Cosmetic, Aesthetic, Prophetic: Beyond the Boundaries of Beauty [1 ed.] 9781848885455, 9789004370470

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Cosmetic, Aesthetic, Prophetic

Inter-Disciplinary Press Publishing Advisory Board Ana Maria Borlescu Peter Bray Ann-Marie Cook Robert Fisher Lisa Howard Peter Mario Kreuter Stephen Morris John Parry Karl Spracklen Peter Twohig Inter-Disciplinary Press is a part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net A Global Network for Dynamic Research and Publishing

2016

Cosmetic, Aesthetic, Prophetic: Beyond the Boundaries of Beauty

Edited by

Alberto Ferreira and Lucy Moyse

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2016 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

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Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087

ISBN: 978-1-84888-545-5 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2016. First Edition.

Table of Contents Introduction: The Shapeshifting Nature of Beauty Alberto Ferreira and Lucy Moyse Part I

Shaping Worlds through Beauty The Pseudoscience of Beauty: Facts and Myths Jacque Lynn Foltyn

Part II

vii

3

Breaking the Bonds of Beauty: The Dark Side of Beauty Between World Wars Lucy Jane Moyse

23

Evolutionary Scents: Lucy McRae’s Swallowable Parfum Laini Burton

33

Defining Beauty in Science From Object to Emotion: The Aesthetics of Human-Computer Interaction Alberto José Viralhadas Ferreira

45

Notions on Beauty in Mathematics and Arts Tuuli Lähdesmäki

59

Part III Building Cultural Definitions of Beauty Beauty in Space and Time: The Changing Construction of Beauty among Ghanaian Youth Georgina Yaa Oduro

73

Beauty Ideals and Tamil Movies: Comparing Views of Malaysian Indian and Indian Youths Premalatha Karupiah

85

Do I Have What It Takes? The Participants of Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model as Cultural Intermediaries Jenna Jones

95

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Literary and Artistic Perspectives of Beauty Postmodern (De)Constructions: Arata Isozaki and Japanese Dialogues on Beauty Harpreet (Neena) Mand, Marly Swanson-Wood

109

Marie-Madeleine Guimard: Eighteenth Century Ballerina and Early Fashion Icon Joanna Jarvis

121

The Influence of Walter Pater’s Theory of Aesthetics on Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Gonul Bakay

131

Social Spaces of Beauty Female Beauty Workers Who Cannot Afford the Price of Beauty Hager Faisal Amer

145

Pursuing the Body Beautiful: Men’s Beauty Aesthetics within the Space of the Beauty Parlour Deepmala Baghel and D. Parthasarathy

155

A Beautiful Lesson: Sublime Moments in Education Seán Moran

167

Commodifying Images of Beauty Queering the Hourglass: Beauty and New Wave Fat Activism Lauren Downing Peters

177

Functional/Dysfunctional Beauty: On the Creation and Commodification of Cuteness Joel Gn

191

Introduction: The Shapeshifting Nature of Beauty Alberto Ferreira and Lucy Jane Moyse Welcome to the historical record for the 3rd Global Conference on Beauty: Exploring Critical Issues. The authors’ contributions range from all areas of knowledge and research, and the richness of ideas and abundance of perspectives have contributed to making this volume a rich and thought-provoking anthology on Beauty and the many emanations the concept holds within. True to the conference’s tradition as a provocative space for debating a key concept of our canon, Beauty 3 marked a wider array of global researchers than ever before, with researchers hailing from the deeper reaches of the globe: Turkey, Singapore, Ghana, Sweden, the UK, and beyond. This publication encapsulates some of the most important moments of these sessions. In them, beauty was analysed as a shaper of social spaces and a shifter of historic movements, one of the main concepts in discussion. Its role as a polemic, artistic, and revolutionary concept in society marked many a watershed moment in our evolution as a civilization. Chapters 1 through 3 tap into the main role of beauty as a crucial nexus in between science, history, and social research. The darker recesses of beauty, and its ability to segregate society and leave a gaping gash between groups, is also analysed in depth, both in popular TV reality shows as well as the shallow squalor of beauty parlours. The cultural experience and manifestation of beauty is one of the crucial topics of the seminar and constitutes a fundamental part of this volume. For all of its guises, beauty can be celebrated even on the whiteboard, amidst the equations and binary code that make up so much of our contemporary digital experience. Chapters on digital and mathematical aesthetics attempt to draw upon an ever-expanding body of knowledge to present a fresh perspective of beauty as not lived-in or witnessed, but as a critical and vital factor in the scientific canon. Beauty as an ever-changing aesthetic motif in literature and art is also explored in Part 4, with expert perspectives on its representations from Japanese architecture to Oscar Wilde’s writings. We are excited about the relevance of the research work herein presented and extend our heartfelt appreciation to the authors involved in this work. The breadth of the research directions manifested in each chapters points to new and innovative perspectives on beauty as a key concept across all disciplines of knowledge, transcending the traditional epistemologies of old. The Global Conferences on Beauty played an important role in bringing together researchers from around the world to discuss this often underappreciated idea into a meta-assembly of critical assessment, and this volume and the work contained therein shows that there is a real need for a new emerging field that pieces together transdisciplinary thought and theoretical and practical research under the same field: the ever-elusive field of Beauty Studies.

Part I Shaping Worlds through Beauty

The Pseudoscience of Beauty: Facts and Myths Jacque Lynn Foltyn Abstract For 2,500 years, the members of western civilization have been searching for the ‘laws’ that separate a beautiful face or figure from more ordinary ones. The human face and body have been inscribed in a circle, spread-eagled on a grid, quantified mathematically, and analysed geometrically. Today, a cadre of evolutionary psychologists and anthropologists and cosmetic surgeons, intent on uncovering beauty’s secret formula, link the look of beauty with reproductive fitness, insisting that good looks require minute symmetries, precise waist-to-hip ratios, jaw types, skin shades, hair textures and lengths, etc., and contending that computer programs have allowed them to construct the very face of female beauty. This chapter argues that most of these declarations are pseudoscience masquerading as scientific ‘fact’ and that the ‘science of beauty’ continually advances new theories that refute previous ones, giving short shrift to claims for universality. It provides interdisciplinary evidence from the humanities, social sciences, biological and neurosciences, and features interviews with some of the leading scientists of vision and the brain about how what is proposed as beauty ‘rules’ is largely subjective, runs contrary to historical and biological evidence, and can be attributed to more obvious sources: attempts to validate the theorists’ own taste, the homogenization processes of worldwide media, and flawed methodologies. Key Words: Beauty, beauty standards, beauty evolutionists, pseudoscience of beauty, evolutionary psychology, science of beauty, biology of beauty, average beauty, symmetry, waist-to-hip ratios, Charles Darwin, Francis Galton. ***** 1. The Pseudoscience of Beauty For 2,500 years, the members of western civilization have been searching for the ‘laws’ that separate a beautiful face or figure from more ordinary ones. Today, a cadre of evolutionary psychologists intent on uncovering beauty’s secret formula, have linked the look of beauty with not only intelligence but with health and reproductive fitness, claim there is cross-cultural agreement about beauty, and contend that they have discovered the very face and figure of beauty.1 For those of you who have worried about how you measure up to these latest pronouncements, put away your callipers and tape measures and consider this. According to these theories, contemporary icons of beauty are deeply flawed; e.g., the eyes of the supermodel Laetitia Casta are ‘too’ closely set while the eyes of Kate Moss are ‘too’ far apart. The mouth of Gwyneth Paltrow is ‘too’ wide and the features of Angelina Jolie are ‘too’ large. Many claims made by evolutionary

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The Pseudoscience of Beauty

__________________________________________________________________ psychologists about beauty and reproductive value are Eurocentric, contradictory, easily refutable, and have problematic methodologies (e.g., using stick figures, composites, adjustable drawings, photographs, student journals, experiments conducted on a couple of dozen undergrad students required to participate in an experiment for class credit and sharing the same popular culture indoctrination). Moreover, their claims to universality reveal a disciplinary obtuseness, or, more kindly, arrogant naiveté, rather than an interdisciplinary education about beauty ideals across history and cultures. Since there is a burgeoning empire of publications originating from this approach, I feel obligated to write this chapter. Because the vast majority of the research is focused on women, whom beauty evolutionists take for granted is the ‘beautiful sex,’ my examples will emphasize the female of our species. 2. Calculating Beauty Long before the advent of the field of evolutionary psychology, members of hyper-rational Western civilizations were determined to discover the ‘secret’ of beauty. The ideal human body has been inscribed in a circle and fit into a square, spread-eagled on a grid, quantified mathematically, analysed geometrically using the Pi constant, and measured with algorithms. Consider these beauty rules from antiquity. In ancient Egypt, the closed fist was the unit of measure of the beautiful body; eighteen fists were thought to be the ideal. In ancient Greece, an orientation toward measurement permeated every aspect of Greek thought – from representation of the human body, to music, cosmology, and even notions of virtue. Passionate about beauty, the Athenians were severely rational about it, and insisted beauty is about a precise geometrical relation between distinct parts of the body, the Golden Mean or Ratio. Most of this Classical canon is lost to us, but we do know that, when Polykleitos sculpted his marbles, his basic unit of measurement was the human head (e.g., the beautiful body is seven-and-one-half heads in length, the length of arms and hands is three heads, the distance between female breasts is one head, from breast to navel is one head, from the naval to the division of the legs is one head).2 The painter Zeuxis argued that the distance between the eyes should be the width of one eye, and the face’s length should be evenly divided into three equal portions – from forehead to nose bridge, from nose bridge to nose base, and from nose base to the chin bottom.3 Because ancient artists believed that the oval is a perfect geometrical form and noted that it occurs naturally as the shape of many a human head, it was decided at one point it must be the ideal facial shape.4 Leonardo da Vinci famously struggled with these formulas when he drew his 1490 Vitruvian Man, based on the Canon of Proportions proposed by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius. Like his ancient predecessors, da Vinci connected it with mathematical harmonies in the universe.5

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__________________________________________________________________ Geometrical paradigms of beauty retained a certain cache. In 1932, the makeup artist Max Factor devised an elaborate metal cage he called a ‘beauty calibrator’ to geometrically pinpoint the beauty potential of Hollywood hopefuls.6 Geometry is the principle behind Stephen Marquardt’s adjustable ‘Beauty Mask,’ a sliding trapezoidal contraption that purports to use Pi and the Golden Ratio. According to Marquardt, an oral and facial surgeon, the world’s most beautiful faces (based on his judgment) ‘fit’ his mask, which he recommended as a guide for plastic surgeons.7 Criminologists, anthropologists and psychologists have also been seduced by geometrical models of beauty. While theory and technology change the direction of inquiry, the goal remains the same: precise measurement. 3. The ‘Science’ of Beauty? Methodological Problems The most recent theories of beauty link good looks to genetic fitness and reproductive success, and attempt to marry psychology, evolutionary theory, and socio-biology to explain our perceptions. For beauty evolutionists, the beautiful are the best of the breed, winners of the genetic lottery. The look of beauty is a matter of hard-wired brain circuitry and a sign of our health and reproductive fitness, they boldly claim. The field is dominated by scholars who call themselves ‘neuroscientists’ and evolutionary psychologists,8 and originate most tellingly from the USA and the UK, where the earliest Western eugenic programs were initiated. Without a trace of genetic evidence or warrants for the universalistic claims they advance, they declare that the more beautiful among us are ‘more fit.’ I am a sociologist trained in research methodologies and what I discovered as I investigated the bases for these universal claims is not pretty. While acknowledging that culture and society play some role in beauty standards, evolutionary psychologists arrogantly deemphasize or act surprised9 at that role, choosing to focus on so-called ‘universal’ perceptions of beauty, that from their perspective are irrespective of culture. As they preach to the choir of other evolutionary psychologists, citing each other and seldom investigating the literature outside of their fields, they claim the role of cultural diffusion, contact, imperialism, and the mass media have not been significant in shaping what we view as beautiful.10 Among their questionable research practices are conducting psychological experiments on small groups of ‘captive’ undergraduate students who are recruited, sometimes paid, or, in most cases, required to participate in studies as a course requirement. Other questionable practices include using student journals and research staff as subjects. Even babies, the mute members of our species, have been tapped as research subjects.11 The numbers of participants in these studies is small, seldom exceeds a few dozen or more than forty. The great majority of their participants are 18-22 year old students attending universities in the USA, the UK, and on occasion, Japan. All these are advanced industrialized nations, sharing a global village of fashion, beauty, and

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The Pseudoscience of Beauty

__________________________________________________________________ pop culture images. Clearly such methodologies and their resulting findings are problematic. It is foolhardy to argue that recently arrived English-speaking Asian, Black, and Hispanic immigrant students attending American universities (here a median time of four months) have had minimal exposure to Western culture, and that American TV, films, and magazines these international students may continually peruse would not have had any effect on their aesthetic judgments at that point.12 Evolutionary psychologists have dismissed or reinterpreted the findings of other researchers who have found such consensus as the result of damaging stereotypes, and a legacy of racism.13 There is an overall problem in the new field of neuroscience, with researchers making pronouncements about biology and the human brain without reflecting upon or being upfront about the limitations of their new field.14 There is a lack of substance behind many of their findings, which are riddled with sexist biases that influence the very design of their experiments, hypotheses, and theories.15 4. The Biology of Beauty The idea that beauty has a biological basis is an ancient idea and has merit. Certainly our response to certain physical characteristics has some underlying biological aspect. After all, we need to recognize each other as human beings and also need to be attracted to each other to propagate our species. According to Colin Blakemore, Oxford Professor of Physiology, one of the world’s foremost authorities on vision, and past head of the UK’s Medical Research Council, human beauty has ‘a basic grammar that is laden with biological messages that have contributed to the survival of our species.’16 It speaks in adjectives – of clear eyes, good muscle tone, fairly symmetrical facial and body features, and smooth, unblemished skin, free of parasites and lesions. It is linked with health and young adulthood, with a period of the life cycle that promises fertility and vigour rather than old age and infirmity.17 After these basic criteria, speculation comes in. Consider the below claims made and the ease with which they can be refuted. A. Average Beauty? In his theory of nature, Aristotle argued that beauty is the average and the habitual in a species; what we call regularity is the very essence of beauty.18 The nineteenth-century Victorian eugenicist Francis Galton made the same claim and created composites of beauty for his ‘natural selection’ project to control human mating choices.19 The Nazis used composites to guide their breeding and genocide programs. Moribund for half a century after the Nazi regime, average beauty theories made a comeback in 1979 when the anthropologist Donald Symons argued that evolutionary pressures operate against extremes of population and encourage us to find average features more beautiful than any extreme, i.e., our brains are hard-wired to calculate the mean and to prefer it.20 This approach has been

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__________________________________________________________________ enthusiastically endorsed by scholars in the fledgling field of evolutionary psychology.21 The theory has several problems. None other than Darwin observed that people ‘do not admire a medium standard’ but rather ‘ardently desire to see each characteristic feature a little more developed.’22 Others have found that beauty standards have nothing to do with averageness23 and note that individual faces are more admired than the composites made from them.24 Artists, art historians, photographers, and plastic surgeons have long known that the more beautiful among us have distinctive features, facial structures and proportions. ‘There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion,’ claimed the philosopher Sir Francis Bacon.25 In my studies of beauty, I found that the most beautiful faces break rules and this is one reason for their growing ubiquity in culture. B. The Cult of Symmetry Evolutionary psychologists claim that symmetry equals beauty and health.26 This is hardly a new idea. The geometry-obsessed Aristotle proposed symmetry as one of his criteria for the beauty of drama,27 and Greco-Roman architecture, as well as the Renaissance buildings of Palladio, rely on it. Certainly that which is symmetrical is orderly, harmonious, balanced, and potentially pleasing, but our proclivity for symmetry is for a relative, not for an absolute kind. Having a right side of the face and body that exactly matches the left is no guarantee of beauty; in fact, there are many homely-looking people who are highly symmetrical while some icons of beauty are symmetrically skewed. Fluctuating and fixed asymmetries can tweak a face and offer delightful surprises. Eyes slightly out of line (Farrah Fawcett), a crooked nose (Michelle Pfeiffer, Greta Garbo), one eye closer to the nose than the other (Britney Spears), one larger eye (Christy Turlington, Christie Brinkley), a lopsided face (Lauren Hutton) can make a person’s looks more special. As beauty-equals-symmetry studies emerged, other scholars disputed their claims and found instead that people of all attractiveness levels are judged better-looking when their features are slightly off. When they ‘corrected’ their sitters’ natural asymmetries in photographs, they found their subjects were judged as less rather than more attractive.28 While symmetry can be comforting and make the eye do less work, observes Blakemore, making the eye work harder can increase the enjoyment we find in a beautiful face.29 Moreover, other scholars have shown that symmetry is no guarantee of health, fertility or attractiveness.30 C. Waist-to-Hip Ratios (WHR) After putting college students through a series of experiments and assessing their responses to 2-D stick figures, computer-generated images, and waist-line altered Barbie dolls, evolutionary psychologists concluded there is a hard-wired

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__________________________________________________________________ hormonal basis to female beauty, as good-looking women have a WHR between .67 and .80; the male brain is hard-wired to most admire a female WHR ratio of .70, and women without the prescribed figure are likely to have more difficulty conceiving.31 There are many problems with this theory. Not all peoples admire a waspwaisted figure.32 When I measured actual women, I found that all of my subjects had the approved waistline – unless they were fat or pregnant. Perhaps evolutionary psychologists have found the figure of the normal-looking human being? As for fertility claims, fat women with big waists get pregnant all of the time and women with hourglass shapes find themselves in fertility clinics, as the tabloid sagas of famed beauties unable to conceive attest. The history of human beauty in art does not support a hard-wired beauty WHR. As the art historian Kenneth Clark observed, the ideal woman has often been shaped more like a potato than an Aphrodite.33 D. Other Studies Space concerns allow only a brief sampling of other theories advanced by evolutionary psychologists, which I evaluate below. - Historically, the most admired females across all cultures have a lighter than average complexion because light skin better shows sexual interest, fertility, health, skin diseases, signs of aging, and makes a ‘pale canvas’ for attentiongetting makeup. This is known as the Snow White Syndrome and is probably hardwired.34 Tell that to the Zulu, Kaffir, Mende, and Bikosso of Cameroon35 tribal peoples, for whom the darker the skin is the better, and to any group of darkskinned people who have not been enslaved, impoverished, or colonized by lighter skinned people. Darker skins, of course, are also associated with exposure to the sun and manual labour,36 and hence it is mainly the upper classes that promote gendered and racialized beauty standards. - The jawlines of the most beautiful women are short and narrow, rather than the ‘masculine’ chiselled or square jawline, an important signal of sexual dimorphism.37 What are we to make then of the square-jawed beauty of Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Catherine Deneuve, Greta Garbo, Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, Brooke Shields, and Rihanna? It is a photography truism that the most photogenic faces tend to be angular, squared; depending upon the historical period, oval or heart-shaped also have been valued as ‘most beautiful.’38 - The most beautiful women have neonate-like features, i.e., they look like babies and have big foreheads, wide cheeks, big wide eyes, tiny noses, small chins, and short, narrow jawlines.39 According to this theory, the ‘ideal’ woman’s facial geometry mimics that of six- and seven-year-olds.40 Clearly this theory is skewed one contemporary fashion in beauty and ignores the history of female beauty Clearly this theory is skewed toward iconic beauties like Phryne, the model for the

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__________________________________________________________________ marble statue known as the Knidian Aphrodite, sculpted by the ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles; Lillie Langtry, the legendary late nineteenth-century English beauty; and Greta Garbo, Sophia Loren, Princess Diana, and Angelina Jolie have strong jawlines, distinctive noses, and look like adult females, not babies. Phryne, Langtry, Garbo and Princess Diana had androgynous features. - Since the era of cave dwellers, European men have a genetic preference for blond women because fair hair was rare, eye-catching, associated with youth and fertility, and made a woman stand out among the more ordinary brunettes. This became an indicator of reproductive value and femininity.41 Of course, popular poll after poll have regularly listed brunettes like Elizabeth Taylor, Sofia Loren, Angelina Jolie, and Kate Middleton, as among the most beautiful women in the world. However, Polish scholars have found that in Scandinavian countries, lands of the natural blonde, men prefer brunettes. University of Washington scholars also found that men, in general, prefer brunettes.42 Fashion and celebrity, not biology, effect preference. - One of the universal signs of female beauty is shiny,43 long, flowing hair, which can indicate reproductive fitness, and that the woman does not suffer from malnutrition or mineral deficiency.44 This is rubbish: does this mean that a sizeable proportion of the world’s population is genetically programmed to hate their own hair? - Eating disorders and weight preoccupation among young women may be biological adaptions to keep young women from getting pregnant before they find a man who will marry them.45 This preposterous claim needs no response. - Female red full lips are a universally admired characteristic and part of our genetic inheritance.46 This claim is ethnocentric, racially biased and does not reflect any universal ideal.47 Moreover, small thin lips have been more fashionable during particular historical periods, as anyone familiar with the history of beauty knows. - We probably have a genetic predisposition to admire women who look like cover girls and runway models.48 This claim belies the history of female beauty and modelling. Angular, extremely tall, bony women like the 6’ 1” supermodel Karlie Kloss would have been considered freakish-looking in other times and cultures,49 and from my interviews with some of the world’s leading model agents and models, it is clear that the peers of future models often did not view them as beautiful in high school. The look of the model developed with the limitations of photography, as well as the need to have a body similar to a ‘hanger’ in order to not interfere with the selling of clothes.50 5. Nature and Culture Nature and culture, not one or the other, shape our perception of beauty. From some of the world’s top biologists and medical doctors who study the brain and vision,51 I learned that while inherent structures in the brain undoubtedly allow us

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__________________________________________________________________ to be pleased by symmetry and smooth surfaces, the grammar of beauty is never on its own. ‘Then connoisseurship begins,’ as Colin Blakemore eloquently put it. This is a sentiment the philosopher Immanuel Kant would appreciate, as he argued that aesthetic judgement requires the interplay of emotion, subjectivity, and the apparatus of the brain.52 One third of the brain is devoted to sight, and the same types of activities take place in the brain when we see real and imagined objects.53 What pleases us visually is shaped by unconscious knowledge, experience, education, and culture. This ability of the brain to modify itself on the basis of its own experience liberates us as individuals from the chains of our DNA, observes Blakemore. 6. Discussion and Conclusion Charles Darwin considered the search for universal criteria of beauty a folly. Living before the advent of globalized mass media and its homogenized images, he recorded a diverse range of beauty ideals as he traversed the globe on The Beagle (1831-1836).54 ‘It is certainly not true that there is in the mind of man any universal standard of beauty,’ he wrote in The Descent of Man. Even if a single standard were invented, Darwin maintained it would charm us only for a while. ‘We should soon wish for variety.’55 Darwin recognized the impact of custom on our perception of beauty and how the qualities we look for colour our judgments.56 Francis Galton understood this, as well. Speaking with Darwin, he noted that the native South African view was so ‘very different from ours;’ the two girls he thought were prettiest in a tribe were not admired at all by the natives.57 The peoples of the world tend to admire the racial and ethnic characteristics that are associated with their own groups.58 It is called ethnocentrism. ‘Every human type, every race, has its beauty,’ wrote the sculptor Auguste Rodin. ‘Beauty is everywhere. It is not she that is lacking to our eye, but our eyes which fail to perceive her.’59 The fact that Western thinkers have dreamed up so many theories about human beauty shows the plurality of beauty and a lack of consensus about the subject. Beauty is not precise; that is part of its allure. In conclusion, human beauty is too varied and wonderful to be confined to any one definition. Hale Tolleth, MD, past president of the Plastic Surgery Education Foundation, wryly observed that those who would codify beauty ‘have the aesthetic sense of a billy goat.’ While such formulations ‘technically’ appear to solve the problem of the definition of beauty, they are ‘aesthetically disastrous,’ for they miss the ‘the vitality, the topology, the texture, the expression’ of beauty, rendering it ‘abstract, lifeless, and inconsequential.’60 As Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)–the painter/engraver, saw it: ‘there lives no man upon earth who can give a final judgement upon what the most beautiful shape of a man may be; God only knows that.’ 61 ‘The idea that there is a standard desirable female type tells you more about the libidinous fantasies of aging male

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__________________________________________________________________ anthropologists than anything else,’ claimed the biological anthropologist C. Loring Brace.62 Still, evolutionary psychologists remain on their quest for the one true beauty. Notes 1

David M. Buss, ‘Human Mate Selection,’ American Scientist 73 (1985): 47-51; David M. Buss, The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Satoshi Kanazawa, ‘Intelligence and Physical Attractiveness,’ Intelligence 39, no. 1 (2011): 7-14; Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature (New York: Doubleday, 2001); Gillian Rhodes, ‘The Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Beauty,’ Annual Review of Psychology 57 (2006): 199-226; Michael R. Cunningham, ‘Measuring the Physical in Physical Attractiveness: Quasi-Experiments on the Sociobiology of Female Facial Beauty,’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50, no. 5 (1986): 925-935. 2 W. Stevenson Smith, revised by William Kelly Simpson, The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, 3rd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 12-13 and note 17. 3 Kenneth Clark, The Nude (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 58, 75. 4 Ibid. 5 Vitruvius, ‘On Symmetry: Temples and The Human Body,’ in Chapter III: Ten Books on Architecture. Gutenberg.org, 72-75, accessed 4 March 2013, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20239/20239-h/29239-h.htm. 6 ‘The Max Factor Story,’ Max Factor Heritage, accessed 20 April 2013, https://maxfactor.co.uk/heritage/the-max-factor-story. 7 Stephen Marquardt, ‘Analysis of Beauty: The Perfect Face,’ accessed 2 August 2013, http://www.beautyanalysis.com/. 8 David Perrett, In Your Face: The New Science of Human Attractiveness (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); Nancy Etcoff, Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty (New York: Doubleday, 1999); Buss, The Evolution of Desire; Cunningham, ‘Measuring the Physical in Physical Attractiveness.’ Michael R. Cunningham, Anita P. Barbee, Carolyn L. Pike, ‘What Do Women Want? Facial Metric Assessment of Multiple Motives in the Perception of Male Facial Physical Attractiveness,’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 59, no.1 (1990): 61-72. 9 For example, David I. Perrett, Kang J. Lee, I. Penton-Voak, D. Rowland, S. Yoshikawa, D. M. Burt, S. P. Henzil, D. L. Castles, and S. A. Kamatsu, ‘Effects of Sexual Dimorphism on Facial Attractiveness,’ Nature 394 (1998): 884-886. 10 Michael R. Cunningham, Alan R. Roberts, Anita P. Barbee, Perri B. Druen and Cheng-Huan Wu, “‘Their Ideas of Beauty Are, on the Whole, the Same as Ours:”

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__________________________________________________________________ Consistency and Variability in the Cross-Cultural Perception of Female Physical Attractiveness,’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 68, no. 2 (1995): 261-279; Etcoff, Survival of the Prettiest; Buss, The Evolution of Desire; Judith H. Langolis, Lisa Kalakanis, Adam J. Rubenstein, Andrea Larson, Monica Hallam, and Monica Smoot, ‘Maxims or Myths of Beauty? A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review,’ Psychological Bulletin 126, no. 3 (2000): 390-423. 11 C. A. Samuels and R. Ewy, ‘Aesthetic Perception of Faces during Infancy,’ British Journal of Developmental Psychology 3 (1985): 221-228; Judith H. Langolis, Lori A. Roggman, R. J. Casey, Jean M. Ritter, Jean M. Rieser-Danner, and V. Y. Jenkins, ‘Infant Preferences for Attractive Faces: Rudiments of a Stereotype?’ Developmental Psychology 23 (1987): 363-369; Judith H. Langolis, Jean M. Ritter, Lori A. Roggman, and Leslie S. Vaughn. ‘Facial Diversity and Infant Preferences for Attractive Faces, Developmental Psychology 27 (1991): 7984; Judith H. Langolis, Lori A. Roggman, and Jean M. Rieser-Danner, ‘Infants Differential Social Responses to Attractive and Unattractive Faces,’ Developmental Psychology 26 (1990): 153-159. 12 Cross-cultural consensus ‘proven’ by citing studies that compared AsianAmerican and white American females only. (The study cited was by E. Wagatsuma and C. L. Kleinke, ‘Ratings of Facial Beauty by Asian-American and Caucasian Females,’ Journal of Social Psychology 109 (1979): 299-300. 13 S. T. Morse, J. Gruzen and H. Reis, ‘“The Eye of the Beholder:” A Neglected Variable in the Study of Physical Attractiveness?’ Journal of Personality 44 (1976): 209-225; John F. Cross and Jane Cross, ‘Age, Sex, Race, and the Perception of Facial Beauty,’ Developmental Psychology 5 (1971): 438; J. G. Martin, ‘Racial Ethnocentrism and the Judgment of Beauty,’ Journal of Social Psychology 63 (1964): 59-63. 14 Sally Satel, and Scott O. Lilienfeld, Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience (New York, Basic Books, 2013). 15 Anne Fausto-Sterling, Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Women and Men (New York: Basic Books, 1992). 16 I interviewed Professor Colin Blakemore; Antonio Damasio, MD (now Professor and David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, and Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute), Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate and co-discoverer of DNA. 17 Clelland S. Ford and Frank A. Beach, Patterns of Sexual Behavior (New York: Harper & Row, 1951). 18 Clark, The Nude, 14. 19 Francis Galton, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2010 [1883]).

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Donald Symons, The Evolution of Human Sexuality (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979). 21 Buss, The Evolution of Desire; Symons, discussed by the psychologist Nancy Etcoff, ‘Beauty and the Beholder,’ Nature 368 (1994):186-187; Etcoff, Survival of the Prettiest; Judith H. Langolis and Lori A. Roggman, ‘Attractive Faces Are Only Average,’ Psychological Science 1 (1990): 115-121; Pamela M. Pallett, Stephen Link and Kang Lee, ‘New “Golden” Ratios for Facial Beauty,’ Vision Research 50, no. 2 (2010): 149-154; Emmanuel P. Prokopakis, Ioannis M Vlastos, Valerie Picavet, Gilbert Nolst Trenité, Regan Thomas, Cemal Cingi, and Peter W. Hellings, ‘The Golden Ratio in Facial Symmetry,’ Rhinology 51, no. 1 (2013): 1821; J. H. Markow, L. Commies, and J. Toby, eds., The Adapted Mind (New York Oxford University Press, 1992); Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997); Charles B. Crawford and Dennis L. Krebs, Darwinian Aesthetics (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1998). . 22 Charles Darwin, ‘The Secondary Sexual Characteristics of Man,’ The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, Volume 49: Darwin. Great Books of the Western World, edited by Robert Maynard Hutchins, 583-584 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica), 577. 23 L. M. DeBruine, B. C. Jones, L. Unger, A. C. Little, and D. R. Feinberg, ‘Dissociating Averageness and Attractiveness: Attractive Faces Are Not Always Average,’ Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 33 (2007): 1420-1430; Jacque Lynn Foltyn, The Importance of Being Beautiful: The Social Construction of the Beautiful Self (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 1989.) Publication number: AAT 8926072. ProQuest document ID: 743986011. Also: Ann Arbor: UMI. 24 Elizabeth Pennisi, ‘Imperfect Match: Do Ideal Mates Come in Symmetrical Packages? Science News 147 (1995): 60-61; Elizabeth Pennisi, ‘Not Simply Symmetry: Does It Really Matter if the Right Ear is Bigger than the Left?’ Science News 147 (1995): 46-47. 25 Francis Bacon, ‘Of Beauty,’ Essays, Civil and Moral, XLIII (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Harvard Classics, 1909-14). 26 B. Fink and I. S. Penton-Voak, ‘Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Attractiveness,’ Current Directions in Psychological Science 11, no.5 (2002): 154158. 27 Clark, The Nude. 28 D. W. Zaidel, and J. W. Cohen, ‘The Face, Beauty and Symmetry: Perceiving Asymmetry in Beautiful Faces,’ International Journal of Neuroscience 115 (2005): 1165-1173; J. P. Swaggle, and J. C. Cuthill, ‘Asymmetry and Human Facial Attractiveness: Symmetry May Not Always Be Beautiful,’ Proceedings of the Royal Society London B 26 (1995): 111-116; S. Peck, L. Peck, and M. Kataia,

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__________________________________________________________________ Skeletal Asymmetry in Esthetically Pleasing Faces, The Angle Orthodontist 61 (1991): 43-48. 29 Colin Blakemore, personal communication. Blakemore is Oxford Professor of Physiology, one of the world’s foremost authorities on vision, and past head of the UK’s Medical Research Council. 30 Gillian. Rhodes, J. Chan J., L. A. Zebrowitz, L. W. Simmons, ‘Does Sexual Dimorphism in Human Faces Signal Health?’ Proceedings of the Royal Society B 270, Supp. 1 (2003): S93-5; Steve W. Gangestad and Roger Thornhill, ‘Facial Masculinity and Fluctuating Asymmetry,’ Evolution and Human Behavior 24, no. 4 (2003): 231-241. 31 For men, the proclaimed ratio is .85 and .95. Devendra Singh, ‘Adaptive Significance of Waist-to-Hip Ratio and Female Physical Attractiveness,’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65 (1993): 293-307; Devendra Singh, ‘Body Shape and Women’s Attractiveness: The Critical Role of Waist-to-Hip Ratio,’ Human Nature 4 (1993): 297-321; Devendra Singh, ‘Female Health, Attractiveness, and Desirability for Relationships: Role of Breast Asymmetry and Waist-to-Hip Ratio,’ Ethology & Sociobiology 16 (1995): 465-481. 32 Douglas W. Yu and G. H. Shepard, ‘Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder?’ Nature 396 (1998): 321-322; Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works, 487. 33 Clark, The Nude. 34 Snow White Syndrome named by anthropologist Pierre L. van de Berghe in the preface to Peter Frost, Fair Women, Dark Men: The Forgotten Roots of Color Prejudice (Cybereditions Corporation, 2005). 35 Barnaby J. Dixson, Alan F. Dixson, Bethan Morgan, Matthew J. Anderson, ‘Human Physique and Sexual Attractiveness: Sexual Preferences of Men and Women in Bakossiland, Cameroon,’ Archives of Sexual Behavior 36 (2007): 369375. 36 Julian Robinson, The Quest for Human Beauty (New York: W.W Norton, 1998); Trina Jones, ‘Shades of Brown: The Law of Skin Color,’ Duke Law Journal 49 (2000): 1487-1557; Maurice Berger, White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999); Liu Jieyu, ‘“Sexualized Labour?” White-Collar Beauties in Provincial China,’ East Asian Sexualities: Gender, Modernity and New Sexual Cultures, ed. S. Jackson, Liu Jieyu, and Woo Juhyun, (London: Zed Books, 2008), 85-103. 37 J. V. Kohl, ‘The Mind’s Eyes: Human Pheromones, Neuroscience, and Male Sexual Preferences,’ Psychology & Human Sexuality 18, no. 4 (2006): 313-369; David I. Perrett, Kang Lee, I. Penton-Voak, D. M. Burt, D. Rowland, S. Yoshikawa, S. P. Henzi, D. Castles and S. Akamatsu, ‘Sexual Dimorphism and Facial Attractiveness,’ Nature 394 (1998): 884-886. 38 Foltyn, The Importance of Being Beautiful.

Jacque Lynn Foltyn

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Doug Jones, C. Loring Brace, William Jankowiak, Kevin N. Laland, Lisa E. Musselman, Judith H. Langolis, Lori A. Roggman, Daniel Pérusse, Barbara Schweder and Donald Symons, ‘Sexual Selection, Physical Attractiveness and Facial Neoteny: Cross-Cultural Evidence and Implications,’ Current Anthropology 36, no. 5 (1995): 723-748; Cunningham, ‘Measuring the Physical’; L. A. Zebrowitz, K. Olson, and K. Hoffman, ‘Stability of Babyfaceness and Attractiveness across the Life Span,’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 64 (1993): 453-466; Cunningham, ‘“Their Ideas of Beauty Are.”’ 40 Etcoff, Survival of the Prettiest, 151. 41 Peter Frost, ‘European Hair and Eye Color: A Case of Frequency-Dependent Sexual Selection? Evolution and Human Behavior 27 (2006):85-103; Frost, Fair Women, Dark Men. 42 Discussed in Jena Pincott, Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? (New York: Bantam, 2008). 43 Cunningham, ‘“Their Ideas of Beauty Are.”’ 44 David M. Buss, The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2005); Buss, The Evolution of Desire; Tamas Bereczkei and Norbert Mesko, ‘Hair Length, Facial Attractiveness, Personality Attribution: A Multiple Fitness Model of Hairdressing,’ Review of Psychology 13 (2006): 1-60. 45 R. W. Smuts, ‘Fat, Sex, Class, Adaptive Flexibility, and Cultural Change,’ Ethology and Sociobiology 13, no. 5 (1992): 523-542; Etcoff, Survival of the Prettiest. 46 Symons, The Evolution of Human Sexuality; Pinker, How the Mind Works; Buss, The Evolution of Desire; Etcoff, Survival of the Prettiest; Louann Brizendine, The Female Brain (New York: Random House Digital, 2006), 63. 47 Robinson, The Quest for Human Beauty. 48 Pinker, How the Mind Works; Etcoff, Survival of the Prettiest. 49 Robinson, The Quest for Human Beauty; Clark, The Nude; Lois W. Banner, American Beauty (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983); Umberto Eco, History of Beauty, trans. Alastair McEwen (New York: Rizzoli, 2004); Arthur Marwick, Beauty in History: Society, Politics, and Personal Appearance: C. 1500 to the Present (London: Thames & Hudson, 1989); Foltyn, The Importance of Being Beautiful. 50 Banner, American Beauty; Eco, History of Beauty, Foltyn, The Importance of Being Beautiful; Robinson, The Quest for Human Beauty; Marwick, Beauty in History; Marwick, Beauty in History; Nina Blanchard, model agent, personal communication, 1979. 51 Francis Crick, PhD., co-discoverer of DNA; Antonio Damasio, MD, Colin Blakemore, Ibid.

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__________________________________________________________________ 52

Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Judgement (Knutsford, UK: A & D Publishing, 2008 [1790]). 53 Blakemore, personal communication. 54 Darwin, ‘The Secondary Sexual Characteristics of Man,’ 577. 55 Ibid. 56 Ibid. 57 Francis Galton, in Ibid. 58 Ibid.; Bereczkei, ‘Hair Length, Facial Attractiveness.’ 59 Auguste Rodin, Rodin on Art and Artists (New York: Dover Publications, 1983), 48. 60 Hale Tolleth, M.D., personal communications, 1994, 1995. 61 Albrecht Dürer, quoted Clark, The Nude, 14. 62 C. Loring Brace, quoted in Cathy Newman, ‘The Enigma of Beauty,’ National Geographic 197, no. 1 (2000): 107.

Bibliography Bacon, Francis. ‘Of Beauty.’ Essays, Civil and Moral, XLIII, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Harvard Classics, 1909-14. Banner, Lois W. American Beauty. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983. Bereczkei, Tamas, and Norbert Mesko. ‘Hair Length, Facial Attractiveness, Personality Attribution: A Multiple Fitness Model of Hairdressing. Review of Psychology 13 (2006): 1-60. Berger, Maurice. White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. Buss, David M. ‘Human Mate Selection.’ American Scientist 73 (1985): 47-51. ———. The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating. New York: Basic Books, 1994. ———. The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2005. Clark, Kenneth Clark. The Nude. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.

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__________________________________________________________________ Crawford, Charles B., and Dennis L. Krebs. Darwinian Aesthetics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1998. Cross, John F., and Jane Cross. ‘Age, Sex, Race, and the Perception of Facial Beauty.’ Developmental Psychology 5 (1971): 433-459. Cunningham, Michael R. ‘Measuring the Physical in Physical Attractiveness: Quasi-Experiments on the Sociobiology of Female Facial Beauty.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50, no. 5 (1986): 925-935. Cunningham, Michael R., Anita P. Barbee and Carolyn L. Pike. ‘What Do Women Want? Facial Metric Assessment of Multiple Motives in the Perception of Male Facial Physical Attractiveness.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 59, no.1 (1990): 61-72. Cunningham, Michael R., Alan R. Roberts, Anita P. Barbee, B. Perri B. Druen and Cheng-Huan Wu, ‘“Their Ideas of Beauty Are, On the Whole, the Same as Ours:” Consistency and Variability in the Cross-Cultural Perception of Female Physical Attractiveness.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 68, no. 2 (1995): 261-279. Darwin, Charles. ‘The Secondary Sexual Characteristics of Man,’ The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man. Volume 49: Darwin. Great Books of the Western World, edited by Robert Maynard Hutchins, 583-584. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica. DeBruine, L. M., B. C. Jones, L. Unger, A. C. Little, and D. R. Feinberg. ‘Dissociating Averageness and Attractiveness: Attractive Faces Are Not Always Average.’ Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 33 (2007): 1420-1430. Dixson, Barnaby J., Alan F. Dixson, Bethan Morgan and Matthew J. Anderson, ‘Human Physique and Sexual Attractiveness: Sexual Preferences of Men and Women in Bakossiland, Cameroon.’ Archives of Sexual Behavior 36 (2007): 369375. Eco, Umberto. History of Beauty. Translated by Alastair McEwen. New York: Rizzoli, 2004. Etcoff, Nancy. ‘Beauty and the Beholder.’ Nature 368 (1994):186-187.

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__________________________________________________________________ ———. Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty. New York: Doubleday, 1999. Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Women and Men. New York: Basic Books, 1992. Fink, B., and I. S. Penton-Voak. ‘Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Attractiveness.’ Current Directions in Psychological Science 11, no.5 (2002): 154158. Foltyn, Jacque Lynn. The Importance of Being Beautiful: The Social Construction of the Beautiful Self. (PhD diss., University of California, San Diego, 1989). Publication number: AAT 8926072. ProQuest document ID: 743986011. Ford, Clelland S., and Frank A. Beach. Patterns of Sexual Behavior. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. Frost, Peter. ‘European Hair and Eye Color: A Case of Frequency-Dependent Sexual Selection? Evolution and Human Behavior 27 (2006): 85-103. ———. Fair Women, Dark Men: The Forgotten Roots of Color Prejudice, Cybereditions Corporation, 2005. Galton, Francis. Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2010 [1883]. Gangestad, Steve W., and Roger Thornhill. ‘Facial Masculinity and Fluctuating Asymmetry.’ Evolution and Human Behavior 24, no. 4(2003): 231-241. Jieyu, Liu. ‘“Sexualized Labour?” White-Collar Beauties’ in Provincial China.’ East Asian Sexualities: Gender, Modernity and New Sexual Cultures, edited by S. Jackson, Liu Jieyu, and Woo Juhyun, 85-103. London: Zed Books, 2008. Jones, Doug, C. Loring Brace, William Jankowiak, Kevin N. Laland, Lisa E. Musselman, Judith H. Langolis, Lori A. Roggman, Daniel Pérusse, Barbara Schweder and Donald Symons. ‘Sexual Selection, Physical Attractiveness and Facial Neoteny: Cross-Cultural Evidence and Implications.’ Current Anthropology 36, no. 5 (1995): 723-748.

