Dressing Up: Fashion and beauty fascism? Week 8 Embodiment & Feminist Theory

Recap Considered how embodiment is an organising structure which ‘values’ some bodies more than others Look at how bodies are always constructed through class, ‘race’ and gender, disability and ageing Considered the social construction of emotions

Outline Look at the social rules of appearance Examine feminist critiques of the fashion and beauty industry Look at the debates over cosmetic surgery

Dressed Bodies Look at these pictures, discuss for each where and when you could or could not dress like this

Rules of appearance All cultures require bodies to be ‘dressed’ but the form of clothes/bodily adornment is expected to conform to particular times/spaces –Clothes –Hair –Body shape –Adornments (make up, jewellery, tattoos) Our appearance can signal conformity or non- conformity This can be chosen or enforced

Women and body image Both men and women are judged by rules of appearance Women have usually been subjected to more discipline surrounding appearance than men Men are deemed to be the ‘lookers’ and women the ‘looked at’

Women and body image Although the ideal that women should generally strive towards ‘beauty’ is constant What counts as ‘beauty’ varies over time and between places

Feminism Critique of ‘beauty’ From its earliest days, feminisms noted how women in particular were: –Judged by their appearance –Encouraged to be preoccupied by their appearance Often beauty ideals were/are detrimental to their health

Feminism Critique of ‘beauty’ ‘Taught from infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison’ Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) A vindication of the rights of women

2 nd wave feminism The critique of the beauty industry was a major area of concern of radical feminists in the 1960s and 1970s In 1968 women picketed the 1968 Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City –‘Objects of oppression’ were thrown into a ‘Freedom Trash Can’ stilettos, curlers, tweezers

Disciplined Bodies Bordo used Foucault’s theory of discipline to explain why women conform to fashion and beauty trends. She argues that the mass media helps to re/produce unrealistic ideals of feminine beauty The emphasis of slimness in particular encourages the rise in eating disorders

Before and After? b

Disciplined Bodies ‘the rules of femininity have come to be culturally transmitted more and more through the deployment of standardized visual images’ (Bordo 1989 Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body Berkeley, University of Californian press p17) Discuss this idea with the person sitting next to you

The Beauty Myth Wolf argues that images of female beauty perpetuate inequalities Although explicitly on appearance the ideals of beauty are about proscribing behaviour Alongside runs a beauty industry who need women to consume

The Beauty Myth Wolf charts how the beauty industry reacted to the fall in sales during the 1970s –Changed imagery from housewife/mother to ‘liberated’ women –Aspirational women should be groomed to perfection

The beauty market Wolf argues that beauty moved currency in the marriage market to currency in the labour market –Professional women are required to work on themselves –Women continue to be judged by what they look like not who they are and what they do

Cosmetic surgery The debates about cosmetic surgery have polarised these arguments Some feminists believe that cosmetic surgery is the latest extension of the beauty industry Is it the ultimate in technique for literally cutting women down to size?

‘Make me perfect’? Make-over shows now routinely use cosmetic surgery to ‘transform’ women lives –‘Make Me Perfect offers a total transformation to fifteen women who have suffered emotional trauma because of their looks. These women have endured a lifetime of teasing from (people) who've deemed them 'ugly'. With a combination of psychological counselling and major cosmetic surgery, the programme will make their dreams come true with a physical, emotional and mental makeover of a lifetime’

Beauty Dilemmas Davis argues that we cannot dismiss women who undergo surgery as cultural dupes In a society that judges women by their appearance, non-conforming women may be marginalised or excluded But by excepting these rules, they are perpetuating the expectation that women should be judged primarily by appearance

What do you think about cosmetic surgery? Can it said to help or hinder women?

Fresh lipstick? Scott has argued that many feminists have focused on fashion to the exclusion of more important issues Feminist prohibitions are as restrictive as the beauty industries norms Self-decoration has always been a part of societies Women can ‘dress-up’ as a political statement Conforming to norms may not automatically be disempowering

Male grooming? Rise in products targeted at men Increasing emphasis on fashion and beauty Are men losing the power of the looker?

Summary Feminist theory has drawn attention the ways in which appearance rules impact on women Many feminists believe that within current society the fashion and beauty industry always disempowers women Others draw attention to both the power of dress to challenge authority and the growing impact of fashion and beauty on men

Next week Look at the issue of gendered violence Consider why domestic violence and rape are not always treated seriously Look at the impact of inter-male violence