I
took my daughter to the doll hair salon at American Girl Place recently. We
brought along Kanani, the 2011 American Girl doll of the year. Kanani received
a much-needed salon and spa treatment consisting of hair detangling and
styling, body washing, body tightening (her stuffing was showing!) and ear
piercing. We also obtained a
mani-pedi kit for her. The whole notion of a store that exists to sell dolls, matching clothes for the dolls and their human owners and
salon services for the dolls seems to some like a true example of conspicuous
consumption and over-indulgence. I can truly see that point of view. But, as I
watched a store full of girls and women (along with, I am pleased to say, some boys
and men) of all races and ethnicities enjoy the fantasy world of dolls, I could
only be delighted from an entertainment perspective. I also had a great deal of admiration for the marketing
skill that created a commercial world wherein there are almost no parity products
and little need to conduct much conventional advertising because of significant
consumer choice “stickiness” and strong word-of-mouth advertising.
I
could, of course, be critical of the notion of a doll beauty salon, given the
way in which beauty culture can and does sometimes operate as an oppressive
regulatory regime for women. This is perhaps especially true for black women,
who, according to some scholars, spend anywhere from two to three times as much
on beauty products and services as other demographic groups. Black women and
other women of color sometimes face particular pressures to conform to
mainstream standards of beauty. Such
standards often function as disciplinary forces
in the service of racial, gender and sexual identity hierarchies. The (nappy)
roots of beauty standard oppression are firmly entrenched in opinions and attitudes that, while
shaped by the broader society, are frequently mediated and reproduced by women
themselves. Witness some of
the online chatter about Olympic gold metal winner Gabrielle Douglas’ hair and
how it somehow did not meet some people’s ideals of beauty. It was
disheartening to see that some people didn’t get it that beauty cannot possibly
be about conforming to a set of hairstyling norms.
What
I find empowering about the notion of a doll beauty salon is the way in which
it literally and figuratively diminishes certain aspects of beauty culture,
reducing them to miniature proportions. The dolly gets her hair done and goes
back into the case and onto the shelf, one of the smaller pleasures of an owner
who does algebra, writes music or works out on the uneven parallel bars in
larger parts of her life.
