We talked about this before when we were going through modeling standards. And some points will be reiterated. But here, I share some of the historical components that we just went over at surface level before:
What type of woman is yachting material?
In a world where money is no object, what is the REAL currency sustaining these parties, and the lifestyles of the rich? Billionaires trade with “girl capital.” In talking about procuring models/escorts, sure, the women chosen by the feeders and agencies may undergo a stringent selection process that scrutinizes more than just physical appearance. The selection criteria could include:
Being multilingual,
intelligence,
educational attainment
or social pedigree,
Discretion
Even psychological testing could be part of the evaluation
ensuring that candidates can handle the emotional complexities of their roles with maturity.
The way women look is a key signifier in these efforts to show off one’s status. Clients like Donald Trump leveraged girl capital to get coveted invitations to parties that might lead to financially enriching deals."
Beauty is Prized Over Everything Else
And what is considered beautiful? In order to answer that question we have to go back in history. Way, way back. In the Middle Ages with the rise of Christianity in Europe light features (blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin) were believed to be physical manifestations of “the light of God.” Whiteness was always used by white women to communicate purity, a very loaded term, indeed:
Starting around the 1400s (and maybe earlier) white Europieans explored the globe, which ended in them “conquering” and controlling most of it. On the eve of World War II (1939-ish) two-fifths of the world׳s land area and a third of its population were in colonies, dependencies, or dominions of Western European colonizing powers.
The whole, coming in and taking over because God named white people ‘the holiest, most moral, and intelligent’ mentality, introduced the idea that whiteness is best. The various invaders, settlers, and colonizers are to be blamed for this global perspective that persists even today. The individual qualifications women are expected to meet in order to embody the “feminine beauty ideal” are deeply rooted in a system that prizes whiteness.
In her book “The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color in a New Millennium”, Kathy Russell Cole says that people from lower castes had darker skin because they worked out in the sun. Since lineage and class often intersect, fair skin is also perceived as being evidence of “better financial and social status of a person.” Hence, the British ideal of being fair and successful was built into our societies and deeply embedded.
Colonialism gave capitalism a brilliant business model to follow: It illustrated just how easy it is to profit off of long-held, ingrained insecurities stemming from a lifetime of being treated as less than. The fashion industry relies on being aspirational–meaning out of reach of most people. In order to succeed personally and professionally, women have to embody the old, entrenched colonialist vision. And that comes at great cost (monetary and emotional).
We talked about how the beauty aesthetic within fashion is tied closely to a white, racist assumption of what features should look like as well as a person’s class-status. This is also the reason slenderness is prized. Yeah, the fashion industry pays good lip service to inclusivity (at the right moments or when there’s pressure) but the tall, underweight aesthetic is still the most applied and desired at the end of the day. In a society of ubiquitous food advertisements and abundance, it’s a distinction to be skinny. Being thin is difficult to achieve and rare. The tokenism is the selling point.
2023 Miss Universe Contestants
Think of a dark, crowded nightclub. The billionaire whales have the women with them to show off their status, and that doesn’t work if said women blend in with the crowd. What is so appealing in that space is the height of a slender, pretty woman–you see them. They are literally towering over everybody else. That’s one reason why heels are such a primary beauty standard. In her book, Very Important People, Ashley Mears mentions all the women/escorts would complain about how uncomfortable heels were, and how unsafe it felt to be walking around in a crowded space next to drunk people wearing those unsteady shoes. Yet, everybody insisted that these women wear them because it communicated something. You can see that like, whiteness tying back to upholding patriarchy, keeping women underfed, uncomfortable, and unsteady keeps their power in check.
As writer Glennon Doyle puts it, “A very effective way to control women is to convince women to control themselves.” Eugène Schueller, the creator of L’Oréal, summed up his marketing approach: “Tell people they’re disgusting, they don’t smell good, and they’re not attractive.” Just, you know, subtly. Psychological manipulation is the foundation upon which beauty marketing is built.
This mindset is clearly and consistently reflected in:
personal relationships
the school system
the medical establishment
Literature
Film
television
the pages of fashion magazines
which, up until recently, were almost exclusively white
And course, and obviously– advertising.
“The bottom line is always to sell products,” Phyllis Ellis, the documentarian behind 2018’s Toxic Beauty, tells Teen Vogue. “If we think the beauty industry is about anything else, that’s a mistake. This method isn’t only ideal for selling products; it’s also ideal for maintaining the patriarchy. The terms “women” and “feminine” are used because the beauty industry was deliberately built on the binary — a foundation that props up the patriarchy and negatively impacts women, men, and nonbinary people alike.
Thus the desired yacht girl is thin and tall (at least five feet nine without heels and over six feet with them), and "young (typically sixteen to twenty-five years old). It was very clear that older women had no place in these spaces. And of course, they are typically though not exclusively white."
Sources:
https://www.sizezero.org/blog/darksideofmodeling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuElbzeSEA4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-FEaFcyj3Q
https://nsp.lse.ac.uk/articles/158
https://scandalous.media/blog/dark-hollywood-yachting
https://www.the-triton.com/2023/04/the-dark-side-of-yachting/
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-66479335
https://www.superyachtcontent.com/superyacht-crew-lifestyle/sexual-abuse-in-yachting/
https://www.courttv.com/news/lawsuit-targets-diddy-and-son-apple-does-not-fall-far-from-the-tree/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jho_Low
https://www.businessinsider.com/kim-kardashian-flew-home-vegas-250k-trash-bag-jho-low-2023-3
https://fortune.com/2022/03/07/jho-low-fugitive-1mdb-financier-biography/
https://nypost.com/2018/09/15/i-own-you-youre-my-bitch-jho-lows-hollywood-power-play/
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2015/12/29/the-rm7-bil-petrosaudi-caper/
https://myassets.theedgemalaysia.com/pics/2024/1MDB_1_TEM1542_theedgemalaysia.jpg
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/06/09/najibs-trial-ambank-official-says-1mdb-asked-to-remove-petrosaudis-name-as-us95m-beneficiary-and-to-record-bank-account-number-only/11523
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/standard-issues-white-supremacy-capitalism-influence-beauty
https://femlens.com/blog-post/skin-whitening-obsession-a-post-colonial-hangover/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014292115001658
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Modern_Empires.svg
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