Maybe She's Born With It...

Dissatisfaction. Nobody doesn't have it (everybody has it). Whether a person is dissatisfied with their job, their adequacy in their child's education- but we are Americans so more likely that dissatisfaction will be in looks. Nose not "white" enough? Rhinoplasty! Hair not Caucasian enough? A mix of peroxide and a hair straightener will fix that. Skin not pale enough? Bleach it. Everything a person needs to become more beautiful (i.e. Caucasian-like) to satiate that physical dissatisfaction is available and it is no coincidence that all of it a in a profitable market.

Loreal's new make up that makes you beautiful (and several shades lighter it seems)

Susan Bordo takes on the issue of women who do plastic surgery, wear color contacts, dye, straighten and sleek their hair in the name of just wanting to feel beautiful, but not because media dictates what is beautiful. Or so they think.
In "'Material Girl': The Effacements of Postmodern Culture," Bordo has several quotes from women who are defending colored contacts and an ad that suggests that "Brown eyes [get] a second look," because brown eyes are ugly. Okay, so it doesn't say that brown eyes are ugly, but they assuredly imply it. Why be satisfied with dull brown eyes (which is the prevalent color in ALL minorities) when you can have blue eyes (like white people) and green eyes (like white people). Essentially white is right, but that is definitely unfair to Caucasians for the simple fact that white women are just as unsatisfied with their looks as any other woman. Bordo says, "if we are never happy with ourselves, it is implied, that is due to our female nature, not to be taken too seriously or made into a 'political question.'" So if all women are dissatisfied with how they look, but all of them are flocking to look a certain way, who is dictating what beautiful is? Who better to tell a woman how she looks but... a man.

Eugene Schueller, founder of L'Oreal. This guy looks like someone who knows beauty in women.

Of course a man would be behind the pressures of being a certain kind of beautiful. Even Oprah Winfrey cannot escape the perception of what "beautiful" is. "Oprah Winfrey admitted on her show that all her life she has desperately longed to have 'hair that swings from side to side' when she shakes her head." Bordo said it was Oprah "[revealing] the power of racial, as well a gender normalization, normalization not only to 'femininity,' but to the Caucasian standards of beauty that still dominate on television, in movies, [and] in popular magazines." So when one of the wealthiest women of the world admits that all the money in the world could buy her hair happiness, does everyday Jane have to worry? (As a small tidbit, the richest woman in world is Liliane Bettencourt, daughter of Eugene Schueller).
So how are men controlling fashion and beauty statements for men? Is it outright that men are perpetuating what you should look like? Don't women have sort of freedom or say on the matter? According to a girl in class, she stated that growing up she always wanted "blonde hair," and eye lashes like "hers (pointing to another girl in class who had curvy lashes)." Well companies are giving you freedom. For example Maybelline:

Maybe you were lucky to be born with features that we made up, but in case you weren't, we have a solution.

Maybelline doesn't hide that they are instilling a beauty that you don't have. They are downright telling you, thus giving you freedom and power. A power that ads and television give you, but as cultural critic John Fiske said, "the subordinate may be disempowered, but they are not powerless. There is a power in resisting power, there is a power in maintaining one's social identity in opposition to that proposed by the prominent ideology." So according to Fiske we have power to say "no, straight and sleek is just as good as wavy and curly." But what if even in magazines that are meant to support your unique look if you are black, or Latina you are reading articles that illustrates beauty as a white, thin, blonde hair, blue eyed woman. "This invitation to cognitive dissonance reveals what Essence must grapple with in every issue, as it tries to keep its message clear and dominant, while submitting to economic necessities on which it survival depends.
So as I mentioned before, who are the powers to be that make a specific beauty so? As professor Wexler mentioned, maybe all the people in charge are white, blonde hair, blued-eyed men who want to keep them as a societal norm. Of course that too is changing as the Latino population is growing. Maybe soon the market will find it more profitable to have this on covers:

Yes, that is a Latina without lighting her skin, hair or eyes

Of course, ads are for making money, and just a couple of seconds of make-up will not make you beautiful. That takes an entire team and perfect lighting. Maybe she's born with it... maybe not.