Prescriptive Beauty Norm

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Background

The Prescriptive Beauty Norm (PBN) is "the injunctive demand for women to intensively pursue beauty, reflects motives to maintain gender hierarchy and translates into employment discrimination." Women must seek beauty in all arenas, including social, domestic and workplace. Between women, this can cause unhealthy competition, perpetuating the patriarchal notion that a woman's value is defined by her presentation and beauty. Moreover, it sustains the female focus on each other rather than the systemic cause at play. This article provides examples of PBN as well as information on Economic Impact and Racial Insinuations.

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Women tend to spend more time on appearance to be viewed as presentable

Examples

There are many concrete examples of PBN taking place.

The Beauty Tax

The beauty tax refers to the higher cost of personal care products marketed to women, such as skincare, makeup, and haircare products. This can include everything from moisturizers and serums to shampoos and conditioners. The beauty tax is based on the assumption that women are willing to pay more for products that are marketed as "feminine" or that promise to make them more beautiful. As a result, women may end up paying more for similar or even identical products than men, simply because of the gender-specific marketing or packaging of the product.

It is similar to the Pink Tax, which is the practice of charging more for products marketed to women, even when those products are nearly identical to those marketed to men. For instance, when BIC came out with a pink pen "for women," simply because it was marketed towards women, it cost more. Some hypothesize that this is due to the more general idea that the male body is a default while the woman body is additional in its nature. Indeed, women are paying for a special product because it is not the default baseline product.

When we layer both gender-based discriminations together, there is a clear additional economic burden placed on women.

Aging and Anti-Aging

Before the 19th century, women's values were based on their virginity, fertility, and nurturing skills in domestic spaces. It wasn't until the 1840s when the first images of "beautiful" nude women appeared in brothel advertisements that we see the beginning of female comparison. Since then, the female body has grown to be the central focus of a woman's worth. There is always something to be "improved," shifted, or modified on the female body. Consequently, when a female body begins to age with time, its value decreases. Alongside the external pressure, anxiety of losing worth brings women to spend additional time and money to slow down the process of natural body evolution.

Dress Codes

In addition to the gender pay gap, women take home even less money than men due to both spoken and unspoken dress codes. While women are usually viewed as "frivolous spenders," this derives from a certain expectation of presentation women need to satisfy. Appearance discrimination is not just a matter of personal preference or individual choice. Rather, it is a systemic issue that is influenced by societal norms, cultural values, and economic incentives. Past the understanding of how women are expected to appear, there are many instances where women are actively mandated to look a certain way. For instance, in May 2021, the Missouri House of Representatives adopted a stricter dress code for female lawmakers. The new dress code required women to cover their shoulders and wear skirts or dresses that fall below the knee, while men were required to wear suits or dress pants and shirts with collars. House Speaker Rob Vescovo claimed it was necessary to maintain decorum and professionalism in the House. In reality, the dress code highlights the ongoing struggle for gender equality and challenges the notion that women should be judged based on their appearance rather than their qualifications and contributions.

The KuToo Movement

The KuToo movement is a Japanese movement that protests against dress codes that require women to wear high heels in the workplace. The movement was started by Japanese Actress Yumi Ishikawa in 2019 after being required to wear high heels as part of her job, despite experiencing pain and discomfort. The movement has drawn attention to the ways in which gendered dress codes can be harmful and discriminatory, and has prompted some companies in Japan to revise their dress code policies. That being said, some still argue that high heels are a necessary and professional part of workplace attire for women.

Economic and Emotional Impact

In the United States, surveys showed that on average 78% of women spent one hour per day on their appearance for the public. The beauty industry is one of the biggest in America, and women make up about 80-90% of it. This perpetuates women coming into the habit of viewing themselves from an external perspective, and consequently self-objectifying. In return, self-reflection negatively impacts gender equality as it not only takes women away from time spent elsewhere, but research conducted by Leeat Ramati-Ziber in 2019 shows that PBN leads to less confidence in multi-gender interactions and decreased political activism and involvement. When the focus is on the body, the brain is seen as less important or competent.

Racial Insinuations

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Black women often face the pressure to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards in the workplace, including their hair, which can lead to discriminatory attitudes and policies that affect their job opportunities and career advancement.

The PBN holds varying degrees of pressure on women. Particularly, many Black women face pressure to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards that prioritize straight hair and deem natural hair textures as unprofessional or unkempt. As a result, Black women often invest significant time, money, and energy into maintaining their hair, including chemical treatments, weaves, wigs, and braids. Additionally, Black women with looser curl patterns or "good hair" are often praised and seen as more desirable than those with tighter curl patterns. These styles take longer to produce while also perpetuating colorism and internalized racism within the Black community.

References

This article "Prescriptive Beauty Norm" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Prescriptive Beauty Norm. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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