This is a discussion of Agbogho-mmonwu mask of the
Igbo (Nigeria) as an icon that is comparable to Barbie image of American
popular art. The
two icons are as different as black is to white, as man is to woman, as Africa
is to America, in the sense that one is sacred and the other is profane, one is
a tribal product designed by men while the other is a corporate product
designed by a woman. The differences are indeed conspicuous, but a close
scrutiny reveals that they are not skin deep in their feminine ideology, and
this is the main focus of this paper that addresses a number of issues and
questions. How do different societies maintain gender ideologies? Whose views
of beauty are considered societal? Is the ideology of women’s beauty created by
women, men, or society? Whose views influence or dominate societal ideology?
Men, women, corporate, Hollywood, Art, Moneyed class, or what?
If
we show that similarities exist in the seemingly disparate icons, so what? Will
this contribute to the feminist debate on universalizing concepts and our appreciation
of other seemingly glaring disparities such as cultural, racial and sexual
ones? Will it contribute to our understanding of the socio-psychological
maneuvering of global agendas? In discussing these questions, this paper will
show that:
The above images do not represent the varieties of
the icons, but they help to provide visual images as we introduce the two
principal characters, starting from the mask. Agbogho translates as maiden while mmonwu translates as spirit, but Agbogho-mmonwu as a term is not
limited to youthful spirits. In usage, it is a generic name for mask-spirits
that depict the female essence. The commonest is the youthful spirit mask that
depicts a young female, but there are other variations of the mask that simulate
women of various ages and experiences. In performance, Agbogho-mmonwu tries to
epitomize societal views of feminine personality: communal, moral, good form and features,
nurturing, gentle, vigorous, and dynamic. Feminine outlook are varied and often
complex in their mixture of traits, such as gentility and vigor that may appear
contradictory in American terms, but which is accepted and admired in Igbo
setting. The complexity and variations in female personality traits influence
mask productions, through a process of selection and depiction of traits that
appeal to the produces of mask performances.
Mask is a composite
art that consists of form, spirit, action, oral saga, and symbolic meaning, as
well as audience-performer interaction/context. Its supernatural dimension is
of primary significance, because it gives the mask a mystical aura and sacred
authority (Cole and Aniakor 1984, Okafor 1997). In a traditional society that
views the world in proximity of those who are alive in uwa nkea (this
world) and uwa ozo (the other world of spirits and forebears), masks
represent inhabitants of the chthonic realm and their performance is an
affirmation of their link within the community of the living humans. The
meaning of a mask is expressed through the face, figure, costume, movement,
music and dance. Audience-performer interaction is also a vital aspect of
performance that enlarges the multi-directional perception of meaning because,
“adi ano ofu ebe ene mmonwu” (One cannot stay in one place to view a
mask). This multidirectional approach to criticism influences this discussion
that leans on feminist theorizing.
In Igboland, particularly some northern Igbo
communities, Ijele mask is seen as the epitome of beauty. It is huge and
symbolizes the vastness of the world with icons drawn from Igbo experience, cosmology,
and history.1 It embodies the past, present, and future of the
society. It is a spectacle that is rich in symbolism as it glides in a gentle majestic
movement that compares with the Ekwe mask of Ugbene in Nsukka-Igbo. Both are
noted for the way people are drawn to them as they spread blessings in the
community. The word “Ijele” is not just
a masking nomenclature, but has become a metaphor for greatness. Some women
take the Ijele title, which is a public acknowledgement of their superior beauty,
in the sense of achievement and status through economic wealth, social success,
wisdom and intelligence, just as the Ijele mask is superior in the masking
arena. Although such a woman is acknowledged
as “Ijele-nwanyi” when she takes this
title, the term is often used as a tribute or salutation for excellence. Thus, an untitled woman can be saluted as “Ijele-nwanyi,” because of her greatness
in major areas of societal operation – art (music, dance), economic,
socio-political and religious. Feminine beauty, therefore, is appreciated in its
totality as spiritual, intellectual, and physical; beauty that is often enhanced
by body adornments, such as elaborate ceremonial hair-do, skin designs with
traditional cosmetics and ornaments.
Agbogho-mmonwu is not seen as a doll that is owned
by individuals for private play like Barbie, although some people own dolls
that are derived from societal conception of feminine personality just as the
mask.2 At its best, Agbogho-mmonwu
is a communal art that involves the mask, the mask group, and the society in a
public performance. The facial mask is usually carved from wood, but woven and
other variations do exist. It may be made by an individual artist who is
commissioned by the mask group, and it may be the work of artist members. In
recent times, it can be purchased from veteran artists and mask stalls in
public markets. However, her reception by women and men is through public
performance, where she projects qualities and traits that represent the feminine.
Her spiritual essence validates her femininity as given and sanctioned by the
supernatural. Human beings and other
mask-spirits gravitate towards her in a multiple arena formation where various
mask-groups are performing. Her feminine and female aura marks her out in the
arena teeming with male mask-spirits and performers, some of whom are impressed
by her performance. It is not uncommon for a Law-enforcer mask to guard her and
ward admirers off, thereby creating more acting space, adding to the fun, and
enlarging the symbolism of the mask.
