Cosmetics is an interesting topic of historical inquiry as it represents a continually shifting division between hygiene and luxury: rational care of the body and ritualised self-care. It is also a considerable global market, upheld mainly by women but increasingly also teenagers and even children.
During the first half of the 20th century, often with one foot in poverty and the other in an increasingly unstable and war-coloured world, Swedish women were shaped to become the ideal, rational consumer who sensibly used her husband's wages to clothe and feed her family: Mrs. Consumer. The post war economic boom lay the foundations for an expansive and more lust-driven consumption, but once the magic had faded and record-growth turned into global economic crisis in the 1970s, a new generation of women and grown up, been educated and entered the labour market. The boomer generation (born in the 1940s and 50s) was the first generation of women to have plenty of self-earned money, and they challenged the values of their parent's generation. But I would also argue that without consumption, they could never have had the opportunity to stage their distinctiveness.
It is necessary that we view the beauty economy through this particular historical lens, specifically the identity-based, segmented marketing gaining momentum after the Second World War. Another layer of historical interest is added when we also view these women as employees in a time characterised by an increasing exposure to visual content.
The purpose of my project is to illustrate and explain how and why the cosmetics market changed from the economic crisis of the 1970s to c. 2010. To achieve this, my ambition is to collect and process data for sales and consumption, as well as doing a case study of anti-age as a specific market. Products that promise "fraiche, youthful skin" have been mass produced since the 1930s, but the chemical developments of the 1980s and 1990s created the foundation for more "technical" skincare. The English term Anti-age popped up on the Swedish market
in the 1990s, replacing earlier and perhaps a little less flattering terms such as "anti-wrinkle cream".
Utseendeekonomi (”the beauty economy” would be the best but still a very poor translation) is a term within consumption history aiming to capture this vivid and quick-paced market and place it under one singular roof. Studies within this field can help us understand not only how markets are created under the market liberalism of the late 20th century but also how modern consumers were shaped based on ideas surrounding economic and cultural needs, dreams and fears.
