On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> >Why are do so many people in our society consider
> >male pattern baldness an aberration that requires medical intervention?
>
> C'mon, men have been unhappy about going bald since long before
> Minoxidil. Hair can be beautiful, and losing it is an aesthetic loss
> in itself. But it also signifies advancing age, something humans have
> been worrying about for about as long as we've walked the earth. Not
> everything can be explained by the beauty industry's lust for profits.
>
> Doug
Obviously this is a subject near to my heart, but c'mon back: we could create a society in which hair loss was symbolic of ascendance to a higher state of consciousness, a sign of God's grace, an abundance of sexual virility, etc., etc. We could create a society in which wrinkles--in both men and women--are symbols of wisdom and experience, not ugliness.
I'm not saying that any beauty standards at any time are due to a lust for profit (even my marxism isn't that vulgar and reductionist). I'm just trying to stress that any linkage between a physical characteristic like baldness and ugliness (or beauty) must be socially created and sustained. In our increasingly commodified society, the social negotiation of beauty is tied up with a capitalist system that directly profits from "disciplining" the body.
--A simple example: what if all the hair replacement ads were replaced with ads that represent baldness as the ideal and hair on adult men as sexual immaturity/impotence/ugliness? Do you honestly believe men would continue to believe that baldness was a loss to be corrected at all costs?
Remember, this is the same propaganda system that successfully convinced millions of Americans that Iraqis were involved in the 9/11 attack!
I'm not saying we're all social dopes all the time (to anticipate Kel's response), but I really do think the beauty industry-- and all the ads that invigorate it--is insidious: the goal is to make people feel insecure, intensify their insecurities, to maximize profits. Yuck.
Miles