Agbogho-mmonwu is produced by cultists,
consisting mostly of
privileged men. The mask therefore communicates femininity from male perspective with emphasis on the
physical. Her head is usually oblong,
although there are variations of this, with features that are marked out in the wooden face. A lot of attention
is on the hair-do, which often
consists of elaborate head-crest. The breasts are usually prominent. Most maiden-spirit masks that
depict young female spirits usually have breasts that resist the law of
gravity, although there are few that show different levels of downward
inclination, just as in real life. Mother masks often have baby components that
compliment their beauty and represent the oneness of women and their families. Omelu-nne-na-nwa
usually appears with her husband, Aku-eju-ozo, and their child. Obang-Ijele of
Oba–Idemmili (Museum of African Tribal Arts, Portland, Maine), and Agbala-nwanyi (Anthropology Museum,
Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas) depict women of achievement and
experience. Icons of authority, power, and wealth such as horse-tail, giant
ivory bracelets, anklets, and corals are unmistakable in their adornment.
Female nature spirits such as Ani (Earth) and Mmili (Water) are sometimes
incarnated in mask spirit form.
Very prominent in a maiden mask figure is the
costume that is usually derived from women’s attire, but is stylized for artistic
purposes. Colorful tight-fitting appliqué costumes that hug the body and
accentuate the contours are the commonest for young maiden masks such as
Ada-mma. However, different dignified attires represent a variety of masks with
the aura of senior women.
Feminist scholarship attempts to understand and theorize
women’s lives globally, and so provides a basis for negotiating, critiquing,
and rethinking issues about women. One
of the commonest views about women’s experience is that in all cultures, women
are associated with the domestic sphere while men are associated with the
public. This view essentializes all women and excludes cultures that are
different from the norm. It is, therefore, not adequate for critiquing women’s
experience globally, as seen in the case of Agbogho-mmonwu mask spirit that represents
various possibilities for women in the
traditional society. The possibilities such
as daughter, mother, and achiever transverse the domestic and public spheres of
life, because a woman’s primary identity is that of daughter who operates in different mixed capacities of
gendered and non-gender positions that are similar to what Sudarkasa termed Independents
(Sudarkasa 1999). Nkiru Nzegwu’s
experience of the dynamics of her activities as ada in her family throws some light in our description of the
fluidity of women’s spaces, as well as how cultural significations contribute
to the perception of women. She describes how she stepped out of the American
cultural scheme and went into Igbo cultural space of “family-connectedness and
family obligations” that constituted the central basis of time-allocation,
time-management, and her personal identity (Nzegwu 2001: 4).
As soon as Nzegwu landed in Lagos (Nigeria), her
identity as a black scholar was modified and positively enlarged. She was no
longer black. The categorization of blackness was gone, because in Nigeria
people did not perceive or react to her as black. She retained her gender
privilege and disadvantage, her achieved preeminence as a scholar, as well as
her position in the family and responsibility as daughter. She performed her
obligation as the daughter who must organize her natal family for its role in
the funeral of a titled relation (Nzegwu: 4). Whether married or unmarried, as umu-ada, women carry out their
responsibilities as daughters of families, lineages, and villages as Nzegwu
did. They execute the duties of their occupation in addition to those of their
positions as daughters in naming, marriage, funeral ceremonies as well as
family disputes and other important affairs.
The term “daughter” cannot be coded only with its
Western equivalent as the female child. It has another significance that is
lost in such a translation. Igbo terms for the female child include, nwa ada, nwa-nwanyi and ada, that
encode the special positions and actions of the female in the lineage. Woman is
like ogbu or gum that holds the
different segments together through cultural and ritual performances as well as
political maneuvers. A household that does not have a daughter is problematized
in a way that is different from when there is no male child who will be the
continuity of the patrilineage. That a woman operates in a gender position as
wife does not necessarily mean that she operates solely in the domestic sphere,
because as a daughter she engages in socio-political activities outside the wifely
sphere such as those in her natal home. From her domestic base, she frequently
engages in economic activities such as marketing. This is deftly illustrated in
the live stories of women recorded in Foluso Ogbe’s study of women in resource
management. For example, the boundary between the domestic and public spheres is
interwoven and often blurred, as Mercy Osemena’s cloth weaving industry and
Ademoni Agboju’s ceramic school illustrate
in the study (Ogbe 2001).
Michelle Rosaldo’s delineation of women’s experience
universally is important in clarifying commonalities among women and also for
generating critical thinking and debates about some of the ideas, because of
her attempts to generalize from the basis of Western culture. One universalist
idea that has generated a lot of criticism in my classes is that the work of
men are valued more than the activities of women in all cultures (Rosaldo 2002:
6, 21). One of my students from Baule nation in Ivory Coast reacted to this idea by asking whether
playing golf is more valued that giving birth to children. A critical look at
the place of birthing performance in Igbo practices shows the centrality of omumu (birthing) in the culture.
Representation of Mmuo-omumu mask indicates that
the activity associated with female fertility and child birth is of prime
importance in traditional Igbo society. Its performance is not only an
entertainment but also seen as a core ritual of continuity that elevates the concept
of womanness. Fertility involves men and women but birthing activities,
rituals, and performances emphasize the importance of women. The location of Omumu shrine in front of the obi (family front house) 3 is
an architectural representation of its preeminence in the compound. This
reasoning concurs with the theory of art and cognition propounded by Ayn Rand
in 1975, and supported by Louis
Torres and Michelle Kamhi in their
2001 reevaluation of Rand’s theories. Rand’s idea that art is a “recreation of
reality in accordance with metaphysical value-judgements” (Rand 1975: 45) helps
us to appreciate the place of Omumu
both in design and performance in Igbo communities.
