Latest / Soul Salon with Ayandastood / 19: the myth of inclusive beauty

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19: the myth of inclusive beauty · Soul Salon with Ayandastood

• 0:00
  Inclusive Beauty is not inclusive. It's a high. We've been Hoodwinked, bamboozled, deceived.
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  Hello Sunshine and welcome back to Paradise Shift with I understood. A place where we reframe what
• 0:11
  is and reimagine what could be. I hope you enjoy today's episode. Let's Paradise Shift together.
• 0:18
  Hello Sunshine and welcome back to Beauty Bites. I love this series because it's where we think
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  against beauty culture, beauty standards, beauty politics. And so I'm so excited to have this
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  episode of Beauty Bites reaching your ears wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Let's do it
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  together. I am enthused, delighted, entertained. I'm intrigued. I'm so excited for today's
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  conversation. I have a lot of videos on my TikTok on beauty culture, beauty standards, the colonial
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  beauty paradigm and how we need to abolish her for us to all be free. And one of the most central
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  ideas throughout my thinking on this topic is the idea that inclusive beauty is a myth. Okay,
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  it's something that's been invented by the powers that be by beauty culture, by the beauty industry
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  to co-opt and pretend to be changing the underlying power structure of beauty while keeping it
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  actually the exact same and including people who are already closest to the Eurocentric beauty
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  standard. So today we're going to be talking about the myth of inclusive beauty. Now if it's one
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  thing about me, I love a myth. I love the idea that I've been bamboozled, hoodwinked and deceived.
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  And this person, this dear angel, sent from some beautiful divine place, is coming to unhoodwing me,
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  undeceived me, unbamboozled me and is coming to wake me up, wake me up from this nightmare. You know
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  what I mean? That I'm living or at least they're giving me new eyes through which to see a new lens
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  through which to view a new perspective through which to understand. Was this what I was born to do?
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  Like I think so. Okay, anyways, it always goes where I'm like so nervous and terrified before I start
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  and then I'm like, actually, this is not so terrible or terrifying. Anyway, so let us get into her,
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  this myth of inclusive beauty. I'm so excited and I know I say that all the time, but I mean it,
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  because I get to decide what I'm talking about. So clearly I must be excited to talk about it,
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  right? Okay, so in what way is inclusive beauty in myth? First, let's talk about what is inclusive
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  beauty? Let me like, what am I talking about when I refer to that? So in response to the phenomenon
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  of a very exclusive Eurocentric beauty standard, there was so many black people, fat people, queer
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  people, brown people, people who were excluded from the beauty standard and continue to be who have
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  been actively organizing and protesting and challenging this beauty standard and pushing
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  for more and more inclusion. This became diversity and inclusion and this idea of inclusion within
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  the way that beauty and fashion and all of these things are marketed to us became the dominant
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  consumerist ideal. Like when you think of how advertising looks today versus before it's more
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  on the surface, it's more inclusive, but today we're going to get into why the actual idea of
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  inclusive beauty has not been realized. Like that has not been realized. We still have a very
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  exclusive beauty standard and a very exclusive system and hierarchy of beauty and that word hierarchy
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  is going to be very important today. So the first reason, I'm going to give like, I think it's
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  seven, but babes who knows, like this culture's upsets would quantifying everything she says after
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  quantifying something, but I think that it's going to be about seven reasons why inclusive beauty is
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  a myth. Okay? The first reason is that inclusive beauty is only selectively inclusive, including
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  only those who are closest to the Eurocentric ideal. Okay? Inclusive beauty is selectively
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  inclusive, but listen to the paradox, listen to the oxymoron. Okay? You know what I mean? If it's
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  selectively inclusive, what is it? Exclusive exactly. So if it's a selective inclusion, if there are
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  still rules, you can't call it inclusion because there are rules. You know what I mean? It's just
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  saying that the rules have expanded slightly, but the underlying logic culture structure remains
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  intact. Okay? So selective inclusion is not inclusion. Okay? It is not inclusion. It's not radical
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  inclusion, radical meaning at the root. It's not inclusion. You know what I mean? It's not
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  inclusion. You know what I mean? It's not inclusion. She's having too much fun. How did she do it? Okay,
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  anyway, so it's exclusivity dressed up as pretending to be imposing as imposing being the imposter,
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  whatever. Oh, my word, let's run that back. Okay, it's exclusivity dressed up as inclusivity. Okay?
