How many times have we seen commercials for Rogaine or some other hair regrowth system? One of the first lines the narrations will say is “Is losing your hair ruining your life?”
Of course, the message in these commercials is that baldness is congruous to impotence, or at least the loss of the ability to attract the opposite sex.
Now, I wouldn’t ask any bald guy about his sexual prowess, since he would probably be offended, but I’m still pretty sure that the two are not linked.
So why do the commercials tell men that their virility is in danger when it is just their hair?
The advertisers wish to play upon common deep-set fears in order to sell their product. They couldn’t tell men that having hair doesn’t have to affect their personal happiness in any way. Oh, no. Then people would realize that their product isn’t even needed.
Such is the darker side of capitalism. In order to sell something that is quickly consumed and disposable-not to mention expensive and probably unneeded-the companies are willing to do anything to make people feel they need these products to remain attractive, and therefore happy.
Unfortunately, the companies must first make all of us feel unattractive. They ruin our self-esteem for their own profit.
Men may be targeted through hair regrowth and exercise programs, but women have it much worse.
A girl is targeted as soon as she gets a Barbie doll or reads a teeny-bopper magazine and learns of the cute and petite clothes that they are supposed to wear.
As a girl grows, the magazines turn into Cosmopolitan or any of the tamer women’s magazines. The clothes remain cute and petite with the quality, quantity and style deteriorating as the sizes go up.
Pretty soon the girl has had her hair hacked and dyed. Diets and binges characterize her life and she’s still stuck schlepping through Wal-Mart trying in vain to find the section with her size.
This striving for the impossible bodily perfection is akin to a social insanity. However, the blame does not fall completely on the purveyors of beauty products. We, the consumers of the United States, have taken the pursuit of happiness in the wrong direction.
Does being skinny or having a head full of hair equal happiness? That’s what commercials and popular culture seem to portray, but then why do people with seeming physical perfection become sad or depressed? Shouldn’t they think, “Well, I’m up to my ears in debt and my spouse left me, but hey, I have great hair?”
We’ve all heard the various reasons for depression and eating disorders. We’re all told how to recognize the signs in our friends and which hotline to call. There are anti-depressants and self-affirmation books galore. However, this only treats the symptoms. What about the causes?
I am not suggesting that cosmetic companies are responsible for the harsher self-image of Americans. That would be like blaming McDonald’s for the obesity of a child when the child was brought to eat hamburgers and fries every day. Some personal responsibility is needed.
People must become aware of how they are being manipulated. Already the ideal of female beauty has gone so far to the impossible that only air-brushed models can achieve that kind of strenuous perfection.
In the filming of “Lord of the Rings,” Liv Tyler was encouraged to lose the weight she gained in between movies. A most amazing thing happened. She refused, saying that she felt better and healthier as she was. I noticed that in the first movie her face just looked bony, but in the second and third movies her face acquired a quiet, almost celestial beauty. She was almost like the Madonna in paintings.
Maybe society is becoming saner already.
Angela Adair is a junior English major. She can be reached at [email protected].