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__________________________________________________________________ Jones, Trina. ‘Shades of Brown: The Law of Skin Color.’ Duke Law Journal 49 (2000): 1487-1557. Kanazawa, Satoshi. ‘Intelligence and Physical Attractiveness.’ Intelligence 39, no. 1 (2011): 7-14. Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Judgement. Knutsford, UK: A & D Publishing, 2008. [1790]. Kohl, J. V. ‘The Mind’s Eyes: Human Pheromones, Neuroscience, and Male Sexual Preferences.’ Psychology & Human Sexuality 18, no. 4 (2006): 313-369. Langolis, Judith H., Lori A. Roggman, R. J. Casey, Jean M. Ritter, Jean M. RieserDanner, and V. Y. Jenkins, ‘Infant Preferences for Attractive Faces: Rudiments of a Stereotype?’ Developmental Psychology 23 (1987): 363-369. Langolis, Judith H., Lori A. Roggman, and Jean M. Rieser-Danner, ‘Infants Differential Social Responses to Attractive and Unattractive Faces.’ Developmental Psychology 26 (1990): 153-159. Langolis, Judith H., and Lori A. Roggman. ‘Attractive Faces Are Only Average.’ Psychological Science 1 (1990): 115-121. Langolis, Judith H, Jean M. Ritter, Lori A. Roggman, and Leslie S. Vaughn. ‘Facial Diversity and Infant Preferences for Attractive Faces.’ Developmental Psychology 27 (1991): 79-84. Langolis, Judith H., Lisa Kalakanis, Adam J. Rubenstein, Andrea Larson, Monica Hallam, and Monica Smoot. ‘Maxims or Myths of Beauty? A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review.’ Psychological Bulletin 126, no. 3 (2000): 390-423. Markow, J. H., L. Commies, and J. Toby, eds. The Adapted Mind. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Marquardt, Stephen. ‘Analysis of Beauty: The Perfect Face.’ Accessed 2 August 2013, http://www.beautyanalysis.com/. Martin, J. G. ‘Racial Ethnocentrism and the Judgment of Beauty.’ Journal of Social Psychology 63 (1964): 59-63.

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__________________________________________________________________ Marwick, Arthur. Beauty in History: Society, Politics, and Personal Appearance: C. 1500 to the Present. London: Thames & Hudson, 1989. Max Factor Heritage. ‘The Max Factor Story.’ Accessed 20 April 2013. https://maxfactor.co.uk/heritage/the-max-factor-story. Miller, Geoffrey. The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature. New York: Doubleday, 2001. Morse, S. T., J. Gruzen, and H. Reis, ‘“The Eye of the Beholder:” A Neglected Variable in the Study of Physical Attractiveness?’ Journal of Personality 44 (1976): 209-225. Newman, Cathy. ‘The Enigma of Beauty.’ National Geographic 197, no. 1 (2000): 95-121. Pallett, Pamela M., Stephen Link, and Kang Lee. ‘New “Golden” Ratios for Facial Beauty.’ Vision Research 50, no. 2 (2010): 149-154. Peck, S., L. Peck, and M. Kataia.’ Skeletal Asymmetry in Esthetically Pleasing Faces.’ The Angle Orthodontist 61 (1991): 43-48. Pennisi, Elizabeth. ‘Imperfect Match: Do Ideal Mates Come in Symmetrical Packages? Science News 147 (1995): 60-61. ———. ‘Not Simply Symmetry: Does It Really Matter if the Right Ear is Bigger than the Left?’ Science News 147 (1995): 46-47. Perrett, David I., Kang J. Lee, I. Penton-Voak, D. Rowland, S. Yoshikawa, D. M. Burt, S. P. Henzil, D. L. Castles, and S. A. Kamatsu. ‘Effects of Sexual Dimorphism on Facial Attractiveness.’ Nature 394 (1998): 884-886. Perrett, David, Kang J. Lee, I. Penton-Voak, D. M. Burt, D. Rowland, S. Yoshikawa, S. P. Henzi, D. Castles and S. A. Akamatsu. ‘Sexual Dimorphism and Facial Attractiveness.’ Nature 394 (1998): 884-886. Perrett, David. In Your Face: The New Science of Human Attractiveness. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.

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__________________________________________________________________ Prokopakis, Emmanuel P., Ioannis M. Vlastos, Valerie Picavet, Gilbert Nolst Trenité, Regan Thomas, Cemal Cingi, and Peter W. Hellings. ‘The Golden Ratio in Facial Symmetry.’ Rhinology 51, no. 1 (2013): 18-21. Rhodes, Gillian ‘The Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Beauty.’ Annual Review of Psychology 57 (2006): 199-226. Rhodes, Gillian, J. Chan, L. A. Zebrowitz and L. W. Simmons. ‘Does Sexual Dimorphism in Human Faces Signal Health? Proceedings of the Royal Society B 270, Supp. 1 (2003): S93-95. Robinson, Julian. The Quest for Human Beauty. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998. Rodin, Auguste. Rodin on Art and Artists. New York: Dover Publications, 1983. Sanderson, Ruth. ‘Proportional Figure Drawing.’ Presentation at the 5th Global Conference Fashion: Exploring Critical Issues, Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, Oxford, UK, 9-12 September 2013. Satel, Sally, and Scott O. Lilienfeld. Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience. New York: Basic Books, 2013. Singh, Devendra. ‘Adaptive Significance of Waist-to-Hip Ratio and Female Physical Attractiveness.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65 (1993): 293-307. ———. ‘Body Shape and Women’s Attractiveness: The Critical Role of Waist-toHip Ratio.’ Human Nature 4 (1993): 297-321. ———. ‘Female Health, Attractiveness, and Desirability for Relationships: Role of Breast Asymmetry and Waist-to-Hip Ratio.’ Ethology & Sociobiology 16 (1995): 465-481. Smith, W. Stevenson. Revised by William Kelly Simpson. The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Smuts, R. W. ‘Fat, Sex, Class, Adaptive Flexibility, and Cultural Change.’ Ethology and Sociobiology 13, no. 5 (1992): 523-542.

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__________________________________________________________________ Swaggle, J. P., and J. C. Cuthill. ‘Asymmetry and Human Facial Attractiveness: Symmetry May Not Always Be Beautiful.’ Proceedings of the Royal Society, London B 26 (1995): 111-116. Symons, Donald. The Evolution of Human Sexuality. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979. Vitruvius. ‘On Symmetry: Temples and The Human Body.’ Chapter III: Ten Books on Architecture, 72-75. Gutenberg.org. Accessed 4 March 2013, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20239/20239-h/29239-h.htm. Yu, Douglas W., and G. H. Shepard. ‘Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder?’ Nature 396 (1998): 321-322. Zaidel, D. W., and J. W. Cohen. ‘The Face, Beauty and Symmetry: Perceiving Asymmetry in Beautiful Faces.’ International Journal of Neuroscience 115 (2005): 1165-1173. Zebrowitz, L. A., K. Olson, and K. Hoffman. ‘Stability of Babyfaceness and Attractiveness across the Life Span.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 64 (1993): 453-466. Jacque Lynn Foltyn, PhD, is Professor of Sociology, National University, La Jolla, California. Her studies focus on human beauty, fashion, and representations of dying and death in art and popular culture. Chief Editor of Catwalk: The Journal of Fashion, Beauty, her cultural critiques have appeared in The New York Times, and Allure and More magazines. Her books include Fashions: Exploring Fashion through Culture, Crafting Allure: Beauty, Culture and Identity, and Fashion-Wise, and she has appeared on CBS 48 Hours and the BBC.

‘Breaking the Bonds of Beauty’: The Dark Side of Beauty between the World Wars Lucy Jane Moyse Abstract During the interwar period, a plethora of aggressive and abject images encroached upon the seemingly idealistic world of beauty. From fashion illustrations featuring severed heads, to tortuous devices used to measure ‘ideal’ beauty (in reality subjecting the face to a metal contraption, proliferated with sharp pins), to skincare advertisements that shared more with gory medical procedures than beauty practices: a startlingly violent aesthetic manifested itself within an area that is usually perceived as escapist and pure. Despite the surprising frequency of such occurrences within this relatively early timeframe, they have never before been highlighted or studied. Taking as its starting point the devastating aftermath of the First World War - with the new, mechanized forms of death it had entailed - this paper will examine the dark underbelly of beauty that subsequently emerged during the 1920s. It will chart changing attitudes towards beauty and women through an examination of advertising, and by untangling the nuanced links with its context. How did the quickening onset of post-war modernity, the birth of psychoanalysis as we know it, and the shifting political scene impact women’s place within society, and how was this expressed in relation to their appearance? Key Words: Art, assault, beauty, defile, destroy, fashion, interwar, modernity, psychoanalysis, violence. ***** In December 1920, Helena Rubenstein – a revolutionary makeup and skincare pioneer - published an advert in American Vogue, claiming that she had the power to be able to ‘break… the bonds of beauty.’ What did such ‘bonds’ entail? And why did a beauty advertisement in a women’s fashion magazine – typically dismissed as glossy and superficial – use such destructive language? Rubenstein’s advertisement itself points towards several possible reasons behind this incongruous infiltration. Amongst many claims are several illuminating phrases. One reason that she proffers for ‘mediocre complexion[s]’ is the ‘absorbing activity of the last few years.’ This quite clearly refers to the recent [First] World War, which had ended less than two years previously. The most gruelling, destructive conflict experienced to date, and the first war to have made chilling use of modern, mechanical methods of warfare, it left its imprint across civilian society as well as the military. Her mention of ‘the new added political interest due to enfranchisement’, which apparently renders ‘woman… a very busy individual, indeed’ is also telling. That women experienced increased independence during the

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__________________________________________________________________ war is well known, fulfilling many work roles for the first time. While some opportunities dried up after the conflict ceased, the enfranchisement it ensued did not. Furthermore, Rubenstein brings up the idea of ‘indiscriminate, unproven, untutored “beauty-doctoring”’, which her own offerings are supposedly ‘worth pounds of.’ This references a growing trend towards a medical aesthetic in beauty advertisements produced in London, Paris, and New York alike in the years following the war and beyond, which the examples discussed within this paper represent. Finally, in seeming contradiction to this dismissal, she introduces her own ‘interesting selection’ of ‘beauty-preparations’ as being ‘scientific’. Again, this corresponds to a wider trend within beauty advertising, from the pre-war ideal of undetectable, natural beauty, to a growing projection of clinical, ‘unerring efficiency.’ This paper will take at its basis these core themes raised by Rubenstein’s example, and apply them to a selection of beauty advertisements taken from the London, New York and Paris editions of Vogue from the post-First World Years towards the late-1920s. A young woman lies back on an immaculately made bed, with starched, white sheets. Her head is slightly raised, as she looks to another woman, who leans over whilst attending to her. This woman wears a smart, simple nurse’s uniform, complete with a regulation hat. She smiles kindly as she carries out her work, caring for the reclining woman, who appears to be her patient. This mise-en-scène appears in two photographs, which were each produced in 1922. However, whilst one is a photograph taken in The National Hospital for Diseases, of a nurse attaching electro-cardiograph wires to a patient, the other was in fact published as part of a beauty advertisement, for the skincare brand Marinello. Beneath the image lies bold, cursive text proclaiming: ‘Learn how to develop your beauty type to its full charm.’ It is revealed, then, that the caregiver is not a nurse, but in fact a ‘beauty specialist.’ The reclining young woman, therefore, is not a patient in the medical sense, but a client, seeking, as the advertisement put it, ‘complete loveliness.’ Within wartime imagery, women had been placed at the forefront of violence: whether actively assaulted, such as being mutilated by figures representing the enemy, or being presented as nurturing the men assaulted by the enemy, through both active involvement as nurses and supportive roles in the home and workplace. The aforementioned Marinello advertisement, on the other hand, places a woman under (as well as being the more traditional dispenser of) care. The medical relationship between the two women depicted is enhanced by its setting, which includes a pristine sink, and a neat row of containers upon a sterile surface. This detail creates depth and a convincing sense of space. Yet, as an illustration inserted within an advertisement, rather than an image in itself, this sense of reality is confined. In this way, it is presented as a vision, a dreamlike image, enhanced by its undulating border. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud presented

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__________________________________________________________________ dreams as the subconscious’s way of fulfilling wishes, or resolving conflicts: ‘the dream in its essence signifies the fulfillment of a wish.’1 Does the vision-like image of medical attention within commercial beauty imagery suggest the fulfillment of a subconscious need for healing? That women had not fought on the frontline did not protect them from war trauma – or, to use its meaning from the original Greek – wounds. As Henry Seidel Canby remarked in 1919, ‘millions of women… flung themselves into the conflict without incurring the passionate reactions of bloodshed, and [were] transformed.’2 As Gary Cross has pointed out, ‘ads [sic.] linked material goods to immaterial longings, blending social, psychological, and physical needs indivisibly.’3 Whilst the war rapidly advanced medicine and psychoanalysis, this was a result of unprecedented military (and therefore exclusively male) casualties, both physical and mental. Within the advertisement, medical care is presented as an enticing capitalist object to be consumed by women, suggesting that it belongs to a ‘longing’ or ‘need’, whether or not this was consciously recognised. Beauty advertisements produced within each of the three cities specifically referred to healing. For example, the cosmetic brand Viabella claimed in a December 1924 advertisement within British Vogue that ‘the care and cultivation of beauty is a specialist profession demanding expert knowledge of the ills to which beauty is heir and skill in corrective treatment.’ In deeming correction to be necessary in this way, the advertisement works on the same assumption as Marinello’s version, that there was a form of damage in need of restoration. Pertinently, the advertisement uses the term ‘ills’ to describe this. In this context, ‘ills’ can be read as referring to imperfections of the appearance; yet the term’s wider usage connotes emphatic medical sickness. Furthermore, the ‘expert knowledge of the ills’ in order to administer ‘corrective treatment’ is in fact an apt description of the role of a medical doctor. It appears, then, that this advertisement is an example of the ‘beauty-doctoring’ that Rubenstein warned against. Indeed, the same advertisement unhesitatingly used the term ‘Beauty Doctor’ in place of ‘beauty specialist’, and similarly equated beauty practitioners with their medical equivalent, cautioning: ‘Choose your Beauty Doctor…. As you choose your medical attendant.’ Using the phrase ‘medical attendant’ in place of the more traditional ‘doctor’ reserves the grandeur associated with the term ‘doctor’ exclusively for beauty. The Marinello example made a similar association, when it urged women: ‘consult your beauty specialist as you would your physician.’ This marks a distinct shift in references to medical practioners within beauty advertising. As late as 1918, advertisements occasionally proferred quotes from particular doctors to vindicate their products, such as the Northam Warren Corporation’s advertisement for American Vogue, July 1918. The later examples, however, present themselves as replacing the very doctors whose advice they had previously showcased. Michel de Certeau, in The Practice of Everyday Life, commented that ‘the Expert is growing more common... to the point of becoming

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__________________________________________________________________ its generalized figure.’4 The way in which beauty advertisements donned the status of doctors presents the profession as a ‘generalized figure.’ Not only was it used in an increasingly common number of adverts, but the minimal description given reveals an assumption that it would conjure positive connotations, perhaps in association with recent war-time progress. De Certeau remarked that, in such cases, ‘competence is exchanged for authority.’5 Whilst beauty practitioners were not medical specialists, they claimed to hold powers that in fact outreached their medical equivalents. The Marinello advertisement, for instance, claimed that ‘Marinello… will make an expert diagnosis of your beauty needs and scientifically bestow the supreme gift of beauty upon you.’ This accords with De Certeau’s remark that the generalized expert ‘abandons the competence he possesses as his authority is extended further and further.’6 Not only did beauty align its power with that of medical doctors, but it presented this power as omniscient and omnipotent a claim that it could not fulfill in practice. Florence Warden picked up upon this phenomenon in her 1920 novel, Beauty Doctor. It followed the experience of two young women who were recruited by a beauty practitioner. They were plucked off the street for their ‘pretty face[s]’, which their employer would claim had been ‘perfect wreck[s]’ until having been ‘treated’ by her. The protagonists were explicit in terming this ‘nonsense’, and continually marvelled at the deceptive fraudulence of beauty treatments, remarking, for example, that ‘hair washing seemed… oddly like hair dyeing.’7 One therapist, when asked by a knowing client’s husband, ‘you are a fraud, of course?’8 9 answered ‘well yes, I suppose I am.’ Yet despite this awareness, they continued to practice as ‘beauty doctors’. In attempting to create this aura of omniscience and omnipotence, these advertisements in fact fell into a fallacy of modernity, which Michel Foucault outlined in The Birth of the Clinic. Here, he discussed society’s expectation, and belief, in doctors being able to ‘totally and definitively cure’10 all. Foucault dismissed this idea as mere ‘day-dreaming.’11 Instead, he argued, this view is merely one of the many false myths perpetuated by modernity. The beauty advertisements discussed fall into this trap. Their self-imposed powers, in order to promote their services, link them to modernity, yet whilst this brought positive and progressive connotations, it was inherently erroneous. Nevertheless, the trope of the doctor offered the enticing combination of hope, cures, and proven, extensive knowledge with which to administer them. This constructed a concept of seductively achievable beauty, and an impression of certainty and safety, which was crucial in comparison to the instability, violence, and dangerous uncertainty of the recent war. However, as hinted by Rubenstein’s references, the chaos of the war did not end with it. Rather, women’s increased independence thrust them into further uncertainty and under increased scrutiny. While newfound enfranchisement allowed them to explore the metroplitan cities of London, New York and Paris, it

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__________________________________________________________________ simultaneously increased their exposure. Not only was their uncompromised presence in the city relatively new, but the particular demands of 1920s beauty heightened feelings of exposure: fashion revealed more natural bodily contours, and exposed more flesh, than ever before. And cosmetics, which were only recently available on a mass-produced, easily obtained level, had been associated with prostitution up until the First World War.12 Subsequently (as insinuated by Rubenstein’s mention of ‘busyness’), the experience of modernity within the postwar, metropolitan city could be chaotic. Fashion magazines frequently referred to this. For example, in 1920, American Vogue described modern life in Paris and New York: ‘…like New York, [Paris’s] image is the image of ultra-modern civilization, luxurious, careless, violent, and not a little decadent.’13 This phrase shares with Rubenstein’s advert both its publication date and its violent language. Conveniently, Rubenstein asserted her own products as quick, efficient antidotes to this chaotic existence. She was not the only beauty manufacturer to align herself with modernity, and use projections of clinical effciency in order to advertise. For example, fig. 8 singled out the ‘modern resources and modern equipment’ apparently needed in order to achieve beauty, and a 1924 Elizabeth Arden advertisement, fig. 9, reproduced in Britain, France and America, enthused that ‘the modern science of Elizabeth Arden brings sure and natural beauty to every woman.’ Its use of both ‘modern science’ and nature to entice women is somewhat oxymoronic, and reveals a conflict between previous methods of advertising beauty, which appealed to nature and natural beauty,14 and the giving way to a more modern, post-war approach. A Parisian example produced by Madame Theux in 1926 even referred to the ‘études biologiques’ apparently undertaken in the development and production of her hair care products, and fig. 10 shows the way in which the brand presented an advertisement in the style of a scientific research report. This appears to be the first time in which this definitively modern (and now widespread) phenomenon appeared to any significant extent. Moreover, De Certeau has described the way in which ‘…scientific work (scientificté) has given itself its own proper and appropriate places through rational projects capable of determining their procedures.’15 The notion of scientific work appointing its own importance is an apt description of the technique used by these beauty advertisements. He connected this strongly with modernity, arguing that the ‘remainder’16 of anything non-scientific ‘has become what we call culture. This cleavage organizes modernity.’17 Not only is science inextricably bound with modernity, but, according to de Certeau, it brought about a rupture between the two divisions of modern society. Traditionally, beauty would fall under the ‘remainder’, in the category of culture. However, by aligning itself with science, it created its own credibility and entered modernity. This contributed to the advertisements’ restorative attempts to address women’s underlying wounds, enabling them to portray a sense of comfort, and to advance away from the

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__________________________________________________________________ violence of the war, and the chaos of the modern cities of London, Paris and New York that they were subsequently thrown into. However, this was not wholly positive. Not only did Rubenstein fall into the very trap that she warned against – advertising scientific, clinical products with no evidential basis – but in offering such bold, clinical treatments, the advertisements suggested that women required correction. The independent, Vogue-reading women for whom city life was at once dizzying and horrifying were perceived with alarm by wider society. Mary Louise Roberts has attributed such fears to wartime anxiety. In relation to France, she has written: ‘the modern woman provided a way of talking about the war’s more general trauma’,18 becoming ‘a “privileged symbol” of postwar... anxiety.’19 The kinds of women buying newly-available beauty consumables correlate with those feared as the ‘New Woman’: young, single, supposedly seeking hedonism above marriage and motherhood. The image of medical attention, with its projections of scientific infallibility, can be seen as soothing such fears. In the years immediately following the war, medicinal, scientific, and modern qualities within avertising can be associated with the major advances in medicine (and psychoanlysis) as a result of the war, riding on the subsequent positive connotations, and addressing women’s lingering and unacknowledged war trauma. However, as the 1920s progressed, such depictions intensified. Contouré Laboratories, for instance, published an advertisement in American Vogue, 1928, which comprised a photograph of a woman, with her head wrapped in bandage-like cloth, sinking back onto a white bed. Her face is expressionless, whilst an unidentified stranger’s hand holds a syringe-like appliance to her face. Disquietingly, it is larger in length than her head. This aesthetic was followed closely by a contemporaneous Elizabeth Arden advertisement, published in multiple issues of French Vogue, 1927-1928. The image, barring the model’s makeup, would not appear conspicuous as an illustration of a hospital operation. Indeed, the woman’s modest, oversized and simply cut clothing is more akin to a hospital gown than contemporary fashion, jarring with her fashionably applied cosmetics. Here, the model’s face is also bound with white, bandage-like cloth, as she lies back on a bed, which could feasibly be either a beauty treatment bed or a hospital equivalent. A pair of hands comes towards her. One hand grips the model’s head, in a firmer manner than typically associated with beauty treatments. Even more alarmingly, the other grips a thin, sharp implement, which she holds to the model’s face, as if the photograph had been taken just prior to using it. The depicted scenes progressed, therefore, from light, smiling, healing medical care, to full-blown operative, surgical, invasive treatment. Femininity was placed under the knife. And the knife, so to speak, was in the hands of non-trained, non-medical practioners – here, the images are cropped so as to disallow us from seeing who administers the treatment, and its beauty context brings associations of the fraudulence exposed by Warden’s novel. This situation is therefore wrought with potential violence.

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__________________________________________________________________ One of the ‘legacies of the First World War’20 was the rise of fascism in Europe: an ideology that perpetrated and celebrated violence. One way it did so was to transform it from a destructive force into a healing one. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini came into power in Italy in 1922, and immediately made connections between violence and surgery, declaring in 1925, for example, that ‘violence must be generous, chivalric and surgical.’21 By using the medical metaphor of surgery, violence is justified as necessary, healing, efficient, and implausibly clean. The disquieting nature of fig. 12 is created in large part by the scalpel-like tool hovering ominously closely to the model’s face. In 1922, Mussolini had asserted ‘it is necessary ... to use the scalpel inexorably to take away everything parasitic, harmful and suffocating…’22 Whilst he was referring to Italian governmental offices, this unnerving use of metaphor is indicative of building tension due to the rise of Fascism within the Western political scene. The tool’s presence within a seemingly incongruous beauty advertisement suggests that something equally ‘parasitic, harmful and suffocating’ still lingered within women by 1928. On one level, constructing surgical scenes within advertisements continued beauty’s increasing engagement with modernity, implying efficiency and productivity. Yet paradoxically, its very necessity discloses lurking, ‘parasitic’ trauma, both in terms of unresolved war wounds, the further onslaught of modern life for women. Whilst the First World War was over, anxiety was not, and the rise of fascist regimes was a seed of violence that would only grow.23

Notes 1

Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (New York: Macmillan, 1913), 107. 2 Ibid., 232. 3 Gary Cross, An All-Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 38. 4 Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven Rendall (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2011), 7. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Florence Warden, The Beauty Doctor (London: Robert Hayes Ltd., 1920), 15. 8 Ibid., 25. 9 Ibid. 10 Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic (London: Routledge, 2003), 38. 11 Ibid., 39.

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__________________________________________________________________ 12

As pointed out, for example, by Sally Alexander, Becoming a Woman: And Other Essays in 19th and 20th Century Feminist History (New York: New York University Press, 1995), 219. 13 American Vogue, 1st October, 1920, 85. 14 See, for one of a vast number of examples, Yardley’s perfume advertising c. 1910-19. 15 De Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, 6. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Mary Louise Roberts, Civilization without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France, 1917-1927 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 9. 19 Ibid., 9-10. 20 Philip Morgan, Fascism in Europe, 1919-1945 (Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2007), 29. 21 Margherita Sarfatti, Dux, 250, cited by David Forgacs, ‘Fascism, Violence and Modernity’ The Violent Muse: Violence and the Artistic Imagination in Europe, 1910-1939, eds. Jana Howlett and Rod Mengham (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, year missing), 6. 22 Mussolini, cited in Howlett and Mengham, The Violent Must. 23 For example, Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922 in Italy, and seized total power as dictator in 1926. Adolf Hitler had joined the German Workers’ Party in 1919, from whence it developed over the 1920s party into the Nazi party it is known as. Hitler took governmental control when he was appointed chancellor in 1933.

Bibliography Alexander, Sally, Becoming a Woman: And Other Essays in 19th and 20th Century Feminist History. New York: New York University Press, 1995. American Vogue, 1919-1939. British Vogue, 1919-1939. Cross, Gary, An All-Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. De Certeau, Michel, The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Steven Rendall. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2011.

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__________________________________________________________________ Forgacs, David, ‘Fascism, Violence and Modernity.’ The Violent Muse: Violence and the Artistic Imagination in Europe, 1910-1939, edited by Jana Howlett and Rod Mengham, page numbers not provided by the author. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, year missing. Foucault, Michel, The Birth of the Clinic. London: Routledge, 2003. Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams. New York: Macmillan, 1913. Morgan, Philip, Fascism in Europe, 1919-1945. Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2007. Roberts, Mary Louise, Civilization without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France, 1917-1927. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Warden, Florence, The Beauty Doctor. London: Robert Hayes Ltd., 1920 Lucy Moyse is a Doctoral Candidate, and Teaching and Research Assistant in the History of Dress at The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and visiting lecturer in several UK institutions. Her research currently explores violence within fashion and beauty. She regularly contributes to international media projects, and has just completed a documentary based on her thesis.

Evolutionary Scents: Lucy McRae’s Swallowable Parfum Laini Burton Abstract As a non-visual mode of communication, body odour plays a significant role in perceptions of self-identity, the identification of others, and the social and psychological aspects of interpersonal exchange. What is more, it is a reflection of our genetic make-up, state of health and our environment. The use of perfume to mask or control body odour is a long-established practice extending from early civilisations. Sprayed on the skin, perfume is understood to stimulate mood or memory, effect cognitive performance or confidence, and even influence sexual attraction. Modern advances in manufacturing technologies however are producing a shift in methods of fragrance delivery. From conventional sprays we are moving toward microencapsulated garments and sensory fashion designs that respond to biometric measures such as heart rate or body temperature. Against this background of technological innovation in fashion and beauty practices, selflabeled ‘body architect’ Lucy McRae has developed the Swallowable Parfum (2011). In its concept phase, McRae’s Swallowable Parfum proposes users will release a unique genetic scent ‘synthesized from the body’s natural processes’, emitted through perspiration. Crossing the dermal threshold, Swallowable Parfum internalises what has previously been an external bodily practice. Can McRae’s project be seen simply as an evolution of technological advances predicated on cosmetic surgical procedures that transform the body? Or does such a product have real potential to render subjects alien from their biological selves, and produce crises in relations with others? This paper will explore these possibilities, including the prospect that Swallowable Parfum could create a revised ‘epidermic selfawareness’,1 transcending its own difference to create a new, even if synthesised, embodied subjectivity. Key Words: Scent, perfume, body odour, Swallowable Parfum, Lucy McRae, identity, technology, synthetic biology, beauty systems. ***** 1. A Paradigm Shift in Perfume Delivery Our smell and our sense of it are culturally and biologically crucial to human experience; after all, to breathe is to smell. As a non-visual mode of communication, body odour plays a significant role in perceptions of self-identity, the identification of others, and the social and psychological aspects of interpersonal exchange. What is more, our scent is a reflection of our genetic make-up, state of health and our environment.

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__________________________________________________________________ Despite its importance as a biological signal in a range of evolutionary functions, contemporary societies ritually practice masking their natural scent. Deodorants, perfumes and fragranced body washes are all deployed in the quest to smell ‘clean’, pleasing or more attractive. The application of perfume becomes a way of operating within basic social and cultural codes as to prevent exclusion or ridicule. Sprayed on the skin, perfume not only covers body odour, it is also understood to stimulate mood or memory, affect cognitive performance or confidence, and even influence sexual attraction. As a cultural and social phenomenon, perfume production extends back through time and cultures, its use changing with the attitudes and developments of the age. Modern advances in perfume manufacturing technologies are no exception, and are once again experiencing a shift in methods of fragrance delivery. Beyond conventional sprays, methods now include techniques such as fragrance encapsulation in deodorants, triggered by body moisture, or encapsulation technology where fragrance is released by friction or pressure on cloth and garments.2 Moreover, there is much research that centres on pharmacology and patents, chemical compounds, agri-science, dermatology and allergenic effects, hedonistic reception and marketing for perfume production.3 It is against this background of technological innovation that I wish to examine the work of self-labeled ‘body architect’ and Australian artist Lucy McRae, whose recent project Swallowable Parfum (2011) proposes an unprecedented paradigm shift in perfume delivery. Swallowable Parfum, a speculative project still in its concept phase, sees users ingest a pill to release a unique genetic scent ‘synthesized directly from the natural processes of the body’, and which is emitted through perspiration. 4 The product has its own campaign and accompanying press release.5 Developed in collaboration with synthetic biologist Sheref Mansy,6 who hypothesised that they could create a pill that ‘mimics the structure of normal fat cells found within the body, and use the body’s enzymes to break down these fat cells to release a fragrance during perspiration’,7 Swallowable Parfum promises to ‘break new ground in the science of human instinct’ and ‘re-define the role of skin’, effectively turning the body into an atomiser.8 Crossing the dermal threshold, Swallowable Parfum internalises what has previously been an external bodily practice. In light of the fact that we already possess our own unique genetic scent, it is necessary to consider how Swallowable Parfum might affect the production of this scent if indeed it could be altered through a synthesised, ingestible source. Moreover, since a biological function of our scent is to relate to other human beings (kin, offspring, partners), the primary question arose of how a synthesised scent might affect these relationships, potentially placing them in uncertain terms or disrupting communicative signals. For, if on the level of chemistry, our scent is altered or manufactured by a source foreign to the body’s processes of natural odour production, surely this could produce crises in significant human relations?

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__________________________________________________________________ Our scent is an invisible veil that cloaks our skin, hovering above it and leaving a trace wherever we go. Before we even realise, and without control, we are releasing unique biochemical messages into the room, declaring us favourably to some and unfavourably to others. In fact, we have no choice but to consume one another’s scent on a moment-to-moment basis. The fate of our scent, however, is to remain as fleeting; the mechanics of fluid seeing to it that we consume scent quite literally in its state of entropy as the evaporation of molecules are drawn into the olfactory bulbs. It is one of the most ephemeral aspects of our bodies, perfumed or not. It cannot be preserved at length and yet it influences deep chemical reception and emotive response in individuals. To incite any reader, I would ask them only to think of the scent of a lover, that pure scent only a baby can possess or attempt recall of the smell of a loved one who has passed, and how we wish these olfactory memories could be bottled. In humanity’s attempts to record these phenomena, we can look to the world of poetry and prose stretching back through centuries that is dedicated to describing the power and seduction of scent. Since odours only have description or recollection, scent, without text or image, is impossible to capture. So it is that language fails scent, lacking clear definition or measurement due to its subjective reception. But where language is seen to fail, art revels in ambiguity and thus the ‘olfactivism’9 present in contemporary art practice seeks to both fill the gap and leverage the power of ocularity. A strong example of this can be found in McRae’s Swallowable Parfum. 2. Seeking Science in Swallowable Parfum In March 2013, McRae presented the Swallowable Parfum project as a ‘biotechnology presentation’, held at architecture and design gallery Pin-Up, in Melbourne, Australia.10 Enclosed in opaque, plastic sheeting, McRae’s presentation was arranged as a laboratory in the center of the gallery and was dramatically unveiled when the sheeting was rolled up in unison by several assistants wearing pseudo-scientific uniforms.11 McRae and her principal assistant prepared unidentified liquids, while a prostrate woman lie on a glass-topped bench in front of them, stretching like a ballerina. Turning without acknowledgement to the audience, McRae fed the woman one of the large Swallowable Parfum pills which had been on display in plastic trays within the gallery space. The woman was then wrapped in a plastic overall and liquids injected into the suit, eventually overflowing and dripping abjectly over the table’s edge onto the floor. After a short time, the plastic suit was removed from the woman who was ushered away, presumably having been infused with the essence of Swallowable Parfum. McRae and her assistants held hands, bowed and cheered, and the presentation ended. Feeling deeply disappointed by the evident lack of science in this low-tech, theatrical performance, I was forced to return to McRae’s claims about the project. Quite clearly, I had been seduced by the scientific rhetoric that enters cosmetic language and which was employed in this project. To echo McRae’s own account

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__________________________________________________________________ of her practice, she states her focus relates to biology, technology, beauty and the body, to ‘create … alternate worlds for these concepts to exist in, and Swallowable Parfum is one seen from this world’.12 In her words, she says it is a ‘science fantasy’.13 Nevertheless, at her 2012 TED presentation, McRae suggested Swallowable Parfum could change the way we relate to one another, and may in effect revert the wearer to communicating as one would a primate.14 Curious, it was this provocation that drew me to investigate further, seeking proof that McRae’s project might work. The pill that appears in the Swallowable Parfum campaign video bore no resemblance to the pills on display at the live presentation. The video-pill was appealingly small and gold; the pills at the presentation were the size of small plums, flesh-coloured and gelatinous. I purchased a box-set, made available from an edition of 500, expiry date: December 2027. My preparedness to undergo selfexperimentation by consuming one was thwarted by the assistant who, upon exchanging monies, vacuum sealed the box and told me that I must never open it. It was said that the box-set of pills were ‘like hard candies’. This instruction confirmed to me that the box was rather like Producer J.J. Abrams’s ‘mystery box’—something that represents what he describes as infinite possibility, hope and potential.15 To open it and reveal the contents, or to ingest them, would be to demythologise the science-fantasy. Changing my approach, I instead pursued science-fact in the proposals put forward by Swallowable Parfum. First, the pill’s scent-enhancing ingredients (which are not known and do not appear either on the box-set or in any of the campaign material) must survive the gastric acids found in the stomach before the partly digested pill would be expelled by the stomach into the duodenum. If sufficiently strong enough to pass through this process, the aromatic compounds must be fat soluble, so that they dissolve easily into the blood stream. While this process isn’t explicitly stated in the campaign release, the ‘technical information’ claims: The human body has enzymes that metabolise fat in a series of steps that free lipids and lipid-like molecules from their scaffolds. Swallowable Parfum takes advantage of these natural enzymes found in our bodies to release fragrant molecules from larger structures. Subsequently, the liberated fragrant molecules are excreted through the skin’s surface during perspiration.16 In this way, it is fair to assume the pill would operate similarly to scentexcreting foodstuffs such as garlic for example, the results of which are less desirable. What remains in question however is the amount that must be consumed for the pill’s properties to affect personal scent. Swallowable Parfum, as stated on the box, contains 12mG per capsule and the consumption directions are

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__________________________________________________________________ recommended as: Take 1-2 capsules with fluid for 8 hours of fragrance. The contents that this 12 mG17 consists of, however, are left unstated. Further, doubt arises when considering that the body has two different types of perspiration. That is, sweat is secreted from two different types of glands: eccrine and apocrine glands. The sweat created from eccrine glands occurs over most of the body and opens directly onto the surface of the skin. Meanwhile the fatty sweat generated from the apocrine glands develops in areas abundant in hair follicles, such as on the scalp, armpits and groin where the sweat is pushed to the surface of the skin, and where bacteria begin breaking it down. Given the apocrine glands responsible for offensive body odours are activated in puberty, the Swallowable Parfum would at least be age-appropriate. This is when most young people become aware of the social effects of malodour, after which perfume application often becomes part of their hygiene ritual. Clearly the campaign video operates on visualising the sweat generated from eccrine glands. The alternative—filming apocrine sweat excreting from armpits and groin—is far less marketable and therefore McRae’s creative direction here was wise. Lastly, and the great irony that exists in this conceptual project, is that perspiration is odourless. It is the bacterial breakdown of apocrine sweat on the skin that causes body odour; simply put, as the bacteria on the surface of our skin consumes our perspiration, we begin to smell. Thus, Swallowable Parfum would have to possess vast amounts of aromatic compounds to work from the inside-out, or would have to be predicated on an entirely different physiological system of perspiration. Considering recent biotechnological developments, which have witnessed feats such as the modification, customisation and replication of DNA, one wonders if such a continuum could be explored if real physiological change is at the center of such a project. Admittedly this idea goes beyond biomimicry and into bioengineering, raising significant ethical issues. Moreover, if it is the bacteria on our skin which is the offending party in the production of body odour, why not intervene at this site and ‘hack’ or farm the bacteria so it approximates a smell that is immunogenetically compatible, or simply put, is pleasant? 3. Biotechnology and the Olphactophiliac Turn in Art/Design Bio-technological manipulation as a means of fashioning the body is not without like-minded examples. Designers Tobie Kerridge and Nikki Scott, along with bioengineer Ian Thompson, have created biojewellery developed from live bone cells.18 Procured from biopsies, they divided and grew cells, which they seeded onto a ring-shaped, ceramic, porous and bioactive scaffold.19 Following this, the bone tissue is combined with precious metals for a custom-made product literally constructed from one’s own genetic material. Another example can be found in Marta Lwin’s epiSkin project (2006-07). This process included culturing human tissue (epithelia cells), transplanted into adaptive biojewellery pieces to be worn on the surface of the skin.20 Again, artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, who

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__________________________________________________________________ founded the Tissue Culture and Art Project, developed Victimless Leather (20042010). Here, living tissue was grown into a leather-like material from ‘immortalised cell lines which cultured and form a living layer of tissue supported by a biodegradable polymer matrix in the form of miniature stitch-less coat like shape’.21 More specifically however, it is possible to cite examples of conceptual art and design that have olfaction at the center of their inquiry. The work of Sissel Tolaas for example, titled Fear 1 (2005), embedded synthesised human sweat pheromones into the wall paint of the gallery to force a heightened sensory awareness in the gallery visitor. In his survey article, ‘Inhaling Passions: Art, Sex and Scent’ (2000) Jim Drobnick recounts many examples across contemporary art history that attempt to redirect our attitudes toward smell and scent; sensual functions that have been characterised as existing at the ‘bottom of the epistemological hierarchy’.22 However, where these latter examples express an ‘olfactophiliac’ turn in conceptual art and design practice, they function as external to the body. None have pushed the limits quite so far as McRae whose proposal exploits the body’s own biological processes as a principle system of perfume delivery. Thus, as fashion and beauty systems progressively engage techniques foregrounded in the sciences, it becomes increasingly possible that Swallowable Parfum could eventuate into a commercially available product. Today, status is often equated with the acquisition of the latest technology that embraces the regulatory potential of the senses. In what can then be seen as an expansion of existing beauty practices, the Swallowable Parfum is a perfect marriage of the two as it seeks to colonise bodily functions, which are recuperated back into commodity. Transforming the production of biological scent into a marketable commodity therefore raises a predicament for consumers pursuing a distinctive identity. Paradoxically, Swallowable Parfum both depersonalises and is personalised by the user at one and the same time where they are assured uniqueness at the same time that the body becomes a resources for distribution. 4. Synthesised Subjectivity Surveying the rich field of accomplishments resulting from collaborations between art and science, it is worth remembering that the most provocative works begin as conceptual projects like McRae’s Swallowable Parfum. Often such work meets with strong criticism and vigorous ethical debate on the interventions of science on the body, and particularly its effects on our identity. It is for this reason that the penumbra surrounding a swallowable perfume warrants further attention. Indeed if it did work, it could have real potential to render subjects alien from their biological selves, and complicate relations with others. McRae’s comment that use of the product could stimulate regressive inter-personal communications acknowledges the implications of intervention into biological processes of the human body. While McRae’s project speaks of relations between bodies, this is

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__________________________________________________________________ nothing to say of the self-othering that could occur once individuals register their own difference, becoming estranged from their own genetic scent. However, as the 21st century subject becomes emboldened by and immersed in biotechnological progress, the question of whether something like a swallowable perfume would produce scepticism or even hesitation in the consumer becomes weakened. Instead, it may be more useful to ask whether the bio-fantasy of bodyas-atomiser would withhold any of the social awkwardness that occur when the dose wears off and the ‘smelly abjecta’23 of our ‘natural’ scent returns with force. Despite our desires to eclipse our current evolutionary state, there is no escaping biology, for now. As the receptive interface between our self and our world, our skin is boundary, object as well as subject, a permeable surface and site of regulation and manipulation within fashion and beauty systems. And while the skin remains subject to these conceptualisations, Swallowable Parfum is worth considering in these terms. The basis of Swallowable Parfum can therefore be understood as an extension of an established beauty practice. To place a critical lens on the way we register, define and encode scent within beauty practices seems necessary at the introduction of proposals such as this, realised or not. Ethical arguments aside, where artists/scientists begin to tailor bodily functions for optimal performance, speculative projects such as McRae’s Swallowable Parfum—of body-cum-atomiser—exist as a productive space in which we can begin to imagine a utopian future of pleasurable interpersonal exchange, among other things. 5. (In)Conclusion Perfume application is a social practice situated in culture, and an embodied activity that affects the way bodies are lived, imagined and encountered. In her text The Ephemeral History of Perfume: Scent and Sense in Early Modern England (2011), Holly Dugan acknowledges the cultural meanings and history of olfaction exist within a ‘conceptual space between subjects and objects and between theories of embodiment and theories of materiality’.24 To synthesise or alter our genetic scent could disturb conceptions of self and other, but on the other hand it has the potential to widen the scope of olfaction, creating new relational exchanges of the personal or collective kind. The possibility within McRae’s Swallowable Parfum project exists in its evolution of technological advances that transform the body toward a revised ‘epidermic self-awareness’;25 that is, toward a body that may transcend its own difference to create a new, even if synthesised, embodied subjectivity.