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  So the imposter is the inclusivity. The inclusivity is like wearing the the exclusivity. Yo, this
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  metaphor, man, it's so hard to commit. Okay? So the exclusivity gets dressed in inclusivity and
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  goes out and pretends to be inclusive. The exclusion is dressing up as inclusion and being like,
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  hey, how are you doing today? I'm inclusion. Bruh? We know who you are. We know who you are. Okay? You
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  cannot fool us. You cannot deceive us. We cannot be hoodwinked, bamboozled and deceived. No,
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  no, no, not anymore. Some days we literally can't be, but on most days we're trying our best. Okay?
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  So anyways, so whenever I talk about this little idea of selective inclusion, do you know what I
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  love to bring in euphoria? Okay? Euphoria. The show, the cultural phenomenon, a very, very successful
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  show and HBO, Zendaya, all of these people. Just to be clear, this is not a critique on them as
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  individuals. I'm critiquing the show and the politics of selective inclusion as an actual form of
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  exclusion. So let's just be clear on that. Okay? Because you know, if you come for this liberty,
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  you know, it's who they come for next. You and I don't mean to come for I'm sent to the
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  babe, like leave me alone. Okay? So anyways, so euphoria is a perfect framework or lend through
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  which we can really understand this idea of selective inclusion. Let's get into it. You know what
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  I had to do? Because I just had to do it. I had to create a diagram. Like bro, like listen, she's
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  just I'm an awe of this woman because the fact that I created a diagram, I just think that's
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  really sexy. So let's make this a diagram where the outer circle is okay. Let's make this a
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  diagram of all living beings. And in the middle, in the middle, there's people who conform to the
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  Eurocentric beauty standard. You know who they are? I don't need to remind you. Now let's understand,
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  it's a circle, right? Meaning there are people who are much more close to the center and people
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  who are further away towards the circumference, right? If we want to get technical, maybe being like
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  the circumference. I'm so excited and thrilled by life. Okay, anyways. So what they have done,
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  look at how the people who are clustered around the Eurocentric beauty ideal. Well, they have
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  proximity to power, proximity to whiteness, proximity to thinness, proximity to wealth,
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  proximity to the people at the center, right? Okay, cool. So what has inclusion really been?
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  Well, it's been, look at the arrows, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew.
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  The arrows indicate the direction of selective inclusion that is masquerading itself as inclusion,
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  but it's exclusion, okay? Because it excludes everyone on the outside of the circumference,
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  which is the majority of the people. And we need to be pro the people, okay? Which is what we are?
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  Okay, so selective inclusion prioritizes people who are closest to the Eurocentric ideal.
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  So they're already closest. So this would be like light skin, thinness, you know, wealth and the
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  ability to dress in clothes that indicate that you have beauty capital. All of these things,
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  you know, being mixed, a certain hair texture, curly hair texture, loose hair texture, long hair,
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  features, you know, they're slim noses and all of these things. And I have a lot of beauty privilege,
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  beauty capital. So I'm speaking out against this system, this institution, this hierarchy. Yes,
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  it's the case, but don't be commenting like, oh, but yes, I acknowledge that I have these things,
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  many of these things, okay? And again, that's what it is. What is it? It's proximity to the Eurocentric
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  beauty ideal. Selective inclusion prioritizes people who are already closest to the beauty ideal.
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  So let us talk about this. So as you can see in this little system, the dots, the people closest
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  to the norm have been included. Who remains excluded? Everybody else. Everybody else. Like literally,
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  like the majority of all living beings are on the outside of this standard and yet it's called
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  inclusive. Like it's simply not, it's simply not, you know what I mean? And we'll get into this,
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  but if it were to expand to be the whole circle, the concept would collapse because the concept
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  is inherently exclusive. But anyway, let's get into that later. So another interesting, what else
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  do you notice from this diagram? They're like, we're listening to this. We don't notice anything.
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  But anyway, oh, by the way, I'll send this as a newsletter. So if you're listening to this,
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  you can get the diagrams in your inbox. But I've tried to paint a picture with my words. What else
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  do you notice from this? If you can just imagine, right? What you may notice is that the underlying
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  power structure that this diagram suggests, she's suggestive, okay? And I love that about her.
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  Remains intact. Inclusive beauty has done nothing to challenge the underlying power structure
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  of the beauty hierarchy. Wow, you know what I mean? It's the case. Inclusive beauty does nothing
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  to challenge the underlying power structure of the beauty hierarchy or the beauty standard.
