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“Waging a Battle for First Class Citizenship”: Black Women, Beauty Advertisements, and the Horror of Inequity

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Abstract

Set in 1950s Chicago, episode 5 of horror and sci-fi series, Lovecraft Country, followed Ruby Baptiste, a full-figured and dark skinned Black woman. Because of her race, Ruby was unable to get a job. However, after she ingested a magic potion that painfully transformed her into a thin White woman, the hiring manager of an upscale department store offered White woman Ruby a supervisory role. Passing as a White woman allowed Ruby to experience life free from the limitations of segregation and discrimination. Ruby’s experiences led the researchers of this work to wonder: could this episode be a dramatization of Black women’s real experiences in 1950s Chicago? Analyzing beauty advertisements in the Chicago Defender, we noticed that many beauty products advertised to Black women, focused on the equality and social mobility that beauty could provide Black women. The findings of this research unpack how a new ethnic identity, cleanliness, and first-class citizenship were advertised to Black women under the guise of beauty.

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Data Availability

The data used for the findings of this research were collected from the Chicago Defender, a historical newspaper that has been digitized. The data is available to the public through ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers.

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Acknowledgements

While a master’s student at Morgan State University, Dr. Debra Newman-Ham played a pivotal role in leading Dr. Leah Gaines’ research interests in beauty politics and beauty advertisements. Because of Dr. Ham’s mentorship, Dr. Gaines took on this project. Worthy of praise, Dr. Ham is an amazing scholar, professor, and person. For that, thank you, Dr. Ham! During the 2020 Winter semester, College of Wooster student, Savannah Hodel was a course design assistant for Dr. Leah Gaines. During that time, she conducted a literature search for some of the sources used in this work. For her efforts in the beginning stages of this research, we would like to recognize and thank her. Thank you, Savannah Hodel.

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  1. University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

    Leah Tonnette Gaines

  2. Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Veda Massanari-Thatcher

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Correspondence to Leah Tonnette Gaines.

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Gaines, L.T., Massanari-Thatcher, V. “Waging a Battle for First Class Citizenship”: Black Women, Beauty Advertisements, and the Horror of Inequity. J Afr Am St (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-024-09652-x

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