Mmuo Omumu of Idemmili area of Anambra State has a
round figure and raffia covering. Her
symbolism rests on her full-size that signifies the fullness of nature.
Appearance defines it just like oral saga does, as gleaned from its popular
chorus:
Oscar Mokeme, the Ozo Ugo-Oji, Ozo-Dimani of Oba
explains that the word “Enje” that is from the verb “to go” delineates the
purpose of the mask, which is continuity.4 Repetition of the word emphasizes the
purpose of the mask performance in movement or motion, alluding to continuity
of the society. In American terms, Mmuo-omumu would be considered fat, but in
Igbo terms, the beauty lies in its fullness and purpose, much like the beauty
of a pregnant woman. Omumu
as an ideological construct
through which the primacy of woman is naturalized. Women and men with fertility issues seek divine
intervention through the performance, but women are the controllers and lead actors.
The women followers of Mmuo-omumu are veteran nde-dibia (medicine women) whose presence shows the viability of
women in healing and priesthood.5 One cannot classify this women’s
culture as domestic because it is performed by women, or to the public because
of its public display and involvement. Its place in the society lies in its
value in the sociopolitical and ritualistic ecosystem. The Omumu example helps
to show that opposition between the private and domestic spheres that is used
to critique gender hierarchy in America is inadequate for exploring the Igbo
woman’s experience because both spheres are usually not clearly demarcated, so
Women’s occupation and responsibility are also
expressed in masking. Only a woman who is recognized as oke-nwanyi (prime woman) by age and experience can be accepted in
the inner-circle of masking ceremony or performance (Okafor 1992). The women
are incorporated because of some vital roles that they play. An oke-nwanyi, for example, activates the
colossal Ijele mask as Mother, even though the mask is produced by male
cultists. Oke-nwanyi metaphor also resonates
in allusions and sometimes through the representation of mask figures. Ochi mask
figure, for example, exhumes the aura of a veteran poet represented through the
string of verbal metaphors that announce her presence. Like medicine women, this mask-figure validates
the non-gender positions of women. Similar
figures of non-gender women’s power also exist in other African cultures. An
example is seen in the Okpella tradition of the Edo (Nigeria) where a woman
achiever can choose to celebrate her prominence by producing a great female mask
that depicts her aura particularly economic success. Chiwara, an antelope mask that carries a baby
on her back, represents the earth spirit and mythical
creature that introduced farming to Bamana people of Mali. She is an ancestral
mask that represents the original farmer and founder of the Bamana.
Non-western scholars have drawn attention to the
imposition of western conceptual categories on non-western cultures with
different conceptual logic. This criticism takes a central place in Oyeronke
Oyewumi’s The Invention of Women (Onyewumi
1997), where she asserts that “woman” as a social category did not exist in
traditional Yoruba (Nigeria) communities in the sense of the body as the basis
of social roles, inclusions, and exclusions. Seniority is the main determinant
of hierarchical power in a lineage. This makes it possible for a daughter to play
the same role a son would play such as inheriting land, trade, or the throne.
She argues that “body-reasoning and the bio-logic that derives from biological
determinism inherent in the Western thought have been imposed on African
societies” through colonization and control of academic episteme (x). Although
there are some African societies, with a bio-logic determination of roles that
would contradict the Yoruba example, the main point of her text on the Oyo Yoruba
demonstrates power hierarchy that supersedes gender. Her study also illustrates
the impossibility of totalizing women’s experience, and therefore is relevant
to our argument that the installation of Barbie-image as the global icon of
femininity is problematic because of its false universalist stance.
Much of the argument of standpoint epistemologists
aims at overcoming the ethnocentrism of universalist views that are presented
as objective knowledge, yet the knowledge is actually generated from the basis
of one perspective that marginalizes other experiences and ways of knowing;
what Helen Longino calls “heuristic biases” (Longino 1993: 102).6 Universalist
views generated from the viewpoint of privileged white women’s experience is
inadequate for explaining the lives of women of other class and ethnic backgrounds
within the United States, and even more so of women of other parts of the globe
with different contextual configurations. Knowledge is socially situated, so presenting
the feminist thinking of western privileged white women as universal marginalizes
other views and ways of reaching those views. Class authority and racial
influence empowers their gender discourse, just as global support empowers the
spread of Caucasian image. This is why one appreciates Sandra Harding’s view on
standpoint epistemology, which favors the practice of starting scientific
enquiry from the margins to the center, because it enriches our understanding of
the lives of the marginalized and the centered, and also reveals how dominant
groups distort and monopolize knowledge (Harding 1993: 52). She argues that this
distortion could be eliminated or minimized by using context as a primary axis
in all levels of scientific discovery.
