The Illusionists
Directed by Elena Rossini
Film Review
The Illusionists is about cultural globalization and the colonization of the third world via appearance marketing. The westernized image of whiteness and thinness is aggressively marketing through out the world as synonymous with power.
The effect of this marketing is to continuously bombard women with messages that their appearance is unsatisfactory – to convince them the way they look is all that matters, that no one will love them if they aren’t sexy and that anyone can be beautiful and sexy if they work at it and purchase enough beauty and weight loss products.
I was amazed to learn of all the skin whitening products being sold in Japan, India and Africa. To my immense astonishment Lebanon, where 1/3 of all women undergo it, is the plastic surgery capital of the world.
The most concerning segment concerns the deliberate sexualization of preschool children in marketing campaigns that, in my view, amount to soft porn. In addition to marketing make-up and lingerie to preschoolers, the ultimate goal of such campaigns is to “eroticize” shopping for young girls.
Brave Girls Alliance is a grassroots group started by teenagers campaigning to end the role of Wall Street corporations in defining beauty standards. See Brave Girls Take Back the Media
This film can’t be embedded but can be viewed for free at Films for Action
The Most Revolutionary Act 
Well said Mam, Thank you for your sympathy on our women of colour even though you don’t relate to their “dark complexion” problems. real beauty lies from within – they should borrow a leaf from Lupita Nyong’o . they risk developing skin cancer by exposing themselves to the scorching sun in Africa and Asia after using contortion of dangerous chemicals (hydroquinine, mercury etc) to remove ‘tint’.God Bless You!!!
LikeLike
Thanks for commenting, sweetmoran. I had never heard of Lupita Nyong’o, so I googled her. What a gorgeous woman. You can really see her inner beauty. The film mentions hydroquinine and how dangerous it is. Despite the fact the EU bans it, it finds its way into a lot of beauty products.
My feeling is that all women are colonized to the extent the western public relations machine tries to program them rather than allowing them to think for themselves. It’s something I have struggled with personally my entire life.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great review – thank you!
LikeLike
No worries, MacThule. You are very welcome. And thanks for the editorial assistance.
LikeLike
See also:
“Colonialism Alive and Well, Better Say as Bad as Ever! Part 1”: https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2017/05/27/colonialism-alive-and-well-better-say-as-bad-as-ever-part-1-der-kolonialismus-lebt-und-feiert-froehliche-urstaend-teil-1/
Regards
LikeLike
Good article, Schluter. Thank you for the link.
LikeLike