The Culture of Mannequins: Selling an Image of Beauty

According the New York Magazine's article "Manorexic Mannequins," the newest trend in male physiques for mannequins is fundamentally smaller than it has even been. The newest model called the "Homme Nouveau" has a waist of 27 inches which is over 12 inches smaller than the average 39.7 inch waist size for American men. The addition of this male body type into the fabric of society now characterizes men as "falling prey to same image-centered social forces that have for so long oppressed women" (Blum 48). No one is safe from the pressures of selling a certain image intended for bodies.

Dimensions of Rootstein’s Male Mannequins Throughout History:
THE CLASSIC: 1967, 42” chest, 33” waist
THE MUSCLEMAN: 1983, 41” chest, 31” waist
THE SWIMMER: 1994, 38” chest, 28” waist
THE ANDROGYNE (a.k.a. “Homme Nouveau”): 2010, 35” chest, 27” waist

One of the most fascinating features of mannequins is the ability to sell an idyllic body type in plastic form. This new thin androgynous body type perpetuated by the Homme Nouveau mannequin illustrates what Kenneth Dutton explains as "the problem of interpretation resides in the very metaphoric power of the body itself, its capacity to symbolize and incorporate the often ambiguous and even contradictory social messages which modern Western societies send to themselves in an attempt to establish their own meaning and identity" (Dutton 337). The body (whether in 3D physical form or plastic mannequin form) is understood as a site of comparison for the body ideals of the society in which the body is a part of. Because the average waist size for men is much bigger than the mannequins, this new mannequin type is attempting to incorporate the androgynous look into the social fabric even though this image contradicts the larger size of the average American man. The mannequin holds value as a symbol for society's ideal body image. Virginia Blum calls this metaphoric power of the body as the "body landscape" because the word landscape places "more emphasis on the body's surface, on the experience of the body's topography as the (always transforming) location of where inner experiences of 'self' intersect with the outer body image" (Blum 42).

Because of the power of the body to become the intersection of self identity and social pressures, the body becomes the physical manifestation for appearance for both men and women. In this way, stores and window displays use mannequins to illustrate what the body should look like in terms of social norms of beauty. The mannequin is, therefore, manufactured to commodify beauty. Blum notes that "our bodies are held together with the residues of everything that they have been, should have been, were not, could be, are not" (Blum 43). The body serves as the site of comparison for everything that the body is and everything that the body isn't.

Mannequins are a literal plastic version of what image the creators want to perpetuate as what people in the 3D world should emulate. In the same way, the (ironically and aptly-named) plastic surgeon becomes another representation of the creator motif in that the surgeon adds or takes away whatever part of the body deemed not appropriate. In the trailer for the 1987 movie Mannequin, Andrew McCarthy plays Jonathan Switcher, an artist who creates the perfect mannequin and incidentally falls in love with his creation. The fragmented pieces of plastic are molded together in away that creates what is deemed perfection in society. During the documentary Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain, Sherry, who is one of Mitch McCabe's interview subjects, says, "It was a love affair with my surgeon. It was like seeing your maker." She even says he was not just a surgeon but an artist. She shares a similar love for her creator. The creation motif that transpires leads to the belief that "the material body seems to lose all its pathetic vulnerability in the face of a host of medical/technological advances meant to keep you perfect from the beginning to the end, indefinitely" (Blum 49). However, plastic surgery seems to become an addiction in that this seeming sense of perfection doesn't last so indefinitely. The need for the next fix of perfection is somehow always around the corner. Sherry began receiving procedure after procedure in order to "create" and maintain her identity as a commodified body type.

Click here for video.

One of the consequences of the search for perfection is the fragmentation of the body. As this Old Navy commercial below illustrates, mannequins become a representation of the same anxieties caused by fragmentation. In the commercial, one of the female mannequins admires the sexy legs of another mannequin. She replies by saying, "There's an extra pair in the back room" as if gaining sexy legs simply takes a replacement of the bad for the good. In a similar way, Blum recognizes that "the transformations of our mortal bodies bring us closer to those image bodies we identify with in two-dimensional space" (Blum 60). Dutton describes this as the consequences of "body-as-commodity" because we feel the need to physically transform our bodies to reflect the desire for perfection (Dutton 349). The mannequin is a plastic replica of the body used to sell an image for people to recreate, especially through the clothed body. "Buy these clothes and look like this sexy mannequin." Because of this ability to sell both clothes and a body image, mannequins are often the first thing you will see when you step into a store; they become a vehicle to sell.

Click here for video.

This commercial also conceptualizes John Berger's famous "men act and women appear." In this commercial, we see the women selling the Mid-Town Flash dresses, while the men mannequins gazing at the women. The young boy mannequin is holding the leash of the dog, implying the action of walking which illustrates a labor activity. Although the mannequins cannot by nature act, the gendered roles continue to be perpetuated through representations such as this one. Even when the dress of the female mannequin is taken off, she continues to stand for the body-as-commodity ideal. The product she is promoting is removed, yet the female mannequin's body still serves as a way to sell the idea of the Old Navy dress. The commercial ends with the naked mannequin remarking, "What? Haven't you ever seen plastic before?" Taken in context to plastic surgery, the ramifications of this statement present the idea that a plastic look can be worth gazing upon.

Technology and the future of cyberspace are beginning to challenge the conceptions of body image as we currently know it. The notion of the "cyberpunk" exhibits "descriptions of bodies plasticized by power, technology, and culture" (Dyens 72). Ollivier Dyens explores the potential move to becoming cyberpunks in which bodies become a cultural site of constant flexibility and malleability in which unity is actually found through fragmentation. This liberation comes with the acceptance of the body as always influx. Bordo seems to agree with this evaluation of bodies within the future in that we are "constantly encouraged to achieve [perfection of our bodies], with the help of science and technology and the products and services they make available to us," implying that the perfection is never quite done (Bordo 222).What technology represents now is the transformation of the body into a quasi-mannequin through the medical innovations of plastic surgery and other technological advances.

As Dyens says, "We are becoming other, plastic in our forms and existence" (Dyens 95). We can now go to a doctor's office with a picture of J Lo's butt or Angelina Jolie's lips in order to emulate, incidentally perpetuating the fragmentation and commodification of the body. Rather than sell clothes like mannequins do, people who emulate celebrities' body parts become walking advertisements for a plastic surgery lifestyle and represent the move towards becoming cyperpunks. Just because science and technology makes these services available to us, does it mean the services are valuable to establishing the narrative of bodies more than just a commodity? Are we destined to become mannequins ourselves?

Works Cited

Blum, Virginia. Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery. 35-66, 145-187.

Bordo, Susan. The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and Private. "Beauty (Re)Discovers the Male Body." 168-225.

Coleman, David. "Manorexic Mannequins." New York Magazine. May 2010 <http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/65753/>.

Dutton, Kenneth. The Perfectible Body: The Western Ideal of Male Physical Development. "The Body Observed." 321-255.

Dyens, Ollivier. Metal Flesh and the Evolution of Man: Technology Takes Over. "Cyberpunks: Body Terrorists." 72-78.

McCabe, Mitch. Make Me Young: Youth Knows No Pain. 86 minutes.