the sky. They know the importance of beauty to build a social network, to seem appealing to people in and out of romantic settings. In numerous studies, it was found that beautiful people are more successful both socially and professionally, increasing the consumer demand that companies in the beauty industry capitalize on. Because of social media, their marketing techniques aren’t just restricted to commercials on your television screen, but to your favorite influencers online. New features on Instagram allow you to purchase a plethora of items from customized ads based on your activity and sponsored posts from influencers feature new products to purchase. This makes it that much easier for them to exploit customers’ insecurities and convince them that their newest product will fix their problems.

Can Beauty Ever Be Beautiful?

The way people view and value beauty is flawed at best, but is beauty ever not a destructive part of society? For women who were criticized for their looks their entire lives, finally feeling beautiful can be an enlightening experience. As time continues, the paths people take to feel beautiful are diversifying. Some use unconventional expressions of beauty to reject harmful beauty dynamics and redefine what it means to be beautiful.

Alicia Keys said her break from makeup made her feel the most beautiful she had felt in a long time. Naezrah and Mei Pang on Instagram do almost exclusively abstract, colorful makeup looks to challenge the rigid constraints of beauty. Rihanna created a revolutionary lingerie line expanding body positivity and inclusivity to include people of all ethnic backgrounds and sizes. These women are instilling the value in their beauty that society never gave them the opportunity to.

By changing the ways beauty is expressed and expanding its definition beyond traditional societal standards, people are able to apply the value of beauty in an inclusive way. The aforementioned women are amongst a larger group choosing to engage in beauty practices by preference, rather than out of obligation to have their value validated by society. By practicing beauty in ways that come naturally to them, instead of ways that predatory industries enforce on them, women can include themselves in the definition of beauty and instill that value within themselves.

So while beauty in the way society has traditionally understood it has become a tool for corporations to enforce consumerism, it is possible for its meaning to change to include far more than before.