Context is not just environmental but includes the
material conditions of existence that in turn have effect on the environment
and the people. This idea of context was
deftly articulated by the wife of a poor miner, Domitila de Chungara from Bolivia Andes. At an International Women’s Year Tribunal organized
by the United Nations, an upper class woman from Mexico told Domitila to focus only
on issues of ‘women’ rather than her plight as a poor person. Her reply is
classic in delineating the oneness of her experience as a woman with her
context at the bottom of the economic ladder:
Every day you show up in a different outfit and on
the other hand, I don’t. Every day you show up all made up and combed … yet I
don’t. I see that each afternoon you have a chauffer in a car waiting at the
door of this place to take you home, and yet I don’t … I’m sure you live in a
really elegant home, in an elegant neighborhood, no? and yet we miners’ wives
only have a small house on loan to us, and when our husbands die or get sick or
are fired from the company, we have ninety days to leave the house and then
we’re in the street (de Chungara 1997:
422)
Domitila de Chungara’s
connection of gender and class shows that theorizing women’s experience on the
basis of one center, which is gender, is limiting because it excludes the class
axis of power that not only binds with gender, but in fact undermines it for
majority of women. Karl Marx’s explanations of power from the standpoint of the
oppressed masses rather than from an elevated class position, shows that
knowledge can begin from the marginal standpoint as Harding argues. Marxism is useful
in appreciating the class position of de Chungara and that of the privileged woman that she
addresses. It is, however, insufficient for
understanding the totality of her experience because it does not include gender
and the possibility of other axes. Her experience shows that feminist inquiry is
larger than class or any other axis, because it encompasses all axes that
illuminate gender in any particular context. With gender, we do not focus on one
axis of power as Marx does with class, but on intersections of different
systems of power and power relations. Our concern is on multiple centers. Knowledge should be all-inclusive and we can
do this by counting all, including the less visible and the excluded. If we can
imagine a circle of women’s experience with only gender at the center, we will
notice that other centers are absent or marginalized, yet women’s experience is
complex and multi-dimensional. It is like eccentric circles with many centers
that intersect and delineate their linkages.
Gender context is not just about multiple centers
that intersect, but also includes the dynamics of power within one circular
framework; power that we can examine through the idea of concentric circles
with a common center, in which benefits are concentrated on the center. The benefits become fewer as the circle gets
wider and the disadvantages become greater. In fact the disadvantage of the others
often contributes to the benefit of the center. This structure is useful in
discussing the issue of global femininity, in which national femininities are
being evaluated or explained in their approximation to a central femininity
that is prevalent in Hollywood films, magazines, and other media. We shall see
that the process of this approximation elevates the central white femininity
and opens it to more opportunities. Joya Misra’s contribution is particularly relevant
to my purpose in this study because of her idea that dialogue across boundaries,
rather than the use of one cultural theory to evaluate others, is the most
tenable Feminist approach. A comparative study of Barbie and Agbogho-mmonwu
provides a cross-cultural dialogue that aims at showing the nuances and
complexities of construction and reconstruction of femininity across cultures, the
racial politics in the global construction of femininity, as well as the flow
of benefits and disadvantages.
As mentioned earlier, Agbogho-mmonwu is produced
and performed by cultists, but is communally enjoyed in performance during
festivals. Rites of passage, seasonal, occasional, and annual Thanksgiving
festivals are occasions for the production of mask performances. Although the
purpose is entertainment, the performances invariably offer paradigms for
social behavior. The maiden masks, for example, depict feminine ideas and
behavior. Songs, dances, and plays with
notions of femininity, masculinity, wisdom, power and authority, are presented
and applauded. Undesirable non-conformist behaviors of men and women are
satirized through such masks as Efulefu (rascal), Edi (idiot), and Akwuna (prostitute).
The populace internalizes the images as paradigms for social conduct, so masks influence
social norms in a manner that recalls the influence of the television in a
technological society.
Unlike Agbogho-mmonwu, Barbie is not communally
owned, although she is popular in the society and can be found in almost every
home. Barbie is usually blonde; however, non-blonde and non-white versions have
joined her ensemble. Unlike the mask whose origin is attributed to the masking
cult or the society, Barbie was created by a woman, Ruth Handler in 1959. She was inspired by a German doll, Lilli (a
pin-up for men after War II derived from a television comic), to design the
doll that she named after her daughter, Barbara (Wright 2000: 3). The result is
a beautiful doll that is loved by girls, women, and men; a doll that many young
women describe as their best friend. Many young girls do fun things with Barbie
that also help to socialize them into feminine culture, such as using proper clothes
and make-up for occasions. She gives
girls endless opportunities to costume her, brush and style her hair, and
position her in different settings, such as aerobics class, a school dance, or
the shopping mall (Rogers 2003: 94).
Barbie is elevated to iconographic proportions
through the possibilities that she offers to women. She started from the
private sphere where she was packaged in such images as a lady in her powder
room with its full décor and a mother rocking her baby in a push chair, and
moved to images of the public domain such as the college student, dentist, astronaut,
and many other forms that expand possibilities for young women. She is said to
have over a hundred careers (Byrne 1999: 1). There is Graduate School Barbie
with pink PC and a complementing Professor Ken who is her advisor in her quest
for higher education. Here Barbie operates in the male dominated world where
her advisor, Ken with a permanent frown, represents male authority and
control. She bursts into tears from time
to time, due to the stress of graduate work while her advisor gives
instructions. This scenario reinforces some traditional perspectives of gendered
body politic that emphasizes the emotional in women (weeping), and downplays men’s
appearance (frown). As advisor, Ken is
not so much valued by his good looks than by his intelligence and authority,
seen through the permanent frown.
The body of the original Barbie is comparable to
Agbogho-mmonwu because both represent adult women, but they differ in essence
for one is a plastic doll while the other is a mask with spiritual aura; a mask
that is performed by an actor who wears it. While Agbogho-mmonwu’s supernatural
characteristics might curtail undue reproach from her audience, it does not
prevent evaluation of her performance as a theatrical figure. She is judged
according to how well she represents feminine movements, dance, and behavior as
conceived by the male producers: proud, coquettish, and innocent (Cole and Aniakor
1994: 124). This behavior is however not standard for all maiden sprits and
certainly not shared by the few mask-figures produced by women.