Notes 1

Umberto Eco, ‘Lumbar Thought’, in Fashion Theory: A Reader, ed. Malcolm Barnard (London and New York: Routledge, 2007), 316.

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__________________________________________________________________ 2

These encapsulation technologies are principally delivered via fabric softeners. The Library of Congress Science, Technology and Business Division provide a useful summary of literature and vetted online resources relating to ‘Olfaction: The Sense of Smell’. This catalogue is organised into basic, general, additional, specialised and related titles, reference works, conference proceedings, technical reports and grey literature, dissertations, selected journal articles, selected materials, additional sources of information and internet resources. This list can be accessed at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/smelltb.html. 4 ‘Swallowable Parfum’ Viewed 3 May 2013, http://swallowableparfum.com/. 5 Ibid. 6 Sheref Mansy is an artificial-life scientist and TED Fellow working to build artificial chemical systems that mimic biological cells. Mansy’s profile can be accessed at http://fellows.ted.com/profiles/sheref-mansy; or at http://www.syntheticaesthetics.org/residents/mansy-pohflepp. 7 TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, TED Talks - Lucy McRae: How Can Technology Transform the Human Body?’ Viewed 24 May 2013, http://www.ted.com/talks/lucy_mcrae_how_can_technology_transform_the_huma n_body.html. 8 ‘Swallowable Parfum by Lucy McRae’ Press Release, Viewed 3 May 2013, http://swallowableparfum.com/. 9 Caroline A. Jones, ‘Sensorium: new media complexities for embodied experience’, in media-N: The Online Journal of the New Media Caucus – Art in the Age of Technological Seduction 2:3 (2006): 52, accessed May 30, 2013. Author failed to provide URL here. 10 For full details of Lucy McRae’s summer residency at Pin-up Project Space, Melbourne, Australia, visit: http://www.pinupprojectspace.com/domains/pinup/LucyMcRae/. 11 Chorus, a Melbourne fashion collective, designed the costumes for the 2013 Swallowable Parfum presentation at Pin-up. 12 ‘Next Nature: Swallowable Parfum’ last modified on 2 March 2012, Viewed 2 June 2013, http://www.nextnature.net/2012/03/lucy-mcray-swallowable-parfum/ 13 Ibid/ 14 TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, TED Talks - Lucy McRae. 15 TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, TED Talks - J.J. Abrams: The Mystery Box, Viewed 26 May 2013, http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html. 16 To access ‘Technical Information’, click on the link at Lucy McRae, Swallowable Parfum, Viewed 3 May 2013, http://swallowableparfum.com/. 17 The unit mG (as it appears on the box-set of pills) cannot be found as a unit of measurement. The unit Mg, or mg, does exist and represents milligrams (1/1000 gram). The chemical symbol Mg stands for Magnesium, however mG does not and 3

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__________________________________________________________________ therefore may represent a conceptual chemical in McRae’s alternate world of science fantasy. 18 Bradley Quinn, Fashion Futures (London: Merrell Publishers, 2012) 140-141. 19 Material Beliefs, Biojewellery: Designing Rings with Bioengineered Bone Tissue, Viewed 2 June 2013, http://www.materialbeliefs.com/biojewellery/project4.html#P4A. 20 Wellcome Collection, Skin Lab, Viewed 4 June 2013, http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/skin.aspx. 21 Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, The Tissue Culture and Art Project: Victimless Leather, Viewed 26 May 2013, http://tcaproject.org/projects/victimless/leather. 22 Caroline A. Jones, ‘Sensorium: new media complexities for embodied experience’, in media-N: The Online Journal of the New Media Caucus – Art in the Age of Technological Seduction 2:3 (2006): 54, accessed May 30, 2013, author failed to provide the URL here. 23 Jones, ‘Sensorium: New Media Complexities for Embodied Experience’, 56. 24 Holly Dugan, The Ephemeral History of Perfume: Scent and Sense in Early Modern England, (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2011), 16. 25 Eco, ‘Lumbar Thought’, 316.

Bibliography Ahmed, Sarah and Jackie Stacey. Thinking Through the Skin. London and New York: Routledge, 2001. Drobnik, Jim. ‘Inhaling Passions: Art, Sex and Scent’. Sexuality and Culture 4:3 (2000): 37-56. Drobnick, Jim. The Smell Culture Reader. New York: Berg, 2006. Dugan, Holly. The Ephemeral History of Perfume: Scent and Sense in Early Modern England. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2011. Eco, Umberto. ‘Lumbar Thought’. In Fashion Theory: A Reader, edited by Malcolm Barnard, London and New York: Routledge, 2007. Jones, Caroline A. ‘Sensorium: New Media Complexities for Embodied Experience’. Media-N: The Online Journal of the New Media Caucus – Art in the Age of Technological Seduction 2.3 (2006): 51-62.

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__________________________________________________________________ Lucy McRae. ‘Swallowable Parfum’. Accessed 3 May, 2013. http://swallowableparfum.com/. Material Beliefs. ‘Biojewellery: Designing Rings with Bioengineered Bone Tissue’. Accessed 2 June, 2013. http://www.materialbeliefs.com/biojewellery/project4.html#P4A. Next Nature. ‘Lucy McRay [sic]: Swallowable Parfum’. Accessed 2 June, 2013. http://www.nextnature.net/2012/03/lucy-mcray-swallowable-parfum/. Pin-up. ‘Lucy McRae: 2013 Summer Residency’. Accessed 30 March, 2013. http://www.pinupprojectspace.com/domains/pinup/LucyMcRae/. Quinn, Bradley 2012, Fashion Futures, Merrell Publishers, London. Roberts, Craig S. Applied Evolutionary Psychology, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. ‘J.J. Abrams: The Mystery Box’. Accessed 26 May, 2013. http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. ‘Lucy McRae: How Can Technology Transform the Human Body?’ Accessed 24 May, 2013. http://www.ted.com/talks/lucy_mcrae_how_can_technology_transform_the_huma n_body.html. Tissue Culture and Art Project. ‘The Tissue Culture and Art Project: Victimless Leather’. Accessed 26 May, 2013. http://tcaproject.org/projects/victimless/leather. Wellcome Collection. ‘Wellcome Collection: Skin Lab’. Accessed June 4, 2013. http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/skin/skin-lab.aspx. Laini Burton is a Lecturer at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, AU. Her research interests center on body politics, bio-art and design, fashion theory, film and new media installation and body/spatial relations.

Part II Defining Beauty in Science

From Object to Emotion: The Aesthetics of Human-Computer Interaction Alberto José Viralhadas Ferreira Abstract The aesthetic experience offered by computer interaction is progressively encroached in our daily lives in one continuous flow of information, data, and emotional response. From TV interfaces to mobile devices, computer user interfaces have become ubiquitous, and have quickly developed since the late 1980’s as one of the most fertile and intensely developed design fields. Departing from functionalism, user interfaces have become a beacon of experience, a gateway into a flowing space of meaning that is appended to our own motivations and reasons. While usability is emphasized in any modern user experience (UX) module, the success of any website is correlated with the successful implementation of design principles that incorporate balance, rhythm, harmony and proximity, integrating typography, layout, and digital arts in one continuous whole to be experienced. User interface (UI) design is therefore equated increasingly with an emotional experience on the user’s part, promoting attractiveness through navigation and interaction patterns that appeal to our core emotional perception and aesthetic taste. The chapter will focus on identifying and analysing the aesthetic principles embodied in human-computer interactions, as well as their cultural and psychological emanations, that continue shape our interaction with and progressive dependence on mediation technologies, from the basest remote control to the most recent iPhone. Key Words: human-computer interface, aesthetics, technology, culture, aesthetics, beauty, semantics.

design,

psychology,

***** 1. The Rise of Aesthetics Applied aesthetics relate primarily to the establishment of visual codes in information relay elements, which can be any element of mediated reality, particularly in cultures that work with symbolic enunciates as part of their communication systems. Although it is tempting to dismiss aesthetics as the philosophy of art, given the elusive definition of art, aesthetics can better be synthesized as the critical study of expressiveness and experience, with an emphasis on the sensorial and emotional aspects. Aesthetics are not circumscribed to the domain of artistic expressiveness, since it plays a vital role in the visual language embedded in cultural and technological artifacts that compose in fact the way a civilization passes along information and gives it its identity. From the tea serving ritual in Japan to the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico, aesthetics

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__________________________________________________________________ inform attitudes towards social values and can be experienced in ways that, as Leo Tolstoy stated, connect people to each other through a common shared experience.1 Ethnologic research has highlighted that this concern has evolved historically throughout civilization. In 1797, the English antiquary John Frere wrote in his paper ‘On the Flint Weapons of Hoxne in Suffolk’ to the Society of Antiquaries that these early examples of human-designed weaponry belonged to ‘a very remote period indeed, even beyond that of the present world’.2 These instruments represented some of the oldest examples of tools crafted with attention to symmetry and polishing. The need for representation grew out of a disconcerted social need to represent abstract concepts with greater accuracy, such as emotion and imagination. One explanation for its genetic dissemination, according to a Lamarckian-styled evolution, is that individuals with this gifted imagination would benefit individually and the group with their skills, therefore ensuring their survival and primacy in the population. This evolutionary process might put forward more specialized learning skills, a genetic evolutionary mechanism that was first proposed by American psychologist James Mark Baldwin in 1896. Most early manifestations of representations that became associated with the construct of art are remarkably precocious in the course of human history, dating from the Upper Paleolithic (50,000-10,000 years ago), a period that preceded early sedentary agricultural societies and was already instrumental in establishing many of the social and cultural structures that are still in place in our contemporary context. One of these structures was the importance of representation and the advent of art, as defining artefacts deliberately produced by human endeavor for aesthetic reasons. The historical definition of aesthetics is remarkably volatile, and, as the paleontologist April Nowell argues, ‘‘Art’ as a modern Western construct is anachronistic with the Paleolithic,’3 but the essential principles of realistic depiction, proportion, color, and even materials, that were used in the early cave paintings in Altamira Cave used by the early populations of Homo sapiens remain similar to the artistic artifacts produced today. Among anthropologists and art historians, the debate rages as to whether early paleontological artefacts can be considered art, primarily because art is a construct that carries a significant agenda of thought and social tradition that differs from early instances of artistic objects. However, the fact that these artefacts were presumably produced for aesthetic purposes, seemingly serving no practical purposes, highlights the will embedded in early human populations to represent the world that they were starting to establish domination over in their own terms. In evolutionary terms, this primacy also permitted the development of high language skills, which evolved over two million years, the first written symbols dating from only 3500 BC, and the first alphabetic records dating from 1000 BC. During our cognitive evolution, language became a natural skill, but writing

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__________________________________________________________________ appeared long after our basic brain structures were already in place. Therefore, unlike oral language acquisition, reading and writing are not innate skills in infants and have to be learned. Since literacy is individually variable, and users typically want to avoid as much effort as possible, clarity is key for user acceptance and retention. Aesthetics then emerged as a powerful cognitive capacity in everyday interpretation of reality, which integrated patterns of logic and perception, a principle that allowed representation in art and aesthetic objects to become a universal quality that can be reproducible and analyzed according to cultural and cognitive constraints. Its implications on interactive technology are primarily on the cognitive and cultural implications of the evaluation of design and what it conveys emotionally to the audience or, in software terms, the user. Therefore, artefacts, trends, and media, are impacted by cultural factors in the same way communication is conditioned by a language: aesthetics can approach a common vocabulary of paradigms and practices that crosscuts old and new media, equally applicable to the visual arts, the print industry, and digital interaction. 2. Aesthetics and Human-Computer Interaction Aesthetics are not a normalized field of critical study, bearing in mind the different implications of its manifestations. Aesthetics as a universal quality was always under discussion in traditional philosophy, yet, in the twentieth century, analytic aesthetics has emerged as the primary philosophical stance of AngloAmerican aesthetics among the current and historical schools of thought. This attitude coincides with some of the subject areas in which aesthetics has been approached in human-computer interaction (HCI) literature, namely in terms of framing aesthetics as one of the bridging factors between design and usability. This also has consequences on the interpretation of web design by users. Talia Lavie and Noam Tractinsky showed that Internet users are particularly sensitive to two aspects of aesthetics, namely ‘classical aesthetics’ and ‘expressive aesthetics’.4 Classical aesthetics are primarily related to information design and how it is interpreted, stipulating rather conventionally that orderly and organized design is optimal for cognitive interpretation of data and action pathways. Lavie and Tractinsky assume that qualities such as symmetry and simplicity contribute positively to an overall usage experience. These dimensions are more closely related to cognitive styles and interpretation, two of the primary factors in our cognitive processing of reality. Expressive aesthetics, on the other hand, are connected to the visual garnishing and inspiration left to the designer, the creative artistry thrust into its hands by virtue of the tools and objectives at work.5 Both of these types of aesthetics are intimately connected to ergonomics, the framing of the possibilities for design and conception. Ergonomics is stipulated by the devices used in HCI and can also act as visual and physical affordance for the actions that the user can take with a particular system. This is reflected in the way

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__________________________________________________________________ cell phones allow for landscape orientation, therefore allowing the use of two thumbs simultaneously while using the system, or the overwhelming use of touchscreen technology that introduced terms like ‘swipe’ and ‘infinite scroll’ in the popular lexicon.6 3. The Aesthetics of HCI The use of the triptych structure in classical paintings is fundamentally inherited from a sense of balance and aesthetic equilibrium passed on from Classic Antiquity. Greek aesthetics formulated a geometrically-inspired model that relied on proportion and symmetry that is still prevalent in our modern aesthetic outlook. Webpages, as a modern artefact subjected to the appeal of contemporary taste and interpretation, tend to follow similar organisational and aesthetic patterns. The quality commonly referred to as ‘harmony’ between elements encompasses the same geometrical proportions as in classical works of art, be them the establishment of critical attention-grabbing points in the visual framework or the sense of hierarchy between these very elements, like the usage of the universally used ‘Golden Ratio’. One of the most visible examples of this application is on sites with a heavy emphasis on implicit user tasks, like Twitter and Facebook, with a focus on central content areas and a de-emphasis on peripheral areas. The question remains, however, whether the application of classical aesthetics in modern design assists or facilitates usability from a practical point of view. As exemplified below, Western users have a different perspective on spatial data and information organization, and scan and interpret it differently from Asian cultures. The ‘Golden Ratio’ is not an institutionalized geometric principle in Asian culture and is not subjected to various cultural and social constraints7.

Figure 1. The ‘Golden Ratio’ as applied to the Twitter website. One of the key aspects of this visual interaction is the concentration of information with a left justification, and the use of three columns in the layout itself. In most websites, the use of a tri-parted canvas allows for the following elements to be easily placed and perceived by audiences:

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__________________________________________________________________ -

Identity, Topic, Exit points.

The identity is most clearly manifested by the website’s logo and masthead, which establishes authorship or, most frequently, ownership, and casts dominance over the remaining elements. A website without a clear title or brand is most easily perceived as confusing, orphaned, or, in the worst possible case, irrelevant. The title is usually set at the top of the page, following conventional typographical principles that date back to the alphabet structure devised by the Phoenicians in the fifteenth century B.C.E. and the information structure implied therein, whereupon elements relied on the following properties in order to communicate meaning: -

Weight; Scale; Colour; Grouping; ‘Silent’ or ‘negative’ space.

Figure 2: Elements of proportion and space in a grid view. Large titles with striking typography are easily remembered due to the quick impression they perform on short-term memory, and the increasing size of the text used in websites in recent years, along with its increasing conciseness, are reminders of the digital emphasis on legibility and accessibility, reconciling the ergonomic and literacy factors that often distinguish audiences. At its core, websites are structured around an organization most easily perceived through its disposition of vertical columns along the page canvas. A grid model can be applied to its information architecture. The similarity between print

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__________________________________________________________________ and webpage design are striking in the resemblance of most text-heavy websites to their print counterparts, which relied on letter pressing methods for centuries and a paper grid model for the layout work on the page.8 The role of text in user interfaces and information architectures on HCI is also essential. Text is a part of a complete visual system that allows users to interact with an information system directly through codified linguistic signs. Text allows users to retrieve and access information, and directly represents the most accessible entry point to the interaction model offered by the user interface. As such, text is the vehicle of representation, and as most elements in a user interface, functions with metaphors. Metaphors are highly contextual, and function within two different modes: analogy and difference. Difference represents a mode of association: two elements which are unrelated or otherwise share any embedded property are equated as either the same or in the same semantic field. Since a metaphor is not a statement of fact, or otherwise truthful, there should also be a common understanding on the semantic field between the metaphor user and the audience. In other words, it means that something ‘is like’ something else, and the interpreter needs to acknowledge the association by knowing both objects. Analogy, on the other hand, involves a comparison or the transfer of shared properties between both objects. Thinking of both objects in the equation becomes interchangeable, and the association becomes a part of the identity of both. Despite highly culturally-dependent, metaphors represent the bulk of user interface graphical output. Icons, logos, and headers rely heavily on symbolism and a complex network of semantic associations to provide users with guidance and visual cues as to how elements are used. This is represented by association with familiar aspects of the workplace and everyday life: the ‘desktop’ or the ‘trashcan’ are representations with an entirely different function in the user interface than in our analog everyday life, but the representation is similar and these semiotic traces are understood by the user as basic functionality due to the concrete and familiar concepts represented. 4. Principles of User Experience (UX) Content Design A. Empathy Through Register Everything we interact with generates a specific emotion suited to reinforcement or repression. Regardless of culture, users are emotionally affected by the register and tone of the text. There are four ‘R’ principles that improve the grittiness of mundane user experience and guide usability: • Responsiveness: provide feedback and ensure that the functionality is in accordance with the user’s actions. • Respect: guide your users without being patronizing or smug

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__________________________________________________________________ about it (e.g., artificially escalating error messages and providing adequate feedback for user actions). • Relatable: the voice and register used in the text have been shown to create empathy or reduce the relatability of a given text. • Relevance: the information expected by the user should be in line with user goals, therefore avoiding excessive and redundant information. B. Applicable Design Principles Wayfinding. Problems in website navigation are usually equated with the process of using contextual information to navigate to a selected destination. In the context of user interface design, it is most visible as the visual cues provided to the user in order to guide it to a specific functionality or process (e.g., Wizards) or monitoring its position in a given stage of the interface flow (e.g., breadcrumbs). In these cases, a visual indication usually helps the user to keep the flow in mind. Breadcrumbs are the most suitable to this type of context, as they can help route monitoring, particularly when a wayfinding mistake has been made and backtracking is necessary. Error classification and escalation of user actions. According to the conventionally standard classification introduced by Donald Norman, there are two basic types of errors: slips and mistakes.9 Slips are usually errors of execution where the user goes through a set of automatic and unconscious processes and misses a common step or does not execute an action as intended due to motor or cognitive distractions (e.g., unintentionally clicking on the wrong button because it is too close to the intended button). Mistakes are sometimes referred to as errors of intention or errors of planning, and occur when an intention is inappropriate. For example, a mistake occurs when a user is shown a warning and selects the wrong settings to try to fix it. It is a conscious process of decision-making that is biased according to currently available information and expectations. Another example is that the user is biased to select only from visible options and avoid more complex processes that involve navigating dialogs to go through a process. In cases where the user is warned with an ‘error’ in the guise of a warning, cognitive dissonance can be created. Unbalance in screen real-estate usage. Screen real-estate is, according to UsabilityFirst, ‘the amount of space available on a display for an application to provide output’.10 Typically, its proper use is directly related to the information conveyed in the dialog, the aesthetics, and the context. Maximizing effective use of screen real estate is one of the most difficult design challenges: excessive information may be poorly organized or confusing, so effective screen layouts

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__________________________________________________________________ must be used with appropriate use of white space. Another principle of usability that is of particular interest to static areas is the memory load over user actions. Users have to learn and remember the navigation flow of the user interface (UI) to reach for the required functionality. Optimally, especially in applications with a limited feature scope, any functionality should be reached within one click, or a key combination stroke. The sidebar can be refactored into a toolbar or status bar where the available actions are permanently presented to the user. A horizontal bar is preferable because it reduces the area of the dialog used to present options and hotspots and uses this space more effectively. Gulf of expectations and evaluation in information structure. The gulf of execution is a quantified distance between a user’s intentions and expectations and what is actually possible to do with the interface. According to Norman, it is the difference between the intentions of the users and what the system allows them to do or how well the system supports those actions.11 The gulf of evaluation, on the other hand, is related to the user’s ability to diagnose what the UI process actually implies in terms of steps: from interface to interpretation and to evaluation. In other words, the gulf of evaluation is directly related to how easy it is for the user to get information on the current status and feedback on its actions. This separation between action and information areas increases the interaction cost since the information areas and the action points are spread across different panes of the vertical tabs. Inconsistent use of controls. Consistency, both functional and aesthetic, enables users to efficiently transfer knowledge, learn new processes more quickly, and grow trust in the design of any given system. Functional consistency refers to consistency of meaning and action (e.g., a traffic light that shows a yellow light before going to red). Functional consistency improves usability and learnability by enabling people to leverage existing knowledge about how the design functions. Aesthetic consistency refers to consistency of style and appearance (e.g., a company logo that uses a consistent font, color, and graphic). Aesthetic consistency enhances recognition, communicates membership, and sets emotional expectations. Low signal-to-noise ratio in dialog information. In the context of UI design, the signal-to-noise ratio is relevant to the conciseness and directness of the information presented to the user. Extraneous elements (noise) degrade the form and quality of information relevant to the user (signal). Maximizing signal means clearly communicating information with minimal degradation. Signal degradation occurs when information is presented inefficiently: unclear writing, inappropriate graphs, or ambiguous icons and labels. Signal clarity is improved through simple and concise presentation of information. System status is not permanently available. In technical settings, the system status is critical to proper operation: from a forklift to a cell phone, the general

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__________________________________________________________________ status of the device or entity should be both clearly visible and clear to the user. The same happens in UI, especially for security software. The usability of a system is improved when its status and methods of use are clearly visible. Feature implementation dissemination. Simplicity is one of the prime examples achieved when everyone can easily understand and use the design, regardless of experience, literacy, or concentration level. It is one of the basic principles of UI design and it is a powerful ally against feature creep: unnecessary complexity should be avoided and consistency becomes of prime value as it decreases interaction cost. Consistency and control centralization can be better be achieved by reusing patterns and control sets. Inefficient use of control metaphors. The use of controls as metaphors is represented universally in UI layouts, from the traffic light window controls in the Mac OSX to the use of the trash as a metaphor. Generally, metaphors trigger in the user a sense of familiarity and allow it to associate a system functionality or structure with another real-life concept or object known by the user.

Figure 3: A common desktop metaphor: the trash can. Colour is also a component of this metaphor system. It allows highlighting or attracting attention to specific elements of the UI, as well as signal status in an effective way. Saturated colors (pure hues) naturally attract attention as they are perceived as more vivid and dynamic to the human eye. However, intense use of saturated colors can also cause fatigue to the user. The use of a switch as a metaphor is much more efficient when the switch itself uses the symbolism to its potential. The absence of color for highlighting status in switches makes it harder to determine its status. The use of two text labels next to the control introduces complexity unnecessarily as the control status is being clarified with additional text instead of using the control itself as a representation of the metaphor. The switch used for signaling on/off does not necessarily have to be a neutral color native switch and could instead use a bitmap that uses red and green, or an illustration to show its current state. Duplicate configuration logic. Discrete design based on elementarity implies smart decisions on building functionality models in an application. This is directly related to the Occam’s Razor principle, which in itself is a solid adaptation of the simplicity paradigm and equates that entities should not be multiplied without

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__________________________________________________________________ necessity. Functional equivalence is only to be duplicated in cases where concrete usability studies and metrics justify it. This is also a prime directive for effective information architecture: pin it, lock it, reuse it. 5. Conclusions Accurate measurement of user experience is one of the challenges that UX faces, with the abstraction of emotion and satisfaction often forcing researchers to resort to page navigation time or traffic, but attitudinal data can be observed in the field with usability testing and, similarly, with surveys and contextual observation. Google has been instrumental not only for the establishment of UX as an ubiquitous term in the field, but also in popularizing quantitative metrics, as is the case of the HEART framework12 proposed by Google, which divides UX metrics in five categories: happiness, engagement, adoption, retention, and task success.13 Broad in its target, the psychological implications of this definition are nevertheless clear: UX is less a well-defined discipline than the combined sum of the user’s emotional response to a specific product. A typical user is not looking for the color scheme details of an app’s interface or interested in the harmonious streamlining of the checkout feature in a website: only the full, integrated experience matters. And, for the user, as for the art critic or the casual observer, an artefact is only as good as the experience it provides.

Notes 1

Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art? And Essays on Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959). 2 John Frere, ‘Account of Flint Weapons Discovered at Hoxne in Suffolk,’ Archaeologia, 13 (1800): 204-205. 3 April Nowell, ‘From a Paleolithic Art to Pleistocene Visual Cultures,’ Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 13.4 (2006): 244. 4 Talia Lavie and Noam Tractinsky, ‘Assessing Dimensions of Perceived Visual Aesthetics of Web Sites,’ International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 60.3 (2004): 269-298. 5 Ibid. 6 These terms, as other gestures and interaction modes grow in popularity, are creeping also in crystallized reality modes. Mixed reality and virtual reality (VR) are currently on the uprise after a progressive decay since the 90s. Driven primarily by real-time rendered graphics, VR depends on aesthetics for its suspension of disbelief, as well as designing worlds suitable for and believable during exploration. The implications of usability and design discussed in this chapter are, however, also applicable to these emergent modes of interaction.

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__________________________________________________________________ 7

Åke E. Andersson and David E. Andersson, The Economics of Experiences, The Arts and Entertainment (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub, 2006). 8 Jakob Nielsen, ‘10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design,’ web site of Nielsen Norman Group (Fremont: Nielsen Norman Group, January 1, 1995), viewed 9 June 2014, http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/. 9 Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (New York: Basic Books, 2013). 10 UsabilityFirst, ‘Glossary » screen real estate’ (Colorado: Foraker Labs of Boulder), viewed 9 June 2014, http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/screen-realestate/. 11 Norman, The Design of Everyday Things. 12 Kerry Rodden, ‘How to Choose the Right UX Metrics for Your Product,’ Google Ventures, viewed 9 June 2014, http://www.gv.com/lib/how-to-choose-theright-ux-metrics-for-your-product. 13 Kerry Rodden, Hilary Hutchinson and Xin Fu, ‘Measuring the User Experience on a Large Scale: User-Centered Metrics for Web Applications,’ Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI '10 (New York: ACM, 2010), 2395-2398.

Bibliography Albers, Michael J. and Brian Still, eds. Usability of Complex Information Systems: Evaluation of User Interaction. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2011. Allen, Jesmond. Smashing UX Design: Foundations for Designing Online User Experiences. Smashing Magazine Book Series. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Balsamo, Anne Marie. Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work. Durham [NC]: Duke University Press, 2011. Barboza, David. ‘A Popular Chinese Social Networking App Blazes Its Own Path.’ The New York Times, January 20, 2014. Viewed on 9 June 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/technology/a-chinese-social-network-blazesits-own-path.html?_r=2. Bouissac, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia of Semiotics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

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__________________________________________________________________ Danesi, Marcel and Paul Perron. Analyzing Cultures: An Introduction and Handbook. Advances in Semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. Eco, Umberto. Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1986. Evers, Vanessa and Donald Day. ‘The Role of Culture in Interface Acceptance.’ Human Computer Interaction: INTERACT'97, edited by Steve Howard, Judy Hammond and Gitte Lindgaard, 260-267. Sydney: Chapman and Hall, 1997. Fishwick, Paul A., ed. Aesthetic Computing. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006. Frere, John. ‘Account of Flint Weapons Discovered at Hoxne in Suffolk.’ Archaeologia 13 (1800): 204-205. Glaser, Barney G. and Anselm L. Strauss. The Discovery of Grounded Theory Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine, 1973. Gudwin, Ricardo and João Queiroz. Semiotics and Intelligent Systems Development. Hershey, PA: Idea Group, 2007. Gudykunst, William B., ed. Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2003. Hartson, Rex H. The UX Book: Process and Guidelines for Ensuring a Quality User Experience. Boston: Elsevier, 2012. ISO 9241-210:2010 – Ergonomics of Human-System Interaction – Part 210: Human-Centred Design for Interactive Systems. Viewed 9 June 2014. http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=52075. Johnson, Jeff. Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rules. Boston: Elsevier, 2010. Krug, Steve. Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2006. Lavie, Talia and Noam Tractinsky. ‘Assessing Dimensions of Perceived Visual Aesthetics of Web Sites.’ International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 60.3 (2004): 269-298.

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__________________________________________________________________ Martinez, Pepe. The Consumer Mind: Brand Perception and the Implication for Marketers. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2012. Nöth, Winfried. Semiotics of the Media: State of the Art, Projects, and Perspectives. Approaches to Semiotics. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997. Nowell, April. ‘From a Paleolithic Art to Pleistocene Visual Cultures.’ Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 13.4 (2006), 239-249. O’Neill, Shaleph. Interactive Media the Semiotics of Embodied Interaction. London: Springer, 2008. Nielsen, Jakob. Usability Engineering. Boston: Academic Press, 1993. ———. ‘10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design.’ Web site of Nielsen Norman Group. Fremont: Nielsen Norman Group, January 1, 1995. Viewed 9 June 2014. http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/. ———. ‘Usability 101: Introduction to Usability.’ Web site of Nielsen Norman Group. Fremont: Nielsen Norman Group, January 4, 2014. Viewed 9 June 2014. http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/. Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books, 2013. Quesenbery, Whitney. Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World. Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2012. Rafaeli, Anat and Iris Vilnai-Yavetz. ’Emotion as a Connection of Physical Artifacts and Organizations.’ Organization Science 15.6 (2004), 671-686. Rodden, Kerry. ‘How to Choose the Right UX Metrics for Your Product.’ Google Ventures. Viewed 9 June 2014. http://www.gv.com/lib/how-to-choose-the-rightux-metrics-for-your-product. Rodden, Kerry, Hilary Hutchinson and Xin Fu. ‘Measuring the User Experience on a Large Scale: User-Centered Metrics for Web Applications.’ Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. CHI '10, 23952398. New York: ACM, 2010.

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__________________________________________________________________ Sauro, Jeff. Quantifying the User Experience: Practical Statistics for User Research. Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2012. Sauro, Jeff. A Practical Guide to Measuring Usability: 72 Answers to the Most Commom Questions about Quantifying the Usability of Websites and Software. Denver, CO: Measuring Usability LLC, 2010. Schumacher, Robert M., ed. The Handbook of Global User Research. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2010. de Souza, Clarisse Sieckenius. The Semiotic Engineering of Human-Computer Interaction. Acting with Technology. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2005. Sparke, Penny. An Introduction to Design and Culture: 1900 to the Present. London: Routledge, 2013. Sturrock, John. Structuralism. London: Paladin, 1986. Sun, Huatong. Cross-Cultural Technology Design: Creating Culture-Sensitive Technology for Local Users. Oxford Series in Human-Technology Interaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Tolstoy, Leo. What Is Art? And Essays on Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959. UsabilityFirst. ‘Glossary » screen real estate.’ Colorado: Foraker Labs of Boulder. Viewed 9 June 2014. http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/screen-real-estate/. Zeldman, Jeffrey. ‘The Puzzle of Japanese Web Design.’ New York: zeldman.com. Viewed 9 June 2014. http://www.zeldman.com/2010/07/25/the-puzzle-of-japanese-web-design/. Zuckert, Rachel. Kant on Beauty and Biology: An Interpretation of the Critique of Judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Alberto Ferreira is a Cultural Studies PhD student at Goldsmiths. University of London. His research interests are linked to ethnography, philosophy, and sociology, particularly post-humanism, ethics, and economic sociology. When not changing into his alternative guise as an amateur musician, he works as a user experience consultant.

Notions on Beauty in Mathematics and Arts Tuuli Lähdesmäki Abstract Since the birth of civilization, mathematics and arts have been essential instruments with which human beings have discerned, interpreted, and represented reality in an attempt to explain and control the world. Mathematics and art are conceptual and symbolic ‘languages’ that humans use to depict both their empirical perceptions and imaginings. The history of Western culture can be seen as a continuum of epistemological battles and alliances between two ways of describing the world: the cultural-emblematic and a mathematical-logical ethos. According to these conflicting views, the world has been grasped through explanations either cultural, and thus ‘particular’, or scientific, and thus ‘universal’. These two views have formed a dualistic scholarly context which prompted philosophers, artists, and scientists to discuss whether the world and its diverse phenomena can be explained and perceived either through the universal laws of mathematics or as culture-bound narrations and symbols. In essence, it was debated whether the world is best represented using the ‘language’ of mathematics or that of the arts. Following Foucault´s conceptualization, both the cultural-emblematic and the mathematicallogical ethos can be understood as two epistemes between which various issues, such as the nature of knowledge and the notions on reality, ‘truth’, and beauty, are intertwined and in which they are differently comprehended. Despite their differences, the epistemes share a common conceptual realm: some of the terms, words, and concepts are used in both. This common realm stems from the vocabulary of aesthetics. Mathematicians often refer to the aesthetic qualities of geometry, mathematical formulas, and scientific theories using the terms and expressions artists and art critics employ when they evaluate artistic objects and visualizations. The concept of beauty is discussed in the fields of both mathematics and arts - even though in a different sense. Based on a literature review, the chapter discusses how the notions on reality, ‘truth’, and beauty are intertwined in these two epistemes - and how the views are justified and argued for. Key Words: Arts, beauty, culture, discourse, episteme, geometry, mathematics, reality, truth. ***** 1. Introduction: Mathematics and Arts as Means to Depict the World Since the birth of civilization, mathematics and arts have been essential instruments with which human beings have discerned, constituted, and reflected reality and expressed their strivings to explain, take over, and control nature. Mathematics and arts form their own modes of communication, which can be used

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__________________________________________________________________ to reveal the alleged structures of the universe and nature. Throughout the history of Mankind, they have contributed to several practices of illustrating and manifesting the reality both intrinsic and extrinsic to human beings. Both mathematics and arts are conceptual and symbolic ‘languages’ which have been used to depict human empirical perceptions and imaginings. Both ‘languages’ refer to worlds outside their symbolic sphere - they both provide representations of the visible and non-visible phenomena. In neither case, these representations equal the idea of resemblance or likeness, but they may rely on likeness in some respect. Bas C. van Fraassen1 calls this selective likeness. According to him: Likeness in contextually selective fashion is important to scientific practice. The world, the world that our science is of, is the world depicted in science, and what is depicted there, is the content of its theoretical representations...2 The same can be said about arts - the world of art is the world depicted in the language of art. Arts thus offer us artistic or emblematic representations of the world. The ‘languages’ of mathematics and arts are both based on cultural agreements and their interpretation requires a ‘reader’ who is able to decode their messages. ‘Reading’ the language of mathematics or of arts requires knowledge of these ‘languages’ and the competence to decipher their content. Reading and decoding are cultural and human actions, and they always take place within a cultural and subjective context. But how well do these two ‘languages’ communicate with each other? From antiquity until the present day, the history of Western culture can be seen as a continuum of epistemological battles and alliances between the culturalemblematic and the mathematical-logical ethos of describing the world. These discursive battles can be traced back to the Platonic and Aristotelian traditions. According to these two opposing views, the world can be grasped either through cultural, and thus ‘particular’, or scientific, and thus ‘universal’, explanations. Depending on the prevalent world view, only one of them has been perceived as revealing the mysteries of the world, manifesting the human mind and the reality, containing the ‘truth’, and explaining ‘beauty’. These two views have formed a dualistic scholarly context which has influenced philosophic, artistic, and scientific discussions. Philosophers, artists and scientists have debated whether the world and its diverse phenomena can be explained and perceived through the universal laws of mathematics or rather as culture-bound narrations and symbols; and whether the world can be the best represented using the ‘language’ of mathematics or that of the arts. Based on a literature review, the chapter discusses how the notions on reality, ‘truth’, and beauty are intertwined in the cultural-emblematic and the mathematical-logical ethos of describing the world; and how in their discourses their views are argued for and justified.

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__________________________________________________________________ 2. The Cultural-Emblematic and the Mathematical-Logical Episteme Contemporary linguists have defined different meaning-making modes and distinct strategies and practices of perceiving reality and its phenomena as discourses. Scholars have used the concept of discourse to refer to specific and restricted ways of producing meanings in and through certain kinds of social practices and uses of language. It has also been applied to explain broader societal structures which have an impact on various domains in societies and which manifest themselves in these domains through the similarity of strivings, values, ways of thinking, and actions of an era.3 In this broader sense, the concept of discourse approaches the sociological use of the concept of ideology4 or the idea of an episteme, as discussed by Michel Foucault.5 For Foucault, certain kinds of configurations of knowledge and the underlying assumptions regarding ‘truth’, ‘good’, and ‘proper’ produce a kind of ‘epistemological unconscious’ of an era, which encompasses not only science, but a wider range of discourses in culture, education, politics, law, morality, etc. Several epistemes may co-exist simultaneously and their interaction produces complex power hierarchies and various systems of power-knowledge.6 Following Foucault´s conceptualization, the cultural-emblematic and the mathematical-logical ethos can be determined as two distinct epistemes within which various issues are intertwined and differently comprehended, such as the nature of knowledge and the notions of reality, ‘truth’, and beauty. In both epistemes, language - in a broad Barthesian sense7 - and the use of language produce its objects. The nature of knowledge, reality, ‘truth’, and beauty are given meanings in linguistic utterances, textual expressions, and pictorial or mathematical representations. Despite their epistemological differences, the two epistemes share a common conceptual realm; certain terms, words, and concepts are used within both. This common realm stems from the vocabulary of aesthetics. Mathematicians often refer to the aesthetic qualities of geometry, mathematical formulas, and scientific theories, using the terms and expressions artists and art critics employ when they evaluate artistic objects and visualizations.8 The concept of beauty is discussed in the fields of both mathematics and arts even though it carries a different meaning in both discourses. Thus, the investigation of the uses of language, modes of conceptualization, and discursive meaning-making may reveal the epistemological and ontological differences between the cultural-emblematic and the mathematical-logical epistemes. The common object of interest between mathematics and arts - visualizations based on geometry and mathematical formulas - offers an interesting platform for these investigations.

