Download Bottle Blondes: Beauty and grooming in upper class women in Lima

Bottle Blondes: Beauty and grooming in upper class women in Lima, Peru
Ana Sofía Janampa Santome
Abstract
This research explores the bottle blonde phenomenon in upper class Peruvian women
who regularly attend a beauty salon in a wealthy district in Lima. Through the analysis
of their social notions and perceptions on beauty, it was possible to find out about their
motivations for grooming, specifically dying their hair blonde.
The study revealed that the Caucasian phenotype is more valued than indigenous and
Afro descendent features, which demonstrates hierarchical ideas of beauty and reflect
the persistence of unequal social relationships based on race in Peruvian society.
Keywords: Beauty, Beauty ideals, Bottle blondes, Aesthetic racism, Beauty salon,
Upper class, Peru
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In order to explore the social notions and perceptions on beauty within Peruvian
society it is necessary to consider the origins of modern day stereotypes based on a
historical perspective.
Since the conquest of Peru by the Spanish in 16th century, the country has been divided
spatially and socially. Laws were established defining the rights of different ethnic
groups, the “white” people, indigenous and afro descendant people. The aim of this was
to maintain the hierarchical and stratified nature of the society, ensuring that everyone
clearly knew and understood “their place” within the social structure.
After the Independence in 1821,
«Latin-American elites started to reorganise their societies in order to conserve an
aristocracy which maintained the same mechanisms of domination and lifes tyles that
existed before Independence» (Oliart 2004: 263, own translation).
The modern economic, political and intellectual trends from Europe were copied by the
hierarchies of South American countries and adapted to the local context, including the
concepts of scientific racism which surfaced in both 1870 and 1940. These tendencies
coupled with the ideas associated with liberalism generated in these emerging countries
the belief of the existence of «superior and inferior races as an explanation and
justification for why some communities (and people) progressed and others did not»
(Ídem: 264, own translation).
In countries such as Brazil, Cuba, Argentina and Peru, the belief that an “inferior” race
could only be improved if it were mixed with a superior one prevailed. People wanted to
transform their “destiny”, however to do so and to be accepted, they were obliged to
undergo a process of progressive whitening known as the “whitening utopia”. It was
thought that the European immigration would enable the future generations of
indigenous and half-breed people (mestizos in Spanish) to be white after three
generations. In this sense, it was an «invitation which gave way to a democratic horizon
of social equity» (Portocarrero 2013: 62, own translation). The Republic was not
intercultural and in fact tended to homogenize and build hierarchies and differences
giving more value to white people than to indigenous, mestizo or afro descendant
people.
In colonial times, there still existed an indigenous elite which had value and an
importance within the prevailing society. However, in Republican Peru, the influence of
the belief in white superiority was accentuated as this group belonged predominantly to
the upper classes and were also the group that possessed most wealth. This reality was
perceived as the status quo by all racial, ethnic and social groups within the society.
These ideas lead to the misconception that to be white was “better”.
BEAUTY IN PERUVIAN SOCIETY
Beauty, inspiring and problematic, exterior and interior, exposed and desired, «is a
universal part of human experience, and provokes pleasure, demands attention, and
impels actions that help ensure the survival of our genes» (Etcoff 1999: 24).
Furthermore, it is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that every person
has their own conception of beauty. Nowadays a beautiful woman is considered to be
symmetric, healthy looking, thin, clean and of a youthful appearance. However, the
canons of beauty change over time influenced by several dimensions of society. From an
early age we learn and assume social norms of how beauty is perceived and allow these
to rule our thinking accepting them as an absolute reality.
It is evident that in Peruvian society the conception of beauty is based on looking the
least indigenous possible; less cholo, less afro descendant. In this context, a beautiful
person is identified as being one who has white skin and fair hair, that is to say, those
who have evidence of or some evidence of a European ancestry. Aesthetic racism plays a
relevant role in this aspect as the whiter the woman, the finer her features, the lighter
her hair, the more beautiful she is.
In this sense, the image of beauty does not coincide with the physical characteristics of
the local population. This means that the features of Andean, Amazonian, Asian and Afro
Peruvian people are not valued as being beautiful.
Therefore it is clear that the colonization of our social conceptions is represented in the
desire of becoming whiter, which is common in Lima and has been for a long time.
According to Alicia Del Águila (2003), women used to wear cosmetics in the half of the
19th century to strengthen or to identify with the era’s ideal of female beauty and
becoming whiter was a way for achieving social mobility.
In Peruvian society, organisation into a hierarchy and racial discrimination is common,
in which people are valued by others according to their status and racial features. Thus,
the prevailing idea is that by changing the colour of one’s hair, one can achieve greater
status and acceptance within society.
PROPAGATION OF CURRENT BEAUTY CANONS THROUGH MASS MEDIA
Latin American advertisement including the ones from Peru, show white people
physically different to the majority of the national population. Their omnipresence in
everyday life together with racist discourses and practices contributes to the desire for
whitening. The following are images of catalogue covers of Ripley, which is a wellknown department store, from 2012 to 20141:
The presence of these images presenting white women, and the absence of other
representative phenotypes of Peruvian society can undervalue those who do not
identify with them. This oblivion reflects the dominant representation of beauty in
media. This is also the case in the next sequence of catalogue covers of Saga Falabella ,
Ripley’s direct competition, from 2012 to 20142:
These companies claim that the images used in advertising are chosen because they
reflect what consumers want. However, evidence found in this research can lead one to
believe that these companies reinforce the overvaluation of the white phenotype over
other phenotypes. The power and resources belonging to these companies and the fact
that they exist within a racist society make it difficult to understand why they don’t
contribute to social purposes.