The Ogbodo-enyi mask produced by women of Izzi has
neither the features nor the behavioral traits of the maiden- spirits produced
by men’s cults. Her beauty is not overtly physical with elaborate crests and
colorful costumes. With a wooden mask representing an elephant and a costume
that allows free movement, the mask-figure is agile, vigorous, and in control
of the arena (Okafor 1994). In a performance that this writer observed in Aba village
of Izzi (Igbo, Nigeria) in 1991, the character did not have a policeman
masquerade control the acting space as often seen in productions by male
cultists. She did the policing job by chasing away some young men that she
perceived as antagonists, and came back to continue with her dance before an
audience of men and women. She exhibited friendliness, nurturing, and no-nonsense
traits, which are more in tune with the way women see themselves in the
setting. Her mask group was composed of women home-makers, rice farmers, and
market women, as well as male and female instrumentalists. Her performance calls
to mind the Sowei mask worn and performed by women of the Sande society of women among the Mende of
Liberai and Sierra Leone. Sowei mask represents female beauty through its sex
appeal seen in the elaborate coiffeur and neck creases, as well as health and
vigor depicted in dance.
The noted similarity in the adult figures of the Agbogho-mmonwu
and Barbie notwithstanding, there is a difference in details. Although stylized,
Agbogho-mmonwu’s breasts are not huge like Barbie’s, nor is her waist very
thin. Barbie’s body parts have been constructed to represent a very tall figure
with long slim legs, very thin waist, sizeable buttocks and massive
breasts. The computer magnification of
Barbie places her at five feet ten inches that weighs one hundred and ten
pounds. The average American woman falls
short of this image, with her five-four height and one hundred and forty five
pounds weight (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).7 This indicates that Barbie’s breasts
and buttocks are out of realistic proportions, but as Marita
Sturken explains, images through which
the national subject is visualized do not have much to do with whether that
visualization is correct (Sturken 1997). Her
breasts are pointed like those of the youthful maiden-spirit, but unlike the
other varieties of women-spirits, they resist the law of gravity. Barbie’s
breasts never tilted even as she got to middle age. With such voluptuous
breasts and buttocks, it is a wonder that her thin legs and tiny feet are able
to carry her. A natural woman would certainly need more stable legs for that support.
Many of us cannot stand criticism of Barbie because
of her role in our childhood fun. Barbie is just a doll. Why would we think
that she can influence human action? Why do we compare her to a mask that is
animated by human actors? In Barbie’s world, she walks, talks, sings, goes to
school, and graduates from college, through power activation. We might take her
actions for granted because we understand modern technology, but if we can
suspend disbelief and imagine the world without batteries and electricity,
Barbie might generate a wonder that is similar to spirit reincarnation. The
beauty and functionality of Barbie contribute to her popularity and longevity. Ironically,
that beauty raises serious issues about women’s body image in the way that she
is used to project unrealistic pictures of beauty. Jeannie Thomas touches on
this irony when she praises Handler for creating a doll that would help girls
“deal with changes in their bodies during puberty,” and also points out that
the designer’s “measurements are problematic” (Wright 2000: 4). It is in a
similar vein that Jean Kilbourne discusses advertisers and castigates them for bombarding
women with images of thinness that
contribute to the “body hatred so many young women feel and some of the resulting
eating problems” (Kilbourne 2003: 261), like anorexia nervosa and bulimia
nervosa.
All these show that the supposed lifeless doll is
indeed very influential, and her imagery has impact on girls as they grow to
adulthood, engage various physical and psychological spaces. The image is seen
in children’s literature, teen magazines, adult magazines, bill boards,
advertisements, movies and many other media. Live models, particularly super
models help to humanize the image, and make it appear natural through their
approximation of dimensions that are comparable to those of a magnified Barbie.
The average super model is between five feet ten inches and six feet, weighing
between one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty pounds.9 These
dimensions are unattainable for majority of women, because only five percent of
American women have that figure, and most of these have it at a very short period
of their lives. This means that majority of women see themselves excluded from
what is considered beautiful. Attention has been on women who try to slim themselves to the unrealistic
proportions and end up with eating disorders and other kinds of illnesses and
death, but Siebecker draws our attention to how prevalence of the figure
contributes to discrimination against “overweight” women (Siebecker 125). In short, Barbie-like super model image
is a huge presence that affects majority of women, because they do not
approximate to the dimensions.
Some of us would claim that it had and has no
influence on us, but our internalization of its contours is sometimes revealed
in our language, when we describe a woman with super-model-Barbie-like figure
as “the perfect beauty,” and so use it as the standard for evaluating,
marginalizing, and excluding other kinds of beauty. Many women resort to plastic surgeries in
their bid to acquire the image. Statistics on cosmetic plastic surgery indicate
that in 2000, six of the seven million Americans that underwent cosmetic
surgical and non-surgical plastic surgery were women. By 2004, the number had
risen to 10.7 of 11.9 millions, representing 90% of the total number (The
American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, ASAPS). Most of the surgeries
were for breast augmentation and upper arm lifts, tummy tucks, and buttocks
lift. While one may not link all these directly to the image, we cannot
completely rule out the effect of the constant bombardments of our psyche with
Barbie-like images. Latent learning through observation has been shown to be a
very effective way of motivating our actions (Bandura 1986), and this is how we
internalize the images of popular culture.
