The shampoo company could do a lot
more to further feminine empowerment.
A Pantene commercial that
tells women to stop apologizing and “#ShineStrong” has gone viral. It contrasts
scenes of women saying things like “Sorry, can I ask a stupid question?” with
snippets of them behaving in an assertive way.
Pantene’s
commercial makes a good point, but there are bigger problems holding women back
— including the role that beauty products play in our culture.
For
me, author Laura Kipnis explains it best. “Femininity, at least in its current
incarnation, hinges on sustaining an underlying sense of female inadequacy,”
she says in her book The Female Thing: Dirt, Envy, Sex, and
Vulnerability.
“It’s
almost as if the female condition hinged on some kind of ontological flaw,”
Kipnis writes.
“If
you’re a modern female, unfortunately something’s always broken: be thinner,
sexier, more self-confident; stop dating creeps; get rid of those yucky zits;
and put the pizzazz back in your relationship.”
What
do we do when we want some pizzazz? We get makeovers, go shopping, get
pedicures, or maybe wash our hair with Pantene shampoo. To feel feminine, we
first look for problems that mar our personal appearance. If we decide we are
perfect just as we are, we lose our connection to feeling feminine.
And
where do we get such notions? From other women, beauty magazines, and
advertising. Kipnis maps what she calls a “feminine-industrial complex” and
says: “Your self-loathing and neurosis are someone else’s target quarterly
profits.”
Americans
spend well over $50 billion per
year on cosmetics. Think about the headlines on the beauty magazines
you see at grocery checkouts. They say “10 tips to get a flat belly!” or “Get a
bikini body in one week,” not “Why you look fabulous as you are.”
Can
you imagine the economic impact if all women woke up tomorrow and thought “I
look great”? Sales on fake nails, hairspray, mousse, makeup, spray tans,
liposuction, Botox and more would come to a crashing halt. But maybe those
empowered, confident women would speak up and voice their ideas without
apologizing for it.
The
irony? Ads for products targeted to women perpetuate the very lack of
confidence that the new Pantene commercial tells us to fight. As we drive
profits for companies like Proctor and Gamble, which makes Pantene, the shame and
self-loathing we feel for our bodies is toxic to every part of our lives.
Try
going on an advertising diet: Go cold turkey off of fashion magazines, chuck
out your TV, and install an ad blocker on your Internet browser. Then gauge how
you feel about yourself after some time passes. Connect with ways to feel
feminine and sexy that don’t imply inherent personal flaws. I find that
flirting always does the trick for me.
As
for Pantene and its #ShineStrong ads, the company could do a lot more to
further women’s empowerment if it refused to advertise in any magazine or
outlet that perpetuated the cultural norms that tell women being feminine means
being inherently flawed.
Women
don’t need to apologize for existing, but they also don’t need to buy a
specific brand of shampoo to become empowered.
OtherWords columnist
Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food
System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. OtherWords.org