Book description
Between the 1920s and the 1970s, American economic culture began to
emphasize the value of consumption over production. At the same time,
the rise of new mass media such as radio and television facilitated the
advertising and sales of consumer goods on an unprecedented scale. In
Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-1975,
Susannah Walker analyzes an often-overlooked facet of twentieth-century
consumer society as she explores the political, social, and racial
implications of the business devoted to producing and marketing beauty
products for African American women. Walker examines African American
beauty culture as a significant component of twentieth-century
consumerism, and she links both subjects to the complex racial politics
of the era. The efforts of black entrepreneurs to participate in the
American economy and to achieve self-determination of black beauty
standards often caused conflict within the African American community.
Additionally, a prevalence of white-owned firms in the African American
beauty industry sparked widespread resentment, even among advocates of
full integration in other areas of the American economy and culture.
Concerned African Americans argued that whites had too much influence
over black beauty culture and were invading the market, complicating
matters of physical appearance with questions of race and power. Based
on a wide variety of documentary and archival evidence, Walker concludes
that African American beauty standards were shaped within black society
as much as they were formed in reaction to, let alone imposed by, the
majority culture. Style and Status challenges the notion that the civil
rights and black power movements of the 1950s through the 1970s
represents the first period in which African Americans wielded
considerable influence over standards of appearance and beauty. Walker
explores how beauty culture affected black women's racial and feminine
identities, the role of black-owned businesses in African American
communities, differences between black-owned and white-owned
manufacturers of beauty products, and the concept of racial progress in
the post-World War II era. Through the story of the development of black
beauty culture, Walker examines the interplay of race, class, and gender
in twentieth-century America. Susannah Walker is assistant professor
of history at Virginia Wesleyan College.
