‘Making Black More Beautiful’: Black Women and the Cosmetics Industry in the Post‐Civil Rights Era

Melissa L Baird

doi:10.1111/1468-0424.12522

Abstract

AbstractThis article explores how the ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement transformed attitudes towards beauty standards within black communities and how the cosmetics industry tried to capitalise on these shifts in their marketing strategies. It charts how redefined beauty standards generated a proliferation of cosmetics companies and products exclusively for black women, and their success attracted widespread attention from across the industry. However, this article demonstrates that while the cosmetics industry removed certain racialised barriers to mainstream American beauty culture, the commodification of the language and imagery of “Black is Beautiful” in cosmetics advertising often reinforced gendered expectations as well as heightening tensions within black communities in regard to colourism and business ownership.

Highlights

At the end of the 1960s, newspapers across America announced the arrival of cosmetics for black women with headlines such as ‘New Cosmetics to Make Black More Beautiful’.1 The wording was significant
The prominence of intersectionality as a category for analysis has produced some crucial scholarship on the specific pressures borne by black women in regard to beauty standards
It shows that while the rise in the visibility of black women and pride in black skin created a flurry of black cosmetics lines and products, the celebration of blackness was short lived as beauty ideals retracted by the 1980s

Summary

Introduction

At the end of the 1960s, newspapers across America announced the arrival of cosmetics for black women with headlines such as ‘New Cosmetics to Make Black More Beautiful’.1 The wording was significant.

Results

Conclusion