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__________________________________________________________________ 3. Universality of Mathematics and the Laws of Nature as the Basis of Beauty When discussing images based on mathematical formulas or on spatial objects obeying a system of proportions, mathematicians and scientists often emphasize geometry and mathematics as the foremost content and meaning of these images and objects. In the discourse of mathematics and physics, geometrical and mathematical principles of the visual phenomena seem to relate them to the spheres of reason and logic, which further increases their importance and significance within the discourse. In general, reason, logic, and the objectivity of perception are determinants which are often related to science9 and which can be considered to determine the mathematical-logical episteme. Among the discourses within the episteme, the ‘language’ of geometry and mathematics is deemed universal, and, thus, the images and objects based on them are considered to carry fundamental universality. In addition, the discourses of the episteme relate the universality of geometry and mathematics to the idea of their beauty, and thus come to emphasize the idea of beauty as a universal quality. Since antiquity, scientists and philosophers have brought to the fore how, for example, the facades of architectural ‘masterpieces’ and the compositions of famous paintings obey the proportions of the Golden Ratio or the Fibonacci sequence. The beauty of these works of art has been identified with the geometrical and mathematical principles they follow and which are considered to imply the existence of universal aesthetics. The fundamental point of departure in the mathematical-logical episteme is in the overall theories and worldviews based on mathematical principles. The episteme relies on the belief/knowledge of the rationality of the world and its physical phenomena. According to its views, the world and its structures are thus possible to understand, explain, and depict through mathematical formulas. ‘We live in a universe of patterns’, is the statement that Ian Stewart starts his book on mathematics and numbers as the elements that underlie everything.10 Besides mathematics, geometry, and numbers in general, several scholars have perceived symmetry as the key to explain the structure, function, and logic of the world and its diverse physical, social, and cultural phenomena.11 In the discourses within the episteme, mathematics and geometry are often considered the laws of nature upon which the whole world is based. Images and objects that obey the ‘laws’ of geometry and mathematics are also considered to obey the natural ‘laws’ of beauty. Besides beauty, mathematics, geometry, and symmetry12 have been connected to the idea of ‘truth’. In the history of philosophical thinking, the search for beauty and ‘truth’ has often been complemented by the search of the ‘good’.13 Beauty, ‘truth’, and the good form the fundamental trinity which was already highlighted in the dialogues of Plato, and it continues to be of interest throughout the history of philosophy of the Western science and arts.14

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__________________________________________________________________ In the discourses within the mathematical-logical episteme, the history of Western art is perceived through and explained by the novel applications of geometry and mathematics in artistic work. Styles, epochs, and works of art have been discussed as a reinvention of, rethinking of, or a return to geometry. The history of Western art has been seen as an evolution, developed from the invention of perspective to constructivist modern art, where artistic expression is deemphasized and transformed into the composition of pure geometric forms and Platonic solids.15 Because the discourses within the mathematical-logical episteme emphasize the universality of geometry and mathematics and the aesthetics related to them, the perception of beauty and the aesthetics of the geometrical and mathematical visualizations are not considered dependent on the cultural, historical, or individual contexts of their receivers. In these discourses, the aesthetics of geometrical and mathematical images is considered to be non-subjective and non-historical. Even though reason, logic, and objectivity are key points in the mathematicallogical episteme, its idea of the fundamental ‘laws’ of nature, which provide the basis for the whole universe and explain the diverse phenomena of reality, includes certain magic and mysticism. As Ian Stewart notes, with a reference to the famous lines on beauty and ‘truth’ by John Keats: Why does the universe seem to be so mathematical? Various answers have been proposed, but I find none of them very convincing. The symmetrical relation between mathematical ideas and the physical world, like the symmetry between our sense of beauty and the most profoundly important mathematical forms, is a deep and possibly unsolvable mystery. None of us can say why beauty is truth, and truth beauty. We can only contemplate the infinite complexity of the relationship.16 The ’laws’ of nature and the mathematical structures of the world have often been discussed as if they were a mystery with a divine dimension.17 Already in the antiquity, the Golden Ratio was called a Divine Proportion. In the famous painting Ancient of Days (1794), William Blake depicted God as a mathematician who measures the universe with a compass. Contemporary mathematicians have also brought to the fore the divinity of mathematics. In the title of his book, Mario Livio asks, ‘Is God a Mathematician?’, thereby referring to: a mystery with which some of the most original minds have struggled for centuries - the apparent omnipresence and omnipotent powers of mathematics. These are the type of characteristics one normally associates only with a deity.18

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__________________________________________________________________ 4. Beauty as a Context-Bound, Relativist, and Historical Concept In contrast with the ideas of the mathematical-logical episteme, mathematical and geometrical images can be conceived of, understood, and explained as cultural representations and artistic emblems that transmit diverse meanings to different receivers. In particular, scholars in humanities, such as historians, art historians, ethnologists, anthropologists, and also ethno-mathematicians, have emphasized the cultural, social, and historical contexts, both in the production and reception of geometrical and mathematical images.19 These notions rely on the worldview of the cultural-emblematic episteme where universal ‘laws’ are not considered to explain the meaning of reality, and where reason and logic are believed to be unable to reveal any fundamental ‘truths’. In the discourses within the episteme, different ‘truths’ are actually cultural formations and, thus, historically transforming constructions. Mathematical formulas and mathematical explanations of the world are also cultural, and the ideas of the intrinsic beauty and the universal explanatory power of symmetry, geometrical patterns, and mathematical proportions, such as the Golden Ratio, can also be perceived as cultural constructions.20 Unlike in the mathematical-logical episteme, the notions of beauty and aesthetics within the cultural-emblematic episteme are considered culturally bound conceptualizations and experiences. They are based on conventions as well as shared cultural and social habits. In particular, in the fields of art history and philosophy, and cultural history, the ideas of beauty and the truthful or realistic representation of the world have been explained by transforming schemas based on learning and on previous experiences.21 In the discourses within the episteme, aesthetic experiences do not have a universal or an objective base. Instead of reason and objectivity, the discourses of the episteme reflect the subjects and their subjective emotions, as well as cultural attitudes towards the reception of images. Instead of the non-sensible, the discourses highlight the emotional and affective nature of mathematical images. In the Western history of art, artists have often wanted to break the artistic conventions and the dominant ideals of beauty, and in so doing, they have aimed at changing the concept of art itself. In the field of art, definitions of the ideas of good and beautiful art have been, and still are, a matter of contest. In this field, the socalled gate-keepers (acknowledged experts, established art critics, workers in art museums and galleries, art historians, etc.) have, either intentionally or unintentionally, determined and defined what is considered to be art, and the kinds of expressions that are interpreted as aesthetic. Gate-keepers and artists do not unanimously agree on these definitions. Art sociologists, such as Pierre Bourdieu, have emphasized how the fields of art and culture are founded on a continuous battle about meanings and positions out of which these meanings can be produced.22 In mathematics, the concept of beauty can also be considered as discursively and socially determined. Mathematical

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__________________________________________________________________ beauty and artistic beauty are both cultural constructions, as Daniel J. Goldstein states.23 New mathematical theories and artistic innovations become ‘objects of beauty’ only after new generations are educated in them. In both fields, identifying beauty requires familiarity with the conventions of the field, which is gained over time through effort and exercise.24 Besides interpreting cultural, artistic, religious, symbolic, or emblematic meanings of mathematical images, scholars in humanities have often emphasized their diverse performative functions. The creation of mathematical imagery often involves a performative ritual which connects the image to a particular spiritual worldview or a system of knowledge, such it is the case in the geometrical line drawings known as kolams in southern India and parts of the Far East. Kolams are drawing rituals in which a line circling a grid pattern of dots is drawn with a chalk or with rice powder on the ground in front of the house. Its purpose is to bestow prosperity and good fortune on the residents. The drawing ritual as such is a meditative process creating a connection to the spiritual world.25 Mathematical and geometrical images have also functioned as ritual spaces which have further strengthened their symbolic and performative meanings, as in the case of labyrinth tiling on the floors of various medieval churches in Europe. A labyrinth is a Christian symbol of the path of the soul through life, or more precisely a symbol of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was used in the churches as the physical stage for medieval clergy dances, performed during Easter,26 and later for pilgrimage rituals practiced by monks and pilgrims.27 According to the discourses within the cultural-emblematic episteme, each culture and its historical phase has its own system of knowledge, interpretational frame, and aesthetic ideal, which determine the production, interpretation, and use of mathematical imagery. 5. Conclusions: Building Bridges between Mathematics and the Arts Different ways of explaining the world have often been considered exclusionary. To this day, art and science are often considered as two incompatible modes of grasping the world: they are seen as subjective or objective, as practical or theoretical, and as appealing to either emotions or reason. However, throughout history, these two modes have intertwined in various ways. Since antiquity, several scholars and artists have fruitfully aimed at merging these modes and create interdisciplinary explanations of the world by combining the views of the two epistemes in their thinking. The interdependence and interaction between the cultural-emblematic and the mathematical-logical worldviews culminated in Renaissance scholarship, theoretical treatises, and artistic practice. In the Renaissance, geometrical and mathematical proportions were adopted as underlying principles, e.g. in the perspective theory, architectural concepts, definitions of musical harmonies, and ideals of bodily beauty. Several scholars have discussed and highlighted the continuity between mathematical and artistic

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__________________________________________________________________ ethos in the Western world, from the Renaissance to the emergence of modernism in the 19th century.28 In academic and scholarly practices, the cultural-emblematic and mathematicallogical epistemes can also be interpreted as gradually diverging after the Renaissance. The development of modern science and academia with distinct focus had an impact on the specialization of disciplines and the deepening specialty of their fields of enquiry. As a consequence, the core questions, methods, and epistemological and ontological understanding in different disciplines were differentiated and the interaction and dialogue between them narrowed. Similarly, the arts developed into its own field with its own criteria of evaluation, special value systems, expertise, and connoisseurship. The field of art, along with its agents, practices, and knowledge, was institutionalized as a hierarchical system. Because of this, acting in the realm of arts required a special competence and an acknowledged position within its hierarchy. In addition to emphasizing the affinity of mathematics, geometry, arts, and aesthetics in the Western world, the relations between the cultural-emblematic and the mathematical-logical epistemes can be thus presented as a collision or a disencounter. On the one hand, the differences between the epistemes have caused a lack of interest in the worldview and modes of thinking of each other. On the other hand, the agents in science and arts have fostered epistemic thinking in their own disciplines, and, thus, created even stronger differences and juxtapositions between the epistemes. The recent developments in academia have aimed at producing bridges between the cultural-emblematic and the mathematical-logical epistemes. During the past decades, multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary approaches have been emphasized in natural, social, and human sciences. However, the epistemes still exist and continue to influence the theories and practices in science and arts, as well as the interdisciplinary dialogue between them. Acknowledgements This chapter is part of the project titled ‘Mathematical connections in visual arts and culture’ launched in the Department of Arts and Culture Studies, at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. I want to thank PhD Kristof Fenyvesi, PhD Lauri Ockenström, and Prof. Raine Koskimaa for the discussions on the topic of the article and the co-operation in the preparation of the project.

Notes 1 2

Bas C. van Fraassen, Scientific Representation (Oxford: Clarendon, 2008), 7. Ibid., 9.

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Teun A. van Dijk, ‘The Study of Discourse,’ Discourse as Structure and Process. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction Volume 1, ed. by Teun A. van Dijk (London: Sage Publications, 1997), 1-34. 4 Stuart Hall, ‘The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power,’ Formations of Modernity, ed. by Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben (Cambridge: Polity, 1992), 275320; Alastair Pennycook, ‘Incommensurable Discourse?’ Applied Linguistics 15.2 (1994): 127. 5 Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (New York: Pantheon Books, 1970). 6 Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge. Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980), 194-198. 7 Roland Barthes, ‘Texte (théorie du),’ Encyclopaedia Universalis 15 (Paris: Encyclopaedia Universalis, 1973), 1013-1017. 8 Danil J. Goldstein, ‘Beauty in Art and Mathematics: A Common Neural Substrate or the Limits of Language?’ Renaissance Banff, eds. by Reza Sarhangi and Robert V. Moody. Conference proceeding of Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science held 31 Jul - 3 Aug in Alberta, Canada (Phoenix: Tessellations Publishing, 2005), 93-100. 9 György Darvas, Symmetry (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2007), 375. 10 Ian Stewart, Nature´s Numbers. The Unreal Reality of Mathematics (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 1. 11 E.g., Joe Rosen, Symmetry Rules. How Science and Nature Are Founded on Symmetry (Berlin: Springer, 2008); Darvas, Symmetry; Ian Stewart, Why Beauty is Truth. The History of Symmetry (New York: Basic Books, 2007). 12 See particularly Stewart, Why Beauty is Truth. 13 Darvas, Symmetry, 376. 14 Darvas, Symmetry. 15 See e.g., Darvas, Symmetry. 16 Stewart, Why Beauty is Truth, xiii. 17 Ian Stewart and Martin Golubitsky, Fearful Symmetry. Is God a Geometer? (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992); Mario Livio, Is God a Mathematician? (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009). 18 Livio, Is God a Mathematician?, 1. 19 Ellen Swift, Style and Function in Roman Decoration (Abingdon: Ashgate, 2009), 12. See the discussion on the opposite views between the universalist and cultural notions on the nature of perception e.g., Jacques Ninio, The Science of Illusions, trans. Franklin Philip (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001). 20 Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio. The Story of Phi. The World´s Most Astonishing Number (New York: Broadway Books, 2003).

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__________________________________________________________________ 21

See e.g., Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (New York: Pantheon Books, 1960); Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1976). 22 Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Routledge: London, 1984). 23 Goldstein, ‘Beauty in Art and Mathematics,’ 94. 24 Goldstein ‘Beauty in Art and Mathematics’; Gian-Carlo Rota, Indiscrete Thoughts (Boston: Birkhäuser, 2008), 128. 25 Vijaya Rettakudi, Nagarajan, ‘Threshols Designs Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals: Exploring Time and Space in Tamil Kolams’, in Women's Lives, Women's Rituals in the Hindu Tradition, ed. by Trace Pintchman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 85-106. 26 Tessa Morrison, ‘Labyrinthine Path of Pilgrimage,’ Peregrinations. Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 1.3 (2003): 1-7. 27 Craig M. Wright, The Maze and the Warrior: Symbols in Architecture, Theology, and Music (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 210. 28 Martin Kemp, The Science of Art. Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).

Bibliography Barthes, Roland. ‘Texte (théorie du)’. Encyclopaedia Universalis 15, 1013-1017. Paris: Encyclopaedia Universalis, 1973. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Routledge: London, 1984. Darvas, György. Symmetry. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2007. van Dijk, Teun A. ‘The Study of Discourse’. Discourse as Structure and Process. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction Volume 1, edited by Teun A. van Dijk, 1-34. London: Sage Publications, 1997. van Fraassen, Bas C. Scientific Representation. Oxford: Clarendon, 2008. Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York: Pantheon Books, 1970. Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge. Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980.

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__________________________________________________________________ Goldstein, Daniel J. ‘Beauty in Art and Mathematics: A Common Neural Substrate or the Limits of Language?’. Renaissance Banff, edited by Reza Sarhangi and Robert V. Moody, 93-100. Conference proceeding of Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science held 31 Jul - 3 Aug in Alberta, Canada. Phoenix: Tessellations Publishing, 2005. Gombrich, Ernst. Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. New York: Pantheon Books, 1960. Goodman, Nelson. Languages of Art. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1976. Hall, Stuart. ‘The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power’. Formations of Modernity, edited by Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben, 275-320. Cambridge: Polity, 1992. Kemp, Martin. The Science of Art. Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990. Livio, Mario. The Golden Ratio. The Story of Phi. The World´s Most Astonishing Number. New York: Broadway Books, 2003. Livio, Mario. Is God a Mathematician? New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009. Morrison, Tessa. ‘Labyrinthine Path of Pilgrimage’. Peregrinations. Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 1.3 (2003): 1-7. Viewed on 12 October 2016. http://peregrinations.kenyon.edu/vol1-3.pdf. Nagarajan, Vijaya Rettakudi. ‘Threshols Designs Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals: Exploring Time and Space in Tamil Kolams’. Women's Lives, Women's Rituals in the Hindu Tradition, edited Trace Pintchman, 85-106. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Ninio, Jacques. The Science of Illusions. Translated by Franklin Philip. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. Pennycook, Alastair. ‘Incommensurable Discourse?’. Applied Linguistics 15.2 (1994): 115-138. Rosen, Joe. Symmetry Rules. How Science and Nature Are Founded on Symmetry. Berlin: Springer, 2008.

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__________________________________________________________________ Rota, Gian-Carlo. Indiscrete Thoughts. Boston: Birkhäuser, 2008. Stewart, Ian. Nature´s Numbers. The Unreal Reality of Mathematics. New York: Basic Books, 1995. Stewart, Ian. Why Beauty is Truth. The History of Symmetry. New York: Basic Books, 2007. Stewart, Ian, and Martin Golubitsky. Fearful Symmetry. Is God a Geometer? Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992. Swift, Ellen. Style and Function in Roman Decoration. Abingdon: Ashgate, 2009. Wright, Craig M. The Maze and the Warrior: Symbols in Architecture, Theology, and Music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001. Tuuli Lähdesmäki, PhD, DSocSci, is an Academy Researcher Fellow at the Department of Art and Culture Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She specializes in the analysis of discursive meaning-making processes in visual art and contemporary visual culture.

Part III Building Cultural Definitions of Beauty

Beauty in Space and Time: The Changing Construction of Beauty among Ghanaian Youth Georgina Yaa Oduro Abstract Beauty is a relative concept. It is also socio-culturally constructed. What may be defined as beautiful in one context or culture may be perceived as disgusting in another. However in a globalised era where what happens in one context or country easily gets relayed to another country, to what extent has the cultural definition of Ghanaian or African beauty been upheld by young people in Ghana? This chapter explores the construction of beauty by two groups of Ghanaian youth: those in a peri-urban setting who still hold on to traditional Ghanaian notions of beauty and those located in a cosmopolitan context who have been deeply affected by Western construction of beauty with an emphasis on slenderness and bodies decorated with beauty enhancement products. The chapter draws on social constructionist theory. It employs a multiple methods design made up of in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and write-ups by young people to unearth their construction of beauty. The chapter concludes that contexts matter in the definition and expression of beauty. Additionally, the strong impact of globalisation through media projections cannot be under estimated in constructions and representations of beauty in this twenty-first century. Key Words: Beauty, body image, Ghanaian, socio-cultural, youth, social constructionism, context, African beauty, globalisation, enhancement products. ***** 1. Introduction Beauty is in transition. Discourses around the body and beauty continue to gain the attention of the old and young alike. It is common to open an internet site or television channel and be bombarded with concepts and notions of personal beauty, based on body size and shape, skin colour, dress code, hairstyle, facial presentation and expression, among others. Such notions appear based on Eurocentric notions with expressions such as ‘whiteness is beautiful’,1 among others. The renowned feminist and prolific writer on the body, Susan Bordo,2 however, observes that ‘the body- what we eat, how we dress, the daily rituals through which we attend to the body - is a medium of culture.’3 Bordo tried to position the body and beauty in its cultural milieu. Similarly, the anthropologist Mary Douglas4 emphasises the cultural definition of the body and beauty through symbols. In her view, the body is a powerful symbolic form and surface on which the central rules, hierarchies and metaphysical commitments of a culture is inscribed. One cannot talk about beauty without taking into account the

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__________________________________________________________________ local and cultural context, as well as the physical and visual body. It is not unusual, however, for Ghanaians to have concepts of inner and outer beauty, related to one’s character as well as one’s physical attributes. What then is beauty? The difficulty and relativity associated with the definition of beauty has caused Saltzberg and Chrisler5 simply to describe it as an elusive commodity - one that cannot be quantified or objectively measured, as it is the result of the judgements of others. It is the influence of the beholder’s perceptions and cognitions regarding features and qualities that are seen as attractive. Beauty is traditionally associated with femininity rather than masculinity. Saltzberg and Chrisler6 consider that ‘the word beauty always refers to the female body’ while ‘handsomeness’ is used for males, with the associated conclusion that while men are instrumental, females are ornamental. This distinction notwithstanding, this chapter looks at the construction of both male and female ‘beauty’ by Ghanaian youth between ages 14 and 23, and the extent to which globalisation has impacted their definition. The section started by setting the tone for the chapter with a conceptualisation of the phenomenon of beauty. I next try to situate the chapter theoretically by drawing on Susan Bordo’s social constructionist theory. This is followed by a discussion of the study conditions, and findings concerning traditional constructs and changing definitions of beauty. The reasons for such changes, resulting from the impact of the global media and popular culture, are also analyzed. The chapter is guided by the following research questions: a) b) c) d)

How do young people in Ghana define beauty? What is the place of the body in their definitions? How do they distinguish between traditional and modern constructions of beauty? What factors informed their modern constructs of beauty?

2. The Theoretical Framework: Beauty as a Social Construct Social Constructionism is a theory of knowledge that considers how social phenomena or objects of consciousness develop in social contexts.7 It is the product of a group or society and reflects what society appreciates, upholds, accepts, and communicates. Insights from Lorber and Martin’s8 work on ‘the socially constructed body’, as well as Susan Bordo’s ‘Male Body’9 and ‘unbearable weight’,10 focus on contextual Eurocentric definitions of beauty, such as females with straight blonde hair, blue eyes, overall slim, with youthful looks and make-up. The concept of male beauty and grooming is also very popular in the Western world, thus the attention on the physical and erotic body supports the idea that beauty is contextual. For example, the beauty found in the practice of foot binding among the Chinese is contextual, as is the scarring and colouring of faces among Maori women in New Zealand. Women in Thailand and Myanmar were known to

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__________________________________________________________________ wear neck rings to elongate their necks, while Japanese women in the midnineteenth century enhanced their beauty through teeth blackening.11 Contextual meanings are relevant in social constructions because, as Oyewumi12 observes from the African context, Western Europe and North American history and social sciences have focused extremely on the construction of the human body through its visual sense to the neglect of actions and meanings that sometimes characterise such bodies. Guided by these observations, I adopt both Bordo’s and Oyewumi’s frameworks in considering the aesthetic and contextual meanings associated with Ghanaian young peoples’ definition of beauty. 3. The Study Context and Methodology I studied two categories of young people between the ages of 14 to 23. One group was predominantly from the major ethnic group in Ghana (the Akans) in the township of Cape Coast, while the other was a mixture of different ethnic groups. Cape Coast is the capital town of Ghana’s central region and citadel of education in the country. As such, Cape Coast exhibits features of both tradition and modernity, as it is inhabited by indigenes (mostly fishermen and farmers), as well as students and workers in the formal sector (banks, university lecturers, teachers etc). In this context, 30 young people (15 males and 15 females) from a suburb of Cape Coast and at the Junior Secondary School (JHS) level, a context associated with traditional world views, and whom I call indigenous youth, were recruited for this study. Another group of 50 young people from the cosmopolitan context of the University of Cape Coast (28 females and 22 males) also formed the second group. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were used to recruit the study participants. As a purely qualitative study, 30 semi-structured interviews and 6 focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with the 30 peri-urban youths on constructions of maleness and femaleness. The interviews and FGD sessions lasted between 45 and 90 minutes, depending on the environment and the intensity of the discussions. The cosmopolitan youths were given the question, ‘using a critical lens and informed by your cultural context, write out any five features and qualities you consider in order to conclude that a man is handsome or a woman is beautiful’. The Interview and focus group data were analysed with the support of Nvivo 8 software while the write-ups from the university students were manually analysed into categories and themes guided by Huberman and Miles framework.13 The results of the study are as follows. 4. Beauty in Context: Traditional African Beauty Cultural scripting of the body, particularly the female body, emerged strongly in this study. Beautiful physical features and character were considered in this regard.14 Unlike Western beauty, which seems premised on slenderness or the ‘thin body’, typical Africans pride themselves with rounded, curvy and plump women.15

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__________________________________________________________________ For example, among the Akans of Ghana, female beauty is constructed around one’s complexion (dark or light), skin texture, hair quality and body parts such as the face (broad and rounded), eye-balls (white and often compared to calico), teeth (white with a gap in the upper middle front), ringed neck (like that of a gourd or folded attractively like the fertility doll), standing and firm breasts (not too big or too small), big buttocks, and wide hips (for decoration with beads), legs with proportionate calves and feet (for adornment with footwear)16. In response to the first research question of how Ghanaian youth define beauty, all the 30 indigenous youth in the study identified some of the following physical features in Table 1 below: Table 1: Constructions of Male and Female Body and Beauty17 Girls (Femininity) Broad face (2183) Breast size (medium and pointed) (19) Gap between upper front teeth (18) Ringed neck (28) Smooth skin (20) Wide hips (30) Big thighs (25) Big buttocks (28) Well shaped calves (27) Shape of body (Curvy/Coca-Cola)

Boys (Masculinity) Height (must be tall) (26) Broad face (17) Well built physique (25) Flat stomach (27) Well trimmed hair (20) Neat appearance (28)

These results conform to the existing traditional beauty reported by SutherlandAddy19 Of note is the plump curvy figure of females which is popularly known as ‘coca cola shape’ among the Ghanaian youth. It reflects women with rounded figures and jutting backside.20 Interestingly, this construction reflects the ‘hourglass’ shape in Western culture and resonates with Saltzberg and Chrisler’s definition of the beauty ideal of nineteenth-century Europe, which valued a tiny waist with full hips and full bust line.21 Such attributes reflect the practice of fattening rooms in Calabar (Nigeria) and many other African countries, where would-be brides are kept indoors, groomed and fed in order to become plump and full-figured women in preparation for their wedding.22 The beauty ideal constructed by indigenous Ghanaian youth is also reflected the popular Akan highlife song released by Yamoah in the 1960s, known as ‘Serwa Akoto’. The song extols the definition and virtues of the ideal Ghanaian beauty and wished all women were like her. It sets the parameters of womanhood according to dominant patriarchal ideology, both in terms of physical attributes and personality traits.23 These aesthetic descriptions reflect questions of representation, local specificities, cultural variation, historicity, generational ideals and social locations. The physical attributes also address the second research question concerning body image and beauty.

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__________________________________________________________________ 5. The Other Side of Beauty: Beauty from Within Another version of beauty identified by the indigenous Ghanaian youth is the so-called ‘inner’ or character beauty, identified by twenty of the thirty participants. This ‘inner’ beauty was, however, highly gendered and reflected girls who are sober, do not dress provocatively, speak gently and respectfully, are dutiful, engage in household chores of cooking and cleaning, smile, and are not mean to others. The description reflects that of the virtuous woman in the book of ‘Proverbs’ in the Bible as well as Yamoah’s ‘Serwa Akoto’.24 Thus argues 15-year old Nina of Adom School: Beauty to me is about the way a person talks without shouting or screaming, the way the person dresses, simple and decent.... a girl who walks like a lady without running, rushing or wiggling her waist (Nina, 15 years, peri-urban girl). The notion of character beauty was emphasised by one 17 year-old boy who observed that: I like respectful and humble girls who dress to cover their sensitive parts. They reflect the traditional name, ‘akatasia’ which literally means ‘cover yourself up’. They are beautiful within and it reflects outside (Blessing, 17 years, peri-urban boy). This character or inner beauty also emerged in a focus group discussion as follows: Beautiful people are not mean, they smile and show concern to others. (Kojo, 14 years) If you are beautiful physically but wicked and do not want the progress of others, then you are not beautiful. (Oman, 16 years) If you are unapproachable, then you are not beautiful. (Joe, 17 years) To me, beautiful girls are those who do not sleep around. (Ike, 15 years) The above voices suggest notions of conventional femininity, including good character, love and concern for others, proper ways of dressing, talking, and walking. It also reflects the impact of the Ghanaian socio-cultural context,

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__________________________________________________________________ patriarchal constructions, social expectations of women with passive and controlled sexuality, as well as notions of domesticity and power dynamics with which society can regulate, control, and subdue women. 6. Beauty in Transition: The impact of Space and Time Beauty, like society, is not static, but changes with time. Ghana as an example, is described by the Ghanaian Sociologist Assimeng as a country in transition.25 He observes: It is evident that most Ghanaians operate in the traditional and modern social systems at various levels of social interaction. … Obviously, Ghanaians desire the material benefits of the modern world. But at the same time, they find it difficult to sacrifice the emotional security and comfort that had been a feature of the traditional social order.26 In this transitional context, beauty images are affected. The table and voices by the second group (the cosmopolitan youth) captures some of these changes. Table 2: Modern Construction of Male and Female Beauty Ideals by cosmopolitan youth.27 Female beauty ideals Pleasant and smiley face Good dental arrangement28 Full, kissable, pink and cute lips (30) Pointed and cute nose Lovely cheeks with dimples (27) Big and sexy eye balls, candy eyes Busty or big breasts and wide hips (38) Spotless and smooth skin (Black or toned) Slender body with long legs and flat tummy (45) Curvy women with shape/coca cola shape (22) Ladies with make-up and long silky hair (38)

Male beauty ideals Broad chest, back and shoulders Good height (must be tall) Hairy chest for playing and fondling (32) Stoutly built Muscular/ athletic looking with ‘six pack’ body (44) Good dental arrangement ( 28) Nice body odour Flat tummy (no pot belly) Gentle haircut Slender waist (20) Soft palms for caressing (29)

Forty-four percent out of the fifty urban youth held the traditional perception regarding curvy or ‘Coca-Cola’ shaped women. As many as 38 participants preferred women with full or heavy busts while 38 found women with make-up and long silky hair beautiful. Forty-five viewed females with slender bodies, long legs and flat tummies as beautiful, which differs from the views of the peri-urban youth and typical Ghanaian beauty constructs shown earlier. Further differences

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__________________________________________________________________ between the two groups were the emphasis on males with slender waist, soft palms for caressing, ‘six-pack’ body, good dental arrangement and hairy chest for playing and fondling - a clear eroticism and sophistication in the definition of male beauty by the cosmopolitan youth. Of contextual relevance is the focus on hairy chests, which contradicts the image of the male in Western contexts as evidenced by Calvin Klein adverts and the like, where males have clean shaved chests. Though the female breast occupies important place in the traditional Ghanaian construction of beauty, the group favoured medium-sized breast to bigger and full bust line. This construct may be attributed to the effect of popular and celebrity culture, where stars like Britain’s Katie Price (popularly known as Jordan), Kate Hudson, and Sofia Vergara increase their breast size through cosmetic surgery, specifically mammoplasty. While very few Ghanaians may be in the position to fund breast augmentation surgeries, some Ghanaian with heavy breasts who traditionally had negative self-images, are now positive and confident towards their assets and flaunt them around in cleavage-enhancing clothes, locally known as ‘mahyedwe’. It is common to see local stars and influential women in ‘boob’ exposing clothes on televisions and at public gatherings, together with long silky hair extensions, which is unnatural in view of the typical African kinky hair. This situation is enhanced by the popular practice of wig wearing, as shown on televisions and African films. This move from full curvy figures to slender silhouettes and thin ladies with long legs also contradicts the traditional Ghanaian construction of beauty (though we noted the atia-donko, which signifies slim women).29 7. Discussion It is observed that the modern constructs and desire for the ‘perfect and slender body’ may push people of African descent, with generally broad genetic make-up, especially females into all kinds of activities and experiences. These include rigorous exercises, dieting, starvation, purging, cosmetic surgery, and extreme make-overs.30 With the resulting health challenges posed by eating disorders associated with extreme dieting such as anorexia, bulimia, complications of malnutrition appeared. This also reflects what the British sociologist, Brian Turner, calls the challenge of achieving the ‘disciplined and fit body’, which is the ability to reject food and overcome hunger pangs. Turner further asserts that the contemporary emphasis on fitness, hygiene, dieting, thinness, beauty and youthfulness, are some of the mechanisms that society uses to self-regulate and promote consumer capitalism through the human body, particularly the bodies of women.31 Turner therefore concludes that body perceptions play a major role in self-concept, identity formations, self-image and sexual practice.32 These factors are of course, global but, as this chapter illustrates, they are especially problematic when set against traditional African concepts of beauty.

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__________________________________________________________________ The emphasis on the muscular ‘six pack’ physique also projects modern constructs. Though Africans have always preferred muscular men, such as traditional wrestlers (as depicted in Nigerian films), the concept of ‘six pack’ is alien. It denotes the gradual shifting from cultural, historical and contextual conceptualisations to Western and postmodern constructs. It confirms Bordo and Orbach’s assertion that bodies are no longer ‘God-given’, but created and recreated through cosmetic surgery, body enhancement procedures and phalloplastic industries. It was insightful to discover what informed aesthetic beauty as defined by cosmopolitan youth. Discussions revealed the stronghold of consumerist capitalist products and ideologies, such as media influence in the forms of movies, magazines, modelling, celebrity culture, popular culture and idols, vanity fairs, beauty pageants, and exposure to multi-culturalism (in effect often dominated by cultural assumptions). 8. Summary, Implications and Conclusions The chapter has demonstrated how the changing construction of male and female bodies has been fuelled by the impact of the global media, with its increasingly sexualised portrayals of the perfect and flawless body. Such constructions are gradually affecting cultural and contextual constructions of the body by causing negative self-images, stereotyping, psychological and health challenges, such as bulimia and anorexia, even though bodies are not constructed homogeneously in factories, but scripted in culture and race. As Naomi Wolf argues in her book The Beauty Myth, the objectification of women’s bodies to satisfy an objective and universal standard of beauty is inherently problematic and disempowering for women.33 Under the male gaze, the fetishization of the female body has resulted in the exploitation and development of what is now known as the ‘hybridized post-colonial African body’, reflected in hair alterations, from the kinky African hair to coloured, chemicalized, hair extensions and wigs, to toned, bleached and spotless skins for the perfect white complexion. The difference in the application of make-up, as well the use of uncommon beauty decorations and accessories, particularly in females, all contribute to emphasise the impact of globalisation. Inner beauty also featured in the construct of the peri-urban youth, but not among the cosmopolitan youth, which is a limitation of this chapter in view of the types of data collection methods and depth for the two groups. Inner beauty reminds us that Ghanaian society not only approves of physical and aesthetic beauty, but also cares and is concerned over humanity. In fact, if a person is as beautiful as the American ‘Barbie’ doll, and yet its demeanour is cold, that beauty is regarded with suspicion. Though beauty is ornamental for females, as described by Saltzberg and Chrisler, we must note that males are not immune to it, as peer pressure pushes them to achieve the muscular, perfect and ‘six pack’ physique34.

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__________________________________________________________________ Unfortunately, such universal categories contribute to ‘othering’ and dispossession of the individual self and cultural identity. As has been seen from a study of two representative groups of Ghanaian youth, context matters profoundly in the definition and expression of beauty, and the impact of globalisation and the media cannot be underestimated in the clear trends and patterns shown. Beauty is indeed in transition.

Notes 1

Margaret L. Hunter. ‘Buying Racial Capital: Skin-Bleaching and Cosmetic Surgery in a Globalised World’ in The Journal of Pan African Studies (2011), 4(4) 142-164 2 Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, 10th ed. (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2003). 3 Bordo, Unbearable Weight, 309 4 Mary Douglas, Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology (London and New York: Routledge, 1996). 5 Elayne A. Saltzberg and Joan C. Chrisler, ‘Beauty Is the Beast: Psychological Effects of the Pursuit of the Perfect Female Body’, Women: A Feminist Perspective ed. Jo Freeman, 5th edition (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1995), 306-315. 6 Elayne A. Saltzberg and Joan C. Chrisler, ‘Beauty Is the Beast.’ 7 Note added by Inter-Disciplinary Press. This is a direct quote and had not been cited by the author. Our findings were from – Anon, ‘20111869jd: Blog 3-Social Constructivism’, Wordpress.com, viewed on 15 October 2016, https://20111869jd.wordress.com. 8 Judith Lorber, and Patricia Yancey Martin, ‘The Socially Constructed Body: Insight from Feminist Theory’, incomplete citation from the author (2007), 226244. 9 Susan Bordo, The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000). 10 Bordo, Unbearable Weight. 11 Samantha Kwan and Mary Nell Trautner, ‘Beauty Work: Individual and Institutional Rewards, the Reproduction of Gender, and Questions of Agency’. Sociology Compass 3.1 (2009): 49-71. 12 Oyereke Oyewumi, The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997). 13 Mathew Miles and Micheal Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook, 2nd edition (London: Sage, 1994). 14 Esi Sutherland-Addy, ‘Fear Woman: The Image of Womanhood in Contemporary Ghanaian Popular Performance Arts’, Sex and Gender in an Era

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__________________________________________________________________ of AIDS: Ghana at the turn of the Millennium, eds. C. Oppong, M.A.P.A. Oppong and I. K. Odotei (Legon, Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2006), 255-272. 15 Oloruntoba-Oju, Body Images, Beauty Culture and Language in the Nigeria, African Context (Human Sexuality Seminar Series, 2007) Viewed on 5 September 2012, site no longer valid, http://www.arsc.org/publications. 16 Sutherland-Addy, Fear Woman 17 Source - field data, 2012 18 Sutherland-Addy, Fear Woman 19 Ibid. 20 Oloruntoba-Oju, Body Images. 21 Saltzberg and Chrisler. ‘Beauty Is the Beast’. 22 BBC News, ‘The Fattening Rooms of Calabar’ Viewed 20 June 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/outlook/news/story/2007/07/0707 16_happinessstory_nigeria.shtml. 23 Sutherland-Addy, Fear Woman. 24 Georgina Yaa Oduro, ‘Gender Relations, Sexuality and HIV/AIDS Education: a study of Ghanaian Youth Cultures’. (PhD thesis, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, 2010). 25 Max J. Assimeng, Social Structure of Ghana: A Study of Persistence and Change (Tema: Ghana Pub. Corp, 1999), 235-236. 26 Ibid. 27 Source, (data from cosmopolitan youth - 2012). 28 Oduro, ‘Gender Relations’. 29 Susie Orbach, Bodies (London: Profile Books, 2009). 30 Bordo, Unbearable Weight. 31 Brian Turner, The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory (Oxford, Oxfordshire and New York: Blackwell, 1984). 32 Ibid. 33 Naomi Wolf: The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used against Women (USA: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002). 34 Saltzberg and Chrisler, ‘Beauty Is the Beast’

Bibliography Assimeng, Max. Social Structure of Ghana: A Study of Persistence and Change. Tema: Ghana Pub. Corp, 1999. Bordo, Susan. The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

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__________________________________________________________________ Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, 10th Edition. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2003. Chirisa, Innocent and Tawanda Muchini. ‘Youth, Unemployment and PeriUrbanity in Zimbabwe: A Snapshot of Lessons from Hatchiffe’. International Journal of Politics and Good Governance 2.2 (2011): page numbers missing. Douglas, Mary. Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology. Routledge: London and New York, 1996. Ghana Statistical Service. Population and Housing Census. Accra: Ghana, 2010. Figueroa, Monica Moreno, ‘Displaced Looks: Aesthetic Feelings, Beauty and Racism’. 2013. Accessed on 15 March 2014. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/beauty-race-and-identity-in-latinamerica-and-africa. Gomez, Andrea Urrutia,’ Lipstick:Identity, performance and Experiences of Femininity in Lima’. 2013. Accessed on 14 March 2014. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/wpcontent/uploads/2013/07/gomezbeapaper.pdf. Hunter, Margaret L., ‘Buying Racial Capital: Skin-Bleaching and Cosmetic Surgery in a Globalised World’. The Journal of Pan African Studies 4.4 (2011): 142-164. Kwan, Samantha and Mary Nell Trautner. ‘Beauty Work: Individual and Institutional Rewards, the Reproduction of Gender, and Questions of Agency’. Sociology Compass 3.1 (2009): 49-71. Lorber, Judith and Patricia Y. Martin. The Socially Constructed Body: Insight from Feminist Theory. 2007, 226-244 Incomplete citation from the author. Miles, Mathew B. and Michael Huberman. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook, 2nd Edition. London: Sage, 1994. Nichols, Elizabeth Gacstetter. ‘100% Chic: Selling Beauty as Identity and Worth in Venezuela’. 2013. Accessed on 5 March 2014. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/wpcontent/uploads/2013/07/nicholsbeapaper.pdf.

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__________________________________________________________________ Oduro, Georgina.Y. ‘Gender Relations, Sexuality and HIV/AIDS Education: A Study of Ghanaian Youth Cultures’. Unpublished PhD thesis, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, 2010. Oloruntoba-Oju, T. Body Images, Beauty Culture and Language in the Nigeria, African Context. Human Sexuality Seminar Series, 2007. Site no longer valid. http://www.arsc.org/publications Orbach, Susie. Bodies. London: Profile Books, 2009. Oyewumi, Oyereke. The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Saltzberg, Elayne A. and Joan Chrisler, ‘Beauty is the Beast: Psychological Effects of the Pursuit of the Perfect Body’. Women: A Feminist Perspective, edited by Jo Freeman, 306-315. 5th Edition. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1995. Sutherland-Addy, Esi. ‘Fear Woman: The Image of Womanhood in Contemporary Ghanaian Popular Performance Arts’. Sex and Gender in an Era of AIDS: Ghana at the turn of the Millennium, edited by C. Oppong, M. A. P. A. Oppong and I. K. Odotei, 255-272. Legon, Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2006. Turner, Brain. The Body and Eociety: Explorations in Social Theory. Oxford, Oxfordshire and New York: Blackwell, 1984. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used against Women. USA: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. Georgina Yaa Oduro is a lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. Georgina is a multi-disciplinary researcher with interest in youth cultures, gender issues, sexuality and organisational culture.

Beauty Ideals and Tamil Movies: Comparing Views of Malaysian Indian and Indian Youths Premalatha Karupiah Abstract Cultural products, such as art, literature and movies are important in the transmission of beauty ideals in a society. These cultural products convey material and non-material ideals related to beauty. Cultural products may convey ideals that are accepted or expected in a society and also those that are not seen as the norm in a society. In Tamil culture, traditionally, physical beauty ideals are discussed with other ideals related to one’s character. This chapter compares the perception on beauty ideals in Tamil movies by Malaysian Indian youths and Indian youths from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Data collection was done by conducting in-depth interviews with 40 Malaysian Indian youths at a public university in Malaysia and 30 Indian youths from three university and government colleges in Chennai. The students were selected using purposive sampling method. Youths from both countries perceived that some elements of beauty ideals have evolved in Tamil movies mainly for actresses. Preference for thinness and fairness or whiteness may reflect socio-cultural expectation of the contemporary Indian society. However, youths from both countries have different views when discussing how the beauty ideals in the movies influence their choices and perception about beauty in everyday life. The findings of this study are important in media literacy and intervention program for these youth. Key Words: Beauty ideals, Tamil movies, Malaysian, Indians, youth, Tamil Nadu ***** 1. Introduction Studies have shown that cultural products are important in the maintenance and transmission of beauty ideals.1 Cultural products are goods or services that are consumed by people because it carries some meaning to them, rather than something that is used to deal with a practical problem.2 Some examples of cultural products in the form of entertainment are movies, music, books and sports.3 Beauty ideals are often passed on through art, literature and music.4 This would include sculpture, folklore, folk theatre, folk dance and literature. Media has been identified as a strong means of communicating beauty ideals in a modern society.5 There is a vast literature discussing the effects of media exposure on body image of women.6 Park, for example, showed that exposure to beauty and fashion magazine increased the desire for thinness among female college students. 7 Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz8 explained how beauty ideals are passed on to children at a very early age through fairy tales. Most

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__________________________________________________________________ studies, however, focused on Western media and none on South Asian popular media especially among the diasporic community. Feminists have often seen women as victims of the beauty system, which works through media, cosmetic industry and cultural beauty ideals.9 Even though women have achieved success in breaking down political and social barriers in their lives, Wolf argued that images of ideal beauty are being used as a political weapon to halt women’s advancement.10 Women are now being bombarded by messages on what an ideal female body should look like through various media.11 Global media, cosmetic and fashion industry are influencing women’s view on beauty practices by consistently promoting a stereotyped image of a perfect body. Cosmetic industry shows unhealthy and unattainable beauty ideals via advertisements and celebrity endorsement of products.12 Even though there is no actual force involved, these images make women feel inferior and feel the need to fit into these narrowly defined beauty ideals by changing themselves.13 This chapter analyses the perception of beauty ideals in Tamil movies by Malaysian Indian youths and Indian youths in Tamil Nadu, and how far youths are able to identify the trends in beauty ideals in Tamil movies. This study uses Tamil movies because of their cultural significance and their consumption among youths from both locations. 2. Tamil, Tamil Movies and Malaysia Indians Tamil refers to a language spoken predominantly in Tamil Nadu, India. Tamil is also spoken among people of Tamil origin around the world. Many South Indians migrated to Malaya during the British colonial period.14 Some of them remained in Malaya (later Malaysia) and became Malaysian nationals and are commonly known as Malaysian Indians. In this chapter, Tamil movies refer to Tamil movies that are produced in India. The centre of Tamil movie production is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. India produces more than 1000 movies a year and this is estimated to be higher than the number of movies produced in Hollywood in a year. Among these, it is estimated that an average of 90 Tamil movies are produced a year.15 Based on movies reported in the news and various blogs by movie enthusiasts, I estimate that about 120 Tamil movies have been produced in India in 2010. Some Tamil movies are movies dubbed from other Indian languages and this makes it very difficult to determine the actual number of Tamil movies produced in a year. Outside India, Tamil movies have a big influence in Malaysia and Singapore.16 These movies are culturally significant not only because of their popularity in Malaysia but also because they are ‘a cultural resource for articulating their sense of hybridised identity.’17

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__________________________________________________________________ 3. Traditional Beauty Ideals In Indian folklore and stories, beauty is never explained based mainly on physical appearance. It is often connected to the character of a woman and the values that she upholds.18 Similarly, for men, their physical appearance may be discussed, but emphasis will be given to the virtues they hold on to. For example, in Chilappatikaram, a great Tamil epic written by Ilanko Atikal in 5th century C.E.,19 Kannagi is described as a very beautiful woman but greater emphasis is always given to her character. Kannagi is seen as the ideal Tamil woman and the epitome of karpu or chastity.20 In Tamil culture and literature, Murugan, who is often described as Azhagan, is seen as the ideal for a man. Murugan is seen as the epitome of youthfulness and beauty.21 Murugan endral azhagan (‘Murugan is beauty’) is a commonly used phrase among Tamils. It is important to note that beauty here does not merely refer to physical beauty but is something more spiritual than that.22 Murugan is also admired for his courage, intellect and compassion.23 Another art form that is very common in Tamil Nadu is sculpture. Thousands of sculptures are on display at the temples. Sculptures in temples are used for many reasons, i.e. for religious rituals, to convey certain stories/messages or for artistic expression.24 Many of these sculptures depict men and women. A close look at the female sculptures in Tamil Nadu will show that most of the women depicted in these sculptures are curvy.25 4. Methods Data collection was done by conducting in-depth interviews with 40 Malaysian Indian youths at a public university in Malaysia and 30 Indian youths from three university and government colleges in Chennai. The students were selected using purposive sampling method. They were asked to describe how actors and actresses are in Tamil movies and how they feel about it. Interviews were later transcribed and coded to identify similarity and differences in both sets of data. Among all the ideals discussed with the participants, the most commonly emphasized ideals from both places (i.e. thinness and fairness) will be explored further. 5. Thinness Thinness is an ideal identified by youths from both places. According to them, actresses before the late 1990s were more curvaceous than those in recent movies. Participants highlighted that actors were not affected by similar trends. They felt that actors of all physical profiles play main roles in Tamil movies of all era. In contrast, they felt that plus-sized actresses are used only for supporting or comedy roles. One participant from Malaysia, was unhappy that size is used to ridicule someone in some Tamil movies, and how actresses who gained weight were not able to play the main role in movies.

