Exploring the Intersections Between Capitalism and Contemporary Feminism: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Online Persona of Emily Weiss, CEO of Glossier Cosmetics
Browse through Instagram and you’ll quickly scroll past dozens, if not hundreds of brand advertisements. These come in all shapes and sizes – paid ads that blend in seamlessly with the people you follow, sponsored posts touting the benefits of whatever serum or tea or waist trainer is most popular this week, and partnerships between bloggers and companies, both looking to make a buck. But another subset of Insta-fame is becoming increasingly more common – the rise of the “boss-babe” – the influencer-turned-businesswoman. These women epitomize the current neoliberal slant of feminism- one that includes the likes of Sheryl Sandberg, Beyonce and Taylor Swift, one that encourages women to pursue business and femininity, that they can have it all. It’s not a new concept by any means, it just has a new millennial face, and one of the most prominent faces behind this capital-driven brand of feminism is Emily Weiss, the fashion assistant/blogger- turned- founder and CEO of Glossier Cosmetics. With well over a million combined followers between her personal page and her brand on Instagram alone, Weiss weaves several ethos and pathos –based rhetorical techniques with contemporary pop feminism in order to build her image and boost profits for Glossier.
An essential component of Weiss’ influence is the social platform Instagram. This is her primary touchpoint with consumers and the general public, and she leverages it to create a narrative that feels like an updated It Girl for the millennial age. The foundation of this narrative is the marriage of two concepts that have been cast dichotomously to women forever – beauty and industry: the idea that a woman can either be a beauty queen or a CEO, but not both. Weiss’ personal brand is predicated on her ability to be both, and Glossier’s on its ability to convince you that you can be, too. This narrative fits well within the current neoliberal post-feminism that has come to dominate the sociopolitical discourse of late. In a capitalist and individualist country like the United States, many feel that the final frontier for women gaining equality involves boardrooms and Fortune 500 listings. Women in power, or #BossBabes as they’re popularly known, are having a moment- and at the same time, the beauty industry is similarly being viewed through a new cultural lens. Although it would be remiss to state that the societal pressures upon women to adhere to certain beauty standards have lifted, there has been a noticeable shift from what previously had been an incredibly saturated aesthetic in beauty (particularly documented on Instagram) coined the “Instagram model” look- heavy contour, full or over lined lips, and thick, dark eye makeup and brows- to a new demand in beauty: to look more like a person, and less like a doll. This beauty wave celebrated natural freckles and stretchmarks, and brands like Dove and Aerie had begun to catch on as well, hiring fuller-figured women and reducing their use of Photoshop in ads.
Fig. 1: Weiss and supermodel Karlie Kloss
Weiss was in an ideal position when she launched Glossier to pivot off of these trends. As a fashion assistant and blogger, she already knew many of the inside secrets that consumers seek from influencers, and she had built up trust within her posh network as she worked her way through the fashion and beauty world. Three years later, her company has raised over $30 million in venture capital funding, the products practically fly off the shelves and Weiss was listed in Fortune’s 2017 40 Under 40 list(O’Connor, 2015).
Weiss posted a cover shot of herself on Instagram around that time (Fig. 2) – a bold red background for Entrepreneur magazine, the title “Young Millionaires” emblazoned over her chest as she stares blithely into the camera, arms loosely crossed. She’s posted shots like this before, ones that solidify her status as one of these #BossBabes- screenshots of her on CNN, Good Morning America and Fox Business, behind-the-scenes shots from her features in the New York Times, Coveteur, and Vogue, all looking aspirationally chic while repping her company. These photos rhetorically communicate using ethos, propping Weiss up as an expert- and an on-trend one at that. Weiss has her own insouciant tone that she lends to her posts as well. Ben Hassett from The Cut has reported that Weiss wants Glossier to feel like “a close friend — a friend who was maybe a little older, and maybe a little cooler, who maybe moved to the city when you stayed in your hometown but never lost her sense of humor or humility — more likely to cross her eyes in a photograph than make a duck face. “I wanted to create a brand whose sweatshirt you wanted to wear,” she [has] said” (Hassett, 2018).
This description fits Weiss’ online persona to a T, and she is prone to not taking herself too seriously and filling her feed with relatable memes and personal anecdotes, as shown in Figures 4 and 5. In figure 5, she posts a tweet that’s been converted into a meme for her original blog and brand, Into The Gloss, where she had a popular series called “Top Shelf” that delved into the beauty routines of beauty and fashion gurus – serving as both a joke and a brand reinforcement (Into the Gloss is still doing as well as ever). This slight brand promotion can be seen in several of Weiss’ posts, as seen in Figures 6 and 7. These posts don’t feel forced or inauthentic, as her tone and personality is consistent regardless of the topic of her posts. When Weiss does speak about her work explicitly on her personal page, her tone is still conversational yet determined – she isn’t intense by any means, but she doesn’t come off as ditzy either. Rather, she presents herself resolutely and wears her CEO title with pride and style- the true mark of a Glossier girl.