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  The beauty standard is not being challenged. More people are being invited to participate.
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  Let's imagine a runway show because fashion is a good industry to take an example.
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  So in the beginning, in the beginning, all the models were thin white cis women. Then the
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  modeling industry was attacked. And then people, which is great work and incredible, and I've,
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  you know, this is amazing. I'm not, I'm just making a song, but I love this work. And what did they
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  say? They said, okay, let's have more black models. Who are they though? Okay, they had to be thin.
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  And they had to be have Eurocentric features, you know? And then also, who was included most? Well,
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  the black models who were light-skinned, like Joan Smalls is one of the highest paid models in
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  general. You know what I mean? And so, but okay, so that's point one is that it's a selective
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  inclusion, including those closest to the ideal. Okay, so people who are already closest to the
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  Eurocentric band, a beauty standard or hand picked from their group, their racial group, especially
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  and said, okay, you can come. But the second thing that's important to note is that the underlying
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  power structure is the same. Who has the most power in the modeling industry? It's not black models.
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  So there's two problems going on. The one is that we're still being very selective. And I
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  actually believe in a world without a modeling industry, like I don't think they should be physical
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  models because we all look the way we look and like we shouldn't aspire to look anywhere else.
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  And you're like, oh, but how will the designers sell clothes? They'll find a way. They'll, they'll
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  find a way. But like, so anyways, that's a separate episode. And if you are a model, no hate to
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  you as an individual, again, I'm critiquing the institution of modeling. Like should a society
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  have physical representations of what it means to look perfect because that's what the word of
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  model means. A model is a perfect example of something that other members of the group can aspire
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  to be and look like and emulates. There should not be physical models. And in a society where there
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  are physical models, I think there will always be pain and suffering. Now, of course, this modeling
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  industry is mostly run by, you know, whites, Western men. And so the problem is also the underlying
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  power structure of these industries and that people's bodies are being exploited because a lot of
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  models are really exploited. Like we only think of the top paid ones, but so many models are so
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  exploited in this industry. And as such, like they need, you know, a world where they're also like
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  protected. But I think there should be spiritual models. There should be emotional models. Like people
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  who we should aim to be more like, like emotionally or like intellectually or, you know, people who
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  you leave them feeling like more loved and more loved. There should be spiritual models and
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  social models of like what the society we could live in could be. But I just don't believe
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  they should be physical models. Anyways, I digress another conversation. The important thing to take
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  from this little modeling journey we took is that the underlying people who have power in the
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  modeling industry and in the media and entertainment industry, Bobby has a great example of this.
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  It's still the white thin woman and the white thin, you know, cis man, like the people who are the
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  beauty standard remain the ones at the original beauty standard remain the ones who have the
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  most power. Even though they may let others in, they will not give them access to actual power.
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  And also we should be against the hierarchy of power such that some people have a lot of power
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  and others have little that is a hierarchy, right? So I think as I just mentioned, Bobby is such a
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  beautiful example of this. Bobby has been heralded for its inclusion. But the underlying power
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  structure who actually has power in the movie, Bobby, it's very clear and it's not even trying
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  to be hidden like Margot Robbie as the person and Ryan Gosling as the two like representations
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  of beauty in the Eurocentric colonial imagination remain the people who the movie is about just because
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  they may include others selectively and not fully include them, which is what we're going to talk
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  about next doesn't mean the movie is truly inclusive. These people as you can see represented in this
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  image are side characters to her main, more main character development. She is the main character,
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  right? She literally is the main character and that's not even trying to be hidden and all of these
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  people exist to prop her up as the main character like in the movie where they're all coming to
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  consciousness. She is the savior of that process. You know what I mean? So it's really not about them.
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  It's not about their personhood. It's not about their interiority as in their interior life, okay?
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  As in their what are they thinking? What are they feeling? We don't get any deep insight into that.
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  We see that with the kens as well. And I know it's a big deal for these people to be in this movie
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  because it's a huge movie. But I just want to say that the underlying power structure has not been
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  challenged. Still the white thin ideal reigns. So the power remains in the core. The original
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  people who were the beauty standard remain the people with power in every individual industry,
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  modeling fashion, entertainment and media. The girl doesn't know what to say next. The girl does
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  know is this sounding country because that's not the intention. So on dismantling racism.org,
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  I found this little hierarchy. A hierarchy is a system or organization in which people or groups
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  are ranked one above the other according to status or authority. And so yes, this is what it is.
