Angelina Jolie- gold standard of beauty? April 14, 2007
Posted by mehass in angelina jolie, beauty, female perfection, race.trackback
In my web surfing tonight, I happened to come across this article in the Australian publication The Age. What surprised me most was not that Jolie is representative of a standard of beauty that is desired by women and emulated by their plastic surgeons, but instead this comment from Professor Ava Shamban, a cosmetic dermatologist who spoke to a gathering of plastic/cosmetic surgery specialists in Australia:
“Angelina Jolie, with her exquisite looks, is the current gold standard of beauty in the states and in the West in general right now and that’s not about to change. The exotic look, like (actresses) Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz, is here to stay, and Angelina is the ultimate embodiment of that.”
Here is a case where standards of beauty and “racial”/ethnic categories intersect in a strange way. Somehow Angelina, with her high cheekbones and full lips, is the “ultimate embodiment” of exoticism, despite the fact that she is white and not even from another exoticized country (like Penelope Cruz’ Spain). It is as if she represents a weird type of exoticism that rich white women can attempt to achieve through surgery.
However, it is not really a healthy standard of beauty; according to the article, Jolie is “statistically abnormal” (no surprise there) and health psychologist Prof Jane Ussher even says that she “is arguably a human representation of a cartoon character, similar to those Bratz dolls, and virtually no one looks like that,” and added that if “you buy into the idea that that (look) is perfect then you’ll never feel good about yourself because you’ll never attain it.” I’d never thought of Jolie as a Bratz doll, but somehow it actually makes sense. I still think she’s gorgeous, but I would never call her the “most beautiful woman in the world,” if for no other reason, than simply because that designation excludes other representations of beauty in favor of one “universal” standard that very few (or maybe only Jolie herself) can actually attain.
I agree with you that Angelina Jolie is definitely NOT the “ultimate embodiment” of exotic, but we can’t forget that, while she is white, her mother is French Canadian and that, at least recently, Americans perceive French Canadian, like Spanish, as the “other.”
Although French Canadians are certainly not so different from Anglo-Canadians or, for that matter, Americans to really be deemed an “other,” French Canadians consistently self-identify as different simply by adding the qualifier “French” to “Canadian.” They have also maintained their separation from Anglo-Canadians and Americans in language, by teaching in French in public schools, and even debating whether there is enough cultural difference between them and English speaking Canadians to allow French Canadian provinces to secede from the rest of Canada. French as a language and culture is also particularly interesting to look at in terms of Americans’ perceptions of it as different from British or German or even European in general. It has been romanticized all over pop culture as an icon for true love and romance, and with best-selling books such as “French Women Don’t Get Fat” and celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes getting engaged at the top of the Eiffel Tower, seeing the French and, by association, French Canadian as a romanticized “other” does not seem to be diminishing in popularity.
Created in the French Canadian province of Quebec in 1984 by two former street performers named Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier, Cirque de Soleil has become the epitome of “exotic” and has cashed in on the perceived exoticism of French Canadian culture. While Cirque employs talent from all over the world, I think that if you asked most people what came to mind when they thought of Cirque de Soleil, “weird” and “French Canadian” would go hand in hand. Cirque is specifically intended to make audiences feel that, once they enter that tent, they are in another world. The acts are performed to music that is augmented by synthesized sounds and instruments, and when paired with their lighting, costumes, and presentation, it supports the idea that what you are seeing is not of this world. Similar to the idea behind good science fiction, Cirque makes sure that you can relate to what’s going on, but that you see it as definitively different from anything normal or real.
I realize that arguments about Cirque de Soleil and French language and culture aren’t exactly intimately connected with debates about standards of beauty, but I would argue that Angelina Jolie has become that standard of beauty only because of the exoticism that she exudes. Her features are distinctly different than those of your average “rich white woman,” and, just like Cirque de Soleil presents Americans with an easily consumable and relatable version of the French Canadian “other,” Angelina Jolie has just enough of that “other” in her unattainable beauty to make us look again.
I’m not sure I buy that her French-Canadian background makes her ‘exotic,’ simply because I think it’s something that a lot of people don’t know. It reminds me of how people tried to defend her putting on brownface in an upcoming movie in which she plays Daniel Pearl’s wife (who is biracial, white/black I think) by saying that it’s ok because she’s part Native American…
As for her being ‘exotic’ looking in general. I don’t know. But I think it’s troubling that the two ‘exotic’ celebrities that the plastic surgeon mentioned in the article (Halle Berry, Penelope Cruz) are basically the very ‘white’-looking standard of beauty within their ‘race’ (Halle is biracial, and Cruz is European). I remember reading an article online a while ago by a black woman who was wondering why thick lips didn’t become hot commodities until Denise Richards and Angelina Jolie had them, and this is what calling Jolie ‘exotic’ reminds me of.
Ava Shamban used to be a family friend and was my dermatologist when I was younger before she became “dermatologist to the stars.” Just thought that was a funny coincidence…
Getting back to something actually relevant to the content of the posts, I think the separation of “exotic” from a tangible ethnic or geographical context is a relatively new phenomenon. It used to be that exotic always referred to a foreign country (or its people, of course), and usually a country that you’ve never been before and has thus preserved its mystery. I think mystery has a key place in the definition of exotic (if Angelina isn’t mysterious, who is?) So mystery combined with features resembling something other than an Anglo-American (not just something-something specifically striking and appealing) and you have something exotic. I know it’s never as simple and clear-cut as that, but there are my musings nevertheless.
If you want to read more about this, check out my extended pop culture post secret post on it here: http://apostropha.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/24/
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