Appreciation and criticism of Barbie’s image are
varied and include cultural, racial, gay and lesbian interpretations. Erica
Rand’s study of Barbie’s queer accessories focuses on possibilities for queer
interpretations, in spite of Mattel Company’s obvious heterosexual intentions.
She analyzes Barbie’s physical and psychological contact with Midge, and reads
lesbian meanings in different hugs and touching. Although this writer hesitates
to accept these as indicators of sexual intimacy, the hesitation begins to wane
while looking through the framework that Erica uses. Why would one accept such
intimacy as sexual in a heterosexual bonding and would not in a woman to woman
sharing? This question will make interesting controversy in Agbogho-mmonwu’s context
especially with the writing of supernatural in the performance politic of the
mask. In assessing Barbie’s status, Mary Rogers views her unmarried state as an
“unusual femininity” (Rogers 2003: 94). If one views femininity in masculinist
terms as a woman who lives up to patriarchal ideals of hooking under a man in
marriage, one would welcome Rogers’ view. But viewed from a woman-centered
perspective that would see her in terms of connectedness with self, profession,
family, friends, and other social groups, her womanness is large and complex.
She is steeped in her professional experiences, personal relationship with Ken
and various friendships that fill her life in a way that viewing her in marital
context alone may not.
Criticism of the limitation of Barbie to the blonde
Caucasian led to the expansion of her world to include non-blonde and racial
minorities. Mattel has enlarged her social circle to include friends from
ethnic minorities such as Christie (black) introduced in 1966 and Teresa
(Hispanic) introduced in 1988. There are African, Indian, Japanese, Chinese,
and other national Barbies. In spite of
this widening, the Caucasian Barbie is at the center of the artistic
arrangement. Her Caucasian features and unrealistic body dimensions are
basically retained. This is problematic
for American ethnic minorities, and has generated accusations of racism and
white purism. Projecting that image to the world is equally problematic, and initiates
a clash of feminine standards between Barbie-like images and the countervailing
feminine standards of other nationalities and cultures. The
Barbie image, its meaning as perfect beauty, and the effect of that meaning,
are important considerations in the globalization of Barbie. Raka Shome’s view of national memory-making as a
highly political process is important in our understanding of how one image is
eulogized and implanted in societal memory as the ideal from which others are
evaluated. The process of idealizing
involves suppression, erasure, and exclusion, because for each story told about
the global ideal, and about who is imagined as that ideal, “there is some story
that is not being told, that is not allowed to emerge, and that is lost and
forgotten in the politics of remembering” (Shome 2001: 125)
The globalization of Barbie and Barbie image has to
be understood within the socioeconomic and political agenda of global
capitalist system. Produced by the
Mattel Company, she has become part of the international image-making network
that consists of fashion-design industry, beauty pageants, advertisements, television,
and other media that project the national image of Anglo imagination; the
fantasy of tall thin white women as the ideal of beauty. As explained earlier,
this marginalizes and excludes many national and ethnic beauties, as well as many
Anglo beauties. The effect is not just psychological, but also political and
economic. Using beauty pageants for illustration, there is more possibility of
white women winning beauty pageants than other racial beauties who have to spend
more money in trying to acquire the body dimensions, features, color, that approximate
to Eurocentric models, because the closer a model gets to the ideal, the better
her appearance is perceived to be. This goes for acting, modeling, and many
other professions that favor the Caucasian image and its approximation.8
Even
businesses that aim at non-white women also favor the kind of beauty that
derive from the Caucasian model. For
example, the producers of Hip-Hop music videos prefer “lighter-complexioned
women of color, with long and straight or loosely curled hair.” Imani Perry sees their hair as a contrast to
“the real hair of most black women” and their beauty “as impossible to achieve
as the waif-thin models in Vogue magazine are for white women” (Perry 2003: 138).
The
unwritten message in privileging Barbie-like femininity is that girls and women
should change themselves, and spend money to acquire the “ideal” forms and
traits. We have seen that the effect is not just aesthetic and social but also
economic and political. Modern technology
assures us that we can change through plastic surgery, and the media helps to
create the appetite for more acquisitions. This appetite creates the need for
more money and jobs to sustain this new culture. The migration of Barbie image to Agbogho-mmonwu’s culture area and many
other Nigerian cultures raises economic questions through the clash of
standards. Is it a clash of two giants on equal footing? One is standing on
global socio-economic and political support, while the other holds on to a
traditional base even as it stands on a weakening sociopolitical economy.
Just like the variety of beauty depicted through
the representation of the mask, there are varieties of human beauties in
Agbogho-mmonwu culture area. They include Agbala-nwanyi that refers to an
agile, beautiful, no-nonsense, strong woman; Ijele-nwanyi noted earlier as the
strong beautiful achiever; the gyrating beauty with sexy ikebe (big buttocks); those with big breasts, amre-ola (string of precious stone), and many others. All these images may possibly come in conflict
with the image of Barbie’s fragile frame, skin color, and hair texture. A look
at the prevailing modifications of skin color, hair, and cosmetics in favor of
western inspired ones is informative. In
Igbo and many Nigerian nations or ethnic groups, elaborately plaited and woven
hair in different designs used to be major beauty enhancers. Plaited hair is
beautiful, because of the patterns carved on the scalp showing the lines and
shapes of units of plaits, which are chunks of hair that are tightly sculptured
with threads. The style of the plaits are differentiated by their suggestive
names, such as boys-follow-me, kpofu-kpofu,
and kpafinga (referring to the way
fingers and threads are squeezed in-between fingers in the production process). 10 The styles display faces to advantage and are able to withstand rain, heat
and harmattan cold weather, without breaking or sagging. They complement the
artistic design of female attires and confident personality. Their significance
in women’s grooming is probably why they are characteristically represented in
Agbogho-mmonwu masks.
