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Documentary Analysis Of The Illusionists

1156 Words5 Pages

Lila Brandeberry
Sarah Bartlett
ANTHR 230
1/1/2023
Documentary Analysis: The Illusionists (Elena Rossi, 2015) The film "The Illusionists" is a documentary that was released in 2015 by Elena Rossini. Elena Rossini is an Italian filmmaker and activist. She focuses on social justice, media, and female empowerment. The documentary covers many beauty topics worldwide: the United States, Japan, France, India, Lebanon, and Africa. The film brings attention to how porn, media, toys, and large corporations have affected our bodies, mindsets, and health. In my essay, I will summarize the documentary and connect themes to popular culture, neoliberalism, globalization, and other keywords learned in Anthropology 230. The globalization of beauty standards …show more content…

Neoliberalism is an economic and political ideology that states the free market is important for growth, economically and politically. The free market has allowed companies, mass media, and governments to grow their ideals worldwide. Beauty norms are being spread to every home in every country. For example, hairless bodies. It isn't hard to create insecurities in humans. Companies, mass media, and the government know that it's that easy. One commercial of hairless women with a wax kit can lead to a business gaining millions of dollars and followers. This starts in one country and then spreads globally. Then more companies make similar or different products that do the same thing. This is transforming beauty norms and people from all cultures. The free market changes the world in a quick and attainable way. The spread of these beauty norms are examples of globalization as homogenization through cultural domination. Spreading different viewpoints across the world use to lead to different ideas, visions, and beliefs. Now, when spreading things across media and the market, people often share the same viewpoint. People from other cultures want to be like western people. We are losing culture. Losing ethnicities. Losing opinions. Losing diversity. The documentary validates Lane Corther's view "increased cultural interaction usually leads to hybridization." Western culture is being spread across the world and is leading to western domination. Western culture is blending with other cultures and becoming the main culture

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