Reflection

Paper: Beauty in a Bottle and Commodification of Women in Media

Submitted By
Princess Alyanna Gerona Balt

Submitted to
Prof. Nathan Rondina




 Reflection Paper: Beauty in a Bottle and Commodification of Women in Media

Women today, including myself are anxious about body image. There’s always a high pressure to
uphold a certain ‘standard’ of beauty, whether it’s keeping your body in shape to fit size 2, having the
picture-perfect instagrammable selfie, or maintaining the flawless white skin. It’s undeniable that the new
media contributes to the commodification of female appearance by producing the desire of perfection
and creating social stereotypes. These lead women the eagerness to buy the ‘ideal beauty’ that can result
to unhealthy social habits. In the film Beauty in a Bottle, the three protagonists are the perfect example
of this. The film is really not my preference but surprisingly it unveils truth women undergo everyday. The
attack of this film is through the humor and funny punchlines of the characters. It’s very relatable and as
if you are laughing at your own reflection, in my case as an audience.

It’s a story about the struggles of three women and their physical insecurities that revolves around
a beauty product. The first story is a creative director, a veteran in her company who is competing with a
younger rival to get the beauty product account. Faced with a younger competitor, she’s pressured to stay
youthful not just physically but also in terms of executing her job and coming up with fresher ideas to
launch the product. This predicament is relatable to women across the globe, the ugly obsession of eternal
youth that being young is the epitome of beauty. According to Archer (2013),

Ads and social media portray youth as sexy, attractive, cool, and oh-so-connected. Look at any
magazine, movie, video game, or TV show and it's easy to see. In 2011 alone, Americans
spent $10.4 billion on cosmetic surgery. Annually over $1.2 billion is spent on liposuction, $800
million on hair transplants and $11 billion on vitamins and supplements. And there is no greater
compliment we can pay another than to say, "Wow! You look so much younger!"

This perception of beauty is also rampant in the Philippines’ society which is evident when you
pass by the whopping billboards of cosmetic surgery, glutathione and other beauty services along EDSA
and C-5. Similar to this, the second story is about a struggling actress that is once again faced to compete
with another character that is seemingly prettier to be the endorser of the beauty product. Her weight is
interfering her career. This is another issue that women in our country can relate to, weight gain. Us girls,
including myself have this idea of the Barbie-like narrow waistline and when I see models in the magazines
wearing the one-piece high cut bikini, I think to myself, ‘Okay, I’m going to starve myself for one week’. I
am one of those girls who has this unhealthy habit of obsessing with weight that I often catch myself
looking through my old photos when I was still size small. I can’t put the blame on other girls who posts
the perfect Instagram OOTD and bikini photos. I think girls are naturally insecure in different levels, it can
be on how they look, life status or achievements. There’s a fine line between healthy and unhealthy
insecurity, we just have to turn this to our advantage and make it as an inspiration or fitspiration. Just like
what the character in the film did, after the double-chin headline she pushed herself to shed some weight
that landed her to becoming the face of the beauty product, Beauty in a Bottle.

However, the third character in the film is struggling with another form of insecurity, fitting in.
This is the constant desire to please other people and be the ‘It girl’ everybody looks up to. This perception
is also intensely engrained to girls in a modern society triggered by various factors including influences
from both traditional and new media. In this film, all three characters are confronted with female
competitions, this is a major factor that contributes to insecurities. The ugly truth is, women race,
compare and undermine each other, this is the dominant notion of how we are. Having the drive to always
be the better girl, prettier, smarter and overall ‘perfect’.

 But if you look deeper into it we are actually not competing with other women but ourselves,
these are all thought of how we should see ourselves in the eyes of others. We live in a society that is
obsessed with Beauty Pageants, Western white flawless, hairless (lasered) skin, Kardashian body and stalk
worthy life, we can’t compete with any of these because it doesn’t altogether exist in one person! The
only solution I see is change the notion of how we think, especially me as a woman. How can I call myself
a feminist if I have this stereotype standard of how I should be? The change should come from me. You
don’t have to standout to make an impact, you just have to be naturally you and not be a shadow of
someone else. Cliché it may sound but the way to empower other struggling insecure like me is to accept
who you are as a whole, you can definitely modify yourself but not to the extent of losing your identity.































Reference:

“Forever Young: America's Obsession with Never Growing Old”, Psychology Today, 02 Oct. 2013,
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reading-between-the-headlines/201310/forever-young-
americas-obsession-never-growing-old. Accessed 12 Sept. 2017.