Linda Evangelista, Beauty, Identity and Work

 

Linda Evangelista spoke to People Magazine about her negative experience with cosmetic surgery recently. You may have seen the article, or the (generally negative) discussion online. I think this discussion is unfair to her, in many respects, and reveals how little society likes to think critically about beauty.

     (Ms. Evangelista in an online advertisement for the Feb. 16, 2022, issue).

• All of us build our identities, and base our identities on different aspects of ourselves
• Many of us build our identities based on how we look to others, and how others perceive us
• We all fear losing those elements of ourselves that anchor our identities: What do any of us do to save them?

Linda Evangelista is speaking publically about beauty and identity, and I have THOUGHTS. Academic thoughts, personal thoughts, and thoughts about wider society, men, women, and beauty work. I have thoughts about beauty, identity, and work- and I was struck by how much these issues come up in the People article. 

Building Identity: Beauty? Ability? Likes? Dislikes?

When I was a girl, my mother taught me to read very early and both my parents praised and rewarded me for any academic achievement. I learned, very early, to associate my sense of self with what I could do- mostly with my brain. 

Others did this too- when I went to my Grandmother's funeral, relatives I had never met before greeted me with "Oh!, you're the SMART one!" 

That's me and that's my identity. Many, MANY folks are smarter than me. But I've built my life on being the "smart one." I have a Ph.D. I write books. I also write nerdy academic blogs about beauty and cosplay. 

I bet most people can think about a thing that they center their identity on- whether it's participation in sports, their job, or how they look. We get positive feedback from society about our wit, our strength or our looks- and then want to keep getting that positive feedback, so we organize our lives to do so.

And women, in particular, often get the most positive feedback on their beauty. 

A well-known way of checking your gendered reactions is to assess how you greet kids. When any of us meet little girls, our first inclination is to comment on their clothing or to tell them how "pretty they look."  

(Think about how natural that sounds for when you meet a girl, but how unnatural that sounds for when you meet a little boy).

It's easy for girls to build a sense of identity and self-worth based on how they look. 

When beauty is your job

There's a lot of negativity in reaction to this story. It tends to break down into (non-scientifically evaluated) parts:

• She's still pretty! What's the big deal?
• It's her own fault for chasing impossible beauty standards!
• I don't want to hear about this! It's gross! 

The tweet above is sort of two-in-one: "it's her own fault" and "ew." 

But this again is dismissive- when I teach beauty and culture, I often tell students that "it's crazy" or "it's stupid" are just dismissive ways of saying "I don't understand and I don't want to try." "It's bizarre" falls into that category. 

I don't think this is a bizarre story at all this is a story about a woman who built her identity on fulfilling the socially accepted standard of beauty. She is always described as a "supermodel." SUPER model: complete praise and reward for making what she looked like a job. Now that she doesn't fit that standard, she doesn't recognize herself. In the article, she says: 

"I don't look in the mirror," .... "It doesn't look like me."

"I don't recognize myself physically, but I don't recognize me as a person any longer either. She" —and she means Linda Evangelista, supermodel— "is sort of gone."

She doesn't recognize herself- and she knows that others won't "recognize" her either. She also tells People that: 

"I don't think designers are going to want to dress me with that" — she pulls down her shirt and shows the rectangular shape of PAH protruding from under her arm — "sticking out of my body." 

Evangelista's body- and how it looks, is her job. It's not just who she is to herself, but what she has built a career on. Why would she not try to hold onto that? 

What would YOU do if you were losing your identity and profession? 

Why wouldn't she try to hold onto the looks that not only define who she is to herself, but that also made her rich? 

Evangelista once famously said that she "wouldn't get out of bed for less than $1000 a day"

Even at the HEIGHT of my mental powers, I never ever made a fraction of $1000/day. But when I think about getting older and possibly losing my mental acuity- my ability to think, I don't know WHAT I would do to try and keep it. 

Cosmetic surgery roundly gets a bad rap- as just a product of vanity, as shallow, and as narcissistic. But why? What if, like for Evangelista, it's not only a way to hold onto your identity, but also your livelihood? 

If I were losing my ability to think, write and teach, I'd definitely be willing to risk a procedure that has as low a risk as cool sculpting (the procedure that Evangelista tried). 

And then I would be as devastated as she if it not only didn't work, it made the situation WORSE.

Thinking critically about beauty

I'm writing the blog as a way to think critically, out loud. about beauty, beauty work and appearance. I'd like it to be a space for that.

Do I approve of societal beauty norms? Not necessarily, but I also recognize them as capricious now as they have always been. I'm not here to rail against thinness any more than I'm here to shake my finger at or foot-binding, or corsets or, for that matter, mens' pursuit of the Dorito Body. 

I'm here to ask us to think about how and why we build an identity based on appearance, and what that means for both us as individuals- and as a society. 

The blog will undoubtedly be nerdy and academic, but I'm hoping fun and informative too. 

Welcome!