These
styles are being replaced by the more expensive, time-consuming, and easily
messed-up, chemically processed hair with Caucasian-inspired styles. A similar
situation exists in cosmetic usage where traditional cosmetics are fast
disappearing. Cosmetics such as uli, egu,
and nkasi-ani used in making
designs on the body, eye makeup like odo and
otangele, as well as body rubs like uvie, obala-abakpo, and ude-aki have almost disappeared in the cosmetic
apparatus of modern women. Many strive
for the so called modern look that ultimately helps to suppress traditional industry. Western body lotions, hand creams, and facial
make-up are not only imported but also manufactured by the Nigerian wings of
global conglomerates. Skin-lightening cosmetics are common in spite of their
cacogenic agents. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa may soon add to the list
of ailments. Although one recognizes that colonial psychology and Western
education did the ground work before Barbie was born in 1959, Barbie image in
the global image-making network, as well as the support of global socio-economic
power, heavily weighs the odds against the Nigerian standards. Some of us argue that straightening the hair
with chemicals is more manageable, but that is because of the decline of the
industry that manages African hair and promotes its unique outlook.
If
all women undergo surgeries, lighten their skins, and dye their hair blond, so
what? The pundit may say that as long as it is their choice and it makes them
happy, they should do what they want. This paper argues that it is not really
“their choice,” because they are conditioned to make that choice, and that
choice demeans traditional beauty industry; many of which have ceased to
develop, and therefore give the global ones the opportunity to thrive.
Moreover, many of the skin-lightening lotions cause health problems that would
be managed by global pharmaceuticals. These add to the economic burden of the
women, and stress in the face of increasing unemployment. In the final analysis, they further the
political economy of globalization by supporting the profit of image-making
conglomerates, making them more powerful and able to control the world.
Nigerian folklore appreciates different sizes including
thinness in young women, but excessive thinness is not usually appreciated as
it is often seen as a sign of illness or unhappiness. Terms like tuturu
gbajie, (suggesting a person who can be “picked and broken” like a stick), and
esekele-m’awu
(refering to a mosquito-like figure),
are used to poke fun at extreme thinness.
This does not mean that they favor fatness or obesity, but that healthy
appearance without excesses is desirable. This is not only depicted in the
Agbogho-mmonwu that we described earlier in this paper, but is also illustrated
by standards of Nigerian media personalities who are the modern parameters for
discussing women’s beauty in the country.
Guy Murray-Bruce of Silverbird productions
understood that there was little hope for Nigerians in the “Most Beautiful
Woman” contests, because Nigerian standards are different from Western or so
called “international beauty standards” (Onishi 2002:1). They, therefore, made
a strategic plan to focus on the amere-ola
kind of beauty that is closer to the required standards and exclude all other Nigerian
standards. This plan led to Agbani Darego’s winning of “the most beautiful
woman” contest in 2002, and becoming the first black African woman to win the
contest in its fifty one years’ history. Nigerians applauded her, but some quickly
pointed out that she was too skinny, and “uncharitably, a white
girl in black skin” (Onishi 2002: 1). These reactions are not surprising from
people with contradictory notions of beauty, Even though slim stature is in the variety of shapes and sizes that are
appreciated in young women; her six feet height made her appear too thin and
unattainable. Her winning helps to raise Nigerian image, but it also lends
support to the Barbie-like image that undermines local images. She has become a
role model for many young women who now dislike their appearance, and therefore
spend money in trying to look skinny like her. This is comparable to the
influence of Western images of beauty in Fiji. Before the introduction of the television in
Fiji, loosing weight was the sign of a problem, and “you’ve gained weight” was
a compliment. By 1995, television was widespread in the island and a study conducted
in 1998 reveled that 70% of teens in the study felt “too big or too fat,” and
62% had dieted in the past one month (Kilbourne 2003: 260).
This discussion based on Barbie has focused on the image
as a way of drawing attention to the global network, which sells fantasy images
that reflect narrow view of woman’s beauty. It is produced by industries that
are mostly controlled by male producers, artists and designers who acquiesce
with the industry’s obsession with the image. The industry is not just Mattel
that produces Barbie, but includes the network that disseminates the images. The
capitalist economy has made possible the merging of big media companies that
“have been buying and merging with other companies to create ever-large media
conglomerates, all of which are now global in their activities (Croteau and
Hoynes 2003: 22). ABC, NBC,CBS, AOL, Time Warner, Disney are big names and
mergers whose main interest is capital, whose feminine ideology is limited to
the so called sexy thin women. Barbie has been described as the fantasy of men,
but ironically it was designed by a woman and this horrified mothers who took
part in an early fifties marketing study (Byrne 1999 1). The big issue is not
that a woman designed it, but who controls the industry and whose purpose does
Barbie ultimately serve.
Who benefits from the body image of the doll? The
girl who plays with the doll no doubt has a lot of fun, but the ultimate fun
rests in the large profit of those that control and benefit from the network of
doll-making, fashion, media, cosmetic, and cosmetic surgical business. The
health problems associated with the quest for the “perfect figure” are also of
serious concern, particularly in the Nigerian context of dwindling economy and
inadequate medical facilities. The desire for Barbie-like images is strong
among young women, since it is aggressively promoted through cable television,
movies, and magazines. The opposing attributes of Barbie and Agbogho-mmonu are
highlighted in the global arena and the privileging of Barbie becomes obvious
and unacceptable, especially for the older population. It is a traditional base
with its spiritual controlling mechanisms that is pitted against a secular one with
its powerful network of global associates.
