Thursday, January 27, 2011

I for one can't wait for Amazon Princess Blush

On Youtube, Temptalia has a two-part review of the Wonder Woman MAC cosmetics line packaging. (Via Lulubonza)

This stuff has been all over Tumblr and honestly I keep getting more excited for it. Using Wonder Woman to sell makeup is actually a really great idea and I am shocked that we don't see this more often.

I know, I know, I should be on about false patriarchal beauty shit but I'm not really anti-makeup. It's like fashion, the industry is problematic and the pressure to conform is ridiculous but for a lot of women this is an art form. We wear our creativity.

Besides that, one of the big problems we have with getting a decent Wonder Woman story is the assumption that she is a character made to appeal to the men, a part of a boy's genre in a boy's medium that should be packaged and marketed for the straight male gaze above all else. This idea is what makes people cringe at the idea of a kid-friendly Wonder Woman cartoon for little girls, or cutting down on the horrible sexualization in her art, or just really putting some effort into a female-friendly take on Wonder Woman.

Cosmetics and fashion are forms of self-expression overwhelmingly dominated by and marketed to women. Wonder Woman being used to sell cosmetics is THE concession in the "Who does Wonder Woman appeal to?" argument. This is DC admitting that Wonder Woman is character designed to appeal to women. I want some of this makeup, but if I don't manage to get any of the limited items I can take some solace in that it sold that much better than expected, and that we have such a successful example of the Wonder Woman brings in women's money rule to throw at DC.

Besides, check out the names of the items.

1 comment:

  1. The Pagan in me feels compelled to niptick about how Athena's Kiss should be gray/silver but yes, hooray for anything that gets more people aware of/reading Wonder Woman! Just imagine if they included any of Rucka's TPs w the full gift set.

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