Recent decades have seen the rise of a global beauty boom, with profound effects on perceptions of bodies worldwide. Against this background, Beauty and the Norm assembles ethnographic and conceptual approaches from a variety of disciplines and across the globe to debate standardization in bodily appearance. Its contributions range from empirical research to exploratory conversations between scholars and personal reflections. Bridging hitherto separate debates in critical beauty studies, cultural anthropology, sociology, the history of science, disability studies, gender studies, and critical race studies, this volume reflects upon the gendered, classed, and racialized body, normative regimes of representation, and the global beauty economy.
Author(s): Claudia Liebelt, Sarah Böllinger, Ulf Vierke
Series: Palgrave Studies in Globalization and Embodiment
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Springer International Publishing;Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: XX, 308
Tags: Social Sciences; Cultural Studies; Ethnicity Studies; Sociology of the Body; Media Sociology; Sociology of Racism; Gender Studies
Front Matter ....Pages i-xx
Beauty and the Norm: An Introduction (Claudia Liebelt)....Pages 1-19
Front Matter ....Pages 21-21
Faces of Masculinity: Shaving Practices and Popular Exhibitions of ‘Hairy Wonders’ in Early Twentieth-Century Prague (Filip Herza)....Pages 23-44
Standardizing Slimness: How Body Weight Quantified Beauty in the Netherlands, 1870–1940 (Hieke Huistra)....Pages 45-72
Front Matter ....Pages 73-73
Extraordinarily White: The De/Spectacularization of the Albinotic Body and the Normalization of Its Audience (Christopher Hohl, Matthias Krings)....Pages 75-103
‘Disability Gain’ and the Limits of Representing Alternative Beauty (Ann M. Fox, Matthias Krings, Ulf Vierke)....Pages 105-125
Broken Beauty, Broken Cups: Disabled Bodies in Contemporary African Art (Sarah Böllinger)....Pages 127-152
Front Matter ....Pages 153-153
Reshaping ‘Turkish’ Breasts and Noses: On Cosmetic Surgery, Gendered Norms and the ‘Right to Look Normal’ (Claudia Liebelt)....Pages 155-176
Fashioning the Female Muslim Face: From ‘Hiding One’s Beauty’ to ‘Managing One’s Beauty’ (R. Arzu Ünal)....Pages 177-199
Front Matter ....Pages 201-201
Beauty and the Norm Sketches: A Conversation on a Performative Response (Syowia Kyambi, Anisha H. Soff)....Pages 203-213
Body Beautiful: Comparative Meanings of Beauty in Brazil, South Africa and Jamaica (Doreen Gordon)....Pages 215-244
‘In This Country, Beauty Is Defined by Fairness of Skin.’ Skin Colour Politics and Social Stratification in India (Nina Kullrich)....Pages 245-281
Skin Colour Politics and the White Beauty Standard (Shirley A. Tate, Katharina Fink)....Pages 283-297
Back Matter ....Pages 299-308