Bolstering Weiss’ image as the “CEO you’d love to be best friends with” are her numerous posts to Instagram of her with other highly successful women – in fact, men are noticeably absent from her page, even her husband. Instead, Weiss is seen posing with powerful women of all industries, from models Emily Ratajkowski and Karlie Kloss (Figure 1) to the founders and CEOs of women-focused companies like Man Repeller, The Real Real, Who What Wear, and Bobbi Brown (Figures 8 and 9). The implied relationship between Weiss and these women illustrates a sort of pathos-geared false authority fallacy or in-crowd appeal: she gains credibility through her proximity to established industry experts and other influencers – namely, other women perceived to be both beauty and brains.
Interestingly enough, this hits on a common criticism of Glossier – that it’s “a beauty brand for the already-beautiful”. The light formulations (the details of which Weiss does not disclose, opting out of a science-based logos approach to marketing that is popular within the beauty sector lately) and on-the-go application style reeks of insouciance and model-level confidence in one’s own skin. This is exactly where Weiss takes that complaint and flips it on its’ head with her promotion of body confidence for all women. As stated previously, Glossier’s skin-first, down-to earth marketing approach weaves in nicely with the current feminist position on beauty and makeup, and Weiss speaks often on her Instagram about the value of loving your skin and body. Posing naked from her toned waist up with a red bar that reads “BODY HERO” covering her breasts, a selfie of her captioned “Every body is a #bodyhero” received 20,000 likes-to-date(Fig. 10).
This post had several outcomes: it demonstrated Weiss’ stance on body positivity and simultaneously promoted the Glossier brand, as the hashtag was part of a new advertising campaign to promote a launch of bath products. Weiss’ post was relatively low-stakes for her; as a thin white woman with access to high end beauty and cosmetic resources, she embodies much of what is already the standard of beauty in the Western world. The next post on her page shows an ad from that campaign in The New York Times featuring a dark-skinned, heavy set woman- a famous plus-sized model named Paloma Elsesser. In the Glossier world, bodies are beautiful in every shape and size – that’s what this post seems to communicate, though I can’t help but notice as I scroll through the rest of Weiss’ feed that her world seems to primarily be filled with thin and conventionally attractive bodies. As shown previously, Weiss has posted relatable memes on her page about her struggles with healthy eating. Weiss’ body positivity posts hit pretty deeply on both pathos and ethos – we all want to feel beautiful, loved and accepted for who we are and what we look like, and her audience is comprised mainly of women who struggle with these feelings too – through humanizing posts like these, Weiss feels more down-to-Earth, more girl-next-door, more like them. Who wouldn’t want to buy products from an idealized version of themselves?
At this point, I find it necessary to note a few imperatives and re-emphasize the lens with which I am rhetorically analyzing Emily Weiss: as a key player in the beauty industry and venture capital landscape, as a vocal feminist, as a white woman, as a wealthy woman. The intersections of these identifiers is the basis of this analysis; I cannot make a claim about Weiss holistically or personally, nor would I would want to. Additionally, I feel it important to note that although Weiss’ actions can be analyzed to make an argument about her place in a larger system (as I’ve done here), I do not claim that Weiss is always consciously plotting and constructing this image purposefully, so as to deceive her followers – this would obviously be ridiculous. My argument rests on the assertion that Weiss has woven her personal brand, which includes several tenets of neoliberal feminist ideologies, into the fabric of Glossier, rendering her personal online presence a constant advertisement for the brand. This merger feels authentic, real and aspirational for thousands of women.
Weiss’ skilled use of social media to solidify her place in the “Boss Babe” hierarchy comes as no surprise – she has created a world that is both luxurious and accessible, packaged perfectly in millennial pink. Instagram provides the ideal platform for this blend of commerce and pop-feminism to grow organically and ensures an audience of women eager to connect and engage with the brand. Weiss has merged her personal brand with the ethos of her company so that she isn’t so much the face of Glossier, but the brand’s ideal consumer and prophet – she is you or I, or who we wish we can become. She is a product of Glossier just as much as the opposite. And that is precisely the point.
Works Cited
Hassett, Ben. “The Magic Skin of Glossier's Emily Weiss.” The Cut, 9 Jan. 2018, www.thecut.com/2018/01/glossier-emily-weiss.html.
O'Connor, Clare. “30 Under 30: Meet The Young People Reinventing Retail And E-Commerce.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 5 Jan. 2015, www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2015/01/05/30-under-30-meet-the-young-people-reinventing-retail-and-e-commerce/#1e3d27dc5d9d.