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__________________________________________________________________ 6. Fair or White Participants from both sites argued that most actresses playing the main role in recent movies (since the late 1990s) were very fair or white. They stated that not many actresses in Tamil movies are of South Indian origin. Many Tamil movies feature actresses of North Indian origin. According to them, north Indian actresses are relatively fairer that South Indian actresses. In addition to this, they also highlight that, even when actresses of South Indian origin play the main roles, they are also fair-skinned. They felt that no dark-skinned actress plays the main role in recent movies. They felt the scenario was rather different in the 1970s and 1980s where there were some actresses in main roles who were dark-skinned, or relatively darker. Skin colour is not important in the choice of actors for the male heroes, however. In movies of all periods, they considered that the main characters were played by actors who are fair-skinned and dark-skinned. 7. Discussion In terms of size, youths from both places identified a thinning trend in actresses featured in Tamil movies. This is similar to the trends in Western movies.26 They felt that their bodies do not represent the bodies of most Tamil women. From the 1960s until the 1980s, the actresses are considered to have a body size similar to ordinary women. This shows that some elements of beauty ideals in Tamil movies are converging with Western ideals and drifting away from traditional beauty ideals, which do not emphasize thinness as a beauty ideal for women.27 Even though the Tamil concept of ‘thinness’ might be rather different from Western society, respondents felt that the beauty ideal in Tamil movies was moving towards a body type that may be unattainable by many women. Studies have shown that beauty ideals in the Western media have always been illusive and unattainable for most ordinary women.28 Main actors in Tamil movies of all eras are not subjected to similar trends and display an array of body types. This may be another reflection of the social norms, where women often have more narrowly defined beauty standards than men.29 Many studies have highlighted that the emphasis on fair skin may be the result of a long history of whiteness bias in Indian society.30 It has been reported that skin colour differences in India are often associated with status and caste and may have existed before colonialism.31 However, a long history of colonialism, racism32 and, more recently, globalization, have also contributed to the preference for lighter skin. Other than that, white skin is often considered as an asset for a woman, especially in marriage.33 Therefore, preference for fair actresses in Tamil movies is another manifestation of the general preference for fair skin in women in Indian society. Men, on the other hand, do not face similar expectations and are not expected to fit into narrowly defined beauty ideals. Therefore, actors who look different physically appear in main roles in Tamil movies. This is a manifestation of patriarchal values where masculinity itself is seen as a privilege.

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__________________________________________________________________ It is interesting that youths from both sites identified similar ideals. This shows that Tamil movies do play a role in conveying beauty ideals among Tamil youths in Tamil Nadu and Malaysia. It is also an example of how beauty ideals are transmitted from Indian society to the diaspora in Malaysia, even though the scope of this study does not allow me to explore to what extent. Most female youths in both countries admitted that they have tried to follow the trend and fashion on display in Tamil movies (e.g. hair style, sari blouse design, make up and accessories). The trends chosen by youths in Tamil Nadu and Malaysia are different, but they also stated that there was pressure to conform to these ideals. More Malaysian participants explained that they like to buy clothes and accessories similar to those on display in Tamil movies. Some female youths have tried to look like their favourite actresses by using whitening products and reducing their weight through diet and exercise. Some male youths also admitted that they copy the actor’s hair and dressing style. Female study participants in Tamil Nadu seemed very selective when following the fashion trends in Tamil movies because it does not conform to social norms. However, they cannot be seen as passive consumers who absorb the beauty ideals shown in Tamil movies, but rather as active critics of the motives and the trends in Tamil movies, interpreting the relevant meanings behind them. Understanding this process is important in any media literacy program or intervention. However, the youths’ criticisms concerning these beauty ideals do not imply that they are able to reject such ideals. Other studies have shown that women are often able to criticize unattainable beauty ideals, but still pursue these ideals because it may bring positive changes in their lives.34 From this study, it may be hypothesized that similar influences may be found in other Tamil diasporic communities and need to be studied further. 9. Conclusion The findings of this study show that female thinness and fairness are the most common beauty ideals seen in Tamil movies. In recent movies however, there is a great emphasis on thinness, which was not common in movies produced before the late 1990s. Similar beauty ideals are not emphasized for actors. Even though this study is exploratory in nature, there is some evidence to show that some beauty ideals have evolved in Tamil movies. The emphasis on thinness may be influenced by overwhelming preference for thinness in many modern societies and global media. The preference for white skin has long been evident in Indian society and it has deepened due to the influence of global media.

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Notes 1

Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholz, ‘The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children’s Fairy Tales’, Gender and Society 17 (2003): 711-726. 2 Thomas B. Lawrence and Nelson Phillips, ‘Understanding Cultural Industries’, Journal of Management Inquiry 11 (2002): 430-440. 3 Ibid. 4 J. Kevin Thomson and Leslie J. Heinberg, ‘The Media’s Influence on Body Image Disturbance and Eating Disorders: We’ve Reviled Them, Now Can We Rehabilitate Them?’ Journal of Social Issues 55 (1999): 339-353. 5 David B. Sarwer, Ted A. Grossbart and Elizabeth R. Didie, ‘Beauty and Society.’ Seminars in Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery 22 (2003): 79-92. Heinberg, 1996 cited in Thomson and Heinberg, ‘Media’s Influence on Body Image Disturbance and Eating Disorders’, 339-353. Allan Mazur, ‘U. S. Trends in Feminine Beauty and Overadaptation’, The Journal of Sex Research 22 (1986): 281-303. 6 Thomson and Heinberg, ‘Media’s Influence on Body Image Disturbance and Eating Disorders’, 339-353. 7 Sung-Yeon Park, ‘The Influence of Presumed Media Influence on Women’s Desire to Be Thin’, Communication Research 32 (2005): 594-614. 8 Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholz, ‘Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children’s Fairy Tales’, 711-726. 9 Kathy Davis, Dubious Equalities and embodied Difference: Cultural Studies on Cosmetic Surgery (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2005). 10 Wolf, Beauty Myth 11 Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women (New York: Harper Perennial, 2002). 12 Lauren Dye, ‘Consuming Constructions: A Critique of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty’, Canadian Journal of Media Studies 5 (2009): 114-128. 13 Sheila Jeffrys, Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West. (East Sussex: Routledge, 2005) 14 Kernial Singh Sandhu, ‘The Coming of Indians to Malaysia’, in Indian Communities in Southeast Asia, eds. Kernial Sing Sandhu and A.Mani, (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), 151-189. 15 T.V. Krishnan and A.M. Sakkthivel, ‘To push for stardom or not: A rookie’s dilemma in the Tamil movie industry’, IIMB Management Review 22 (2010): 8092. 16 Gopalan Ravindran, ‘Negotiating identities in the Diasporic Space: Transnational Tamil Cinema and Malaysian Indians’, Presented at Cultural Space and Public Sphere in Asia in Seoul, Korea (2006), viewed on 19 May 2015,

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__________________________________________________________________ http://tamilnation.co/culture/drama/ravindran.pdf. 17 Selvaraj Velayutham, ‘The Tamil Diaspora and the Global Circulation of Tamil Cinema’. in Tamil Cinema: the Cultural Politics of India’s Other Film Industry, ed. Selvaraj Velayutham, (London: Routledge, 2008 ), 173-187. 18 Deva Prasad Ghosh, Kama Ratna; Indian Ideals of Feminine Beauty, (New Delhi: R&K Publishing House, 1973). 19 R. Parthasarathy , The Cilappatikaram of Ilanko Atikal: An Epic of South India, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993). 20 Vijaya Ramaswamy, ‘Chaste Widows, Cunning Wives, and Amazonian Warriors: Imaging of Women in Tamil Oral Traditions’, Asian Ethnology 69 (2010): 129-157. Kamil Zvelebil, The Smile of Murugan on Tamil Literature of South India, (Leiden: Brill, 1973). 21 Fred W. Clothey, The Many Faces of Murukan: The History and Meaning of a South Indian God (The Hague: Moutan Publishers, 1978). 22 Ibid. 23 Elizabeth F. Collins, Pierced by Murugan’s Lance: Ritual, Power, and Moral Redemption among Malaysian Hindus, (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1997). 24 D. P. Dubey, Rays and Ways of Indian Culture (New Delhi: MD Publications, 1996). 25 See Deva Prasad Ghosh, Kama Ratna 26 See David B. Sarwer, Ted A. Grossbart and Elizabeth R. Didie, ‘Beauty and Society’, 79-92. 27 Shamita Das Dasgupta, ‘Gender Roles and Cultural Continuity in the Asian Indian Immigrant Community in the U.S’, Sex Roles 38 (1998): 953-974. 28 Gordon B. Forbes, Linda L. Collinsworth, Rebecca L. Jobe, Kristen D. Braun and Leslie M. Wise, ‘Sexism, Hostility toward Women, and Endorsement of Beauty Ideals and Practices: are Beauty Ideals Associated with Oppressive Beliefs?’, Sex Roles, 56 (2007): 265–273. 29 Erin J. Strahan, Anne E. Wilson, Kate E. Cressman, Vanessa M. Boute, ‘Comparing to perfection: How cultural norms for appearance affect social comparisons and self-image’, Body Image, 3 (2008): 211-227. 30 Roksana Badrudroja, ‘Color, Beauty, and Marriage: the Ivory Skin Model’, South Asia Graduate Research Journal 15 (2005): 43-79. Eric P.H. Li, Hyuen Jeong Min, Russell W. Belk, Junko Kimura and Shalini Bahl, ‘Skin Lightening and Beauty in Four Asian Cultures. Advances in Consumer Research, 35 (2008): 444449. 31 Ibid.; Roksana Badrudroja, Color, Beauty, and Marriage: the Ivory Skin Model, 43-79.

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__________________________________________________________________ 32

Eric P.H. Li, Hyuen Jeong Min, Russell W. Belk, Junko Kimura and Shalini Bahl, Skin Lightening and Beauty in Four Asian Cultures, 444-449. 33 Roksana Badrudroja, Color, Beauty, and Marriage: the Ivory Skin Model, 43-79. Sonora Jha and Mara Adelman, ‘Looking for Love in All the White Places: A Study of Skin Color Preferences on Indian Matrimonial and Mate-Seeking Websites’, Studies in South Asian Film and Media, 1(2009): 65-83. 34 Renee Engeln-Maddox, ‘Buying a Beauty Standard or Dreaming of a New Life? Expectations Associated with Media Ideals’, Psychology of Women, 35 (2006): 258-266.

Bibliography Badrudroja, Roksana. ‘Color, Beauty, and Marriage: the Ivory Skin Model’, South Asia Graduate Research Journal 15 (2005): 43-79. Baker-Sperry, Lori and Grauerholz, Liz. ‘The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children’s Fairy Tales’, Gender and Society 17 (2003): 711-726. Clothey, Fred W. The Many Faces of Murukan: The History and Meaning of a South Indian God (The Hague: Moutan Publishers, 1978). Collins, Elizabeth F. Pierced by Murugan’s Lance: Ritual, Power, and Moral Redemption among Malaysian Hindus, (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1997). Davis, Kathy. Dubious Equalities and embodied Difference: Cultural Studies on Cosmetic Surgery (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2005). Dasgupta, Shamita D. ‘Gender Roles and Cultural Continuity in the Asian Indian Immigrant Community in the U.S’, Sex Roles 38 (1998): 953-974. Dubey, D.P., Rays and Ways of Indian Culture (New Delhi: MD Publications, 1996). Dye, Lauren. ‘Consuming Constructions: A Critique of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty’, Canadian Journal of Media Studies 5 (2009): 114-128.

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__________________________________________________________________ Engeln-Maddox, Renee. ‘Buying a Beauty Standard or Dreaming of a New Life? Expectations Associated with Media Ideals’, Psychology of Women, 35 (2006): 258-266. Forbes, Gordon B., Collinsworth, Linda L., Jobe, Rebecca L., Braun, Kristen D. and Wise, Leslie M. ‘Sexism, Hostility toward Women, and Endorsement of Beauty Ideals and Practices: are Beauty Ideals Associated with Oppressive Beliefs?’, Sex Roles, 56 (2007): 265–273. Ghosh, Deva P. Kama Ratna; Indian Ideals of Feminine Beauty, (New Delhi: R&K Publishing House, 1973) Jeffrys, Sheila. Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West. (East Sussex: Routledge, 2005) Jha, Sonora and Adelman, Mara. ‘Looking for Love in All the White Places: A Study of Skin Color Preferences on Indian Matrimonial and Mate-Seeking Websites’, Studies in South Asian Film and Media, 1(2009): 65-83. Krishnan, T.V. and Sakkthivel A.M. ‘To push for stardom or not: A rookie’s dilemma in the Tamil movie industry’, IIMB Management Review 22 (2010): 8092. Lawrence, Thomas B. and Phillips, Nelson. ‘Understanding Cultural Industries’, Journal of Management Inquiry 11 (2002): 430-440. Li, Eric P.H., Min, Hyuen J., Belk, Russell W., Kimura, Junko and Bahl, Shalini. ‘Skin Lightening and Beauty in Four Asian Cultures. Advances in Consumer Research, 35 (2008): 444-449. Mazur, Allan. ‘U. S. Trends in Feminine Beauty and Overadaptation’, The Journal of Sex Research 22 (1986): 281-303. Park, Sung-Yeon. ‘The Influence of Presumed Media Influence on Women’s Desire to Be Thin’, Communication Research 32 (2005): 594-614 Ramaswamy, V. (2010). Chaste Widows, Cunning Wives, and Amazonian Warriors: Imaging of Women in Tamil Oral Traditions. Asian Ethnology, 69: 129157.

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__________________________________________________________________ Ravindran, G. (2006). Negotiating identities in the Diasporic Space: Transnational Tamil Cinema and Malaysian Indians. Presented at Cultural Space and Public Sphere in Asia in Seoul, Korea. http://tamilnation.co/culture/drama/ravindran.pdf Sarwer, D.B., Grossbart, T.A. and Didie, E.R. (2003). Beauty and Society. Seminars in Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery, 22, 79-92. Sandhu, K.S. (1993). The Coming of Indians to Malaysia. . Indian Communities in Southeast Asia, edited by K.S. Sandhu and A.Mani, 151-189. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Thomson, J.K. and Heinberg, L.J. (1999). The Media’s Influence on Body Image Disturbance and Eating Disorders: We’ve Reviled Them, Now Can We Rehabilitate Them? Journal of Social Issues, 55: 339-353. Velayutham, S. (2008). The Tamil Diaspora and the Global Circulation of Tamil Cinema. In Tamil Cinema: the Cultural Politics of India’s Other Film Industry, edited by S. Velayutham, 173-187. London: Routledge. Wolf, N. (2002). The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. New York: Harper Perennial. Zvelebil, K. (1973). The Smile of Murugan on Tamil Literature of South India. Leiden: Brill. Premalatha Karupiah is a senior lecturer at the School of Social Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. Her research interests are in the area of beauty culture, Indian diaspora and sociology of work.

Do I Have What it Takes? The Participants of Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model as Cultural Intermediaries Jenna Jones Abstract This chapter addresses the question of whether the participants of Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model (BINTM) act as cultural intermediaries. Through this analysis, I find the ability of the participant-models to act as cultural intermediaries on BINTM is limited because of their lack of experience, knowledge and skills. Although they develop their skills throughout the program, they are unable to move up the entrenched hierarchy actively maintained by the judges and other program participants. The participant-models’ positions are constantly challenged as they struggle to prove themselves as models. By drawing on the work of Bourdieu and more contemporary scholars of cultural intermediaries, I examine how the participant-models struggle to gain cultural capital and are briefly able to act as cultural intermediaries before the authority and status of the judges is reasserted. In order to address gender, I also draw on the work of feminist scholars who have expanded on the work of Bourdieu. The hierarchy of the program brings to the surface how the ability to act as a cultural intermediary can best be understood in terms of a continuum, and an individual’s position on the continuum is constantly shifting depending on their ability to frame goods. In other words, their ability to act as a cultural intermediary changes depending on their level of acquired cultural capital. Based on my findings, I argue all models are not cultural intermediaries, rather only the models that have a high status, acknowledged expertise and level of legitimacy, are able to act as cultural intermediaries. Key Words: Cultural intermediaries, cultural capital, fashion, models, reality television, discourse, Bourdieu, habitus. ***** 1. Introduction In this chapter, I examine whether the contestants on Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model (BINTM) act as cultural intermediaries. To address this question, I engage in a discourse analysis of the eighth series of BINTM, as well as fashion industry literature and a British fashion magazine. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, specifically his theory of cultural capital, and feminist theory to address issues of gender and power, I examine how the social position and cultural capital of participant-models affects their ability to act as cultural intermediaries. I approach this question using Smith-Maguire and Matthews’ tri-modal conceptualisation of cultural intermediaries of framing, expertise and impact. I find the roles of the participants as models to be tenuous at best, which in turn limits

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__________________________________________________________________ their ability to act as cultural intermediaries.1 The contestants on BINTM, whom will be referred to as ‘participant-models’ in this chapter, enter the fashion industry in a unique manner that sets them apart from other beginner models. They are accorded a degree of celebrity through their participation on the program; however, this does not necessarily transfer into legitimate status within the fashion industry, because they are positioned as inexperienced models that lack expertise, modelling skills, and knowledge on the program. Models must establish themselves within the field of fashion and gain status, authority, and expertise before they are able to fully act as cultural intermediaries. It has been suggested by Wissinger that models can be considered cultural intermediaries based on their position within the fashion field and how they display current fashion trends through their modes of dress and consumption habits. 2 However, Wissinger’s analysis is primarily based on established models and supermodels, rather than models that are starting out in the fashion industry. So, if an individual has not reached the point where they are recognised at a local or global level as a model, can they be considered a cultural intermediary? I believe this conclusion is too broad, and that a model needs to amass enough status within the fashion industry and wider popular culture before they can begin acting as a cultural intermediary. Thus, I argue that, contrarily to Wissinger’s assertion, not every fashion model acts as a cultural intermediary. 2. Cultural Intermediaries and Framing I will now address how the participant-models on BINTM engage in the process of framing during the program. Cultural intermediaries construct value by framing how consumers engage with goods and how consumers view goods, services, ideas, and behaviours as ‘legitimate’.3 Framing is one of the primary jobs of a fashion model, and when the participant-models work to frame goods within the program, they are attempting to act as a model and a cultural intermediary. Framing involves adding value to a commodity so that a consumer views it as desirable. The participant-models on BINTM constantly engage in the process of performing as models by framing goods. By positioning their performance as legitimate, they gain cultural capital and increase their social position within the fashion field, both of which are important to the ability to act as a cultural intermediary. However, the constant struggle to maintain legitimacy is repeatedly undermined by other participant-models on the program, as well as judges and special guests, who are also trying to gain cultural capital and maintain their status within the modelling and fashion hierarchy. Numerous aspects of modelling involve framing, and this is particularly apparent within the skills that the participant-models are encouraged to draw on, in order to successfully frame a product. These skills include posing, walking, showcasing their personality, and their appearance. During the TRESemmé catwalk show on episode eight, for instance, Lisa is praised for her walk because it shows

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__________________________________________________________________ off the dress well. Thus, in this example, Lisa successfully uses her skills as a model (her walk) to frame a product (the dress). In doing so, Lisa performs as a model and acts as a cultural intermediary. When the participant-models perform as models they are able to frame goods: a key role of cultural intermediaries. However, their performance as models must be legitimated in order for them act as cultural intermediaries. The more their performance as a model is legitimated, the more likely it is the participant-models are able to act as cultural intermediaries. 3. Discussion One of the main modelling skills focused on in BINTM is that of walking on the catwalk. The ability to walk like a model is stressed throughout the program, beginning with the first challenge and ending with the final catwalk challenge. Walking in catwalk shows is an important aspect of the fashion modelling industry. The fashion industry features many catwalk shows, especially during the fashion weeks held in various cities, where clothing and accessories are displayed on models. Walking on the catwalk is ‘a performance to show off the clothes to their best advantage’.4 The walk is an important modelling skill because it allows the audience to focus on the goods, rather than the model during a catwalk show. This positions a strong walk as a key modelling skill that the participant-models need in order to succeed in the fashion industry, which explains the focus within BINTM on the catwalk and the numerous catwalk challenges that are featured. Because of the importance and emphasis placed on the catwalk within both the industry and BINTM, the participant-models are given lessons on how to walk. However as Cole and Vickers-Jones note, ‘[t]here is no specific runway walk’,5 so it is a difficult skill to master because there are only guidelines on what a strong walk consists of. The participant-models who are initially praised by the judges for their walks are Risikat, Letitia, Emma G and Lisa. The participant-models who are criticised for having weak walks are Tasmin, Jennifer, Penelope, and Anne. The final two participant-models, Letitia and Emma G, are recognised by the judges as having strong walks from the beginning of the program, which calls into question the effectiveness of the training that BINTM offers. If a participant-model performs poorly in a catwalk challenge, the judges focus on their weak performance and skill during the judgement panel, instead of on the goods that they are modelling. This lack of attention on the goods indicates that the participant-models are not succeeding in framing the commodity – they do not add value to it, and are not able to make it more desirable to consumers. Moreover, a strong walk is a reflection of the embodied cultural capital of a model; it represents an acquired skill that is valued in the fashion field. A strong walk affords the participant-model status and places her higher within the hierarchy of the program. The participant-models who have a strong walk have an advantage within BINTM, because they already possess an important modelling skill, and are able to then focus on framing the commodity.

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__________________________________________________________________ The photo-shoots are another key site in which the participant-models are expected to perform as models. Their performances at the photo-shoots form the basis of the judges’ decision-making process at judgement panel. The photographs are ranked based on the participant-models’ performance and fulfilment of the creative theme of the photo-shoot. They are judged on their abilities to engage their modelling skills to successfully frame the goods featured in the photo-shoot, their professionalism, and the strength of the resulting photograph. If the participantmodels did not meet these criteria, their performances as models were challenged. Images are a critical part of the fashion industry. The photographs models appear in are produced for advertising campaigns of brands or designers. The participant-models are trying to perform as models in order to produce a photograph that could function to promote the goods of a brand or designer. They are trying to produce a sellable image through successfully engaging in the process of framing. Therefore, models need to develop a repertoire of poses that they can utilise in photo-shoots. At the photo-shoot in episode four, the brand manager remarks on Letitia’s skill as a model, and her performance of approximately ten poses, none of which the other participant-models had used. This drew attention to the broader context of the fashion industry, and how the role of models is to promote and frame goods to the best of their ability. Letitia is thus positioned as having successfully framed the commodity that featured within the photo-shoot. Furthermore, it also draws attention to her embodied cultural capital, based on the range of her poses. Her embodied cultural capital is made visible by her ability to pose and the numerous poses she is able to enact. The poses that the participant-models use in the photo-shoots change depending on where the camera is positioned, the theme of the photo-shoot, whether they are posing on their own or with others, how they are styled, and who the good is targeted towards. Thus, posing is a critical skill a model develops as a means of effectively framing goods. Posing involves positioning the body so that the advertised commodities are displayed to their best advantage, and often involves manipulating the body into unnatural or uncomfortable positions. However, as a model, the participant-models are expected to hide this strain from showing in the photographs. A so-called ‘strong’ pose is dependent upon the theme of the photoshoot and also the type of good featured within it. Many of the photo-shoots feature a brand or product that is to be displayed by the participant-models. It is critical for the participant-models to be mindful of the product and frame it for consumers. In the episode four photo-shoot, the brand representative noted which participant-models prominently displayed the product, a watch, and which ones forgot about it. Indeed, in episode four, guest Mollie King (singer in the pop band, The Saturdays) remarks that Emma G looks so good that she would buy the watch. This comment further legitimises Emma G’s performance as a model because she has framed the product and added value by

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__________________________________________________________________ creating a desire to purchase it. At that moment in the program Emma G is acting as a cultural intermediary. The continued criticism and focus on the products within the photo-shoots reiterates the notion that the job of a model is to sell consumer goods by making them appear desirable. In episode nine, Risikat and Emma G are both reminded during the judgement panel that the focus of the photographs is the product, and that their poses have not shown the products to their best advantage. This reinforces the underlying discourse of the program, which positions models as valuable in driving consumption through their ability to successfully frame goods. It also ties into the commercial nature of reality television and the extensive use of product placement, which is integrated into the challenges that the participantmodels face. There is thus more at stake here than modelling alone. Gender is an ever-present aspect within BINTM. The participant-models are constantly using gender as they engage in framing. The ability to perform gender is a skill the participant-models are expected to develop and utilise in the photoshoots. The participant-models are often given feedback within the photo-shoots or at judgement panel that draws on their ability to perform gender. Notions of femininity and masculinity are also brought into focus in episode five when the participant-models are styled in masculine clothing, but advised to keep their ‘feminine charm’ by Tyson Beckworth the judge supervising the photoshoot. Many of the participant-models struggle with the concept, noting that they were unsure how to pose because of their masculine appearance. However, Jennifer is praised for her skilful posing at this shoot and told she looked ‘like a beautiful boy’. 6 Gender is positioned within this episode as a flexible and performative skill that a professional model possesses. The participant-models who are able to successfully balance the masculine styling with a portrayal of femininity in the photographs are praised in the judgment panel of the episode. Gender performance as cultural capital was further reinforced in this episode with the inclusion of Andrej Pejic as the guest judge. Andrej Pejic is a male fashion model whose androgynous look has allowed him to model both male and female fashions, a first in the fashion industry. In this episode he is styled in feminine clothing and has his hair long and curled in a feminine style, which draws more attention to the performative aspect of gender. The judges award ‘picture of the week’ to the participant-model whose photograph is judged to be the strongest. At each judgement panel the participantmodels are called forward to receive their photographs from best to worst of the week. Upon receiving ‘picture of the week’ the participant-model’s performance as a model in that episode is legitimised and she gains status and cultural capital. Being awarded ‘picture of the week’ indicates that the participant-model has managed to perform as a model and furthermore has framed the product successfully. It also means the participant-model has been able to engage the skills they have accumulated thus far in the program, especially posing, while

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__________________________________________________________________ performing as a model. Indeed, the participant-models often cite their ambition to get ‘picture of the week’ as one of their motivators in the photo-shoots; however, I believe that it was the underlying meaning of the approval indicated by achieving ‘picture of the week’ that motivates them. The judgement panel is one of the most important sites in the program, where the participant-models are required to perform framing skills but are also judged in terms of their capacity to model. I conclude that the participant-models gain cultural capital, status, and legitimacy as models when the judges recognise their performance as legitimate. At the same time, judgment panel is the setting where participant-models’ positions are most precarious because it is also the site where they receive critiques on their modelling performance. The feedback participantmodels receive at judgement panel is critical because it affirms their level of skill. The most flattering compliment and sought after praise by the participant-models is comparison to a ‘real’ or professional fashion model, which implies a level of professional skill, expertise, and behaviour. It also implies their habitus has enabled them to blend in seamlessly with their social setting. When the participantmodels are told they looked or acted like a ‘real’ model it adds to their cultural capital and status within the program hierarchy. By stating the participant-models look like ‘real’ models, presenter and judge Elle Macpherson, an established supermodel, is acknowledging their skill at presenting a stylised self and functioning like legitimate members of the fashion field. At judgement panel, each participant-model is called forward to view her photograph and receive feedback from the judges regarding her performance. The evaluation of the participant-models at judgement panel is primarily based on the photographs taken within the episode. However, the judges’ decisions also take into account the overall performance of the participant-models, including their performance during any challenges and their attitude and appearance at the judgement panel. Therefore, the participant-models’ ability to frame is judged. Indeed, in episode twelve, Elle states that the deliberations of the judges will include ‘your body of work, your walk, your attitude, what we see in front of us today’. 7 The appearance of the participant-models is another avenue through which the participant-models demonstrate their ability to perform as models, by demonstrating how they could look like models. Makeovers were carried out in episode four to make the participant-models look like ‘real’ models, as defined by the judges. This reveals the importance of physical appearance for the participantmodels in the program. Control of their physical appearance is out of the participant-models’ control during the photo-shoots, in which they are styled by professionals. Consequently, it is important for the participant-models to focus on their appearance at judgement panel, when they do have control. Cole and VickersJones note that models do not need to wear designer clothes and can make any item of clothing stylish. 8 By focusing on their appearance the participant-models try to

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__________________________________________________________________ illustrate to the judges how they can appear like a model, which adds to their cultural capital, status, and expertise. At judgement panel, the participant-models are performing in a similar manner as they would in the photo-shoots and challenges. They are showing the judges that they can present themselves as models. In addition to participant-models’ appearances, there are also consistent references to their personalities at judgement panel. Within the fashion literature, the British Fashion Council state personality is an important tool. Indeed, they say ‘You are more likely to win a job by letting your personality show how knowledgeable, likeable and fun you can be’.9 Successful models are remembered for their personalities, as well as their looks and performance. Essentially, the participant-model must construct herself as a commodity to make herself memorable and establish an emotional connection with consumers or audiences; she needs to mould herself as a brand, which is capable of framing other branded goods and commodities. 4. Conclusion In summary, the participant-models constantly engage in framing throughout BINTM. By examining how they perform modelling skills within specific scenes, such as challenges and photo-shoots, I was able to illustrate the importance of the development of modelling skills to the participant-models’ ability to frame goods. In addition, this discussion shows how the performance of gender as an aspect of framing draws on traditional notions of femininity and masculinity. Within BINTM, gender performance is positioned as a skill that could be used as a form of cultural capital. I also found the participant-models used their appearance to demonstrate their ability to perform as a model. The management of their appearance was a modelling skill that required development, because initially their appearance marked them as outsiders to the field. While not as important as appearance, a model’s personality is a tool that can be used to gain employment and is a skill that a model must also develop. Through their acquisition of modelling skills, the participant-models demonstrated the adjustment of their habitus to their new social setting as they conformed to the existing norms of the field. Furthermore, the development of their habitus allowed all the participant-models to transition into being accepted members of the field. Furthermore, the adaptation of the participant-models’ habitus and the development of modelling skills indicate a shift in the models’ social position within the hierarchy of the field. By gaining acceptance within the field, models gain social status. In turn, this offers more access to cultural capital and suggests that a model is more able to act as a cultural intermediary because of their increased social position. This transition into a higher social position within the field supports my assertion that not all models are able to act as cultural

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__________________________________________________________________ intermediaries; first they must develop modelling skills, which are demonstrated through framing goods.

Notes 1

Jennifer Smith-Maguire and Julian Matthews, ‘Are we all cultural intermediaries now? An introduction to cultural intermediaries in context’, European Journal of Cultural Studies 15 (2012), 551. 2 Elizabeth Wissinger, ‘Modelling Consumption: Fashion modelling work in contemporary society,’ Journal of Consumer Culture 9 (2009), 273. 3 Ibid. 551. 4 Louise Cole and Giles Vickers-Jones, Professional Modelling: Every model’s must have guide to the industry, (London: New Holland Publishers, 2009), 94. 5 Ibid, 94. 6 Elle Macpherson, Episode 5, Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model, Series 8, aired August 6, 2012. 7 Elle Macpherson, Episode 12, BINTM, Series 8, aired September 17, 2012. 8 Louise Cole and Giles Vickers-Jones, Professional Modelling 9 British Fashion Council, A Model’s Guide to: Manners in your handbag’, accessed November 1, 2012. Available from http://www.britishfashioncouncil.com/content/1742/A-Models-Guide-to.

Bibliography Adkins, Lisa. Revisions: gender and sexuality in late modernity. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2002. Adkins, Lisa. ‘Introduction: Feminism, Bourdieu and after’, Feminism after Bourdieu edited by Lisa Adkins and Beverley Skeggs, 3-18. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Baker, Sarah Elsie. ‘Retailing retro: Class, cultural capital and the material practices of the (re)valuation of style.’ European Journal of Cultural Studies 15 (2012): 621-641. Baudrillard, Jean. ‘Ideological Genesis of Needs,’ The Consumption Reader, edited by David B. Clarke, Marcus A. Doel, and Kate Housiaux, Routledge: London, 2003

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__________________________________________________________________ Bell, David and Joanne Hollows. Ordinary Lifestyles: Popular Media, Consumption and Taste. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005. Bonner, Frances. ‘Whose lifestyle is it anyway?,’ Ordinary Lifestyles: Popular Media, Consumption and Taste, edited by David Bell and Joanne Hollows, 35-46. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. London: Routledge, 1984. British Fashion Council Guides. (2008). A Model’s Guide to…. Retrieved November 1, 2012, from http://www.britishfashioncouncil.com/content/1742/AModels-Guide-to Cole, Louise and Giles Vickers-Jones. Professional Modelling: Every model’s must-have guide to the industry. London: New Holland Publishers (UK), 2009. Featherstone, Mike. ‘Lifestyle and Consumer Culture’. Theory, Culture & Society 4 (1987): 55–70. Featherstone, Mike. Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. 2nd edition. London: Sage, 2007. Hancock, Black Hawk and Roberta Garner. Changing theories: new directions in sociology. University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2009. Hesmondhalgh, David. ‘Bourdieu, the media and cultural production.’ Media, Culture & Society 28(2006): 211–231. Kuipers, Giselinde. ‘The cosmopolitan tribe of television buyers: Professional ethos, personal taste and cosmopolitan capital in transnational cultural mediation.’ European Journal of Cultural Studies 15(2012): 581-603. Lury, Celia. Consumer Culture. Cambridge. Polity Press, 1996. Matheson, Donald. Media Discourses. McGraw-Hill Education, 2008. McRobbie, Angela. ‘Notes on ‘What Not to Wear’ and post-feminist symbolic violence,’ Feminism after Bourdieu, edited by Lisa Adkins and Beverley Skeggs, 99-109. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

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__________________________________________________________________ Molloy, Maureen and Wendy Larner, 2010. ‘Who Needs Cultural Intermediaries Indeed?.’ Journal of Cultural Economy 3(2010): 361-377. Moor, Liz. ‘Branding consultants as cultural intermediaries.’ Sociological Review 56(2008): 408-428. Moor, Liz. ‘Beyond cultural intermediaries? A socio-technical perspective on the market for social interventions.’ European Journal of Cultural Studies 15(2012): 563-580. Nixon, Sean. Advertising Cultures, London: Sage, 2003. Nixon, Sean and Paul Du Gay. ‘Who Needs Cultural Intermediaries?.’ Cultural Studies 16(2002): 495–500. Ocejo, Richard E. ‘At your service: The meanings and practices of contemporary bartenders.’ European Journal of Cultural Studies 15(2012): 642-658. Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London. Sage. 2001. Skeggs, Beverley. Class, Self, Culture. London: Routledge, 2004a Skeggs, Beverley. ‘Context and Background: Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of class, gender and sexuality,’ Feminism after Bourdieu, edited by Lisa Adkins and Beverley Skeggs, 19-33. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004b. Sky Living. Want to be on BITNM Series 9? Last modified October 8, 2012. Retrieved October 25, 2012 from http://skyliving.sky.com/britain-and-irelandsnext-top-model/bintm-series-9-auditions-find-out-more Smith Maguire, Jennifer. ‘The personal is professional: Personal trainers as a case study of cultural intermediaries.’ International Journal of Cultural Studies 11(2008): 211-229. Smith Maguire, Jennifer and Julian Matthews. ‘Are we all cultural intermediaries now? An introduction to cultural intermediaries in context.’ European Journal of Cultural Studies 15 (2012): 551-562.

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__________________________________________________________________ Tonkiss, Fran. ‘Analysing Discourse’, Researching Society and Culture, edited by Clive Seale, 245-260. London: Sage. 1998 Wissinger, Elizabeth. ‘Modelling Consumption: Fashion modelling work in contemporary society.’ Journal of Consumer Culture 9 (2009): 273-296. Woo, Benjamin. ‘Alpha nerds: Cultural intermediaries in a subcultural scene.’ European Journal of Cultural Studies 15(2012): 659-676. Jenna Jones is currently completing her M.A. at the University of Manitoba. Her research is focused on reality television, its participants and their relationship to the fashion industry.

Part IV Literary and Artistic Perspectives of Beauty

Postmodern (De)Constructions: Arata Isozaki and Japanese Dialogues on Beauty Harpreet (Neena) Mand and Marly Swanson Wood Abstract Japanese dialogues on beauty are grounded upon the cyclical mode of destruction and renewal, a process that is both natural and manufactured. With the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912), a period of rapid Westernisation also brought with it the problematic of the external gaze as the envisioning of modernity and inventions of equivalent aesthetic categorisation caused a lack as it failed to interpret a world of beauty that was based on subjectivities and transient experiential nuances. This chapter explores the effect of the external gaze upon Japanese aesthetics, specifically during the period of rapid modernisation that began with the Meiji Restoration. This investigation takes a postmodern stance in exploring the contemporary deconstruction of Western hermeneutical hegemony by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. The chapter proposes that this (de)construction is representative of repressed desire to reclaim as well as repudiate indigenous national identity. The religious-aesthetic paradigm of Ma refers to an ‘interval between two or more spatial or temporal things and events.’1 As Ma carries an experiential connotation it has the potential to bring about a collapse of distinctive worlds, and even of time and space itself. The chapter proposes that it is this quality that has allowed this linguistic device to be utilised as tool for the postmodern (re)construction of Japanese aesthetics by Arata Isozaki. Key Words: Beauty, postmodern, modernity, Japanese, architecture, aesthetics, Ma, hermeneutics, deconstruction, hegemony. ***** 1.