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  It's a hierarchy. And the people at the top remain at the top. And they say let's feed a few more
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  people into the bottom so that they can and like into the maybe mids and the upper echelons of
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  society. But let's keep the power structure, the arrangement, the same. Let's not say what if
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  these people at the top need less power? It's like no, no, no. That's not the case. There's no
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  redistribution happening. Okay. So that is point number two. Right. So we've done two points
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  on why inclusive beauty is a myth. I feel like you're ready to move on. So let's move on to number
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  three. Okay. This example of Bobby so greatly relates to reason number three. While the image
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  of marginalized people may be included, our deeper personhood and our leadership are erased
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  or excluded. What do I mean by this? And listen to the duality that I'm trying to bring to light
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  in this. It's not just that our deeper personhood is ignored, which is very important. So our
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  backgrounds, our stories were often not given as much space to be complex in the public imagination.
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  But also we're not really given as much room to shape our own narratives. So with this, I found
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  these images by a person on Instagram called by Sarah. And thank you for your amazing work,
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  because I love these images. And she has this thing. It's literally from 2020, but remains so
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  valid. And she says, let's talk about the black best friend. Indeed, let's talk about her like,
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  why would we not? Okay. And so she gives all these amazing images. Clueless is a perfect example.
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  And then all these images of these black best friend tropes in pop culture. And then she
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  anticipates the rebuttal, but wait, don't you want more black characters? Why is this a bad thing
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  to have black best friends? Now if you're watching this, you know why it's a bad thing, but I'll just
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  read it to you anyway. Black best friend characters exist solely for the development of the white
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  character and are never given the chance to develop themselves. And later on, she says their deeper
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  interior art, interiority is erased. And so that's also why inclusivity is a myth is often when they
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  say, oh, this film is so inclusive. They don't mean, oh, it includes the black people, the fat
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  people, the trans people, the queer people's backgrounds and their story and what matters to them
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  and like who they are. They just mean their images included. While the image of marginalized people
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  may be included, our deeper personhood and our leadership are erased. And by leadership,
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  I mean, we may be in the ad, but baves were not in the room making the decisions. And all of this,
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  I'm really thinking within the system because I'm trying to make a point. I'm not advocating for
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  like, oh, we need more power in this status quo. Like no, that's not imaginative enough. We need a
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  whole new society. Okay, that's not predicated on these harmful structures and where the structures
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  where we can frolic. Okay, but anyways, I just wanted to make that clear.
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  Narita, it was not made particularly clear. This is reason number four. Inclusive beauty doesn't
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  exist in a vacuum. This idea that more people are included in the beauty standard. It exists in
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  a context, in a culture and specifically it exists within power structures. Inclusive beauty
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  exists within and upholds the wider structures of white supremacy, colonialism,
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  cis heteropatriarchy, ableism, ageism, like it goes on and on and on. Oh, and capitalism. That's
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  very important. These are the power structures that shaped the conditions under which this idea
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  of inclusive beauty grew. Okay, so it exists within these wider structures and it's almost being
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  used as a ploy to pretend that power is changing hands when it's often staying in the same hands.
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  Reason number five, why inclusive beauty is a myth. Related to capitalism specifically,
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  inclusive beauty is a profit strategy. As a profit strategy so that corporations run by white
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  western men can reach more people. So it's a way of them expanding the people they can sell things
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  to. But ultimately it's about selling things to those people because they need us to hate ourselves
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  so that we can keep buying things from them or consuming images of aspiration that they have
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  shaped within their imagination, which is deeply rooted in the colonial imagination. So when we
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  think of this idea of profit strategy, what do you think young people want beauty brands to care
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  about most? You guessed it, like literally diversity and inclusion. So if you're seeing this as a
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  brand and you're seeing, okay, 40% of Gen Z in the US think that the most important value that a
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  beauty brand can have is to be diverse and inclusive. You're going to be like, let's take this marketing
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  campaign and make it more inclusive. That links to the next reason. True inclusion would not ask us
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  to modify ourselves to optimize ourselves because we are not here to be optimized, you know,
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  to alter ourselves, to improve ourselves, to embark on this never ending process of optimization.
