Beyonce and the Hair Dye

L’Oreal’s 2002 television advertisement featuring Beyonce for Feria poses several problems in how it perpetuates the hegemonic construction of gender and the way it promotes an unrealistic image of Black beauty.

The advertisement takes a clear stance on how the desirable, feminine woman is supposed to appear and act. The product itself, a hair dye that promises “pure color,” highlights (pun intended) the fact that to be a woman is to be inherently inadequate. Beauty is not natural; it is something to be achieved superficially – more specifically, through consumption of chemical concoctions. L’Oreal pushes their consumer agenda masterfully by having Beyonce, one of the most glamorized celebrities of our time, speak to the synthetic sisterhood of women as a knowing participant in their quest for beauty. She too needs Feria to achieve perfection, the advertisement points out; never mind that she actually serves as a pawn in L’Oreal’s capitalist quest to make other women feel inferior. Furthermore, the image of the modern woman is one of sex appeal. Beyonce and her fellow models wear low cut dresses, tank tops, and skin-tight jeans that showoff their bodies’ curves, accentuate their breasts, elongate their legs, and compliment their highly airbrushed faces. In essence, these women become an assemblage of body parts and makeup instead of real, personable human beings. With a multitude of medium long shots, one is invited to look at figures and bodies rather than what the advertisement is actually selling: hair dye. L’Oreal is, in short, trying to sell an idea of womanhood, not just perfection in a tube.

The 2002 Feria commercial also promotes an image of Black femininity that is particularly troubling in terms of race politics. When it comes to Black beauty, hair matters; and Beyonce, depending on how one sees her, is either lauded or demonized for hers. In the case of L’Oreal’s commercial, color isn’t the issue, authenticity is. While Feria promises to contain “super hydrating conditioners,” Beyonce’s straight, feathery, and, quite frankly, White hair, points to an epidemic of Black women being told that thick, black, kinked hair is undesirable. Their Blackness, in other words, must be exorcised in some way. In fact, the sole Black woman in the commercial who appears to have kept a natural, close cut afro is only featured on a box of dye, and even her hair is bleached to a shockingly abnormal color. Finally, it should be no surprise that even Beyonce’s skin is lit in such a way that her race becomes ambiguous. She could easily pass for a White woman. It begs the question, then, is Black really beautiful when it looks just like White?

To get my students thinking about how feminism and race politics work in advertising, I would first pick out several beauty advertisements for the class to screen and have them discuss who the advertisements are made for and the reason why a company would want to make that particular advertisement. In groups of three or four, I would them have them storyboard their own advertisement for a beauty product to have them see how images and concepts are broken down to make meaning. Finally, I would have them shoot the advertisements and screen them to the class alongside a re-screening of the original, real advertisements I had shown earlier. Then, the class could vote on which group had the most convincing advertisement, and I would have them discuss what made their choice so believable, particularly in terms of feminist and race politics.