Introduction The concept of beauty has changed through time, space and different disciplines. This chapter highlights Japanese dialogue on beauty in relation to its encounter with the West. Japan is an island nation that is prone to earthquakes and this, together with the importation of Buddhism, had created an aesthetic worldview that is derived from or grounded upon the cyclical mode of destruction and renewal, a process that is both natural and manufactured. Underlying the modern Japanese dialogues on beauty is the impact of the Western gaze. Gaze is a psychoanalytical concept introduced by Lacan and used in feminist theory to discuss the personal impact as one becomes aware of being looked at and being judged. Gaze invokes anxiety associated with an awareness of perhaps being objectified, as the gaze can inscribe. The process raises issues of power. In relation to the gaze, Bryson argues that we should also analyze ‘how

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________________________________________________________________ power disguises and conceals its operations in visuality, in myths of pure form, pure perception and culturally universal vision.’2 When Japan was forced to open its doors in 1853 for the arrival of Matthew Perry’s ships, the resulting changes in society caused anxiety regarding various aspect of its culture. Japanese culture had no absolute standard of beauty and what was pleasurable could be described in various ways. Mizuta argues that in Japanese culture the empress was considered the ‘supreme example of beauty’ and thus her beauty could only be suggested and not represented.3 However, when her photograph was published publically, it not only created a rupture in the imaginary order of beauty, but also raised the stakes on how to define beauty, which is both universal and particular to Japan. In 1868, the economic and political reform of the Meiji Restoration prompted an acute westernisation of the newly formed nation state. It prompted the construction of an aesthetic technical vocabulary communicating local epistemological dialogues on aesthetics.4 Pre-modern Japanese dialogues on the beauty of people such as Zeami Motokiyo on Noh and Soeki Sen Rikyu on Tea Ceremony had sought to grasp and represent the invisible in aesthetic terms.5 This ‘nameless and formless reality’6 extending beyond conceptualisation has been refered to as sunyata (emptiness), wu (nonbeing) and tao (way). It embodied the religio-aesthetic paradigm of Ma. The journey from Japanese-Confucianism to the Western hermeneutics of ‘objectification’ began in the midst of the Meiji Restoration. Flooded with Western thought and ideology, Japanese academics were confronted with the paradox of voicing what they felt to be at the core of their subjectivity – the specificity of a local culture, a local art – by relying on a supremely alien language: the Western language of aesthetics.7 2. The External Gaze: The Problematic of Japan-ness The quote below by Architect Isozaki outlines the problematic of Japan-ness in terms of the external gaze, as well as a desire to propagate the Japanese sense of beauty. Despite being Japanese ourselves, today we see Japan with the eyes of a foreigner, precisely like those of Hearn or Taut. Indeed, having gone beyond the process of modernisation, we see Japan from a viewpoint similar to that of westerners…that it might appear that there are only two choices: either to commit to reconstructing another framework for Japanesque-isation or working towards decomposing the framework. This dichotomy that appears to be the only choice is, however, a false one. I believe I have to expand the peculiar sense of beauty and manner my island nation has produced into the global dimension; to the

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__________________________________________________________________ extent, sometimes, that may even cause a conflict. I do this not only as a stranger to the west, but as a stranger to Japan.8 We can see this statement displays a measure of ambivalence towards the Japanese dialogues on beauty. This discourse on beauty appears to be similar to an earlier discourse on Japanese aesthetics. Ernest F. Fenollosa and Okakura Kazuko developed the nation’s image as ‘an art museum of Asiatic civilisation’.9 Nishi Amane alluded to Japanese ‘ways of seeing’ through his lectures, titled Bimyogaku Stesu. ‘The science of the beautiful and the mysterious,’10 as Nishi termed the genre, was cultivated into a legitimate field of philosophical thought. The forced creation of an aesthetic vocabulary was one of Nishi’s major accomplishments, as it established a secular aesthetic discourse recognisable by Western theorists. However, this was not achieved with ease and difficulties arose in not only defining beauty, but rationalising conflicting theories.11 The problematic of the negotiation between East and West manifested itself in the dichotomous nature of aesthetic paradigms, the product of which, in the opinion of Tsubouchi Shoyo was the ‘transparent reduction to any kind of ideals.’12 Shoyo insisted that ‘the meaning of beauty cannot be shown through dissection.’13 In his essay, Longing for Beauty, Saeki Junko focuses on Shoyo’s argument that ‘the act of searching for beauty is part of the pursuit of truth.’14 Nishi Amane was also in agreement on this point, stating that ‘[t]he final purpose of learning was an exhaustive investigation of truth’. Believing that ‘Art fosters the flourishing of civilisation,’ Nishi saw the study of aesthetics contributing to the ‘revaluing’ of Japan by ‘elevating the human world into a lofty realm.’15 Nishi and Shoyo pushed for the relevance and importance of a philosophical field that had underlying political and social power. Seeing the quest for beauty as ‘the quest for truth,’ the study of aesthetics is justified as a characteristic of a civilised society. Conflicts arose about modernization, national identity and tradition. Arata Isozaki acknowledges that ‘from its inception, the problematic of Japanness has belonged to an external gaze, that gaze directed toward Japan from beyond this insular nation.’16 The duality with which Japan perceived its own national identity involved a fear of loss of self, partnered with a fear of denial of power. This desire for an exclusively Eastern identity became a response to rapid changes. This strengthening of the national identity replaced the former desire for a primarily Western identity and modern aesthetics became means for (re)constructing national identity.17 3. Averting the External Gaze: Modernity and Constructing National Identity The pre-World War II symposium, ‘Overcoming Modernity,’ attempted to avert the external gaze and involved the restoration of traditional culture through the rejection of the adopted ways of the West.18 Richard Calichman argues that the

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________________________________________________________________ most interesting point in ‘overcoming modernity’ is ‘the relationship it exposes between a nation’s heightened stance of militarism and the nostalgia of its culturalist discourse.’19 The review of the ensuing ‘overcoming modernity’ debate in post-war Japan brought about the beginnings of postmodernist thought. Japanese hermeneutical musing on the subject of aesthetics arrived at a debate focusing on ‘how to dismantle epistemological categories.’20 Onishi Yoshinori’s aesthetic vocabulary spanned 787 original terms, including sabi, yugen and aware. Onishi’s fundamental objective was not to conform Japanese culture to Western philosophical criteria, but to translate this culture into an idiom that could be understood by an audience trained in Western hermeneutics .21 4. Lost in Translation; Aesthetic Categories The fundamental task of finding Japanese counterparts for Western hermeneutic labels was grounded in Greek etymology. Linking traditional thought to newly imported philosophical systems was arguably the most arduous dilemma to be conquered. However, Onishi’s fundamental aesthetic categories provided a set of linguistic tools to literary historians so as to provide a ‘shortcut’ to find the alleged ‘essence’ of Japanese classics. However, Marra explains that the academics using these generic labels failed to consider the nature of these aesthetic categories (yugen, okashi, aware, wabi, sabi) in the light of their original purpose as poetic styles. Thus, as the vocabulary was originally devised for rhetorical means, the implementation throughout various visual and auditory arts caused a series of ‘cultural amnesias, positing direct continuities between past and present’. 22 5. The Productive Space of ‘Ma’ The concept of Ma has been discussed in Japanese architectural discourse in the 1960s and the interpretation of Ma as ‘place’ has been communicated to Western audiences through the ideas of Gunter Nitchke.23 For Isozaki, the concept of Ma became a means of averting the external gaze, as ‘nothing exists but the experience before the stage of consciousness.’24 Ma describes an interval between two or more spatial or temporal things and events. It is an ancient Japanese religio-aesthetic paradigm that brings about a collapse of distinctive (objective) worlds, and even of time and space itself. Richard Pilgrim states that ‘Ma takes us to a boundary situation at the edge of thinking and the edge of all processes of locating things.’25 The acknowledgement of these ‘pregnant nothings’ reinforces the importance of the mind-state of mushin (no-mind), and such ‘empty nothings’ are absolutely central to Buddhist, Taoist and Shintoist thought.26 In the realm of Ma, ‘reality is perceived in its phenomenological aspect of constant transformation (mujo), which resists reduction to the grammatical rules of logic and rejects tight divisions of conceptual categories.’27 The revival of this

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__________________________________________________________________ concept in contemporary Japanese aesthetics has paved the way for the liberation and confirmation of cultural and national identity, through a reawakening of a mode of awareness where the ‘realisation of impermanence is the realisation of the absolute relativity of all things as they arise and fall in consciousness moment to moment.’28 As Marra supports, it is this post-postmodernist thought that could potentially emancipate Japanese aesthetic dialogues. Marra states that ‘if the main target of postmodernism is the dismantling of Western epistemology, non-Western cultures whose pre-modern world has developed independent of Western influences should well be positioned to claim their status of postmodernity ante-litteram.’29 Upon observation, this is being achieved by Japanese intellectuals through the prioritisation and investigation of philosophical concepts birthed from the Taoist and Buddhist belief systems. One of the most influential concepts among designers, musicians, artists and architects, is Ma. Isozaki, in an interview on August 23 1997, explains that in Tokyo, ‘many buildings are constructed as a product of people’s desires. Capitalism however, is not people’s real desire.’30 Isozaki’s inquiry into an individual’s purpose in life and the question ‘what is the purpose of your being?’ brings him to the conclusion that, ‘I don’t want to be anything, I try to be a kind of ‘nothing,’ a kind of void is what I am always striving for.’31 This philosophical foundation that Isozaki has adopted is arguably based on the religio-aesthetic paradigm of Ma, a concept which Isozaki thought to be so influential that he used it as a basis for his 1979 exhibition, Ma: Space-time in Japan. It is this application of the concept of Ma that enables one to accept the inevitability of change, transience and nothingness. When asked why he ‘describes things in a state of deterioration…in a way that raises questions about their later existence,’ Isozaki replies he has ‘learned from the Orient that everyting exists in a state of flux, even though city architecture and objects have their own life, all are born, will decay, and die.’32 By embracing and even endorsing the ‘cycle-orientated’ theory of life, which is, as Isozaki explains, ‘derived from Japanese thinking or Oriental thinking as a whole,’33 there is a conscious loyalty to indigenous thought patterns. The readoption of the concept of Ma (nothingness, void, space-time interval) in the Isoazki exhibition can be interpreted as signifying a desire to return to pre-modern theories. However, it is also an acknowledgment of the irreducibly different ground from which Japanese culture arose. The exhibtion Ma was first held at Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris from October 1978 to January 1979. It was structured into seven subthemes with a prologue and epilogue. In the exhibition, ‘Ma’ still retains its ambiguous interpretation.34 Japanese artist Shuzo Takiguchi defines the concept of Ma as:

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________________________________________________________________ One of the simplest, yet most ambiguous; for good or for evil Ma, born of both space and time, will always be present. Often it is identified with a very slight interval of infinity. Sometimes a single second’s fall from grace can place a life in danger.35 Takiguchi explains the objective behind the contemporary debate surrounding the revival of the concept of Ma: adressing the tumultuous history of the tea house in Japan. Although ‘initially inspired by the daily life of the poor, [it] became the extravagant luxury of a handful of the privileged. From ‘poor’ art to ‘rich’ art.’36 With this, in his introduction to Isozaki’s 1979 exhibition, Takiguchi proposes a ‘communality of creation’ as an alternative to the confines of Western hermeneutic constructs. Takiguchi is striving for new ‘channels of communication, for the interval in infinity, the space (MA) that opens to all, everywhere and always.'37 Isozaki recognises that the concept of Ma is ‘in antithesis to Western thought,’ whilst the European concept of eternity is ‘materialised through monuments[…]which outlive the regimes.’ The Japanese concept of beauty is one that ‘engages life and death.’ Isozaki claims that this is due to ‘different cultural perceptions of time.’38 Isozaki defines the Oriental perception of time as being ‘contained inside the materialised being,’ whereas the European materiality ‘exists in a space-oriented framework, in an absence of time.’39 Referencing Immanuel Kant’s notion of space and time as a priori for every being, Isozaki intentionally iluminates the divide between Eastern and Western concepts of space and time, stating that in Japan, ‘space and time are not a priori, it belongs to every being.’ Isozaki asserts that Oriental thought introduced ideas similar to the German philosopher Martin Heidegger on ‘being in relation to time,’ and that ‘time, for us, is always inscribed within being.’ In relation to architecture, Isozaki believes that ‘architecture is not a fixing of images... [it is] always growing or decaying.’ Isozaki is heavily critical of the Western negation to accept decay, damage or ruin. To ‘keep what they thought was beautiful,’ Isozaki argues, was the true objective of European architects.40 Isozaki acknowledges the fact that there are unavoidable paradoxes within Japanese aesthetic dialogue and ‘there are always some conflicts, and these culminate in crisis.’41 It is the acceptance of the disparity in thought that has emancipated the Japanese design process from the constraints of designing architecture for permanency. Isozaki’s revival of the word Ma interpreted the concept in a manner decipherable to a Western mind. In the exhibtion and its related catalogue, the importance of Ma to the Japanese culture is highlighted through the phenomenologic and iconographic portrayal of the word as ‘extending to almost all aspects of Japanese life – for Ma is recognised as their foundation.’42 As the concepts of space and time are simultaneoulsy represented by Ma, the ‘coincidental conceptualisation of time and space is perhaps

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__________________________________________________________________ the most important element that distinguishes Japan’s artistic expression from that of the West.’43 Isozaki argues that this renders the concept of Ma ‘strangely contemporary’ as it frames theories on the amalgamation of space and time with the present day. Isozaki refers to the ancient Japanese perception of space as arising ‘from an effort to visualise and formalise the divinities (kami) that were thought to permeate the entire cosmos.’44 Furthermore, in 1979 exhibition Ma: Space-time in Japan catalogue, Isozaki elaborates on a series of definitions for Ma, considering the concept indefinite and all-encompassing. The various descriptions of Ma included in the catalogue are: Ma coordinates movement from one place to another, Ma is the structural unit for living space, Ma is maintained by absolute darkness, Ma is a way of situating the place where kami descend, Ma divides the world, Ma is the way of sensing the moment of movement, Ma is filled with signs of the ephemeral.45 In order to explain a concept that has infinte meanings, this strategy of deconstructing through constructing, or allowing the infinite by demonstrating that the finite cannot suffice, is a way to break down the boundaries of traditional Western hermeneutic through the subliminal negation of its constructs. 6. Conclusion A pre-modern philosophical concept was recovered by an intuitive restoration of the traditional Japanese space-time perception in the exhibition Ma. Arata Isozaki extended the ‘overcoming modernity’ debate not by further utilising Western hermeneutic criteria, but by deconstructing the walls of Western modes of thinking and reintroducing Japanese conceptualization of space-time. Concerning premodern Japanese aesthetics, as Isozaki argued: People found beauty in the antique appearance that an object gained in the passage of time, or in a desolate scene that kept changing, and they called it SABI…. Visible objects change into shadows of themselves, into dead bodies, into skeletons, and are finally destroyed in a movement of perpetual repetition.46 In the exhibition, through postmodern collages, the concept of Ma has been used by Isozaki to not only break down the confines of Western hermeneutics, but also to rebuild Japanese aesthetic discourse. This enabled him to restore premodern aesthetic values and to productively claim a ground that seeks to avert the external gaze through performative space of the ‘exhibition Ma,’ while

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________________________________________________________________ acknowledging it: a momentary suspension of body/mind, tradition/modernity, East/West, and self-other binaries.

Notes 1

Arata Isozaki, ‘Ma: Japanese Time-Space’ An Exhibition Held at the Musee Des Art Decoratifs, in Paris,’ Japan Architect 2 (1979): 69-80. 2 Norman Bryson, ‘The Gaze in the Expanded Field.’ Vision and Visuality 2 (1988), 108. 3 Miya Elise Mizuta, ‘Miya Elise Mizuta.’ Art Bulletin 94, no. 1 (2012): 27-29. 4 Harpreet Mand, Constructing Architecture, Interpreting Identity: The making of Postcolonial Modern Architecture of Japan and India. (PhD diss, The University of Sydney, 2010). 5 Toshihiko and Toyo Izutsu, The Theory of Beauty in the Classical Aesthetics of Japan, ed. Raymond Klibansky (Netherlands: Martinus Hijhoff Publishers, 1981). 6 Kazuko Okakura, in Michael Marra, Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader (Hawii: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999), 6. 7 Michael Marra, A History of Modern Japanese Aesthetics (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001), 5. 8 Arata Isozaki, Japan-ness in Architecture (Mass: MIT Press, 2006). 9 Kojin Karatani, ‘Japan as Art Museum: Okakura Tenshin and Fenollosa’, A History of Modern Japanese Aesthetics, ed. Michael F. Marra (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001), 43-52. 10 Marra, A History of Modern Japanese Aesthetics, 2. 11 Marra, Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader. 12 Shoyo Tsubouchi, ‘What Is Beauty?’, Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader, ed. Michael Marra (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999), 48-64. 13 Ibid., 53. 14 Junkio Saeki, ‘Longing for ‘Beauty’, Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader, ed. Michael Marra (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999). 15 Marra, Modern Japanese Aesthetics, 27. 16 Isozaki, Japan-ness in Architecture, 3. 17 Richard Calichman, Overcoming Modernity; Cultural Identity in Wartime Japan (nc: Weatherhead Books on Asia, 2008). 18 Yoshimi Takeuchi, ‘Introduction: Overcoming Modernity: The Dissolution of Cultural Identity’, Overcoming Modernity: Cultural Identity in Wartime Japan, ed. Richard Calichman (York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 1-41. 19 Calichman, Overcoming Modernity: Cultural Identity in Wartime Japan, 1-41. 20 Kojin Karatani, in Marra, Japanese Aesthetics: The Construction of Meaning. Philosophy East and West, 367-386.

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__________________________________________________________________ 21

Marra, Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader. Michael Marra, Aesthetic Categories Past and Present. University of California Press, UTCP Seminar on Japanese Philosophy ‘Aesthetic Categories: Past and Present’ 28th November, 2008, 11:00-12:30. 23 Nitschke, Günter, ‘Ma: The Japanese Sense of “Place” in Old and New Architecture and Planning’, Architectural Design 36, no. March: Special Issue: (1966): 116-56. See also Günter Nitschke, Shinto to Ando: Studies in Architectural Anthropology in Japan (London: Academy Editions, 1993). 24 Richard Pilgrim, ‘Intervals (Ma) in Space and Time: Foundations for a Religioaesthetic Paradigm’, History of Religions 25.3 (1986): 255-277. 25 Ibid., 255-77. 26 Ibid. 27 Marra, Modern Japanese Aesthetics; A Reader. 28 Ibid. 29 Michael Marra, Philosophy East and West: Japanese Aesthetics: The Construction of Meaning 45.3 (1995): 368. 30 Joerg Rainer Noenig and Christopher Knabe, eds., Shaking the Foundations: Japanese Architects in Dialogue (Munich: Prestel, 1999). 31 Ibid., 110. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 Isozaki, ‘Ma: Space/time in Japan, An Exhibition Held at the Musee Des Art Decoratifs, in Paris’. 35 Noenig and Knabe, Shaking the Foundations. 36 Shuzo Takiguchi, ‘Introduction to Catalogue for Ma: Space/Time in Japan’, by Arata Isozaki (New York: Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 1979), 61. 37 Ibid, 61. 38 Isozaki, Catalogue, ‘Ma, Space-Time in Japan’, 61. 39 Noenig and Knabe, Shaking the Foundations,114. 40 Ibid. 41 Ibid. 42 Isozaki, Ma, Space-Time in Japan, 61. 43 Ibid. 44 Noenig and Knabe, Shaking the Foundations,114. 45 Isozaki, Ma, Space-Time in Japan, 61. 22

Bibliography Bryson, Norman. The Gaze in the Expanded Field in Vision and Visuality. New York: The New Press, 1988.

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________________________________________________________________ Calichman, Richard. Overcoming Modernity; Cultural Identity in Wartime Japan. Translated by R. F. Calichman. nc: Weatherhead Books on Asia, 2008. Inada, Kenneth K. ‘A Theory of Oriental Aesthetics: Prolegomenon’. Philosophy East and West 47.2 (1997): 117-131. Isozaki, Arata. Japan-ness in Architecture. Translated by S. Kohso, edited by D. B. Stewart. London, UK: The MIT Press, 2006. Isozaki, Arata. Ma: Space/Time in Japan, edited by (I. N. Design. Cooper-Hewitt Musem, The Smithsonian, 1979. Junko, Saeki. ‘Longing for Beauty’. Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader, edited by Michele Marra. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999. Kojin, Karatani. Kotoba to Higeki; Edo Exegis and the Present. Daisanbunmeisha 1989, 1 Nov. 90-127. Koren, Leonard. Wabi Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers. Berkley, California, US: Stone Bridge Press, 1994. Kuki, Shuzo. Reflections of Japanese taste; The Structure of Iki. Sydney: Power Publications, 1997. Marra, Michael. Modern Japanese Aesthetics: A Reader. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999. Marra, Michael. A History of Modern Japanese Aesthetics. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001. Marra, Michael. Aesthetic Categories Past and Present. Berkley: University of California Press, 2008. Marra, Michael. ‘Japanese Aesthetics: The Construction of Meaning’. Philosophy East and West 45.3 (1995): 367-386. Mizuta, Miya Elise. ‘Miya Elise Mizuta’. Art Bulletin 94.1 (2012): 27-29. Nitschke, Günter. ‘Ma: The Japanese Sense of “Place” in Old and New Architecture and Planning’. Architectural Design 36 (1966): 116-56.

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__________________________________________________________________ Nitschke, Günter. From Shinto to Ando: Studies in Architectural Anthropology in Japan. London: Academy Editions, 1993. Noenig, Jeorg and Christopher Knabe, eds. Shaking the Foundations; Japanese Architects in Dialogue. NY: Prestel, 1999. Okakura, Kazuko. A Lecture to the Painting Appreciation Society. Tokyo, 6th Nov 1887,85-91. Pilgrim, Richard B. ‘Intervals (Ma) in Space and Time: Foundations for a Religioaesthetic Paradigm’. History of Religions 25.3 (1986): 255-277. Shoyo, Tsubouchi. What is Beauty. Tokyo: Iwanami Shiten, 1989. Harpreet (Neena) Mand is the former Head of Discipline, Architecture at the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Neena has extensive practice experience having worked on variety of projects with prominent practices in Asia and England. Neena’s current research interest includes post-colonial and feminist theories, cinema, Asian architecture and urbanism, sustainability and transport infrastructure, and the international practice of architecture. Marly Swanson-Wood is a graduate of the Master of Architecture (Hons) at the University of Newcastle, currently working as an interior designer and freelance writer in Sydney, Australia. Marly’s current research interests are Phenomenology in contemporary Australian Architecture, the evolution of the role of the architect, and the representation of architecture in media and society.

Marie-Madeleine Guimard: Eighteenth Century Ballerina and Early Fashion Icon Joanna Jarvis Abstract The mid-eighteenth century saw the emergence of ballet as a new and discreet art form. Originally referred to as ‘Ballet Pantomime’, and telling stories solely through dance and gesture, it led to the development of a new and virtuosic style of dance, with women taking centre stage as professional dancers for the first time. From their ranks several new stars emerged, including Marie-Madeleine Guimard (later nicknamed ‘La Guimard’), who made her debut at the Paris opera in 1762 at the age of eighteen. There followed an illustrious career as a renowned dancer, friend of royalty and fashion icon that established her among the elite of Paris society. Precious of her own image both on and off the stage, she can be seen as an early example of a phenomenon that we tend to associate primarily with the present day - the performer who carefully constructs and maintains a public persona, becoming admired for her style in both arenas, with a following anxious to take on something of her star quality by imitation. This chapter will examine the various factors at play in the life of ‘La Guimard’ by looking at her professional career as a dancer and her battles with the ballet masters and management of the Paris opera; her friendship with Marie Antoinette and her influence on the queen’s style; and her status within Paris society as host of a salon and creator of her own theatre. It will seek to demonstrate her influence on the fashions of her time and establish her as one of the first stars to become a fashion icon. Key Words: Ballet d’action, Paris Opera, Guimard, Noverre, Rococo, Eighteenth century ballet. ***** On 9 May 1762, at the age of eighteen, Marie-Madeleine Guimard made her debut as a ballerina in a leading role on the stage of the Paris Opera. Her appearance, as under-study for the principle ballerina, who had hurt her foot, was the beginning of a long and successful career on the stage, spanning nearly thirty years.1 That she was an accomplished dancer and actress is evident from the position she reached and held for many years; however, there were many other factors in her life that added together, give a picture of a performer who could also be described as a fashion icon, and that is what this chapter will seek to explore. Could Guimard be seen as an eighteenth century forerunner of Madonna, or Lady Gaga? Marie-Madeleine Guimard made her debut in 1762 at the Paris Opera as understudy for the injured Marie Allard, playing the part of Terpsichore, muse of

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__________________________________________________________________ the dance, a motif that would recur throughout her life.2 At this time, dance in the theatre provided a purely decorative interlude, sometimes telling a story, but seldom delivering an entire narrative. The Academie Royale de Musique, known as the Paris Opera, formalised the style of dance and trained the first professional performers, including women.3 Costumes conformed to the preferred style of the time, being interchanged and re-used, with motifs being added when a character needed to be recognisable. Louis XIV’s founding of the Academie Royale de Musique in 1669 had led to the formalising of dance as a discipline, and the requirement for performance to conform to a prescribed style. The Academie was the first to train dancers as professionals, and to accept women on the stage. As the century progressed, women slowly took on a greater role, and their costuming developed to allow the display of an increasing facility and virtuosity of movement, with minor changes such as raising the hem to allow their feet to be seen.4 Gradually, it became desirable for dance and gesture to be used to tell a story. Early forms of the style were known as ballet pantomime, indicating this combination of movement and mime used to present a narrative.5 By the end of the 1760s Guimard was established as a major force within the opera. She may not have been the most virtuosic dancer of that time, others thrilled with their pirouettes and aerial leaps, but she relied on a natural grace and sense of harmony, excelling in demi-charactère roles and comic genres.6 She became an accomplished and popular dancer, with a public following that knew what they wanted to see from her. We get some sense of her style from a critical review of her appearance in a farce: Guimard, wanted to go along with the craze of the day, but her studied style of dancing and her simpering features were unsuited to such exaggerated capers, which demand contortions and dislocations incompatible with this Terpsichore’s fragility and solemn grace.7 Despite the growing need for virtuosity, costumes for dance often reflected the fashions of the day, albeit heavily embellished to add theatricality and character. The favoured body shape of the time was voluptuous, a deep décolletage, pinched in waist and broad hips, accentuated by hooped skirts. A woman in full evening or court dress presented a stunning figure, in heavily decorated silk, with her accentuated décolletage and wide hoops causing her to command the space around her. At the same time, the underpinnings of her outfit – corset and hoops – severely restricted her movement. La Guimard was not seen as a conventional beauty but had an attractive face, and small well-formed figure, which by the standards of the time was regarded as too thin. The fashionable shape body shape of the time would be seen by modern

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__________________________________________________________________ eyes as voluptuous, so it is interesting to speculate what excessively slim means. Would she be seen by our weight-obsessed age as looking quite healthy, rather than thin and bony? As she got older she was known as the ‘skeleton of the graces’ and Sophie Arnould, a singer, seeing Guimard in a pas de trois with two male dancers, Vestris and Gardel, was reminded of ‘two dogs fighting over a bone’.8 If her looks meant that she was not the obvious choice for leading roles, did this in turn lead to her desire to be close to the management, thus ensuring she had a voice when choices were being made? It is important to remember that Guimard operated within a world where clothes were seen as a visual demonstration of a person’s position within society, not as an expression of their inner character, and this was the same for both sexes, especially for the aristocracy. A man would take as much care and expense over his dress as a woman, as this was a powerful and immediate indicator of status. Guimard’s personal life was also a major factor in her position within society. At this time, if a dancer wished to live in comfort it was necessary to find a rich lover, indeed backstage at the opera was the haunt of many aristocratic men, looking for a mistress among the alluring young women who danced for the company. This may have been how Guimard met her first lover, Jean-Benjamin de La Borde, first gentleman in waiting to the King, and amateur opera composer, by whom she had a daughter. However La Borde was soon to be replaced by the Prince de Soubise, a Marshal of France, whose generous monthly allowance, continuing for several years, enabled Guimard to live in luxury.9 She may have been elevated to a new social sphere by this association, but unlike some of her peers, she did not lose sight of those living around her. In 1768, France suffered a severe winter leaving many in Paris close to starvation. Seeing the plight of those around her, Guimard asked the Prince to send her cash in place of his usual, generous, annual gift of jewellery. She distributed the money amongst the poor of her neighbourhood, giving each family enough to survive through the winter. This generosity caused enough of a stir to prompt the publishing of an engraving commemorating her gesture.10 Through her association with the prince she was moving in the highest levels of Paris society, becoming friends with the Queen, later advising her on hair styles and makeup, and inevitably, this must have set her apart from most of the other dancers. At the same time, dance was developing, with choreographers beginning to look for human dilemma, conflict between characters and the circumstances that would dictate their behaviour. This focus on individuals in all their human complexity resulted in changes to the style of dancing, and allowed more scope for a dancer’s own quirks, permitting them to begin to move away from the constrictions of the academy. These changes coincided with a growing interest from the public in performers’ off-stage activities, following closely the private lives of the stars, their amorous liaisons, their movements in the worlds of art and real estate, wrangles over contracts, and nights spent in Fort l’Eveque prison for

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__________________________________________________________________ refusing to perform.11 Was this the beginning of a relationship between performers and their audience that still exists today; a hunger for stories of celebrities and a desire to take on something of their persona through imitation? It would seem that the cult of celebrity flourished for a time during the lead up to the French Revolution. In turn there was a greater awareness from the performers of their power with the audience, and so a desire to have more influence with the management as to the conduct of their career. At the Paris Opera, there was an influential performer’s committee run by the ballet master, Gaetan Vestris, and Madeleine Guimard. She was becoming one of the driving forces within the politics of the administration and direction of the ballet.12 Increasingly, she began to have a say in the roles that she took on, knowing her limitations and what her growing number of followers wanted to see from her. It was at this point in her career that Guimard encountered one of the greatest choreographers and voices for reform of ballet in this period, Jean-Georges Noverre. He wished to develop dance still further, no longer as an interlude within another performance, but as full length ballets that were complete in themselves, telling a story from beginning to end. Noverre called this ballet d’action, a form that he developed as ballet master in Stuttgart, where Vestris had also been a member of the company. Noverre had been dancing tutor to the family of the young Marie Antoinette in Vienna, and it must have seemed natural to her, a lover of music and dancing, and now Queen of France, to appoint him to the post of ballet master at the Opera. His appointment was a deeply unpopular move, and Guimard was in the vanguard of opposition, organising meetings at her house for the rest of the company. This was all to no effect, as Noverre’s appointment had been decreed by the Queen.13 Unlike most other ballet masters, Noverre was also interested in design, he wanted an integrated conception of decor, costumes, properties and movement, all contributing to a whole stage picture. As part of this, Noverre’s desire was to reform costuming for ballet and to dress dancers in clothes appropriate to their characters, and he railed against the old ways of re-using the same stereotypical dress over and over again. The style and silhouette of a dance costume was remarkably similar whatever the character being played. For example, to indicate that a dancer was Chinese a pointed hat would be added to the standard costume, or motifs and gold if they were a god or goddess. Male dancers playing heroic characters wore a strange development of the female hoop, called a tonnelet (French for little barrel). Noverre’s desire for reform was to bring him into direct conflict with Guimard who had a clear sense of what suited her, and was developing an increasing desire to control her own costuming and to stand out from the crowd.14 She also used her position to have an influence on Noverre’s designer Louis-Rene Boquet, (another artist to have worked with Noverre in Stuttgart). A stark example of this tussle between choreographer, designer and performer came in 1770, with Vestris’s

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__________________________________________________________________ production of Noverre’s ballet ‘Jason et Medee’. This ballet is an excellent example of the new ballet trends, with three main characters, Jason, Medea, a powerful sorceress, and Cruese, the nymph, with whom Jason falls in love, and abandons Medea in order to marry. Guimard was cast as Creuse; her style of dancing would seem to have been inappropriate for the violent, jealous rage to be displayed by Medea. Later in the same piece, she was also asked to appear as a shepherdess, as part of the corps de ballet, possibly due to a shortage of dancers. Her response to this request was to appear among the corps: In a dress so elegant that all the ladies have abandoned the carnival domino in order to dance in dresses ‘a la Guimard’.15 This costume was a gown worn over a skirt of another colour. There was obviously nothing new about this dress, the style of looping up an overskirt to reveal another of a different colour underneath was used regularly on the stage of the Comedie Italienne, and even there, it was seen as rather audacious, but this was a first for the Paris Opera. Guimard was appropriately costumed for her role as Creuse, lover of Jason, but when asked to dance with the corps de ballet at the end, she seemed to have felt the need for a grand statement, and made her appearance completely at odds with the others on stage.16 For a performer who was part of an ensemble piece this is an extraordinary action. Why did she feel that she could put her own persona over that of the production and thus compromise the theatricality of the whole piece? Was it pure hubris on her part; a feeling that to be asked to dance as part of the corps de ballet was demeaning to a prima ballerina? Was she concerned that there would be speculation and gossip in the press over this seeming demotion? If so, why did she agree to dance with the corps in the first place? Did she feel she had no choice as refusal would mean being sent to Fort l’Eveque? Comparisons could be made with today. Early in her career, Lady Gaga, herself perhaps not a conventional beauty, crashed on to our screens in a series of seemingly bizarre outfits. She was certainly noticed in her gown of meat, for example, or pink rubber condom outfit for World Aids Day. Later, as an established artist, she could afford to be slightly less sensational, with less need to constantly remind the public of her presence and identity. For Guimard, however, it would seem that the sophisticated audience of the Opera, who would have understood the visual significance of what they were seeing, not only accommodated her behaviour, but were inspired by it. Within days the ‘Robe a La Guimard’ was soon on the streets, and this can be seen as a symptom of how fashion in Paris was changing at this time. Methods of purchasing dress, and understanding the requirements of the latest fashion were changing, moving from the private sphere of the rich, and reaching a wider public of the bourgeoisie. Small shops were beginning to become the preferred way of

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__________________________________________________________________ trading, and the marchands des modes, originally the providers of accessories, trimmings and wigs, were beginning to play a bigger part in creating the full garment. These boutiques became a gathering place for socialising and viewing the latest styles, and any shop that could advertise performers amongst their clientele could expect a steady stream of customers.17 The interest displayed in the lives of performers was already developing into a desire to dress like them. Guimard was not only a leader in fashion; she was also living and participating in the intellectual life of Parisian high society at this time, much of which took place in the private salons run by upper class women, who were expected to be intelligent conversationalists, as well as visual adornments.18A rich woman could exercise some control over her social life by hosting a salon and choosing whom to invite to it. She could draw in young artists, engineer meetings and sponsorship, and promote her own education through facilitating discussion. Guimard hosted three supper parties every week, one for men of distinction, another for literary and artistic friends and the third a ‘veritable orgy’, to which the most seductive and promiscuous girls were invited.19 Through these parties Guimard was able to reinforce her status, consciously manipulating her image and her place in society. This circle of acquaintance also brought her into closer contact with the royal court. Queen Marie Antoinette loved to dance and act, and to attend the theatre, and opera, and when she began to mount her own theatricals, Guimard was one of those called upon to perform.20 To be invited to view one of these productions was a sign of special favour, to perform in one, even more so, and Guimard’s talents were especially valued for the late night satirical pieces that the queen particularly enjoyed.21 Amateur theatricals were part of court and aristocratic tradition, and in Paris at that time there were as many as one hundred small private theatres scattered across the city.22 Guimard’s level of success at that time is demonstrated by the fact that she had her own private theatre, in the house she had built at the Rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin between 1770 and 1773. The ‘Temple of Terpsichore’, as Guimard’s theatre was known, led to much gossip, both during its creation, when painters such as Fragonnard and David crossed swords with her over its decoration, and later for the risqué performances who performed there.23 This theatre was where she would entertain her friends with indecorous little plays that would explore scenarios otherwise inadmissible on the public stage and where the boxes were built with grills at the front for anyone who did not wish to be recognised. Living in the public eye as she was, did the fact that this was her own theatre allow her to abandon the constraints put on her by public expectations? Was this a further demonstration of her power and position within society, or her hubris? Guimard’s spectacular career came unexpectedly to an end with a disastrous season in London in 1789, from which she returned to Paris and a quiet retirement, dying in 1815.24 La Guimard enjoyed a professional career at the Paris Opera spanning nearly thirty years, she had a public following that was eager to see her

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__________________________________________________________________ dance, appreciative of her talent, and keen to follow her style. In terms of her performance, she was careful to play to her strengths, shunning roles that did not show her to best advantage. She also developed her own style of presentation, the ‘robe a La Guimard’ being only one example of how she manipulated her costume to maintain her personal look. Living as she did at a time of great change in the world of fashion, she can also be acknowledged as one of several performers who lead fashion at that time. For some, her association with royalty must have added further allure, as she moved among a charmed circle of aristocrats from the court. Like Madonna, and Lady Gaga she was forceful in constructing her personal image both on and off the stage. To our modern eyes, she can be seen as an early example of a phenomenon that we tend to associate with the present day – the performer, who carefully constructs and maintains a public persona, becoming admired for her style in both arenas, with a following anxious to take on something of her star quality by imitation. Guimard may have been an eighteenth century ballerina, but to us, surely, she can be seen as one of the first theatrical performers to earn the title of fashion icon.

Notes 1

Ivor Guest, ‘Letters from London: Guimard’s Farewell to the Stage’. Dance Chronicle (London: Taylor & Francis, 1995), 207. 2 Ivor Guest, The Ballet of the Enlightenment (London: Dance Books Ltd., 1996), 35. 3 Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp, Design for Ballet (London: Studio Vista, 1978), 54. 4 Cyril Beaumont, Five Centuries of Ballet Design (London: The Studio Ltd., 1939), 15. 5 Guest, Ballet of the Enlightenment, 3. 6 Guest, Letters from London, 38. 7 Guest, Ballet of the Enlightenment, 39. 8 Ibid., 37. 9 Ibid., 35. 10 Ibid., 35. 11 Susan Leigh Foster, Choreography and Narrative. Ballet’s Staging of Story and Desire (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1996), 87. 12 Judith Chazin-Bannahum, The Lure of Perfection. Fashion and Ballet 1780 – 1830 (New York: Routledge, 2005), 46. 13 Deryck Lynham, The Chevalier Noverre (London: Sylvan Press ltd., 1950), 95. 14 Chazin-Bannahum, Lure of Perfection, 47. 15 Foster, Choreography and Narrative, 87. 16 Ibid., 87.

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Jennifer M. Jones, Sexing La Mode. Gender, Fashion and Commercial Culture in Old Regime France (Oxford: Berg, 2004), 190. 18 Aileen Ribeiro, ‘Fashion in the Eighteenth Century: Some Anglo-French Comparisons,’ The Fashion History Reader, ed. Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil, (Oxford: Routledge, 2010), 220, 217-234. 19 Guest, Ballet of the Enlightenment, 36. 20 Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette. The Journey (London: Phoenix, 2001), 211. 21 Lynham, The Chevalier Noverre, 82. 22 Fraser, Marie Antoinette. The Journey, 211. 23 Guest, Ballet of the Enlightenment, 39. 24 Guest, Letters from London, 208.

Bibliography Beaumont, Cyril W. Five Centuries of Ballet Design London: The Studio Ltd., 1939. Chazin-Bennahum, Judith. The Lure of Perfection. Fashion and Ballet 1780-1830 New York: Routledge, 2005. Clarke, Mary, and Crisp, Clement. Design for Ballet London: Studio Vista, 1978. Foster, Susan Leigh. Choreography and Narrative. Ballet’s Staging of Story and Desire. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1996. Fraser, Antonia. Marie Antoinette. The Journey. London: Phoenix, 2001. Jones, Jennifer M. Sexing La Mode. Gender, Fashion and Commercial Culture in Old Regime France Oxford: Berg, 2004. Guest, Ivor. ‘Letters from London: Guimard’s Farewell to the Stage’. Dance Chronicle. London: Taylor & Francis, 1995. Guest, Ivor. The Ballet of the Enlightenment. London: Dance Books Ltd., 1996. Lynham, Deryck. The Chevalier Noverre. London: Sylvan Press ltd., 1950. Ribeiro, Aileen. ‘Fashion in the Eighteenth Century: Some Anglo-French Comparisons’. The Fashion History Reader, edited by Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil, 217-234. Oxford: Routledge, 2010.

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__________________________________________________________________ Joanna Jarvis trained in Theatre Design and currently lectures on the Design for Theatre, Performance, & Events course at Birmingham City University. She is currently studying for a PhD examining the relationship between fashion and dance costume in the eighteenth century. Joanna is also a freelance costume designer and maker, specialising in period costume. Her long association with Mary Collins has led to a particular interest in period dance and how the cut of clothes affects movement. .