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  That's not inclusion, including more people in the necessity of and in the marketing of
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  participating in that process is not actual inclusion. It's an illusion of inclusion. I saw this
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  really cool essay called Beauty Standards are killing my people and this was the image that it used
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  from Beyonce's Pretty Hurtz music video and this person called Rachel writes, box eyes,
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  as slim nose with the perfect jawline, inflated lips along with floorless, blemish-free skin,
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  a minuscule waist, the widest hips that the human body could possibly allow for,
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  and the thickest thighs are just a part of the long list of today's beauty standards that
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  women must adhere to in order to be perceived as beautiful and desirable by society. And she's
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  focusing on the impact that beauty standards have on black women in particular. And you know, you
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  may not relate to some of these beauty standards mentioned and I just want to bring in a quote by
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  Tracy McMillan-Cottom from her book Thicken Other Essays where she says that Beauty is not actually
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  what you look like. Beauty is the preferences that reproduce the existing social order. Oh,
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  isn't that so powerful? Beauty is not actually what you look like. Beauty is the preferences that
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  reproduce the existing social order. So true inclusion would not ask us to alter, modify,
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  and optimize ourselves. True inclusion would not ask us to be profitable, okay? So if we really
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  want true inclusion, it cannot be shaped by the forces of capitalism. They want to expand the
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  surface area of your desire to be optimized to be as big as it possibly can be so that they
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  can sell you on literally every muscle of your fiber of your being more and more products.
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  And that is why you should listen to my episode on industrialized versus spiritual beauty.
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  An idea by Jessica DeFino. As we wrap up this episode, the last reason why inclusive beauty will
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  never be inclusive and is not inclusive is that beauty is fundamentally exclusive. We make note
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  of something's beauty when it comes to human being as something that is remarkable about that
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  person as in remarkable, something that you would remark on. Something that can include everyone
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  is not remarkable. Everyone breathes. Everyone is. We don't say, oh, look at her. She's a human.
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  You know what I mean? So conceptually or philosophically, there is something inherently exclusive
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  about beauty. And that is why I believe that this idea of spiritual beauty is what we really need
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  to be moving towards versus industrialized beauty, which will never be inclusive. But the ability
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  to access beauty is different from the ability to be seen as beautiful. Those are two different
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  things. I believe in a world where we can all access the experience that is so deep in our human
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  psyche of beauty, one where no one feels unlovable and no one is made to be unlovable by the society
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  because of how they look as according to this Eurocentric beauty standard. And one way we don't
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  simply have a new standard. It's like there's a club of beauty privilege and beauty capital
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  and beauty access. And we're saying, oh, they made the restrictions again to club a little bit
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  looser. No, we don't want a hierarchy. We don't want a club. We want to park where everyone can
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  access where everyone can be, not a club where only some people can be. Like we want to abolish the
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  club. You know what I mean? We want to abolish the power structure of beauty. And we want to stop
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  having a system where these people are profiting off of the hate that they're making us have for
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  ourselves. So beauty is a fundamentally exclusive attribute. It marks something as distinctive or
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  special. It cannot include everyone. And in our world, it has no intention to. Okay. Okay.
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  My wrap up thoughts are inclusive beauty is not inclusive. It's a high. We've been hoodwinked,
• 24:20
  bamboozled, deceived. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Beauty Bites. If you can, please do
• 24:26
  leave a five star review on Spotify and on Apple, as well as a little comment that's nice and
• 24:32
  kind and wonderful. Because you know, I'm sensitive because that will help this podcast find
• 24:37
  everyone. It is meaningful. Number two, if you would like to receive this in the written form,
• 24:42
  if you like the written word, with all the diagrams, the quote, tiles, all of the things,
• 24:47
  sign up for my newsletter. It's going to drop tomorrow. Okay. And like it's like, what day are you
• 24:52
  listening to this? Who knows? It's besides the point. You know what I mean? But anyway, I'm sending
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  you all the love you are divine. Okay. I hope that you find rest, love, community, and also peace
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  and silence. I love you all so much. I hope that you have a fabulous day. Okay. I'm signing off,
• 25:10
  love you. Bye. I hope some paradigms have been shifted for you in today's conversation. As always,
• 25:16
  if you can, please leave a five star rating on Apple and Spotify. Like, comment, subscribe. I love
• 25:21
  you so, so much. Okay. I love you. Join me on my subscribe links in the comment section. Go there.
• 25:28
  Okay. Love you so much. Love you. Bye.