Body Work: Beauty and Self-Image in American Culture
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.98 (914 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0520228561 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 215 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-10-12 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
women as they negotiate identity through both participation and resistance to dominant beauty ideologies."—Sarah Banet-Weiser, author of The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"Much more than a straightforward feminist critique of the beauty industry, Body Work offers a nuanced and sensitive analysis of the types of work that women do to construct and to maintain an identity with which they can live comfortably, steering clear of representations of women as passive victims of oppressive structures."—Nilufer Isvan, Assistant Professor of Sociology, State University of New York at Stony Brook. From the Inside Flap"Beautifully written, cleverly argued, and skillfully researched, Debra Gimlin's Body Work goes beyond the argument that the beauty industry exists only to control women. Instead, Gimlin examines women's relationship to beauty from a feminist sociological perspective, finding that women are not dupes of the beauty in
This book develops a convincing picture of how women use body work to negotiate the relationship between body and self, a process that inevitably involves coming to terms with our bodies' deviation from cultural ideals. Plastic surgery, for example, ultimately is an empowering life experience for many women who choose it, while hairstyling becomes an arena for laying claim to professional and social class identities. These interviews show that women are redefining their identities through their participation in body work, that they are working on their self-images as much as on their bodies. With this book, Debra Gimlin adds her voice to those of scholars who are now looking beyond the surface of the beauty myth to the complex reality of women's lives.. The honest and provocative interviews included in this book uncover these women's feelings about their bodies, their reasons for attempting to change or come to terms with them, and the reactions of others in their lives. This powerful feminist study lucidly and compellingly argues against the idea that the popularity of body work means that women are enslaved to a male-fashioned "beauty myth." Essential reading for understanding current debates on beauty, Body Work demonstrates that women actually use body work to escape that beauty myth. One of the few studies that includes empirical evidence of women's own interpretatio
Body Perfect Gimlin achieves her purpose of sharing information on the justification behind body work through the format of her book. First, she presents her research then she provides a conclusion. Gimlin does this for each chapter, which changes as she looks at the different forms of body work. This allows the reader to assess the work and come to their own conclusion before reading her thoughts. This di