Lead in Makeup

Here's a new controversy surrounding findings of lead in makeup! This is disturbing because most of the more expensive brands have a higher content of heavy metals! I knew that makeup has some questionable ingredients (fish scales create glitter), but I never imagined substances such as lead! What are we putting on our faces!? When you purchase expensive makeup, you're assuming that you're purchasing something of better quality--something that is not harmful to your health. Ethically, should the beauty industry be required to disclose when they put heavy metals in makeup? Is it natural? While there are limits set as to how much metal makeup may have, what is really safe? There need to be long term studies of metal quantities in makeup to find out what we can safely have as ingredients. 

Article on Yahoo: http://shine.yahoo.com/green/heavy-metals-found-many-cosmetics-not-listed-labels-194900866.html

Dove's Beauty Bombardment

This is a very interesting video provided by the Dove beauty campaign.  Their mission was to bring light to the twisted techniques of the beauty industry.  Advertisers use manipulations to convince an audience of a message: in this case, advertisers manipulate the public’s perception of beauty and what we perceive to be beautiful.  When it comes to women, products are enhanced when they convince you that by using them you will be able to transfer their properties to yourself—in other words, this product will make you beautiful, sexy, cute, desirable, and attractive.  Advertisers have convinced us that a slim mold constitutes beauty; and if you do not fit this mold, you must not be beautiful.  Not only that, but they have morphed our ideals through such advertisements.  As this Dove ad shows, media has enhanced and presented us with false ideals of beauty.  This is not ethical.  By doctoring up images with photo shop, we are comparing ourselves to something inhuman and feeling inadequate in the process.  This mindset is a prelude for failure and consumerism.  We are all chasing a false, unattainable, and inhuman idea of perfection and trading our money, sanity, and confidence in the pursuit.  

I am mad that advertisers are passing off these images as reality.  Actually, I am mad that we accept these skewed ads as reality. We are just as responsible as the purveyors of the message.  Young girls, who are the most susceptible target to advertising because of their shaky self-confidence, compare themselves to the images we are bombarded with.  They see perfect models with perfect hair, perfect bodies, and perfect clothes; in comparison, they feel lackluster.  This affects men too.  From a young age, they are taught that these images make up the perfect woman.  As a result, they form their concept of what a woman should be—and search for that.  Additionally, women are trained to give up part of themselves in order to please others.  We are emotional caretakers by nature. I have heard so many stories of women feeling pressured to change their appearance by boyfriends.  Girls will permanently change their bodies through surgery as an effort to keep their boyfriends happy.  Is this ethical? Is this the direct example of how beauty advertisements distort perceptions of what is realistic? I know that photo shop is relatively new to my generation, and I am unsure of the long-term effects that will ensue.  Should there be a disclaimer on photo shopped ads warning of their danger, like we have on cigarettes? Unfortunately, I think disclaimers would do no benefit as the power of images have a much greater presence in the mind than do the power of words. 449