The Influence of Walter Pater’s Theory of Aesthetics on Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Gonul Bakay Abstract Walter Pater believed in the ‘moments of profound imaginative power in which the outward object appears to take colour and expression, a new nature almost from the prompting of the observant mind.’1 In such moments, ‘the actual world would, as it were dissolve and detach itself, flake by flake, and he himself seemed to be the creator of the world in which he lived.’2 James Joyce also believed in the importance of profound moments when one experiences the full emotional impact of beauty. Young Stephan in The Portrait encounters a beautiful girl wandering on the shores of the Irish Sea, and he experiences an epiphany. Oscar Wilde was also a devoted follower of Walter Pater who believed in the principle of art for art’s sake. The Picture of Dorian Gray is about eternal youth and the horrors of ageing. Pater was a key figure in the decadence movement. Many authors who produced decadent art used drugs and led marginal lives. Wilde examines the life of a young man who enters a decadent life under the influence of Lord Henry. The destruction of Dorian at the end of the novel draws attention to the transient quality of beauty. Building on these ideas, this chapter will compare and contrast images of beauty in Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Key Words: Aesthetic theory, imagination, epiphany, beauty, art, decadence, transience. ***** 1. Walter Pater’s Aesthetics An aesthete is someone who is enamoured by the pleasures of visual experience. Prominent among the aesthetes are Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde and James Joyce, who would most probably agree with Clement Greenberg’s assertion that: a poor life is lived by anyone who doesn’t regularly take time out to stand and gaze, or sit and listen touch and smell or brood without any further end in mind, simply by the satisfaction gotten from that which is gazed at listened to, touched, smelled or brooded upon.3

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__________________________________________________________________ Walter Pater was the first English writer to publish a coherent thesis about aesthetics. Underlying his theory is his notion of dualism, which may be explained in terms of ‘self in motion’ and ‘self at rest.’ 4 The self receives a myriad form of impressions and it is a passive receiver of sensations. The self at rest is the contemplative artist. The importance of the self at rest is experience itself. The artist is the one who can discriminate between ordinary objects and authentic objects: ‘discrimination implies distance from the world, the transcendental world.’5 In order to understand the full meaning of what Pater means by self at rest and the project of discrimination, one could benefit from Deleuze’s insights on the subject: ‘The self at rest is the supreme artistic view of life in a way of viewing the world in terms of authentic distance or disinterest.’6 Pater believed that the theory of all art is biographical. In this sense, ‘Art thus determined is subjective without being autobiographical. And public without being institutional.’7 Pater wanted to create a literary form which would enable him to express himself in symbolic terms; he wanted to create the twentieth century myth of the self. The Renaissance (1873) was the most important of Pater’s works. According to the views he expressed within this novel, man is part of nature: he is made up of the same materials as lime and phosphorus, and hence he is prone to the same laws of decay. He is, in other words, part of an overall design. Every time an object reaches perfection, it starts to deteriorate. Each person has a different perception of reality because the ways in which each person receives impressions is different.8 That is to say, each mind is a solitary prisoner of its own dream world. Since we are all condemned to die, the only thing we can do is to refine experience into passionate moments. Since life is constantly in flux, one can only concentrate on the individual moments, which themselves will also pass within a short while. Pater further suggests that knowledge begins with sensory experience. He particularly stresses that we know nothing except our own sensations, so all knowledge is subjective: All things fleet away – may startle a peculiar age by its novelty, but takes possession only because all along its root, somewhere among natural though but half-developed instincts of the human mind itself.9 Art embodies mere moments of life being sifted of all its disturbing elements through personal inspection, and the result is the concentration of pure beauty.10 Informed by these ideas, Pater created a style which was ornate and sensuous, and ‘epiphanic moments’ became important. ‘Art is a moment of life – [the] result is [a] concentration of beauty. Poetic moments live out of time.’ For Pater, the beauty

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__________________________________________________________________ of art improves reality because it is superior to nature. It reflects a longing to escape vulgar reality.11 Walter Pater believed in the theory of art for art’s sake. Pater stated that art appeals through its sensitive surface. ‘For Pater as for its disciples, poetry in its ideal state had to communicate through its formal properties; through imagery, rhythm, tone and verbal repetition.’12 Ideal art aims to erase the distinction between content and form. Matter and form are both equally important. The artist, on the other hand, is the child of his time and he should watch for the perfect moments of beauty. Therefore, for Pater, art should reflect the cultural developments of his time. 2. Pater’s Influence on Wilde and Joyce Both Wilde and Joyce were considerably influenced by some of Pater’s core aesthetic beliefs. These can be roughly summarised as: art for art’s sake, the passive reception of experience, alienation from religion, epicurean philosophy of life, the importance of experience itself, and a distinction between the role of the artist and the aesthetic critic. Pater treats experience as if it were composed of discrete, discontinuous moments. In 1868, Pater wrote that Experience reduced to a group of impressions is ringed round for each of us, to that which we can only conjecture to be without it. Every one of those impressions is the impression of the individual in his isolation, each mind keeping as a solitary prisoner in its own dream world.13 Pater claims that we see through a ring of personality in which each one of us is imprisoned. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) is narrated by the perception of Stephan Dedalus. Like Proust and Woolf, Joyce believed in the significance of revelations as captured in moments in time. Life is a succession of such moments. One must be aware of a quickened sense of life.14 In this context, Joyce’s A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man deals with ways in which the artist hero relates to his surroundings. In the novel, James Joyce draws attention to the significance of such moments. Margaret Harkness observes that ‘it is Stephan, not Joyce, who transforms one rather skinny girl into an angel.’15 A girl stood before him in mid-stream alone and still, gazing out to sea. She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender, bare legs were delicate as a crane’s and pure save where an emerald trail of sea weed had fashioned itself as a sign upon the flesh.16

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__________________________________________________________________ The text reveals that she is not a temptress and does not call him with her eyes. In just one page she changes from a temptress to a girl whose offering is reflected in her eyes. From a girl whose ‘eyes had called him and his soul had leaped at the call,’17 she transforms into a girl whose ‘eyes turned to him in a quiet sufferance of his gaze - long, long she suffered his gaze and then quietly withdrew her eyes from his.’18 For Joyce, art serves as a substitute for religion. Stephan rejects religion and accepts life together with a group of artists. The priest asks him: ‘have you ever felt you had a vocation? I mean have you felt you within yourself, in your soul, a desire to join the order? Think… “I have sometimes thought of it”, said Stephan.’ 19 The priest further observes: In a college like this, he said at length, there is a boy or perhaps two or three boys whom God calls to the religious life. Such a boy is marked off from his companions by his piety, by a good example he shows to others. He is looked up to by them, he is chosen perhaps as perfect by his fellow sodalists. And you, Stephan, have been such a boy in this college, perfect of our Blessed Lady’s sodality. Perhaps you are the boy in this college whom God designs to call to himself.20 Stephan thinks of joining the holy order, the confessionals and priesthood but feels in his heart that he can not accept this life, the snares of the world were its ways of sin. ‘He would fall, He had not yet fallen but he would fall silently, in an instant. Not to fall was too hard.’ 21 Likewise, Dorian in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) aims to lead a passionate life without any moral concerns or obligations. In the book, Lord Henry advices Dorian against leading a sinless life. He believes that one should lead a hedonistic life and enjoy life’s pleasures to the full. He expresses his views to Dorian in the following words: We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. Resist it and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what is monstrous laws have made monstrous and lawful.22 At the centre of Pater’s aesthetic theory is the aesthetic hero. Pater analyses the aesthetic hero in The Renaissance and Marius the Epicurean. For Pater, the passive

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__________________________________________________________________ acceptance of impressions is important. The important thing is the ability not to take sides; the capacity to make small and great refusals that enable one’s art to rise from single mindedness to the expressive sympathy that great works embody. As Perlis observes, ‘the imagery of fire and radiance unites Joyce’s visionary experience with Pater’s’.23 The object has a life of its own; it leaps to us from its appearance. Stephan defines aesthetic vision using Aquinas’s words: He uses the word ‘visa’, said Stephan, to cover aesthetic apprehensions of all kinds, whether through sight or hearing or through any other avenue of apprehensions. This word, though it is vague, is clear enough to keep away good and evil... It means certainly a stasis and not a kinesis.24 Both for Pater and Joyce, the role of the passive observer is important. Pater observes in The Renaissance that the ‘perfection of culture is not rebellion but peace, only when it has realized a deep moral stillness has it really reached its end.’25 Joyce sees Stephan Dedalus as a counterpart of Pater’s Botticelli. Stephan makes small refusals first and later major refusals of his family, country and religion. In The Portrait, Stephan does not want to overcome his doubts concerning religion: “Do you believe in the Eucharist?” Cranly asked... “I do not”, Stephan said. “Do you disbelieve then?” “I neither believe in it nor disbelieve in it”, Stephan answered. “Many persons have doubts, even religious persons, yet they overcome them or put them aside”, Cranly said. “Are your doubts on that point too strong?” “I do not wish to overcome them”, Stephan answered.26 Pater’s influence on Wilde is far-fetching. For both Pater and Wilde, experience itself is important, not the result of experience. In his conclusion to The Renaissance, Pater urges his readers to seek ‘not the fruit of experience but experience itself.’27 Lord Henry echoes similar sentiments when he tries to influence Dorian’s worldview: ‘let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations.’28 However, the friendship of Wilde and Pater deteriorated after Pater expressed negative views about the depiction of Lord Henry in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Pater professed that Wilde failed in depicting the epicurean spirit. This assessment led to an estrangement between the two. Matthew Arnold was an intellectual who influenced Pater and who in turn influenced Wilde. Wilde expressed his views on aesthetics in ‘The Critic as Artist’ and Pater in The Renaissance. According to Arnold, the critic was ‘to see the

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__________________________________________________________________ object as in itself it really is.’ 29 Wilde and Pater were both influenced by Arnold. Arnold’s essay, ‘The Function of Criticism at the Present Time’ (1865) and Wilde’s Critic as Artist and Pater’s The Renaissance were influential works of their time. For all three writers, metaphysical problems offered choices. Arnold stated that the goal of criticism is ‘to see the object as in itself it really is.’30 Moreover, Arnold also believed that it was really possible to ‘see the object as it really was in itself.’ 31 By criticizing Newman’s views on Homer, Arnold maintained that the wrong kind of criticism resulted from personal eccentricities. One must aim to avoid these and strive for lucidity of mind. In his work, ‘On Translating Homer’, when Arnold compares the effects of the originals with the effects of the translations, he encounters an impasse. This implies that the work of art can produce different effects at different times. Pater stated that ‘we can only know the object as a personal impression.’32 The critic simply records his impressions. Pater makes clear in his preface to The Renaissance that ‘the critic is concerned not with the degree of truth but the kind of beauty, the Formula of the beauty in a given work.’33 Wilde opened for discussion Arnold’s theory of criticism in his own work: Ernest: “I seem to have heard another theory of criticism.” Gilbert: “Yes, it has been by one whose gracious memory we all revere, and the music of whose pipe once lured Proserpine from her Sicilian fields and made those white feet astir. And not in vain, the Cumnor cowslips that the proper aim of criticism is to see the object in itself it really is. But this is a very serious error, and takes no cognisance of Criticism’s most perfect form, which is in its essence purely subjective, and seeks to reveal its own secret and not the secret of another.”34 Gilbert further suggests that ‘to aesthetic critic the work of art is simply a suggestion for a new work of his own that need not necessarily bear any obvious resemblance to the thing it criticizes.’35 Wilde worshipped Plato, but Plato condemns art for ‘being merely an imitation of appearance, which in itself is only a poor imitation of the ideal.’36 Wilde also stressed in his essay the importance of the critical attitude observing that ‘there has never been a creative age that has not been critical also.’37 Both Pater and Wilde accepted that there could be inconstancies in their metaphysical beliefs. In the words of Pater, ‘to regard all things and principles of things as inconstant modes of fashion has more and more become the tendency of modern thought.’38 Similar thoughts are echoed by Wilde:

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__________________________________________________________________ Metaphysics does not satisfy our temperaments, and religious ecstasy is out of date. The world through which the academic philosopher becomes “the spectator of all time and existence” is not really an ideal world but simply a world of abstract ideas. When we enter it, we starve amidst the chill mathematics of thought. The courts of the city of God are not open to us now…..We cannot go to the philosopher and the mystic leads us astray.39 James Joyce also rebelled against the idea of God in his youth, but as Sheldon Brivic observes, Joyce continually indicated through his embodied and disembodied voices that the artist played the role of God 40. Joyce accepted some of the metaphysical ideas of Aristotle, and namely that there are four causes ın every object: essence or form, matter, cause of change and end or purpose. Joyce, like God, tries to create a new form of reality in his works. Brivic further observes that ‘Joyce regarded sex as art as a path towards Godhood and he used scholastic logic to support his argument in the notesheets for Ulysses when he said that in the act of intercourse, a man obliges God to create.’41 Joyce never resolved the conflict and lack of integrity that ‘result from combining human limits with the role of God.’42 Like Pater, Wilde and Joyce question the role of the artist in their works. What should be the aim of the artist be, and how should he go about it? Joyce in his Portrait aims to reflect the tensions and problems he faced as a youth growing into an artist. In doing that, he particularly draws on his problems with language, religion, family and aesthetics. As the child of a devout Catholic family his reaction to religion is informed by two opposing attitudes, sinning consciously, or adhering to strict piety. Soon, the young Stephan realizes that both of these attitudes are wrong for him. After seeing the young girl by the sea shore, he decides to embrace life and intends to live it to the full. He accepts that he must aim to fly too high, as his wings may burn like Icarus, but chooses the middle way though he flees from his country, still he accepts that he is part of Ireland and hence tries to serve his country by his art and creating his own unique style. He accepts that the artist should be an isolated figure. The philosophy of art for art’s sake requires the artist to break free from the constraints of religion, family and racial ties. His devotion to music is another symbol reflecting Joyce’s desire to live life to the full. Wilde was a prominent member of art for art’s sake philosophy. In his important essay ‘The Critic as Artist’ (1891) he professed that ‘the sphere of art and the sphere of Ethics are absolutely distinct and separate and that the real artist is he who proceeds not from feeling to form but from form to thought and passion’. 43 Pater claimed that art exists for the sake of beauty alone. Victorians were divided on the function of art. Art for art’s sake was a movement that had started in the

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__________________________________________________________________ early 19th century defending the idea that art was as art, that artistic pursuits were their own justification and that art did not need moral justification. It should be neutral or subversive. One group, including Ruskin and his primary influence, Carlyle, supported a utilitarian perspective of art, considering labour as the solution to most ills of society. The other group, however, was associated with the art for art’s sake movement. Pater who advocated the idea of art for art’s sake observed that the only function of art should be to give aesthetic pleasure. Perhaps one can conclude with Hassan Shoukry’s words: Pater insisted that the artist does not depict objective reality or life as it looks on the surface. He selects from life that which will illuminate what he wants to say... not because in a world in which nothing stands still, all that matters is the artist's vision but presumably because what he wants to communicate to others is something that only he can perceive, though others can be taught to perceive it also.44 Ultimately, for both Joyce and Wilde, art's purpose is not to instruct but to be enjoyed for being beautiful. Didactic qualities of a work of art may contribute to beauty, but they are of secondary importance compared to the aesthetic qualities embodied in the artistic creation. Like Pater, Wilde had a deeply felt appreciation for exquisite moments in life that were attained through complete immersion in the artistic world, so achieving a higher state of consciousness came through focused contemplation of works of art. All in all, works of Joyce and Wilde attest to the fact that it is through art that human propensity for creation is realized and recognized.

Notes 1

Walter Pater, The Works of Walter Pater in Eight Volumes: Appreciations (California: Mc Millan, 1901), 424. 2 Ibid., 424. 3 Clement Greenberg, Art and Culture-critical Essays (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), 4. 4 Hassan Seyd Shoukry, The Victorian Taste (Saudi Arabia: Riyad University Press, 1974), 94. 5 Ibid., 94. 6 Ibid., 95. 7 Ibid., 96. 8 Ibid., 98. 9 Ibid., 5. 10 Ibid., 6.

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Ibid., 109. Ibid., 117. 13 Pater, Studies in the History of the Renaissance, 237. 14 Theodore Spencer, ed., The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde (New York: New Directions, 2000), 231. 15 Margaret Harkness, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Voices of the Text (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990), 9. 16 James Joyce, The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man (England: Penguin Books ltd, 1960), 171. 17 Ibid., 172. 18 Ibid., 171 19 Ibid., 157. 20 Ibid., 158. 21 Ibid., 162. 22 Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), 19. 23 A. D. Perlis, ‘Beyond Epiphany: Pater’s Aesthetic Hero in the Works of Joyce’, in James Joyce Quarterly 17.3 (1980): 274. 24 Joyce, The Portrait, 146. 25 Pater, The Renaissance, 26. 26 Joyce, The Portrait, 239. 27 Pater, The Renaissance, 235. 28 Wilde, The Picture, 21. 29 Matthew Arnold, The Function of Criticism at the Present Time (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1964), 593. 30 Pater, The Renaissance, 735. 31 Arnold, The Function of Criticism at the Present Time, 593. 32 Ibid., 739. 33 Wendell V. Harris, ‘Arnold, Pater, Wilde and the Objects as They See It,’ Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 11.4 (1971): 733-747. 34 Ibid., 742. 35 Ibid., 742. 36 Ibid., 743. 37 Ibid., 743. 38 Pater, The Renaissance, 257. 39 Oscar Wilde, Complete Works (England: Collins Classics, 2003), 1089. 40 Sheldon Brivic, Joyce, The Creator (Michigan: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 13. 41 Ibid., 18. 42 Ibid., 18 43 Oscar Wilde, Complete Works (England: Collins Classics, 2003), 428. 12

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Shoukry, The Victorian Taste, 122.

Bibliography Arnold, Matthew. The Function of Critcism at the Present Time. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1968 Brivic, Sheldon. Joyce, The Creator. Michigan: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985. Carrier, David. England and its Aesthetes: Biography and Taste. Netherlands: G.B. Arts International, 1997. Greenberg, Clement. Art and Culture: Critical Essays. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971. Harris ,Wendell V. ‘Arnold, Pater, Wilde and the Objects as They See It,’ Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 11.4 (1971): 733-747. Joyce, James. The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. England: Penguin Books ltd, 1960. Pater, Walter. Studies in the History of the Renaissance. Oxford: Oxford World Classics,1873 ———. The Works of Walter Pater in Eight Volumes: Appreciations. California: Mc Millan, 1901. Perlis, A. D. ‘Beyond Epiphany: Pater’s Aesthetic Hero in the Works of Joyce.’ James Joyce Quarterly 17.3 (1980): 272-279. Shoukry, Hassan Seyd. The Victorian Taste. Sauudi Arabia: Riyad University Press, 1974. Spenser, Theodore, ed. The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde. New York: New Directions, Henry Holt, 2000 Wilde, Oscar. The Critic as Artist. England: Mondial, 2007. ———. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.

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__________________________________________________________________ ———. Complete Works England: Collins Classics, 2003. Gönül Bakay is an Associate Professor of English Literature, and currently a faculty member of the American Culture and Literature Department at Bahçeşehir University-İstanbul, Turkey. Her research interests include Black literature, Gothic novel, 18th century English novel, feminist theory and literature. She is the author of one book (Virginia Woolf and Communication) and editor of four books in Turkish (Success Stories by Comtemporary Turkish Women, Women and Space, They Have Met Atatürk and Feminist Criticism).

Part V Social Spaces of Beauty

Female Beauty Workers Who Cannot Afford the Price of Beauty Hager Faisal Amer Abstract Beauty salons offer a rich site to observe gendered labour power relations inside the workplace. This chapter provides a detailed account of the lives of Egyptian female beauty workers. Through an ethnographic analysis of the everyday interactions inside the beauty salons, this chapter demonstrates the dynamics of labour relations and class formations. The aim of this research is to bring the social world of the salon into life. It is a move away from the traditional studies of the beauty industry that highlight women’s insecurities about their bodies and their experiences in meeting beauty standards. It is not my intent to investigate the relation between physical appearance and women’s chances in securing better jobs. As a result of the two previously mentioned reasons, women’s demands for beauty services have increased dramatically. The chapter will focus on Egyptian female beauty workers who serve upper and middle-class women in meeting the standards of beauty. The research shows how the gendered spaces of salons are used as sites that reproduce feminized social divisions. I am particularly concerned with the new identities that beauty female workers build in the beauty salons and what influence the salon location might have on shaping those new identities. In addition, I will analyze labour dynamics and authority hierarchy inside the beauty salon. Labour dynamics will be analyzed through the investigation of interaction patterns among female beauty workers, clients and employers. Theoretically informed by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, this chapter draws on Bourdieu’s three pillar concepts, habitus, field and capital to better understand Egyptian female beauty workers’ identities and the labour power relations within the beauty salons. I decided to focus my study on those workers in particular because workers themselves are not fully aware of the importance of engaging their labour dynamics in public debates. Key Words: Beauty salons, service sector, capital, cultural capital, labour relations, body labour, Gender and labour, class consciousness, habitus, Bourdieu. ***** I had an urge to have a haircut, but I was not sure if there was anyone in Egypt who could do a hairstyle similar to the famous Hollywood actresses. I saw that hairstyle only on celebrities’ heads, and kept my urge silent, until one day I entered one of the beauty salons to find that one of the beauty workers had that same hair cut. I looked around to find all the female beauty workers had trendy nail designs, perfect bodies and wearing the right makeup to complement their skin complexion. I was thrilled and asked her for the same cut. She did, but it wasn't as nice as hers. I

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__________________________________________________________________ wondered, who did this to her? And is she aware that she is wearing the trendiest haircut? Did she do it by herself or did the beauty salon do it for her to advertise the new cut? Why did beauty workers in this salon look different from beauty workers in other salons? After visiting that fancy salon, I understood why Amal, Huda, and Manal, the three beauty workers addressed in this chapter, were denied work at fancy elite and upper-class salons. The physical appearance of the workers is a key prerequisite in joining the service sector in general, and the beauty sector in particular. The fact that workers are in direct contact with their clients while their managers monitor the labour process impose certain gestures and behaviours meant to ensure the clients’ satisfaction. Since most of the beauty workers are originally from the working class, it is hard for them to meet the requirements of working at fancy beauty salons. Professional experience is not the only measurement that fancy salon employers are looking for. Bodily presentations represented in the type of clothes, tone of voice, gestures, language competency are indicators of the social class. Unlike low and middle-class beauty salons, female beauty workers who apply for work at fancy salons go through professional interviews and tests. The interviews assess workers’ linguistic competency, body shape, and style. Upon passing this interview, the professional experience of workers is evaluated by undergoing job-related tests. In the following section, I will use Bourdieu’s concept of bodily habitus to analyze what stops female beauty workers from upward mobility when working in fancy salons, while others are privileged. In addition, I will analyze employers’ techniques in disciplining workers’ bodies. 1. Techniques of the Body Bodily habits are central to Bourdieu’s analysis of class dispositions. In explaining how bodies are developed in accordance with individuals’ habitus, capitals and taste, Bourdieu proves that bodies bear the traces of class. According to Bourdieu, bodily movements are not learnt, but they are rather acquired since early childhood and internalized in the system of dispositions which make them become bodily habitus. Since habitus transcends the level of consciousness and could thus be very hard to control or direct, bodily movements are then considered as subjective experiences. In the line of this argument, Bourdieu explains that, …the most automatic gestures or the apparent most insignificant techniques of the body-ways of walking or blowing one’s nose, ways of eating or talking-and engage the most fundamental principals of construction and evaluation of the social world, those which most directly express the division of labour (between the classes, the age groups and the sexes) or the division of the work of domination.1

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__________________________________________________________________ In linking what Bourdieu calls ‘techniques of the body’ to the division of labour in the beauty industry, the comparison between the body behaviours of beauty workers in two different salons is instructive. The first salon that this chapter will address is the middle-class establishment, M.S, while the second one is a fancy Lebanese salon named Kriss. In the M.S salon, beauty workers do not necessarily wash their hands when moving from one client to another; instead, they could just wipe their hands on their blouses and in the middle of work could wipe their face on their shoulder or scratch their hair. They turn on the television or music and crank up the volume, then they raise their voices to talk over the noise and in the midst of this ear-splitting noise, you find children running around the salon, as some of the workers allow their children to accompany them to work. It is also normal to see beauty workers share gestures of elation through cheering and high-fiving one another while working on client’s bodies. They chat with their customers without any reservations and may even inquire after their personal lives and regal the customer with their own life story. In the absence of the salon owner, female beauty workers’ sometimes have drinks while they provide services for the client or eat in the working space of the salon. Thus, the combination of the bodily odours of the workers along with the deafening volume of the place and the ruckus created by the children merge together, creating an unsanitary and somewhat chaotic environment. Kang notes the management of Asian manicurists foods inside the salons: The regulation of body odour through the control of ethnic food consumption in nail salons does not arise simply out of individual adjustments to new cultural norms but as a by-product of body-service work.2 On the other hand, in the Kriss salon, beauty workers are more aware of their bodily movements. They are prone to maintaining a hygienic environment. They are careful that their voices are never louder than the background music in the salon. They never eat or drink when serving a client. Children are not allowed during working hours; moreover, they are cautious that they constantly wash their hands between clients and have a piece of handkerchief by their side if they need to dry their face from perspiration. They are mindful that they do not interact with their clients other than to inquire after their satisfaction of the work or their desire for a particular style; similarly, they do not communicate with their colleagues during work. They are adamant that they create a soothing ambiance in the salon in order to engulf their clients in the serene atmosphere and leave them content with the service provided, thus achieving the professional demand that is essential for their success. In addition, they also have a high linguistic competency that they show by throwing job-related English vocabulary such as ‘client’, ‘service’, ‘moustache’,

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__________________________________________________________________ ‘eyelashes’. Being able to communicate in English is important, since all the clients are either foreigners or Egyptians from the elite and upper classes, who are taught in language schools, and can hardly resist inserting foreign vocabulary in their conversations. Language competency in the beauty service industry is not restricted to Egyptian beauty salons. Kang notes that due to foreign language deficiencies and the unfamiliarity of the English language, Korean beauty workers get training in English language in order to be licensed and eligible to work at nail salons in the U.S.3 Similarly, in her study of the reproduction of symbolic capital in terms of language in the Egyptian society, Haeri (1997:808) asserts that ‘It would be erroneous to deny…that the labour market is more accessible to those who control foreign languages but this does not imply the exclusion of Arabic’.4 Thus, the familiarity of foreign language becomes essential to work at a fancy salon. This comparison shows the bodily techniques of beauty workers and their influence on the type of salon they are eligible to work at. 2. Disciplining Workers’ Bodies Bourdieu’s analysis of the body in not limited to techniques of the body. He illustrates how individual taste impacts one’s physical appearance. As Bourdieu puts it, It follows that the body is the most indisputable materialization of class taste, which it manifests in several ways. It does this first in the seemingly most natural features of the body, the dimensions (volume, height, weight) and shapes (round or square, stiff or supple, straight or curved) of its visible forms, which express in countless ways a whole relation to the body, i.e. a way of treating it, caring for it, feeding it, maintaining it, which reveals the deepest dispositions of the habitus.5 Many female beauty workers are denied a job at fancy beauty salons due to their physical appearance. For example, Huda states that one of her friends got rejected because she is veiled. Although the main area of expertise for most female beauty workers is not hairdressing, veiled workers are rejected offhand in some salons and not welcomed in others. Although it is true that many female beauty workers are rejected for their physical appearance, it does not necessarily mean that those who are accepted meet the employers’ expectations perfectly. Thus, after getting accepted, female beauty workers undergo what I call a process of body disciplining. In the course of this process, female beauty workers achieve a complete make-over of their bodies. Otis explains that ‘[t]o appeal to status expectations of consumers, service employers organize the bodies of workers as

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__________________________________________________________________ vehicles of signs, codes, and messages’.6 In that sense, the body of the female beauty worker does not merely exist to provide body services, however, it is used as a free tool for advertising the services provided in the salon, a more effective method than using displays and posters. The hesitation that workers displayed in knowing whether a hairstylist or a make-up artist will give them the image in their head is no longer a problem since their own bodies provide a real sample. However, it is important to note that the process of disciplining the body is a continuous one. While it is true that employers discipline workers’ bodies from time to time, according to the trends of the season, workers are responsible for their daily disciplining. The process of daily disciplining requires female beauty workers to come to work one hour earlier in order to take care of their bodies. The reason that they come early is to ensure that they finish before the arrival of the clients and that clients do not get to see the workers using the tools and the space of the salon. Female beauty workers have to make sure that they wear suitable make-up, styled hair, trimmed and well-groomed nails. Those who fail to meet the daily routines of body discipline are subjected to warnings and payment deductions from their employers. When asked about her opinion concerning her body discipline, Noha stated: I actually feel good about my look. I am also proud that the owner likes me in particular and treats me like his daughter. Unlike other workers who get haircuts by male workers, I get mine done by the salon owner himself, which makes me feel proud and special as well. You know, women pay a lot of money to get their hair done with him, while I get the same service for free. In hearing Noha’s response, I was surprised with the fact that she perceives the salon owners’ free haircut service as a compliment or an intimate gesture for a daughter. Although, it could be true that the owner gives Noha a special attention, this does not mask the fact that her body is used, in echoing Noha’s words, ‘for free’. Since it is hard to control the taste of female beauty workers in clothing, most fancy beauty salons enforce wearing a uniform. While uniforms are essential in protecting workers’ personal clothes from chemical substances, employers have other hidden motives behind using uniforms. For instance, Neama, a female salon owner, asserts: I tried having no uniforms before and it was a disaster. I had daily fights with the female beauty workers about their choice of colours and the style of their clothes. It was either about them showing up with old clothes because they want to keep their nice

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__________________________________________________________________ ones clean or exaggerating and wearing irrelevant colours. For this reason, I enforced a uniform policy. If they had good taste, I would have left the choice to them, but, unfortunately, they lack good taste. From the above excerpt, it is clear that employers make an effort to diminish signs of the social class of the workers. Bourdieu asserts that, ‘ in the occupations involving presentation and representation, which often impose a uniform (tenue) intended, among other things, to abolish all traces of heterodox taste…’.7 The fact that salon owners do not wear those uniforms confirms that they are not designed for protecting clothes, but for masking the real identities of the workers. The process of body disciplining places these women in a dilemma. To undergo such extensive bodily changes, female beauty workers have to let go of their bodily habitus(es), established in the dispositions of their social class. However, this is not possible since, when stepping out of the salons and going back to their families and neighbourhoods, workers are required to again submit to their class practices. This body restyling, that includes haircuts and eyebrow tattoos, leaves permanent marks on the bodies. When faced with such a dilemma, many workers have to find a way to compromise between their bodies at work and at home. For example, Noha, who has a tattooed eyebrow with coloured short pixie crop hairstyle, stated: Working here is totally different from other middle-class salons. I feel confident because I do not look inferior to female clients. In fact, I look better than many of them and my style influences them. However, I live in a local neighbourhood. Everyone talks about everyone. I already have a bad reputation for being a beauty worker. People associate beauty workers with nurses and our physical appearance makes people think that all of us are sexually available. Since returning back home at 11:00p.m is already late for a female, I have to look modest, also to avoid sexual harassment. Thus, I put the veil on when leaving and coming back to my neighbourhood. Noha’s words refer to the links that she draws between her occupation and her body image. In analyzing the peasant’s perception of his own body, Bourdieu points out that ‘[h]e comes to perceive his body as a body marked by the social stamp, as an empaysanit, ‘em-peasanted’ body, bearing the trace of the attitudes and activities associated with peasant life’.8 Similarly, female beauty workers perceive their bodies in terms of the disciplining practices induced by their employers. Similarly, Fatin adds:

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__________________________________________________________________ I faced many troubles with my ex-husband because of my physical appearance. When we got married, I was working in a middle-class salon that did not require changing my hair colour and other stuff. Later one, I got this job and, you know, my salary is much higher now and I am dealing with better clients. I receive many compliments from my clients on my style. It feels good and I feel appreciated. However, I used to have regular fights with my husband, because he did not accept these changes and argued that they are not modest. In the above two cases, Noha and Fatin display a high sense of confidence because of their restyled bodies. While Noha does not have to worry anymore about a client looking down at her, Fatin is self-assured by the complementary comments from her clients. It is important to note that female beauty workers are able to mobilize their feminization capital by displaying feminine attributes. It is also remarkable that class hierarchies between workers and their clients are narrower when compared with low-and middle-class salons where workers do not get similar chances of body disciplining. Yet, the disciplined bodies of the workers are not perceived as modest and do not meet the dispositions of their own class. In that sense, rather than focusing on the individual habitus of each worker, it is important to evaluate their disciplined bodies against what Bourdieu terms as ‘class habitus’9. The idea of class habitus is that it structures the objective view of the world based on collective practices from early childhood. As a result: …the most improbable practices are excluded, either totally without examination, as unthinkable, or at the cost of double negation which inclines agents to make a virtue of necessity, that is, to refuse what is anyway refused and to love the inevitable.10 This explains why the disciplined bodies of female beauty workers are deemed unacceptable by their families and their neighbours, while the same body disciplining gives their clients a sense of privilege and decency in their social network. In addition, the physical presence in the working space of the salon is perceived as morally wrong by the family members and neighbours of most workers. For example, Manal states: I get embarrassed when I say that I am a beauty worker. People get you wrong when you say so. They think of us as whores, addicts and alcoholics… I told my neighbours a long time ago that I work as a secretary in a lawyer’s office. This is the only way I can escape the stereotyping of people.

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__________________________________________________________________ In giving an explanation for this stereotypical image, Mervat says: Since we enter this enclosed space, from early morning until late at night, that our male family members do not have access to in order to check on our activities, people doubt what we might be doing inside… You know there are salons that have rooms inside used for prostitution. Working in closed spaces is a controversial position for those women. They are not in the private sphere theorized by Fraser and their lack of visibility ensures they are not in public.11 They suffer from not being seen and are thus doubted. Privacy does not mean protection and security. On the contrary, being in private spaces stigmatizes them. Their invisibility due to their working conditions also reduces their professional status. In opposition to the familiar practices of the working and middle class workers, the challenges described above when adapting the new body habits of the dominated class push them to what Bourdieu calls the state of ‘pretention’. In Swartz’s interpretation, this pretension state affects the petit-bourgeois in that they are ‘[…] caught in the opposition between its upward mobility ambitions and actual possibilities’.12 This justifies workers’ actions in displaying their disciplined bodies in the workplace while hiding them with different practices, such as wearing a veil when returning to their homes.

Notes 1

Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1984), 466. 2 Miliann Kang, The Managed Hand:Race, Gender, And The Body In Beauty Service Work. (California, University of California Press, 2010), 152. 3 Ibid., 53. 4 Niloofar Haeri, ‘The Reproduction of Symbolic Capital: Language, State, and Class in Egypt’. Current Anthropology 39 (1997): 808. 5 Bourdieu, Distinction, 190. 6 Eileen Otis, Markets and Bodies: Women, Service Work, and the Making of Inequality in China (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1995), 9. 7 Bourdieu, Distinction, 400. 8 Pierre Bourdieu, ‘The Peasant and His Body’, nv Ethnography (2004): 585. 9 Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 81. 10 Ibid.,77.

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Nancy Fraser, ‘Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy’ (nc: Duke University Press, 1990), 60. 12 David Swartz, Culture & Power: The Sociology of Pierrre Bourdieu. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), 177.

Bibliography Bourdieu, Pierre, Outline of a Theory of Practice (London, Cambridge University Press, 1977). Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press. 1984. Bourdieu, Pierre. ‘The Peasant and His Body’ Ethnography (2004): 579-599 Fraser, Nancy. ‘Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy’ , Duke University Press (1990): 56-80. Haeri, Niloofar. ‘The Reproduction of Symbolic Capital: Language, State, and Class in Egypt’. Current Anthropology. 39 (1997): 795-816 Kang, Miliann. The Managed Hand:Race, Gender, And The Body In Beauty Service Work. California, University of California Press. 2010. Otis, Eileen. Markets and Bodies: Women, Service Work, and the Making of Inequality in China. Stanford, California. Stanford University Press. Swartz, David. Culture & Power: The Sociology of Pierrre Bourdieu. The University of Chicago Press. 1997 Hager Faisal Amer is an assistant lecturer at Misr International University, Egypt. She holds her M.A in Gender and Women’s Studies, The American University in Cairo.

Pursuing Body Beautiful: Men’s Beauty Aesthetics within the Space of the Beauty Parlor Deepmala Baghel and D. Parthasarathy Abstract Pursuit of physical beauty has long been confined to the feminine domain. The discourse on the male body is a recent phenomenon, often highlighted by emergent scholarship on modern metrosexual men. Men’s pursuit of physical beauty and the cosmetic industry’s targeting of men for beauty products is a rarely studied area. There is now a burgeoning business of male beauty parlors and saloons/salons catering to physical beauty services for men in urban India. This chapter aims to provide insights into the phenomenon of men’s beauty aesthetics by exploring their beauty enhancing practices. Interviews of beauticians and clients of male beauty parlors in Mumbai city, India, are used to focus attention on the identities men construct within the space of the parlor. Men embed their beauty desires and aspirations in a gradual social transformation that is occurring in India, characterized by globalized capitalism and consumerism. As physical beauty acquires more symbolic value for men, what we witness is men’s increasing efforts towards enhancing the body beautiful. The analysis of men’s beauty seeking behaviour introduces us to a new realm wherein men are actively pursuing body aesthetics to transform their bodies as per culturally desirable images. The narratives by parlor clients raise questions about traditional notions of masculinity and femininity, and points to the fluidity of gender power relations and changes in gendered self-images in urban India. Contrary to popular discussions of men actively working to distance themselves from their bodies as a site for beautification, our study explores men’s embodied beautification practices - that are critically related to ideas of ‘healthy and successful’ lives. Professional success and conspicuous consumption are intertwined in men embracing beauty aesthetics. Key Words: Beauty, parlor, symbolic capital, aesthetics, consumption. ***** 1. Introduction Pursuit of physical beauty has long been confined to the feminine domain. Discourse on the male body is a recent phenomenon, often highlighted by emergent scholarship on modern metrosexual men. There is now a burgeoning business of male beauty parlors and saloons catering to physical beauty services for urban India men. A huge surge in demand of men’s beauty products has stimulated cosmetic industries to produce men’s cosmetics, which could be a manifestation of the shift in socio-cultural values defining male beauty. Overall, the market size of the men's personal care segment is about $165 million.1 This is a shift from an

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_________________________________________________________________ intellectual paradigm to a sensual one, guiding male beauty in India where the politics of body representation has swept over the hitherto untouched male sex. Contrary to popular discourse, wherein the woman’s body is often looked at as an object of the popular gaze, and hence in constant need of reconstruction to accord with socio-cultural norms, today, society also targets the male body as a site of display and consumption. Contemporary capitalistic modes of living and resultant change in societal values have turned the human body into a commodity. In modernize societies, along with women; men shoulder the equal burden of presenting themselves as per cultural requirement. Certain practices of modernity like the assemblage of goods, clothes, experiences and bodily dispositions become a lifestyle pattern for people.2 Nevertheless, conventional western discourses on beauty and body consider only women as a target of patriarchy and capitalism in specific ways.3 Increasing discourse on beauty criticizes the commodification of women’s bodies.4 These discourses assume certain patriarchal and capitalist notions of femininity, which are now seem to be not quite true given men’s turn towards beauty and aesthetics, beyond traditional male notions of physical attractiveness which were rooted in ideas of ruggedness, muscularity, and strength, even as these continue to be important and significant. The term ‘capital’5 facilitates an understanding of physical beauty as symbolic capital that confers value on its possessors. Aesthetic capital in modern times represents an association of beauty return as form of individual wealth to an individual’s success. Today’s urban society, characterized with cosmopolitan lifestyle, wherein usually people aspire to achieve celebrity status and where youth culture prevails, body aesthetics often attain a status of capital, having immense value to achieve success in life. In such a society, the pursuit of aesthetics is not exclusive to celebrities or models; instead it acquires prominence in lives of men as well as women. Foucault emphasised that the body is molded by ‘a great many distinct regimes’.6 Among these various regimes of body designing, the beauty parlor in modern culture occupies an ideal place, facilitating body transformations that lead to attain desirable outcome. In general men have been targeted to achieve socially inspirable subjectivities by diverse practices, for instance, sport and exercise have been age old ways to attain physical attractiveness, in addition to cosmetic surgery, fashion and diet.7 However, little attention is paid in research on men’s attitudes towards and practices of beauty with regards to achieving a socially acceptable body. Men’s pursuit of physical beauty within the confined space of the beauty parlor, and parlors’ targeting of men for varied beauty products and practices, is a rarely studied area. The central aim of this chapter is to develop an empirically grounded sense of the male beauty field, reconciling this macro-structural phenomenon with embodied practices of beauty by men within the space of beauty parlor. Ethnography of male-only and unisex beauty parlors in Mumbai was conducted to

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__________________________________________________________________ extend the knowledge base on the embodied experiences of men in the beauty market. This chapter explores men’s pursuit of physical beauty and reports how beauty practices are intertwined with appropriation of the male identity that fits in the existing discourse of body beauty. The chapter also shows that men’s pursual of physical beauty untangles the issue of transgressing gender boundaries within the beauty field. The interviews of male clients of the parlors were conducted and transcripted. The thematic analysis was performed to facilitate the understanding of male beauty. 2. Male Beauty Parlor: New Spaces in the Beauty Field In the exploration of parlors as a space where women participate in beauty work and as a social space where women seek to attain a socially desirable body within the confines of gender, age, sex, class, race and ethnicity, have lacked a consideration of male spaces for beauty.8 In day-to-day life, we find the clear-cut demarcation of spaces according to gender, like hair salons for women and barbershops for men. However, in modern social arrangements, male-only parlors or unisex parlors portray a transgression of men into what was historically a solely female space. Men-only parlors constantly engage in maintaining a masculine environment. Discussions associating the male body with strength and valor prevail in male parlors, which may be allegorically related to Indian tradition wherein men are always associated with physical strength. To follow the trend, usually parlors’ advertisements focus on such aspects of practices that will provide men beauty within the traditional domain, like men’s facials that focus on rejuvenating the skin, to wipe away the stress of the day and give strong and tough look. Male parlors also reflect the ideological complexities in which Indian metrosexual men live. The traditional role of Indian men compels them to constantly prove themselves as strong and masculine; they are supposed to be at distance from the activities of caring and pampering. However, the changing cultural and socio-economic climate encourages men towards beauty aesthetics. Consequently, what we witness are new men whom Barthel called, the ‘New Age Man’,9 who, unlike his fathers and grandfathers, is emotional, expressive and cares for his body. In this altered social atmosphere parlors also gear up to offer a special space for men to congregate, socialize, and get away from oppressive stereotype of masculinity. In the outside world, Indian men cannot escape the culturally assigned roles. However, parlors offer them a space to shed - albeit temporarily - their conventional identities. As a 34-year-old male client of a men-only parlor elaborated, I prefer to come here once a month. In daily life, family and work responsibilities pressurize you. Our society does not give men space to breathe. According to dominant cultural values

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_________________________________________________________________ men must be strong and shouldn’t show their weakness. However, here I feel free from that clutches. It is relaxing.10 Beauty parlors as new age abode of male beauty practices provide directives to men to travel the beauty terrain until unnoticed. Traditionally men are not expected to engage in beauty rituals; hence many men find it difficult to manage their beauty routine. In this difficulty, beauticians at parlors play the role of mentors, who provide guidance to nascent beauty followers. Apart from basic hair-care these parlors/salons also provide services like skin-care, massages, and spas under one roof. As women enjoy the beauty culture within parlors, men in urban India have begun to realize the importance of beauty and hence of the parlor/salon in their lives. Metrosexual men’s need for the body beautiful has stimulated an unprecedented boost to beauty parlor business in India. As one beauty parlor owner explained, Men are surprisingly going beyond haircuts. Threading, waxing, pedicure, manicure and facial form the basic services of today’s men. Men-only or unisex parlors are new business avenues, growing furiously in the urban settings in India.11 Parlors offer services as per the age and social class of the client. The middle to upper-middle social class are the main clients of these parlors, although they also attend to aspirational clients from less privileged backgrounds, who come to these parlors with the desire to attain physical beauty in order to help them to achieve a higher profession and resultant success in life. Parlors have clients from various occupations such as students, service holders, businessmen, professionals, and small entrepreneurs. The emergence of male beauty parlors indicates towards transformations experienced by Indian urban beauty culture wherein the previously female-only space now equally directed in its orientations towards male consumers, and have acquired a prominent place in individual lives as a highly desired social practice. Global management firm KSA-Techno-park estimated that India’s market for personal grooming products focused at men stood at Rs. 2,950 crore. This is perhaps a reflection of globalized ideas of aesthetics in which a fashionable male is an indication of modern masculinity.12 3. Male Beauty Practices in the Context of Mumbai The twentieth century saw emergent discourses of male beauty in India,13 which may be the orientations of capitalist economic development from 1990 that has turned body aesthetics as a form of symbolic capital. In this new culture, bodies began to be recognized as a new avenue for earning profits by making the body a source of symbolic capital, where the focus is on what the body looks like

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__________________________________________________________________ rather than what it is able to do.14 Mumbai’s phenomenal rise as a commercial center, the home of Bollywood, and as a fashion hub guaranteed it a special place in modern Indian imagination. Post-liberalization, Mumbai’s cosmopolitan culture has been unique in assimilating modern ideas, images and institutions along with traditional ones. Mumbai’s competitive world compels both men and women to believe that their appearance is crucial to their success. In Mumbai, appearing attractive becomes a form of social integration, and the transference of modernization between economic to social and psychological spheres provides an impetuous to the beauty industry. Consequently, mainstream notions of beauty for modern men in Mumbai focus on physical beauty; allude to enhancement of visible features such as face, body shape and proportions. In essence, it means physically appealing looks and a presentable body. A 30-year-old doctor whom I interviewed in a male-only parlor substantiates this view, Beauty means good looks and attractive features. Today we have products and practices to attain those looks. I wish to look presentable in front of my clients. Along with exercise, I regularly come to parlor to do facials, manicures in order to look fresh, clean and attractive.15 Post-liberalization India has witnessed new notions of power and success. Nevertheless, spell of modernity that treats bodies as a project in need of constant nourishment to attain benefits also contributes towards generating new heights for men to realize their agency, by making them the designer of their own bodies. As a client of a Unisex salon expressed, ‘I wish to don the look that exhibits my personality. It is my body, and I want it to be in my control’.16 Within a modernist lifestyle, the body is dominated and contested to be amended for one’s own benefit. These benefits can be material or non-material. Over the years, men’s attitude towards beauty aesthetics have substantially evolved and male grooming became popular, which is remarkable for a country like India where men, though historically expected to look impressive, were seldom allowed to engage in beauty rituals. It was always hair-care and donning fine clothes and ornaments that comprised male beauty regime. Traditionally, men were expected to perform laborious tasks, whereas physical beauty found affiliation with women’s bodies. Within new working styles, however, interactions with customers and clients have made it essential to have appealing personality that may gel with interpersonal skills. New age Indian societal practices and cultural pressures imbibe men with an ideology in which grooming one’s body become the norm. For instance, social practices such as appearance becoming part of certain job requirements, and family and peer cultures socializing boys into the everyday maintenance of public face become part of the Indian culture. Consequently,

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_________________________________________________________________ physical beauty has evolved from simply mechanical maintenance to become a lifestyle choice and identity for metrosexual men. As explained a beauty parlor owner, Most of our customers are regular for services other than haircut, such as facials, waxing, threading. Nowadays more and more men come for manicure, pedicure and waxing to prepare them for social presentation, at the work place it is becoming an unwritten rule that employee ought to look well-groomed.17 This is a period of huge transformations in each and every aspect of human life. The role of the media, male beauty pageants, and the emergence of erotic male models on a national level all contribute towards the destabilization of traditional gender dichotomies specifically in the field of beauty.18 One beautician recounted the shift in demand for beauty services by men. He felt that this change reflects broader social change in urban India: At that time men were hesitant in demanding beauty services, but now they are more open, confident, and conscious of their look. Most important is the acceptance in society about men’s need for beauty work.19 Throughout its developmental decades, India has been witnessing technological breakthrough in every field. Mass production of consumer goods along with heavy advertising has flooded the market with branded and non-branded beauty products. The availability of products for diverse skin types, and multiple varieties in men’s cosmetics instrumentally make beauty a part of everyday life for men in urban India. A beautician recollected that some 17 years ago when she had opened her beauty parlor, there were no products for men’s facials. Only male celebrities were opting for beauty regimes. If male customers wished to have a facial, beauticians would perform it with a cream designed for women. Contrary to this, today cosmopolitan men consume niche products with multiple varieties for every skin tone. The aforementioned beautician described a gradual upsurge in consumption of men’s beauty products, a result of men’s acquisition of material possessions as a mark of success. The emergence of local brands with multiple product lines, and custom-made products for Indian skin types is another recent development that brought the pursuit of beauty within the paying capacity of common men, and made beauty work accessible to a group which hitherto could not afford or access beauty services in Mumbai. With increased availability of products, and larger disposable incomes, men are becoming more discerning and indulgent. They are beginning to look at innovative grooming products created specifically for them.

