The Perfect Beauty

Every society has its own ideal of beauty; for the American nineteenth century, this “ideal face [was] defined by pale skin and blushing cheeks.”[1] Women were supposed to look as though they had never worked and never gone outside. Ladies would use lotions and powder to accomplish the difficult work of “concealing ruddiness, sweat, and exertion.”[2] Society expressed its expectations through all sorts of publications, from the illustrations of fairy tales[3] to the covers of sheet music.[4] Society considered white women with long flowing hair to be the idyllic representation of womanhood for middle and upper class America; in contrast, advertisements and culture frequently encouraged women of color to alter their looks in accordance with this white ideal. While society’s intention was to emphasize the natural, healthy, and innocent look, women instead had to rely on artificial whiteners, consisting of “ground starch, rice or chalk,” which led to a decidedly unnatural look, one “indescribably disagreeable by day-light, and not very favourable at any time.”[5]

[1] Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), 39.

[2] Ibid., 40.

[3] Walter Crane, Beauty & The Beast, 1890-1899, New York Public Library, New York City, NY, accessed November 21, 2016,http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/375406b0-018e-0133-0461-58d385a7b928.

[4] Blossoms from over the sea, 1896, New York Public Library, New York City, NY, accessed November 21, 2016,http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-fc18-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.

[5] Peiss, Hope in a Jar, 40.