Narcissism as Liberation
1. Susan Douglas values a woman who is independent. Although the media is trying to portray an independent woman as a result of feminism, but their independence is not completely so. Their independence depends on the fact that women are still a slave to their appearance. Douglas admires a woman who may still want to look beautiful but does not put that above all else. No where in this essay is Douglas conveying her disdain for makeup in general, but the fact that advertisers make the general public feel they need the makeup to be better than who they are. Instead of suggesting products that can make people feel better about themselves, which perhaps was the initial purpose of makeup, they force products on people so that they need to be more attractive. “Americans were desperately insecure, consumed by self-doubt and self-loathing, and totally obsessed with competing with other people for approval and acclaim” (pg 119) Advertisers have picked up on the American way and have fed off of this in order to turn these weaknesses into needs. This is the problem that Douglas has with advertising. She does not advocate for the deceipt of women in order to make a few dollars on skin cream that in actuality does nothing.
2. Douglas decides that the advertisers of the 1980’s are to blame for turning feminism into a marketing ploy. “Women’s liberation now became equated with women’s ability to do whatever they wanted for themselves, whenever they wanted, no matter what the expense” (pg 117). They have turned women from being free to being dependent again. No matter that women have the right to their own choices, they are now a slave to their choice of being beautiful, which is not being free at all. Even though this has started in the 1980’s, there are no signs of the media getting better. Even today advertisers are taking advantage of women’s “needs” to sell their product. This will not change until the group that these products are being sold to changes. Only when women are able to realize that they do not need these products in order to be beautiful, then the advertising market will remain unchanged.