This discussion has shown how the odds are against
Igbo and Nigerian femininity, but there is hope in the opposition from the
cultural base. This base includes the orature that eulogizes local beauties.
Songs, tales, satires, music and dance, women’s language, and the general
societal sensibility, constitute the main life force of traditional femininity.
It is this life force that has sustained the continuity of aspects of
traditional femininity in the face of colonial influence. The society has not
recovered from colonial damage to its psyche, and is conscious of postcolonial
influences. Many are sensitive to further incursions by global network
perceived as new colonial maneuvers, even though there are also others with contrary
views. Thus, socio-political thinking as
well as aesthetic sensibility steeped in tradition are important in evaluating
the direction of Igbo femininity.
In the colonial and post-independent period of the
sixties and seventies, the dress-code for work and formal events was Western
outfits, but people’s desire for African attire in work places eventually held
sway in the eighties, not without political intervention. A military decree
required people to appear on television in African attires. This had a ripple effect that eventually led
to a boon in local fashion industries including hair, cloth-weaving,
cloth-dying, and dress-making, that were largely in the hands of women. The
decline in hair plaiting discussed earlier is mutating into a boon in hair
scarves, which have become more elaborate and stylish with suggestive names.
This trend in fashion can be interpreted as a strong area of resistance against
the Barbie image, and prevent us from making a definitive statement about a drama
that is still unfolding. Moreover, the process of change and continuity is
varied, and different power relations influence it as one moves from the rural
to the urban, from one part of the city to the other.
In spite of this optimistic view, we have to
remember that global Barbies are usually clothed in ethnic costumes, so
creativity in costume is not in serious threat. The main problem that has been
focused on is the Caucasian derived image of femininity with its
weight-height-color equation that is expensive, is associated with health
problems, and threatens Nigerian standards. Just as in the case of traditional
attires, we might need strong social intervention in working against global
installation of images that will be detrimental to health and a strain on the
dwindling economy. We might consider creating awareness through formal and
informal learning that will include the media, as a way of empowering girls to
make informed choices about the images. The government and non-governmental
organizations might bring workable solutions when they recognize the need for
intervention. The strongest technique is continued appreciation of varieties of
beauty and the traditional base that gives it support.
Acknowledgement
I am grateful to Agnes Illo and Anthonia ofodu for
useful discussion of Ibgho women’s beauty and hair styles; and to Oscr Mokeme,
the Ozo Ugo-Oji of Aborji Obe, and Ozo-Dimeji of Oba, for valuable discussion
of the agbogho-mmonwu.
NOTES
1. Each community has its own symbolic ideal, but I
use the Ijele in this discussion because of its popularity, especially in
women’s culture.
2. Agbogho-mmonu icons can be part of private
collections in the sacred collectibles of some titled men. An example is the
icon used in this essay which is part of Agbasiere’s collection.
3. Family front house that is the ritual and cultural
center of the household. For example, it is where the household head salutes
Chi-na-eke (God who creates) as the sun emerges from night. It is also used for
formal and informal meetings.
5. In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In the Sun, Asagai from the African continent did not see
any problem in the heroine becoming a doctor as her American brother did,
because of the preeminence of women in medicinal powers. In short, healing is
not gendered in many African societies. In Chinua Achebe’s Thing Fall Apart, the patriarchal and seemingly indomitable hero,
Okonkwo, cowed at the superior power and authority of Chielo, the priestess.
6. A method of discovery – the process of selecting
and discarding hypotheses and presenting
what the researcher thinks are important. What she thinks are important are
highly subjective, based on her context only.
7.
The average U.S. woman is 5' 3.7 (162 centimeters) tall and weighs 152 pounds
(69 kilograms). <http://www.wonderquest.com/size-women-us.htm>
8. A New York Times article places the average
supermodel at nearly 6ft tall with 120lb weight (New York Times, Sept. 1,
2002). According to the website that advises Wannabe models ,
“The minimum height is usually about 5'8",
and average weight for a model is 108-125
lbs . . . You should be tall,
long-legged, and lean” (http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/model/modelFULL.html)
See the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’
website (gender statistics).
9. Employers often require their employees to “slim down” and/or “look
good” for the customers. Looking good refers to beauty derived from popular
culture’s images that are mostly Barbie-like. This practice is more prevalent
in fashion and music industry, but not limited to them. It is not uncommon in
Africentric sites. An example is the making-over of the
president of the African American Leadership Institute, Colorado. She was noted
for her pride in her neat natural Afro hair and attires. In a recent makeover, initiated by her
daughter and granddaughter, her hair was chemically treated to be straight, and
she donned a western evening gown (Ambush Makeover, KAKE TV, June 16, 2005). She
did protest against this, but went along with her family to change her
Afrocentric outlook. There is nothing wrong with change of personality, but the
continued change of African in favor of Caucasian speaks to our concern for the
threat that faces African standards.
10. Other hair styles include hands-up, koso, songas, akwukwo-akpu, af-pati, I-salute etc.
WORKS CITED
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title: Barbie - global Last update: February 24, 2011 |
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Chinyere G. Okafor Contact: chinyere.okafor@wichita.edu |