Recently the Woodhill Institute for Ethical Leadership and Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty presented the Defining Beauty conference at UNLV, which included a panel lecture entitled “Beauty and Self-Esteem in Society: Freeing Ourselves and the Next Generation.” Among the five panelists was author Naomi Wolf, whose The Beauty Myth was heralded by official conference literature for “[challenging] the cosmetics industry and the marketing of unrealistic standards of beauty, launching a new wave of feminism in the early 1990s—the New York Times called it one of the most important books of the 20th century.” Below, a selection of lessons gleaned from attending the panel:
Get your beauty rest. It’s a Saturday, fer Christsakes; what’s with the 10 a.m. start time? Sure, you may end up in the back of the UNLV Student Union Ballroom once you finally arrive, where the rows of red chairs are smushed behind the schmancy round, white tables, but at least you’re by the Starbucks dispensers, and at least you’ve got a bushy-tailed leg up on all those bleary-eyed, unshowered folks who got here on time.
Dudes aren’t above attending beauty conferences. There were actually about 20 in attendance, and the gamut of ages and attire proved they weren’t just students on assignment.
Sometimes facts and ideas presented at a beauty conference are fairly (often sadly) obvious. There’s a direct link between race and hair type. Eating disorders are on the rise. Latinos and gay characters on TV and in films are overwhelmingly humorous and not fully developed. Audra McDonald is an “amazingly fierce” Broadway actor. Youth and beauty are depreciating assets. Minority races have to be great in order to excel, while white people can excel when they’re merely average.
Sometimes facts and ideas presented at a beauty conference require a bit of expounding. Beauty is a notion of white supremacy and patriarchy. Vegas’ high drop-out rate has to do with the lure of the Strip—instead of getting an education, women are getting breast augmentations. (Clark County School District Public Information Specialist Michael Rodriguez cites two 2006 Dropout Survey Reports that, when combined, indicate that out of 1,130 high-school students, five dropped out because they had found a job.) Kids get out of school at 1:30 in Vegas so they make it to work at the Strip’s 3-11 p.m. shift. (“That’d be pretty interesting considering the fact that they can’t work past 9 to begin with if they’re under 18,” Rodriguez says. “I know there’s a curfew to begin with on the Strip, and from a work standpoint I very much doubt the casinos are hiring workers under 21.”)
Sometimes statistics presented at a beauty conference are disturbing. Television reached the traditionally heavier body types of Fiji in the ’90s; a 1993 study concluded that 0 percent of the population had bulimia, while a 1998 study concluded that 14 percent had it. The average person views 400-600 ads per day, and most 12-year-old girls have viewed 77,500 commercials in their lifetime. Seventeen million females and 1 million males in the US have eating disorders; 30 percent of college-age women have eating disorders. Women spend 70 cents of every consumer dollar, and one letter of complaint—written not only to a magazine or newspaper but to an advertiser, as well—is the equivalent of 10,000 voices.
Free shit is awesome. Okay, so that’s more a general given than a beauty-conference-specific lesson, but it’s always nice to be reminded. The light-blue suede shoulder bags distributed throughout the ballroom not only contained newsletters from the Women’s Research Institute of Nevada and UNLV Jean Nidetch Women’s Center, but also Dove Deep Moisture Beauty Body Wash, Dove Cool Moisture Beauty Body Lotion, trial-size Dove Energy Glow Daily Moisturizer, trial-size Dove Smooth & Soft Anti-Frizz Cream and Dove Ultimate Clear deodorant (both full- and trial-size). Worth the price of admission alone, which was already an excellently valued free!
Attendee Q&A comment/question segments can be jaw-dropping, Part I. The first woman on the microphone claimed that certain casinos and other Strip establishments have it in fine print that they legally do not have to consider any females over the age of 27 to fill open jobs. Additionally, certain properties only hire white, Asian or Filipina women as cocktail waitresses. And no lawyer in town is willing to take on the case. (A spokesman for the Nevada Resort Association confirmed that the group becomes involved when the State Labor Commissioner or National Labor Relations Board make findings: “We have provisions within our gaming law that requires the licensees to follow all federal and state laws, and so to the extent that they were found to be in violation we might then take a look at those issues. ... There have been lawsuits from time to time surrounding those issues.”)
Attendee Q&A comment/question segments can be jaw-dropping, Part II. A male model-turned-designer said his current work on Bette Midler ads removed all her wrinkles, purposely covered her neck with a scarf and made her appear leggier by simply substituting in a dummy figure. (Said a Caesars spokeswoman, “If you drive by the board at the airport or go in the airport, it’s right there, and I can guarantee you, 62 years old and it’s not a body double. And I can show you three more pictures that we’ve done. She does have a scarf around her neck, but that may or may not be strategically placed.”)
Attendee Q&A comment/question segments can be jaw-dropping, Part III. A woman named Molly trained in LA to sell Merle Norman cosmetics. The year she attended training, she said, it was the first year women were allowed to wear slacks. That should have been her first clue. She said she was instructed to sell “The Image of Beauty,” and taught to convince customers that one product wouldn’t work unless they bought three other products also. When she ended up running her own shop in Vegas, she refused to sell some products she didn’t agree with and wouldn’t let 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds who wanted to model undergo chemical peels or spend upwards of $400 on package deals they didn’t need. She was reprimanded frequently before losing her store, though she usually blames the economy whenever the loss comes up.
(Says Merle Norman regional vice president for sales and communication Jordan Rosenthal: “In terms of her selling products that had ingredients she didn’t feel comfortable with, the line is very expansive, so it would be helpful to know which specific products she’s referring to. There are sometimes aesthetic lines that have more concentrated ingredients than what Merle Norman puts in its products, so we’re not able to stand behind those because they are products that go beyond what we consider to be safe levels of ingredients without having a trained aesthetician. I don’t know if she’s referring to those products. But overall, our product ingredient levels are all within industry standards. ... It can happen sometimes that a franchisee has difficulties with operation and cash flow. Due to that fact, she may not have been able to do what she needed to do to stay open, and the franchise was closed.”)
These things can be cool, but they can also be a little culty. Before the conclusion, the lights went down, and attendees were reminded that they CAN do it—whatever their respective its may be—and told to close their eyes and think of a time when life was less complicated; when their dreams were supported. “Grab one of those dreams and make it bigger. Make it bigger still. As you open your eyes, think about what you really need to make that dream come true.” Six volunteers each lit an electric candle “in honor of your dreams” and told the crowd what they needed in order to make their dream come true. Responses included support, the inner strength to finish a dissertation, a damn good education, knowledge and belief, the relationships that were currently being built and $200 million, access to media and the ability to travel. Then attendees were asked to light the two candles placed at each table, “in honor of each and every one of you. ... Love. Knowledge. Light. If I light your candle with mine, we both can see. May all your dreams come true. We invite you to lunch and to carry on this conversation.”
Eat right. Though the lecture ran late (12:30 instead of noon), the conference provided sandwiches (whole-grain bread, vegetarian and lean-meat options) before small seminars tackling financial literacy, negotiation, ethical leadership and writing for change convened from 1 to 4.
I deserve a raise. Thanks, financial-literacy and negotiation seminars!
Julie Seabaugh is a Weekly staff writer.