Prove It on Me by Chapman Erin;

Author:Chapman, Erin;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2012-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 3.9 Pluko Advertisement featuring Katheryne Boyd, Chicago Defender, 25 September 1926, 4. Reprinted by permission of ProQuest, LLC and The Chicago Defender Newspaper.

Here, Boyd is utterly revealed for consumption. Stating that “this soft, daintily perfumed preparation is so economically priced everyone can afford to use it,” Pluko clearly intended to market its product to the overwhelmingly young, working-class population of black migrant women and assumed they dreamed of looking like Katheryne Boyd. Such women attempted to claim and express their own sexuality and enjoy their beauty on their own terms. But the exploitation of the far-reaching sex-race marketplace meant that their sexuality was not wholly theirs. They did not completely control its sociocultural effects or the uses made of it.

Likewise, Golden Brown Beauty Preparations displayed Ethel Waters in a revealing spaghetti strap dress (Figure 3.10). Even more explicitly recommending its model as an icon of beauty and desirability, Golden Brown proclaimed in its half-page advertisement that “‘Queen of Blues Singers’ Ethel Waters tells how Madame Mamie Hightower’s ‘Golden Brown’ beauty preparations have made her the most famous and beautiful of Our Race Stars.” In her matching pearl earrings, bracelet, and rope necklaces and clingy, spaghetti strap dress, Waters epitomized the sexy, golden-skinned race woman Golden Brown thought its potential buyers would like to be, or should want to be. Waters’s photograph is not as sexually charged as Boyd’s. Her expression is open, her smile innocent rather than provocative, and her attire suggests a glitzy night on the town rather than a clandestine assignation. Nevertheless, this photograph, like Boyd’s, conveys a sensual allure distinctly free from the strictures of the culture of dissemblance and the ideals of race motherhood. In the end, however, neither kind of representation—that exemplified by the Walker Company ads nor that of these alluring images—conveyed black women as whole humans.

Racialized language permeates the text of this Golden Brown advertisement as it did those of the recording companies. However, rather than street-smart slang or nostalgic drawl, this language is distinctly political in tone and content. In emphasizing Ethel Waters’s status as one of “Our Race Stars,” Golden Brown claimed her as a representative black woman in the politicized language of the New Negro era. Golden Brown sought to emulate and best the Walker Company in every way. Not only did they sell very similar cosmetic products and utilize photographs of popular performers to advertise them but they also claimed for themselves the same role in the struggle for racial advancement. They, too, were in the beneficent business of beautifying the race. The text in the ad states, “The Golden Brown Beauty treatment, originated by Madame Mamie Hightower never fails, because she spent years of work to find the right beauty treatment for Our Race.” In another advertisement, Golden Brown advised readers that “Pride in Our Race demands that we look Light, Bright, and Attractive,” indicating that Golden Brown products would assist customers in achieving such an appearance. The text of every Golden Brown ad concluded with a

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