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Dear God, Please make me beautiful...

Beauty brands ought to challenge traditional beauty ideals

Babita Baruah

One day, three women met up in a coffee bar in downtown Mumbai to catch up on old times. Shona. Successful ad professional. Deepa. Fast tracker in an MNC bank. Rieta. Professor of Management in a leading Business school. All of them married. All of them leaders in their own right. Role models among their peers.

So what were the three chatting about?

" I am now on a GM diet. The Atkins didn't work for me. Sanjeev says he loves me the way I am… but you know how it is…”

"There is this young lecturer … a Ms. Perfect 10 who has just joined our department… and the Head of the Department seems to be completely bowled over…just my luck…”

"You know, for all my success, my mother-in-law still looks at me quizzically when I wear a pink saree… she thinks I look three shades darker…”

"I never ever get the size I want in any of the boutiques”

Maybe some of us will read this article and say that they never had such qualms. Maybe they can say that because: They do not suffer from the "disadvantages” of dark skin, overweight bodies or, maybe they have reached that highly evolved state of self actualization where it really does not matter . Not anymore.

So what if a nubile nymphet with that drop dead gorgeous look was the one who got to compere the Annual Office Christmas party? And was also coincidentally the one who was on the dance floor till the wee hours of the morning. Dancing with "the boys” and not doing a "jam session” like most others.

For the rest of us, we do feel bad. For us beauty seems to be have become a compulsion and not just a choice.

We do spend that extra few minutes in the ladies room wishing we had sculpted bodies, (read anorexic) and fair skin. And a pair of really long legs to carry off the short leather skirt. Our self-esteem does go down a few notches.

We forget that we have our own beautiful qualities. When our husbands and boyfriends tell us – "I love you the way you look”, we often feel worse. What is "the way you look”? "Doesn't it imply that I don't look conventionally beautiful?” We start reading everything with coloured lenses.

Society, of course, endorses these 'ideals' of beauty in full force. 'Beauty brands' would beeline to get beauty queens as endorsers. In the process, the myth that "no beauty of the face can show the beauty of the inner grace” – that we had been brought up to believe as young girls – bursts into smitherens. Today, a beautiful face and body brings with it grace, money, fame… and recognition.

Maybe this explains why an Aishwarya ends up with most beauty endorsements and not a certain Sushmita, who happened to be crowned Miss Universe that same year. The coveted title of the most beautiful woman in the universe. Who also happens to be a single mother, great spokeswoman and who has a very charming personality.

So we come back to the three ladies in the coffee bar, who feel worse as the minutes drag by. Every girl that passes by the tinted glass windows of the coffee bar seem to be years younger, wearing shades brighter and breathtakingly beautiful.

Suddenly the chocolate sundae seems to be swimming with fatty cream, calories seems to be floating on the coffee.

Who sets these beauty ideals?

We ourselves. And as part of the marketing and advertising fraternity, we, of course, endorse these ideals heart and soul. Leading to a world whose women are obsessed with "looking good”. Where "feeling good” has become synonymous with just "looking good”. I feel happy when someone tells me I did a great job. I feel happier when someone tells me I look great today.

It's time we started asking "What If?”

What if some leading brand for, let's say, face creams decided to challenge the 'ideals'?.

What if the brand took a successful woman writer or any such personality as the 'face' of the brand, and not a reigning beauty goddess?

What if this brand came out with advertising that showed this beautiful women winning an international award, and looking gorgeous – in her own special way? What if the brand decided to show the 'real' woman, behind the layer of face cream? What if the brand was a means to an end and not the end in itself?

Now, who has the power to do this? Brand leaders, of course. Who can lead and create trends and not necessarily ride the waves of ideals as conformists. This could actually differentiate the brand from myriads of other brands with similar promises (and similar looking models). A brand that takes a stand for a cause shows real understanding of what a woman really wants, and not what she is forced to want.

The brand would be telling a woman "the feelings you expect when you use this product are best embodied in our brand.” Instead of creating a picture, which she can never hope to achieve, and which can only result in making her unhappier than before.

The brand comes close to a woman, when it makes a woman feel good about herself. So that the brand unlocks its full potential and acts as a springboard for her dreams. Making her happy everyday, making her believe in herself, believe that she is beautiful in her own special way, and leaving her invigorated to face life with a smile.

(The writer works in JWT, Mumbai, as an account director on Unilever brands).

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