"Without dictatorship of beauty": Interview with Juliana Jacyntho

Juliana Jacyntho’s ‘Brazillian wax’ responds to society’s expectations of women, in particular the focus on specific beauty standards. Media coverage of sportswomen, female politicians and actresses (to name just a few) often foregrounds their appearance. ‘Brazilian Wax’ encourages us to question and challenge beauty standards and their importance.

Featuring a papaya with and without seeds, we might be reminded of the way in which, throughout art history, fruit has been used to connote femininity and fertility. In ‘Brazilian Wax’ the seeds of the papaya have been scraped away. Here, the image carries a sense of tender rawness, of fruit-flesh prepared for consumption.

Juliana and I discussed her work over email - reflecting on the social pressures for girls to conform to particular beauty standards.

What impact do social judgements of female appearance have on girls (as they become women)?

Girls who are constantly judged on their appearance frequently turn out to be a woman with self-confidence and anxiety issues. She grows up with the misbelief that she has to reach determined beauty patterns to be accepted, when, in reality she doesn’t need to. 

Can art change or impact these issues?

I do believe art can help girls and women in general to feel that they are not alone and their problems are not theirs only – to create representation. Once we artists are vocal about a gender concern, the voice of the whole group is also raised.

If you had one piece of advice you could send back in time to your 13-year-old self, what would it be? 

If someone tries to diminish you because of your looks, your hair or your body, remember that the problem does not lie with you, but with the person who is judging you. They probably have issues, not you. You are powerful just the way you are.

The tyranny of the female aesthetic pattern -where did it start? I was wondering who gave the right to society, to the aesthetic clinics, to the world, to point the finger at the contemporary woman's face and tell her that she must lose weight, because she is fat. Who gave the right to society, to the aesthetic clinics, to the world, to point the finger at the contemporary woman's face and tell her that she should visit a manicure once in a week because if she doesn't she is sloppy. Who gave the right to society, to the aesthetic clinics, to the world, to point the finger at the contemporary woman's face and tell her that she should shave, because hair on her female body either masculinizes her or gives the impression of lack of cleanliness. Whether through mass advertising or social conventions passed on from mother to daughter, there is not a woman in this world who has not experienced any percentage of this oppression to conform to the aesthetic standards imposed socially, the woman has suffered this imposition since the day that she was born. You open a fashion magazine and there it is; you watch a TV ad and there it is -the icing on the bitter cake that is served to us every single day: follow the pattern, you are not pretty enough, you are not thin enough, you are not toned enough, loser ! keep walking, girl! next to the line, please! Enough. Such an imposition of an unreachable standard of beauty is the portrait of a society corrupted by futility and greed. Beautiful women, all of them, have the right to submit themselves to all the aesthetic procedures they wish, if they wish, without pressure, without dictatorship of beauty. Beautiful women will continue to be beautiful without submitting themselves to all the aesthetic procedures that everyone vomits on their eyes and ears, if they understand that those are an expression of the purest and most cynical oppression. Everyone should be happy in whatever way he or she likes. This is the message of us women to society, to the aesthetic clinics, to the world: we just want to be free and happy being free. That simple.