INTERVIEWEES CHARACTERISTICS
This research enquires about the beauty ideals in upper class women, identifying the
role of personal grooming and analysing the importance of becoming blonde. For this
purpose, a 2 month field work was carried out in a hair salon located in a wealthy
district of Peru’s capital. For the data collection, all beauty salon’s staff and 32 of their
customers were interviewed. Most interviewees were white upper class women and
most of the hairdressers were of lower classes, and of Andean origin.
It is also important to mention another distinction which plays a relevant role. The
hairdresser’s are considered as “the other” in relation to the customers. The way they
address the hair dressers is warm and cordial but reveals a certain inequity in order to
maintain social distance. Gimlin (1996: 512) explains that «hairdressers use the salon
environment to nullify the status differences between themselves and their clients».
They are recognised as experts in their field and in related areas such as fashion, beauty
and taste. They also involve themselves in doing “emotional work”, acting out the role of
friend, confidant or therapist. This relationship, whereby the hairdresser needs the
client and the client needs the specialist, forms the essential balance of this commercial
setting.
BECOMING BLONDE AS PART OF A WHITENING PROCESS
Hair is an important part of one’s self image and allows us to express ourselves. In the
context of the beauty salon, the interviewees have the ideal of hair being long, straight,
silky and fair. However, these characteristics can have different values. Thick and coarse
straight hair, attributed to average Peruvian women is not considered as attractive
because it is associated with being of indigenous ancestry.
In this sense, appearance is very important, and much effort is dedicated to emulate the
looks of the ideal woman, an image which is constantly reinforced by the media and
stems from the historic background previously discussed. For this reason, 80% of the
interviewed beauty salon customers assign a fixed monthly budget for the purpose of
“beautifying themselves”. However, in order to be convincing, this grooming needs to
give the appearance of being “natural” as if no change has actually taken place.
In regards to grooming, hair colouring is an ancient practice, which goes back to ancient
Egypt approximately 1500 B.C. It is also an action that leads to changes in the way
people perceive themselves both externally and internally. In the Peruvian society,
blonde hair dyes are the most common colour. It is important to mention that the mix of
internal and external pigments and the effect of time on the hair dye, affect the way in
which the colour settles, having different results depending on the phenotype.
Therefore, when most white women dye their hair blonde they obtain the natural
appearance desired, golden hair, while most women with indigenous phenotypes obtain
an orangey yellow colour described as “roach blonde”. This happens because people
with indigenous ancestry have more probabilities to have a red pigment inside the hair
which mixed with the blonde external pigment, has an unplanned and undesired
orangey yellow colour as a result.
Thus, the interviewees making reference to this type of hair colour as “roach blonde”
transfer the negative and pejorative meanings attributed to the insect to that
appearance. There is also another type of blonde that is considered unattractive and
depreciated usually found on vedettes, who work in adult nightlife entertainment and
are considered to be vulgar and tacky.
In contrast, the upper class women positively value the appearance of a natural blonde
which is a synonym of being rich and of belonging to an upper class. In this sense, it is a
marker of social differentiation which awards them with an elegant and classy
appearance, and makes them look more beautiful. Only they can be blonde and appear
natural because of their white phenotype, in contrast with women with indigenous and
afro descendant phenotypes. These women therefore believe they possess and generate
“good taste”.
Lily, a beauty salon customer expresses her perspective on the non-
natural blonde appearance in the following quote:
«Sometimes it strikes me as strange when I see something which is too disharmonious, I
think “God, she didn’t look at herself in the mirror, did she?” What surprises me is how
such a woman could feel so comfortable with her look despite it looking so bad, even in
the eyes of men. You can see their faces that look like “aghhhgg”, and I say “Poor Thing...,
if she only knew….that any other colour would be better! These women look awful!”».
It is interesting to point out that these perceptions are also shared by the hairdressers
who seem to have interiorized the idea that their indigenous features will never be as
beautiful as their white customers, having a detrimental effect on their self-image. The
owner of the beauty salon, clearly expresses these ideas, «the customers who come here
have a “natural beauty” that cholas like us do not have (...) Cholas like us have coarse
facial features, large cheekbones and features that are not so beautiful at all». She
explains that this is the reason why they dedicate more efforts to maintaining their
beauty.
Both of these groups of women aspire to the same beauty ideal but the perceived
possibility of reaching it differs according to how closely one resembles this image. For
white women, looking as natural blondes is more likely to happen than for women with
indigenous or afro descendant features.
CONCLUSIONS
This research reveals beauty salons in Lima as spaces where racist discourses emerg e,
disguised as a justification for reaching beauty ideals. This is a space where a whitened
appearance is created with the aspiration of being more accepted by society. In this
sense, all whitening strategies such as hair dying, are generated by the fear of being
chola and aim for a transformation of appearance that will help to achieve Caucasian
beauty ideals.
As hair blonde dyes are accessible to everyone, upper classes create their own
mechanisms of social differentiation: becoming a natural blonde as a way to
differentiate from lower classes, cholas and tasteless women. In such cases it was
observed that for these women, whiteness was not enough and there was the perceived
need to become blonde with the social accepted tone. In this way, upper class women
monopolize the notion of “good taste”, disqualifying and socially condemning those who
are not like them.
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Advertisements:
SAGA FALABELLA: «Ser bella» («Be beautiful»), marrch-april 2012; «Bella ya no hay
secretos» («Beautiful, there is no more secrets»), march-april 2013; y «Ser bella»
(«Be beautiful») march-april 2014.
RIPLEY: «Belleza que se refleja en tu Piel» («Beauty reflected in your skin»), marchapril 2012; «Cada una bella por ser como es» («Each women is beauty because the
way they are»), march-april 2013; y “My life is beautiful”, march-april 2014.