Origins of Gendered Beauty Norms
- Claire Skatrud and Isabella Gilchrist
- Nov 10, 2021
- 4 min read
These days, there is no shortage of gendered beauty norms and practices. Society’s influence is very powerful in dictating what is acceptable and unacceptable when it comes to physical appearance. These standards seem more and more arbitrary when you begin to examine their origins and the history behind practices that are so ingrained in us today. Here, we’ll look at shaving, cosmetics, and clothes as three categories that have fascinating histories that put it all into perspective.
Shaving
For centuries, shaving has been a common practice. However, it has never been so expected and treated like such a necessity. The first razors of ancient Egypt and India were made of copper, and dated back to 3000 BCE. It wasn’t until centuries later that it became the expectation to be fully shaved. In the 1900s, women typically didn’t shave off body hair at all, likely due to the fact that they always dressed extremely modestly. Then came the advertising industry. 1915 marked the date of the first ad campaign promoting the “necessity” of removing underarm hair. To this day, it was followed by countless other advertisements from Gillette and other shaving companies encouraging hair removal. They called female body hair “unsightly”, “objectionable”, and even “unhygienic”. Shaving companies and beauty magazines advertised hairlessness as a beauty ideal. By the 1940s, shaving leg and underarm hair was a standard practice for women. This industry labeled hairlessness as more feminine, desirable, and beautiful. The depictions of models and women in magazines only exasperated this ideal.
These decades of advertisements were not targeted towards men, and it is still seen today, as the stark contrast between society’s stigma on body hair on women compared to men.
Cosmetics
The earliest types of makeup originated in Egypt, where both men and women would primarily apply eye makeup, as well as several other forms of cosmetics. Ancient Egyptians created henna, for hair and nails, “kohl”, which was eye makeup from ground charcoal, and the first kinds of anti-wrinkle serums. Other civilizations, dating back to at least 3000 BCE, including China, Japan and Europe, all incorporated forms of makeup into daily life. By the 20th century, when industries like Hollywood were becoming a prominent aspect of society, it was standard for not only actresses, but also for all women to wear makeup on a regular basis. In the 1910s, high-end brands like Chanel and Dior were being founded as makeup, cosmetics, and beauty began taking the world by storm. During WWII, the British government even promoted a propaganda campaign called “Beauty as Duty”, in attempts to encourage patriotism in women throughout the war. And, although cosmetics are still a beauty standard today, they were heavily protested in the 1960s throughout the first feminist movements. Many women viewed cosmetics as a form of objectification and believed that makeup portrayed them as sex objects. In the 1970s, after these anti-cosmetic movements, men started wearing makeup and other companies, like CoverGirl, rose to fame, which helped beauty and makeup become even more mainstream in society to nowadays, where makeup is often seen as an “essential” in everyday life.
Fashion - dresses and skirts
These days, skirts and dresses are seen as overwhelmingly feminine garments, even to the point where some men receive backlash if they choose to wear them. However, it hasn’t always been like this. Dating back to ancient times, both men and women wore skirts or dresses nearly every single day. In Ancient Greece and Rome, tunics were the norm. Approaching the Middle Ages, developments in weaving made it possible for further tailoring, and thus the popularity of pants rose. Because of traditional gender roles, however, women never transitioned to wearing pants at that time. Women didn’t need to ride horses and hunt and go to war, so skirts and dresses remained the norm for them. Additionally, skirts and dresses developed into ways to enhance society’s view of “ideal” feminine traits. For example, the long hemlines in skirts and dresses remained popular to promote modesty, a very desirable trait for women at the time. The designs of skirts and dresses developed to accentuate the sought-after image of a slim waistline. Although there was a movement in the mid-20th century to popularize pants for women, it has taken far longer to normalize men wearing skirts and dresses, and it still isn’t completely normalized.
The origins of these beauty norms demonstrate how much society can shape certain viewpoints about anything, in this case beauty and gender norms. In essence, a man wearing a dress or a woman choosing not to shave should not matter at all. Yet, decades of these standards create a world where we normalize certain behaviors and criticize others. It’s important to remind ourselves of the history of these practices and realize that these norms really don’t have any rhyme or reason. Freeing yourself from society’s deeply ingrained gendered practices empowers you to do what you want, wear what you want, and express yourself however you want to!
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