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__________________________________________________________________ Although attainment of a socially presentable body is narrated as the prime motivation for visiting a beauty parlor, many acknowledge that having a healthy body is central to their beauty project. Thus the attainment of a healthy body is a newly established trait attributed to male pursuit of beauty. As elaborated by one client, ‘It is worthy to follow a beauty regime to achieve healthy skin and hair along with exercise’.20 Applying beauty products and performing beauty practices becomes part of the daily routine of many men. Accordingly, parlours customize their services as per the age and social status of the client. Young men usually wish for tight skin, fancy hair and a macho appearance; hence they usually demand facials, skin whitening treatments, hair spas, straightening and coloring. People in their 30s and 40s usually require a presentable appearance for professional purposes and therefore select services carefully and conservatively. For elderly people, a beautician from unisex parlor explained that, I have clients from all age groups. A large group of the clientele that includes elderly people usually comes to parlors to get massages. It helps them relax, and be rejuvenated and pampered.21 4. Fragile Gender Boundaries within the Beauty Field I wish to achieve body that looks beautiful and fresh. This does not mean that I want to look like woman or have a feminine traits, you know, I want appealing, presentable kind of personality and beauty services help me to attain that, that’s why I am regularly coming here.22 The above statement, made by a 29 year-old engineer and client of a male-only parlor, illustrates the pervasive ideological apparatus in which today’s metrosexual men live. Their common discursive practices exhibit both an embodying of beauty with a disembodying allegiance with traditional traits of feminity. As per Indian traditional culture women are associated with beauty practices in everyday life. Men although aim to attain beauty, they do not show allegiance towards applying aesthetic strategies that are feminine in nature. Men beauty seeking practices could be categorized as a new fashion trend within the urban beauty field. This trend has been discussed as a feminization of masculinity in prominent male beauty discourses,23 but here in beauty parlors we witness it as the lived experience of many aspirational men in Bombay. It is more than a feminization of masculinity, and conveys new norms of gender power relations. The current discourse of beauty as emanates from the cases project negotiations on the part of men with existing social arrangements. It is enunciated from shifting gender boundaries wherein we witness fewer radical changes in women’s beauty regime. However, it is only men

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_________________________________________________________________ whose beauty practices are providing tremors to long established counters of beauty field. In parlours, men try to resist the potential feminization of their identities by the act of ignorance towards what is happening in parlors. For example, a 45-year-old man at a unisex parlor claimed: ‘I never pay attention to what women talk about nor do I look into the magazines meant for women; I come here to get services not to indulge in female kind of things’. Men’s act of entering beauty terrain while preserving their masculinity again complicated by the act of resisting feminization through the exhibition of masculine bodies, while at the same time transgressing gender boundaries by demanding services and desiring for beauty traits that were once solely sought by women, such as fairness facials, bleaching, and waxing. For example, a 30-year-old hospitability executive and client of a unisex parlor said: In the hospitality sector, you need to be conscious about your appearance, I feel very nervous due to hair on my arms, and especially on days when I have to meet the clients. I decided to try waxing. Initially it was a painful but later on I became used to it. Waxing and bleaching is regular that I follow. After seeing the results I feel great about my body.24 Similar findings also appear within market studies. VLCC, which launched a separate line of products for men in 2010, has witnessed almost double-digit growth since. ‘Men are coming in not just for pedicures. Like women, they are showing concern about tanning, pigmentation and are even asking about antiageing treatments now’.25 Men, through the creative use of available resources, seek to constitute themselves as a particular type of male. This might have triggered the emergence of a new category of beauty conscious clientele metrosexual males in urban space of Mumbai. 5. Conclusion This study, by providing insights into men’s beauty seeking practices within the space of beauty parlor introduces us to new realms of identity construction activities by men in a consumerist urban Indian culture. Contrary to popular discourses that show men actively working to distance themselves from their bodies as sites for beautification, our study reveals that men within Mumbai are very much enthusiastic for body beautification. Men’s beauty enhancing practices represent their effort towards achieving a socially accepted, professionally admired, masculine body. Within this endeavor, the parlor plays an important role in mentoring, directing and helping individuals to attain a desirable physical beauty. From the interviews of beauticians it appears that male beauty practicing has changed in the recent years. Post liberalization and globalization, as physical

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__________________________________________________________________ beauty has attained currency to achieve success in diverse spheres of life, men have begun to aspire for physical beauty in more visible way. The study of the parlor setting in Mumbai illustrates how ideas of gender and gender relations are being altered; the metrosexual man’s use of cosmetics to acquire an aestheticized body and become an object of sexualized gaze exemplify the recurrent practices of an urban life style.26 Men’s performing beauty practices that were once considered solely feminine aims at not only to attract the opposite sex, but also fulfil material desires. Thus, the beauty pursuit by men in Mumbai does allude to the weakening sanctity of patriarchal argument as dominant in understanding beauty. Moreover it also conveys the change in social imagination of gender and gendered beauty practices. The study concludes that the male pursuit of beauty, apart from having connotations to consumer culture, have far reaching implications on other social fields. Within a country such as India, where tradition still prefers masculine men, modern men’s appropriation of cosmetics and beauty services implicates rhetorical self-inventions of men through their daily practices of beauty. These are not just effects of representation but sites of multiple contestations. Therefore, exploring choices men make while embodying beauty requires a move beyond reductionist accounts and calls for re-theorizing of conventional discourses stereotypical in critique of beauty. This will culminate in the holistic understanding of complexity that preoccupied the concept of beauty in modern settings.

Notes 1

‘Indian Cosmetic Sector 2007-08,’ Emmeplus. Viewed on 29 October 2012. http://www.emmeplus.eu/index.php?r=aree/scienzedocumenti. 2 Mike Fearthernstone, Consumer Culture and Postmodernism (London: Sage, 1991), 63. 3 Paula Black, The Beauty Industry: Gender, Culture, Pleasure (New York: Routledge, 2004). 4 Huma Ahmed-Ghosh, ‘Writing the Nation on the Beauty Queen's Body: Implications for a Hindu Nation,’ Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 4 (2004): 205-227. 5 Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984). 6 Michel Foucault, ‘The History of Sexuality: An Introduction’ (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1978), 153. 7 Michael Atkinson, ‘Exploring Male Femininity in the Crisis: Men and Cosmetic Surgery,’ Body & Society 14.1(2008): 67-87; Susan Bordo, The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999).

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Black, The Beauty Industry: Gender, Culture, Pleasure, 11. Diane Barthel, ‘When Men Put on Appearances: Advertising and the Social Construction of Masculinity,’ Men, Masculinity, and the Media (1992): 137-153. 10 Researcher has done the ethnographic study of male beauty salon and unisex parlours both situated in Mumbai city, India. All the expressions used in the chapter are sourced from the interviews taken during multiple visits to the field. 11 Ibid. 12 Veenu Singh, Hindustan Times, Updated 29 September 2012, viewed on 15 October 2015, http://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch-stories/the-manicure-men/article1937516.aspx. 13 For studies on male body and beauty in India, see Shoma Munshi, ‘A Perfect 10– Modern and Indian: Representations of the Body in Beauty Pageants and the Visual Media in Contemporary India’, Mills, James H & Satadru Sen (Hg.): Confronting the Body: the Politics of Physicality in Colonial and Post-Colonial India (London: Anthem, 2004), 162-177; Kajri Jain, ‘Muscularity and Its Ramifications: Mimetic Male Bodies in Indian Mass Culture,’ South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 24 (2001): 197-224. 14 Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. 15 Interview taken by researcher in the male only parlour. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Bordo, The Male Body. 19 Interview taken by researcher in the male only parlour. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 Michael Atkinson, ‘Exploring Male Femininity in the Crisis: Men and Cosmetic Surgery,’ Body & Society 14.1 (2008): 67-87. 24 Ibid. 25 Veenu Singh, ‘The Manicure Men’, Hindustan Times, 29 September, 2012. Viewed on 15 October 2012, http://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/brunchstories/the-manicure-men/article1-937516.aspx. 26 Bordo, The Male Body. 9

Bibliography Ahmed-Ghosh, Huma. ‘Writing the Nation on the Beauty Queen’s Body: Implications for a Hindu Nation.’ Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 4.1 (2004): 205-227.

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__________________________________________________________________ Atkinson, Michael. ‘Exploring Male Femininity in the Crisis: Men and Cosmetic Surgery.’ Body & Society 14.1 (2008): 67-87. Barthel, Diane. ‘When Men Put on Appearances: Advertising and the Social Construction of Masculinity.’ Men, Masculinity, and the Media 12 (1992): 137153. Black, Paula. The Beauty Industry: Gender, Culture, Pleasure. New York: Routledge, 2004. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984. Bordo, Susan. The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. Fearthernstone, Mike. Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage, 1991. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. NY: Vintage Books, 1978. Grosz, Elizabeth. ‘Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism.’ Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. Jain, Kajri. ‘Muscularity and Its Ramifications: Mimetic Male Bodies in Indian Mass Culture.’ South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 24.1 (2001): 197-224. Lukose, Ritty. ‘Consuming Globalization: Youth and Gender in Kerala, India.’ Journal of Social History 38.4 (2005): 915-935. Monaghan, Lee, F. ‘Body Mass Index, Masculinities and Moral Worth: Men’s Critical Understandings of “Appropriate” Weight-for-Height.’ Sociology of Health and Illness 29 (2007): 584-609. Munshi, Shoma. ‘A Perfect 10–Modern and Indian: Representations of the Body in Beauty Pageants and the Visual Media in Contemporary India.’ Confronting the Body: The Politics of Physicality in Colonial and Post-Colonial India, edited by James H. Mills and Satadru Sen, 162-177. London: Anthem, 2004.

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_________________________________________________________________ Singh Veenu. ‘The Manicure Men’. Hindustan Times, 29 September, 2012. Viewed on 15 October 2012. http://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/brunch-stories/the-manicure-men/article1937516.aspx. Deepmala Baghel is MPhil+PhD Dual Degree candidate at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. Currently her research is devoted to exploring the beauty perceptions and practices of men and women in urban India and its interrelations with social context of innovation and technology development in small scale cosmetics industries in Bombay, India. D. Parthasarathy is a Professor in sociology in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He has earlier worked at ICRISAT, was a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. He is the author of Collective Violence in a Provincial City (OUP, 1997), co-editor of Women’s Self Help Groups: Restructuring Socio-Economic Development (Dominant Publishers, 2011).

A Beautiful Lesson: Sublime Moments in Education Seán Moran Abstract Many aspects of education are quite unlovely, but teachers – and learners – live for those golden moments when something beautiful happens in the classroom. The intellectual landscape changes suddenly at these meaningful times, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud and illuminating a mountainside. Such beautiful pedagogical moments may well take place in what Mihály Csíkszentmihályi calls a state of ‘flow’. The epiphanic insights that arise from these experiences take us out of the mundane world and into a heightened sense of reality. Although most teachers have experienced such charged occasions, the notion of learning as beautiful is under-theorised. Beauty is one of the transcendental properties of being, alongside truth and goodness, but it has not attracted the same attention as the other two in educational thought. When evaluating a lesson, the emphasis tends to be on truth and goodness (that is, on the knowledge acquired and the behaviour displayed) and not on beauty. Granted, the cultivation of aesthetic sensibility is a feature of some arts subjects – so in that sense beauty is addressed – but even here the lesson itself is not usually judged against artistic standards. The targets and audit culture, which is becoming ubiquitous in education, valorises competence. The teacher’s duty is to achieve well-defined outcomes reliably, so a plodding and quotidian progress is all that is demanded. Making space for beautiful learning is at best supererogatory, and may even be regarded as dangerous. Technical rationality (which grew out of positivism) is highly suspicious of anything that cannot be measured, so it will disregard the subtle emotional responses which signify that something special is going on. In this paper, I argue that teachers should use attunement and kairos to create beautiful lessons, upon which, as Eisner puts it, they can confer their signatures, as befits episodes of artistry. Key Words: Beauty, teaching, flow, artistry, attunement, epiphany, phronesis, kairos. ***** 1. Introduction I teach at Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland. You might have heard of Waterford. The city is famous for making beautiful cut glass artefacts: Waterford Crystal. If you are lucky enough to own some Waterford Crystal, you will have seen how it splits a beam of sunlight into different colours. Placed on a suitable windowsill, it makes little rainbows on the wall. I am in the School of Education at Waterford, so my students are lecturers and teachers taking Master’s and PhD programmes. In talking to them about their

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__________________________________________________________________ teaching, and reflecting on my own, it seems that there is a beautiful mystery at the heart of our vocation. Many aspects of education are quite unlovely, but teachers – and learners – live for those golden moments when something beautiful happens in the classroom. At these meaningful times, the intellectual landscape changes suddenly, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud and illuminating a mountainside. The epiphanic insights that arise from these experiences take us out of the mundane world and into a heightened sense of reality. Although most teachers have experienced such charged occasions, the notion of learning as beautiful is under-theorised. Beauty is one of the transcendentals, alongside truth and goodness, but, in educational thought, it has not attracted the same attention as the other two. When evaluating a lesson, the emphasis tends to be on truth and goodness (that is, on the knowledge acquired and the behaviour displayed) and not on beauty. Granted, the cultivation of aesthetic sensibility is a feature of some arts subjects – so in that sense beauty is addressed – but even here the lesson itself is not usually judged against artistic standards. Unfortunately, what is becoming increasingly important is neither truth nor beauty, but ‘goodness’, defined in narrow ways. By this, I mean that learners must align their academic behaviour with the specified outcomes for the course, if they are to be regarded as good students. It doesn’t matter how inelegantly these outcomes were achieved, or even if they do not genuinely lead to ‘truth’ (in the sense of a greater intellectual contact with reality). What counts is that the student can provide clear evidence that a box can be ticked. This paper is a plea to pay attention to the aesthetic aspects of our teaching. I am referring neither to tasteful classroom décor nor to well-designed PowerPoints – as desirable as these might be – but rather to the cultivation of intellectuallyattractive ‘happenings’. 2. Beautiful Insights Such beautiful pedagogical moments may well take place in what Csíkszentmihályi calls a state of ‘flow’. Flow experiences are ‘state[s] in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it … for the sheer sake of doing it.’1 We can experience these heightened feelings in our teaching, which in turn draws students into becoming more engaged with their learning and perhaps also become swept up by the flow. Sometimes, this can lead to sudden revelations or epiphanies. These words have religious connotations: we think of the Magi realising that Christ was born; the Buddha achieving enlightenment under the Bodhi tree; Muhammad recognising the Angel Gabriel in a cave; Arjuna becoming aware of the divinity of his charioteer, Krishna. But these expressions can also be more worldly, such as the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes’ flash of inspiration while pondering on a

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__________________________________________________________________ physics problem in the bath. The legend is that he then ran naked down the street, shouting “Eureka!” The metaphor of ‘seeing the light’ is common in describing these occasions. Plato (427-347 BCE) gives us the powerful image of the cave, in which humanity is in chains and only able to watch flickering shadows on the wall, until the enlightened teacher liberates individuals and helps them to stumble towards the form of ‘The Good’. The learner ‘sees the light’ and is temporarily blinded by its intensity when leaving the cave into the full glare of the sun. Similarly, St Paul was temporarily struck blind on the road to Damascus by the intensity of his change of mind. Classroom insights are not generally as life-changing – or as terrifying – as these dramatic conversions, but they do share some of their characteristics. A milder version can happen at any time, give the right circumstances and a receptive learner. As a teacher, I have had some beautiful moments during classes. These special occasions are what make teaching such a rewarding profession. At these times we are ‘in the zone’ or ‘on a roll’. Something magical is happening. Both we and our students lose ourselves in the moment. We may experience a sort of tingle, a prickling of the eyes; our short hair may stand on end. But it would be boastful to stand here and describe how I caused such enchantment, so instead I shall describe one of these sublime moments from the point of view of a learner: me. 3. Seeing the Light Let me take you back to my uncle’s remote Irish farmhouse in the summer of 1969. I was there in the school holidays with my family. Not only did the cottage have no television, it didn’t even have electricity or running water. My father was telling my uncle about the Apollo Moon landings that had happened a few days before. But I wasn’t listening. I was in my bedroom, looking at some old things that I had found in a wardrobe. One of these was a yellowing external degree certificate from the University of London. It was awarded to my great-uncle Bartholomew in the nineteenth century. The thing that impressed me about this document was the phrase: ‘In nature’s infinite book of secrecy, a little I can read’. This turned out to be from Shakespeare (Antony and Cleopatra)2 but I was not aware of that at the time. The other object was a science book from the nineteenth century. In amongst the dignified text and the ornate black-and-white diagrams was a colour illustration. It showed the spectrum of sunlight after passing through a glass prism. But the mysterious thing was the set of parallel black lines that crossed the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo and violet). There were gaps: missing colours. To a modern eye, it would look like a barcode. And when the book was first published, nobody knew what caused these strange lines.

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__________________________________________________________________ Fast-forward a decade. I was in a science laboratory at St John’s College in York. Although the lab was in darkness, I knew that my two pals Jock and Chunky were nearby. Jock was Scottish-Italian and regarded by the girls as handsome. Chunky was from Birmingham. We were all training to be science teachers. We were using instruments called spectrometers. In essence, they refract white light into the colours of the rainbow – just like Waterford crystal, but more precisely and scientifically. Looking down the eyepiece of a spectrometer for the first time is a thrilling experience. It is like seeing brilliant vertical neon lights through a telescope against a pitch-black background. And when you move the telescope in a horizontal arc in its mounting, the colours go past, and a scale on the instrument tells you exactly what wavelength of light is being observed. Then it hit me. The colours I was seeing were some of the missing colours from the sun’s spectrum: the black lines across the colour illustration in my great-uncle’s science book. Instead of seeing black lines against a colour spectrum, I was seeing vivid, colourful lines against a black background. Some of these coloured lines – for example the yellow – would fit precisely into the gaps represented by black lines in the book. The sample of ionised gas that produced the lines in the darkened laboratory was helium. This is the gas that the sun produces by processes of fusion and that makes up its atmosphere. That is why the gas is called ‘helium’: it is named after the sun, Helios. So when white light reaches us from the sun, it has had certain very precise colours removed by the helium in its atmosphere. The helium has absorbed these very specific wavelengths of light. If anyone has studied science at a moderately advanced level, this is nothing new. It is straightforward quantum physics. Each colour corresponds to a particular transition of electrons from one orbit to another. If you stimulate an electron with exactly the right wavelength of light, it will absorb it and cause a black line in the absorption spectrum. If you stimulate a sample of helium in the lab using electricity, the electrons will soon drop back to a lower orbit and give off light of a very well-defined colour in the emission spectrum. But it was new to me: in fact, it was astonishing. The author of my granduncle’s science book did not know what caused the black lines. Now I did: I had learnt something new. I stumbled out of the lab into the York sunshine. The sandcoloured Roman walls gleamed against a blue cloudless sky; Jock was chatting up a trainee PE mistress; Chunky was whining that he was hungry. But I didn’t pay any attention to any of that: I had had an epiphany. I had seen the light. At that moment nothing else mattered. Time seemed to stand still. In nature’s infinite book of secrecy, I had read a little bit more. I remember the experience vividly, and I suspect that everyone reading this account has had similar sudden revelations during their formal and informal education. The effects of such a beautiful occurrence can be long-lasting: it can keep a student or a teacher motivated for months or even years. This will depend on the quality of the experience, though. We can realistically only expect most

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__________________________________________________________________ ‘beautiful’ learning moments to be at the lower end of the scale – perhaps merely ‘cute’ or ‘nice’. But occasionally, the experience may ascend to the sublime. 4. The Sublime and the Ridiculous The ‘sublime’ was a preoccupation of the Romantic movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. It could be defined in a number of different ways. Jamin Carson helpfully classifies the effects of the sublime as ‘transport, terror and infinitude’.3 The earliest analysis comes from the first century Greek writer Longinus. He regarded as sublime any oratory that transports the reader to lofty thoughts: as if hit by a bolt of lightning, as he puts it. The second is credited to eighteenth century Irish philosopher Edmund Burke, who conceptualised the sublime as that which causes a sort of delightful terror.4 Looking over the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, for example, is thrilling but scary in equal measure. We might also think of the line ‘A terrible beauty is born’ from Yeats’ poem Easter, 1916. German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in his book Critique of Pure Judgment (1790), saw the sublime in the infinite: for instance, looking up at the Milky Way on a clear night. These are lofty ideas, and we can see the educational potential of occasionally transporting, delightfully terrorising or sending our students to infinity. However, there are humdrum forces acting against these. The targets and audit culture, which is becoming ubiquitous in education, valorises competence not sublimity. The teacher’s duty is to achieve well-defined outcomes reliably, and so a plodding and quotidian progress is all that is demanded. A booklet endorsed by the Irish Higher Education Authority and funded by the National Development Plan as a contribution to the European Union ‘Bologna Process’ illustrates the nature of some of the dull thinking in this area. In it, ‘knowledge’ is defined as ‘The ability to recall or remember facts without necessarily understanding them’.5 Lest we should think that there is room elsewhere for understanding, the advice on constructing learning outcomes includes: ‘Avoid vague terms like […] understand […]’ Against this dreary backdrop, making space for beautiful learning is at best supererogatory, and may even be regarded as dangerous. This type of technical rationality (which grew out of positivism) is highly suspicious of anything that cannot be measured, and so it will disregard the subtle emotional responses which signify that something special is going on. As Elliot Eisner points out, ‘The model of the teacher was the scientist, not the artist’.6 5. Beautiful Lessons Like Eisner, I would like to see teachers reclaim their artistic side and create beautiful lessons, upon which they can confer their signatures. His image of

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__________________________________________________________________ teaching as ‘more like playing in a jazz quartet than following the score of a marching band’ is an appealing one. We ought to improvise as we teach, rather than doggedly ‘delivering’ the pre-set learning outcomes for our courses and using someone else’s definition of ‘best practice.’ Besides the metaphor of ‘seeing the light’ to represent a sudden insight, we might add the musical notion of ‘striking a chord’. Learning is an aesthetic experience and the ‘a-ha’ moment is like hearing just the right sound: perhaps a fanfare, ‘ta-daa’. To foster such beautiful experiences, teachers should use their attunement to the classroom ‘vibe’ in order to make timely contributions to the evolving performance. This idea that there is a propitious time for any action has a long history. For example, in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, we have the advice that ‘there is a time for everything’, including the educationally-relevant references to ‘a time to search and a time to give up’,7 and ‘a time to be silent and a time to speak’.8 The Greek concept of kairos (καιρός, from Kairos, the grandson of Chronos) encapsulates the same theme. Eukairos signifies the right time to do something; .kakakairos is the wrong time; akairos is a time without opportunity. An opportune intervention in a learner’s web of belief needs to be strong enough to have the intended effect. The problem with this is that such forceful action may well bypass the autonomy of the individual in an undesirable way. We might be able to compel our students to acquire a new insight by means of a vivid and timely intervention, but we need to take care that such compulsion does not stray over the line that separates virtuous education from well-intentioned brainwashing. This is a familiar theme in criticisms of the ancient Greek professional teachers, the ‘Sophists’: Georgias the Sicilian […] glorifies the magic effects of the word (goetia psychagogia), and teaches and explains that the rhetor must know, scientifically, the ways to the soul, from which the speeches capable of spellbinding and persuading descend.9 Fortunately, as we know only too well, there are no guarantees that our fine words or well-crafted learning experiences will have the desired spellbinding effect. My friends Jock and Chunky did not have the vivid epiphany that I had in that darkened laboratory, for example. And this is how it should be. Beauty, after all, is in the eye of the beholder. In any case, it would be disorientating to be continuously transported, terrorised or sent to infinity in the blazing light of sublime experiences. Some ordinary learning is needed, in between the special moments, or it would all be a bit too much.

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__________________________________________________________________ 6. Conclusion Beautiful lessons may not always lead to sublime moments for our students. They cannot be engineered or assessed in the ways preferred by technical rationalists. The box might remain unticked, but we should become alert to the possibility of these learning epiphanies, and enjoy them when they come along. If we are sensitised to the aesthetics of learning, and we know our students, we might even be able to give things a little nudge to make them happen. The resulting light in the eye of the learners, as a new insight dawns, is what makes our job so beautiful.

Notes 1

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008). 2 William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (London: Wordsworth Editions, 1993) act 1, scene 2. 3 Jamin Carson, ‘The Sublime and Education’, Journal of Aesthetic Education 40.1 (2006): 80. 4 Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, ed. J. T. Bolton (New York: Comumbia University Press, 1757/1958), 58. 5 Declan Kennedy, Writing and Using Learning Outcomes (Cork: University College Cork, 2007), 78. 6 Elliot W. Eisner, ‘From Episteme to Phronesis to Artistry in the Study and Improvement of Teaching’, Teaching and Teacher Education 18 (2002): 79. 7 Ecclesiastes 3:6, NIV Study Bible (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985). 8 Ecclesiastes 3:7. 9 Augusto Rostagni, tr. Philip Sipiora, ‘A New Chapter in the History of Rhetoric and Sophistry’, Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory and Praxis, eds. Philip Sipiora and James S. Baumlin (Albany: SUNY Press, 2002), 24.

Bibliography Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, edited by J. T. Bolton. New York: Columbia University Press, 1757/1958. Carson, Jamin. ‘The Sublime and Education’. Journal of Aesthetic Education 40.1 (2006): 79-93.

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__________________________________________________________________ Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2008. Eisner, Elliot W. ‘From Episteme to Phronesis to Artistry in the Study and Improvement of Teaching’. Teaching and Teacher Education 18 (2002): 375-385. Kennedy, Declan. Writing and Using Learning Outcomes. Cork: University College Cork, 2007. New International Version Study Bible. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985. Rostagni, Augusto. Translated by Philip Sipiora. ‘A New Chapter in the History of Rhetoric and Sophistry’. Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory and Praxis, edited by Philip Sipiora and James S. Baumlin. Albany: SUNY Press, 2002. Seán Moran is a philosopher at Waterford Institute of Technology, in a beautiful part of Ireland. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Part VI Commodifying Images of Beauty

Queering the Hourglass: Beauty and New Wave Fat Activism Lauren Downing Peters Abstract The fatshionista is a self-proclaimed fat fashion blogger who promotes plus-size fashion designers, suggests styling tips, speaks of misgivings about plus-size fashion and publishes inspirational ‘outfit of the day’ posts for a community of likeminded fat fashion consumers. Through these activities, the fatshionista, as a figure of the ‘new wave’ of fat activism, disrupts constructions of normative feminine beauty, erodes the restrictive dress conventions established by plus-size style guides, and furthers one of the fat acceptance movement’s goals: to make the fat body more visible in society. While fat activists and the fashion industry at large tend to frame clothing as a problem for fat bodies, fatshionistas may provide a space via their blogs in which it is possible to conceive of clothing and beauty products as raw materials that have the capacity to increase the social awareness of the fat body, and also to provide new possibilities for fat embodiment and alternative models of female beauty. For this paper, my principal case studies will be the online community known as The Queer Fat Femmes and their online initiatives ‘Fa(t)shion February’ and ‘Fuck Yeah VBO’, and I will consider how the processes of group- and self-fashioning via the blogosphere can be utilized to further the agenda of fat activists both collectively and individually in their respective attempts to challenge normative standards beauty, fashionability and fitness in the creation of a counter-aesthetic. Referring to Joanne Entwistle’s theories of dress as a situated bodily practice and queer discourse, I intend to look more closely at how the practices of self-fashioning and what is known within the community as ‘radical vanity’ can be used to create new possibilities for female embodiment and beauty for women whose ability to participate in fashion has been historically limited. Key Words: Activism, blogging, dress, embodiment, fashion studies, fatshion, fat studies, identity, plus-size, queer theory. ***** 1. Introduction While one of the principal goals of fat activism is to promote body positivity for self-identifying fat individuals, as well as platforms that provide increased visibility for fat bodies, experiences and positive representations of fatness,1 it has only been in the last decade or so that these efforts have been channelled through fashion. Facilitated by the rise of online web logging or ‘blogging’, activist-scholar Charlotte Cooper has written that the so-called ‘new wave’ of fat activists have ‘[adapted] fat activism to their own circumstances and [are] creating a powerful

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__________________________________________________________________ body of imaginative new interventions.’2 Namely, the ‘fatshionista’, a contraction of fat and fashionista, has become one of the most visible and palatable manifestations of contemporary fat activism, and one who has ‘emerged from the worldwide fat activism movement as a challenge to the stereotype that fat cannot be fashionable or attractive.’3 However, vocal members of the ‘old wave’ of fat activism have criticized the current preoccupation with fashion as not sufficiently radical, overly commercialized and generally superficial.4 Given that some of the most visible fatshionistas focus their blogging on symbolic consumption,5 and as evidenced by the prevalence of hyperlinks to e-commerce websites in their blog entries, such critiques are not without merit. Furthermore, since the fat acceptance movement is in many ways an outgrowth of the feminist movement, which in its early phases generally condemned fashion as a moral problem that ‘reproduced sexist ideas and images of women and femininity’,6 it is not surprising that fashion would be rejected as a viable medium through which to further the ‘fat agenda’ by more radical or purist members of the movement. Much of this has to do with the manner in which the discourse of ‘fat’ studies framed clothing as a problem rather than as a medium through which change could be enacted.7 As summarized by Cooper, this line of thinking holds that ‘a liberation movement based on the ability to buy’, and perhaps exemplified by ‘fatshion’ blogging, ‘is resting on shaky ground.’8 Yet, in looking beyond some of the more visible manifestations of this phenomenon, we can glimpse a robust and highly activist turn in collective ‘fatshion’ blogs such as Fa(t)shion February and Fuck Yeah VBO (Visible Belly Outline), ushered in by a group calling themselves the Queer Fat Femmes. By applying queer discourse and the notion of ‘radical vanity’ to their blogging efforts, the Queer Fat Femmes position themselves in direct opposition to the mandates of plus-size fashion, as well as the widely held idea that dressing the fat body should aim at flattering the figure and resembling a desirable hourglass shape. They do so by offering new possibilities for fat, female embodiment by ‘deliberately…[violating] the gendered construction of femininity’9 entrenched by plus-size fashion and style guides. 2. Apple, Pear or Hourglass? The Rules of Plus-Size Dressing While fashion and style guides in printed form have perhaps fallen by the wayside within the last decade, and fashion criticism has increasingly moved to personal and crowd-sourced fashion and styling blogs, the discourse on how to dress a fat body flatteringly, and the rules for doing so, endures. Even Lane Bryant, one of the United States’ largest and most profitable plus-size retailers, promotes the notion that there are right and wrong ways to clothe the fat body through an interactive fit guide called ‘Just for You’. Built upon a taxonomy of geometric shapes that most bodies supposedly fall into,10 the digital questionnaire is intended

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__________________________________________________________________ to help consumers find their most ‘flattering’ silhouettes and filter out those that are not suited to their bodes. While ‘Just for You’ is designed to help ease some of the anxiety associated with dressing the fat body, it is nevertheless limiting as it rules out entire categories of dress, based on the way a consumer answers the interactive questionnaire. And, while the way the media has shaped women’s relationships with their bodies is intensely debated, with Susan Bordo11 and Naomi Wolf,12 for example, writing widely and eloquently on the topic, few have explored the specific manners in which the contemporary fashion and beauty industries have specifically marginalized the fat body. Two prominent style guides that have emerged to aid fat women in getting dressed are Susan Nanfeldt’s Plus Style13 and Chastity Garner’s The Curvy Girl’s Guide to Style.14 With their emphasis almost solely on the body and how to outfit it as flatteringly as possible, the plus-size style guide presents dressing as ‘an act of disguise’ in which the primary focus ‘is upon how body defects may be concealed, as dressing becomes an act of deception’ rather than a celebration of taste.15 Supposedly fool-proof, this system is intended to ease sartorial anxieties by offering a list of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ for each physical shape, that help the reader achieve the plus-size corporeal ideal. As explained by Rebecca Arnold16 and Clarke and Miller,17 the peace of mind provided by such style constraints also provides women with a sense of security that they will not commit a fashion faux pas, or worse, be labelled a fashion victim, thereby provoking feelings of social anxiety or embarrassment. These rules may have resonated with fat women who had been told for most of their lives that their bodies are well outside of the fashion mainstream.18 However, it can be argued that they also promote a manner of dressing for fat women that is highly conservative and very much removed from the cyclical nature of fashion trends that may be enjoyed by women with more normative builds. Thus, while Garner and Nanfeldt argue that dress can be a viable means of selfexpression for the fat woman, it is a contained and regulated expression. Entwistle notes that ‘the dressed body is always situated within a particular context, which often sets constraints as to what is and what is not appropriate to wear’19 and ‘the degree to which the dressed body can express itself can therefore be symbolic of this location.’20 Through style guides and the continued dissemination of the applepear-hourglass body taxonomy, the fat body in western society is considered problematic and in need of regulation or containment. It is thus subject to myriad rules mandating appropriate dress practices that tend to disregard matters of taste or personal preference. Furthermore, the proliferation of plus-size style guides with recommendations about how to hide, cinch, and slim fat bodies through tactful styling and shape controlling wear underlines the notion that there is a ‘right way’ and a ‘wrong way’ to outfit a fat body. However, what are we to make of controlling narratives that

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__________________________________________________________________ deem fat bodies acceptable only when they fit within the designated parameters of style and taste? Furthermore, what happens when those rules are broken? 3. Fa(t)shion February and Visible VBO: The Creation of a CounterAesthetic The Internet has long been a space for fat activists and allies to meet and do political work. Perhaps one of the most important legacies of this early work, which occurred in the mid- to late-1990s, was the language that activists used to reclaim their identities. As fatness is theorized as a fluid identity marker, or one that is performative in nature21 and largely influenced by external forces, such as weight-based stigma, fashion rules and the discourse surrounding healthy behaviour,22 one can ‘come out’ as fat in a political reclamation of the word fat over euphemisms like ‘plus size’ or ‘big-boned’—a political act in itself that is reminiscent of early civil rights and gay and lesbian activism. Similarly, fat activists have, over time, adopted queer discourse to render their outsider identities intelligible. While the appropriation of queer discourse has, at times, proven highly problematic,23 many female-identifying fat activists, straight or otherwise, have found queer discourse to resonate with their own activist goals. By using a highly inclusive definition of queer to articulate their outsider status, or to radically question ‘social and cultural norms,’24 fat activists like the ‘Queer Fat Femmes’ have found a way to denaturalize their marginalized relationships with the fashion and beauty industries, as well as to play with new opportunities for fat female embodiment. However, the activism of the Queer Fat Femmes marks a new notable phase of online fat activism, in which images, and overwhelmingly fashion images, are favoured as a means to articulate fat embodiment over language. As theorized by Agnès Rocamora in one of the few articles to date that broaches the topic of fashion blogging, the fashion blog has become a significant space in which women can construct their identities and explore alternative modes of femininity.25 Since the advent of the medium, personal fashion bloggers have been mainly concerned with ‘[displaying] their new acquisitions, their rediscovery of an old piece of clothing, or their new way of mixing things together on their body.’26 As first theorized by Holland27 and summarized by Rocamora, photography has ‘developed as a medium through which individuals confirm and explore their identity, that sense of selfhood which is an indispensible feature of a modern sensibility.’28 As the Internet evolved and as personal photography became both more affordable and more sophisticated, it is unsurprising that image could come to replace text as the primary means for articulating fat identity and for documenting positive experiences of fat embodiment. While fat activism has obvious linkages to and owes much to the legacy of feminism,29 queer fat activists depart from the ideology of lesbian feminism— which has argued that women should be appreciated for what is on the inside rather

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__________________________________________________________________ than on the outside—in their emphasis on radically advocating for spaces in which their unadulterated, brazenly fat bodies are recognized as aesthetically acceptable.30 By adopting queer discourse, radical fatshionistas like the Queer Fat Femmes have taken the image-driven medium of fashion blogging and turned it political by encouraging a collective celebration of fat bodies and the privileging of individual tastes over socially mandated plus-size dress codes. One of the most visible, as well as one of the most enduring with three years of continuous, active participation, is the blog Fa(t)shion February (fatshionfebruary.tumblr.com)—a crowd-sourced blog created to turn February into a month in which fatshion is shared and celebrated. Started by a Tumblr blogging platform user who goes by the name ‘Jessie Dress’, the project was conceived in February of 2011 as Femme & Friends Fa(t)shion February with the goal of disseminating the inspiring femme dress of ‘fat and otherwise bodied’ female-identifying people in order ‘to engage with the politics of fashion in new and complicated ways.’31 What began as a personal project in which Dress, a selfidentifying Queer Fat Femme, set out to blog one outfit photo a day, every day in February 2011, quickly turned into a virtual space for Queer Fat Femme sartorial activism. With the stated goal of making Fa(t)shion February a highly inclusive space that celebrates ideosynchratic sartorial tastes, and which radically departs from mainstream fatshion blogging as well as femme style, Dress writes, ‘I want to see people wearing work clothes, or house clothes, or going out to dance clothes. I want to know where you got what you’re wearing, and what you did to make it fit your body and your life. Let’s make this shit huge! Let’s make fashion what we want to see!’32 With few directives, it is unsurprising, that the images submitted to Dress for moderation have proven wildly diverse, attesting to the participants’ eagerness to present alternative modes of Queer Fat Femme embodiment, fashion and beauty. With 1,763 posts (and counting) contributed by hundreds of fatshionistas since February 2011, Fa(t)shion February has become an invaluable glimpse into the Queer Fat Femme community. Another case study that is worth noting, however, is a newer blog called Fuck Yeah VBO. Emerging from Fa(t)shion February project, and traceable to a participant who goes by the handle ‘Kayla the Great’, VBO stands for ‘Visible Belly Outline’, and is perhaps the most pointed critique of the hourglass ideal. As outlined on the blog, VBO is that protruding shape that pushes from under your clothes when they are a certain material or tightness. They come in different sizes and shapes: some are round, some are square, some are perky and some sag, some are smooth, some are lumpy. Let’s make our bellies visible instead of trying to hide them and show everyone how fabulous of an accessory a belly can be! ...There

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__________________________________________________________________ are many fat acceptance and fat fashion [Tumblrs] out there, but even plus-sized fashion often focuses on flattening, smoothing and concealing fat bodies. FYeahVBO aims to counteract that by making the belly just another part of the outfit, not something to be hidden or disguised.33 Eschewing the mandates of plus-size fashion altogether by symbolically reclaiming the belly as an accessory in-and-of-itself, the images submitted by the participants are remarkable for the vast array of looks they offer as viable modes of fat, femme embodiment. Addressing the turn that fashions have taken in the twenty-first century, Pedersen has observed that clothing has tended to be simple, ‘consisting of few pieces, often made of stretchy materials, and [assumes its] final shape from the body [it] covers.’34 Per these trends, contemporary fashions ‘neither hide nor shape the body, but display and reveal it’,35 and thus have been out of reach for plus-size women who have absorbed cultural messages mandating that they hide and contour their fat figures. Appropriating a manner of dressing that fully embraces the current trend for figure-hugging fashions, many of the participants proudly flaunt their bellies in tight, revealing and remarkably on-trend garments with little further commentary. However, some women have paired their fashion images with brief discussions of their garment choices. Through these commentaries, it becomes evident that one reason they have been able to participate in mainstream fashion can be attributed the fact that they have disregarded the size on the garment tag. One such user who goes by the handle ‘spookylovessugar’ paired an image with herself in a leopard-print mini-dress with the following commentary: ‘[Outfit of the day]-Thrift store dress that is a size XL and meant to be a long dress. I have no patience for size tags, if I can squeeze it on, I’m gonna. No [S]panx, no restricting fat-blocking tech, just me.’36 Similarly, a user who goes by the handle ‘madamefall’ wrote of a recent purchase, ‘I got a dress today with massive VBO…and besides it being a bit too short in the back, I LOVE IT. And Jackson [my boyfriend] loves it. And I feel like a fat babe in it.’37 By choosing to wear clothing that would otherwise be perceived as too-small, fatshionistas such as ‘spookylovessugar’ and ‘madamefall’ prove that it is indeed possible to feel confident, beautiful, sexy and feminine even when fat folds and lumps of flesh are put into high relief through figure-hugging garments by disregarding matters of size and fit altogether. A defiant act of rule breaking, the flaunting of belly fat ‘involves socially transgressive acts of ‘breaking the rules’, which otherwise dictate that fat women ‘should not engage in certain selfpresentation acts, such as exposing too much flesh, wearing tight clothes or choosing colors and stylings that attract too much attention.’38 Through these actions, the fatshionistas reclaim fat (in the case of VBO as a literal fashion accessory of sorts) by affirming its visibility.39

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__________________________________________________________________ 3. Conclusions As Guerrieri and Cherrier have written, queer discourse—that is, the tendency to declare things ‘queer’ and to actively engage in the process of ‘queering’ cultural phenomena, objects and activities—has become a potent tool for fatshionistas as ‘a mode of critical engagement [used] to examine and challenge established ideas of beauty.’40 Similarly, Sullivan explains that ‘to queer’ is to ‘make strange, to frustrate, to counteract, to delegitimize, to camp up… heteronormative knowledges and instututions, and the subjectivities and socialities that are (in)formed by them and that (in)form them.’41 Thus, for fatshionistas, to queer fashion and beauty through collective blogging projects is to denaturalize and make fluid the rigid fashion and beauty standards that are culturally imposed upon their bodies. They do so through their dress and by consciously challenging the ways the industry has dictated they are supposed to appear, as well as through a celebration of their stigmatized flesh, which they flaunt instead of hide. Rocomora has written that ‘women’s identity is lodged in the surface of the body, in the visuality of its materiality,’ hence the efficacy of the fashion blog as a tool for constructing female identity.42 I agree with Rocamora, but I would amend her statement by offering that the collective fashion blog can also be an effective vehicle for mobilizing group identity. Indeed, as Rocamora writes, ‘With personal fashion blogs in particular, the logic of the self-projection onto a reflective surface in which a woman can look at and evaluate herself, and thereby confirm her identity, is reproduced.’43 However, as in the case of fatshion blogging—and perhaps is the case with other blogging efforts addressing marginalized identities— the blog could also be understood as a mirror onto a diverse and active community that is otherwise hidden in society, as well as a means for affirming group identity. By posting images like those discussed above, Queer Fat Femmes and their allies are not only articulating their own personal identities as ‘Queer Fat Femmes’, but also effecting feelings of community affiliation amongst otherwise stigmatized members of society, as well as multitudinous ways of queering plus-size fashion and beauty. While the full impact of their activism is yet to be seen, the central role that fashion has played in the new wave of fat activism is of particular note. The very fact that dress is foregrounded as the primary tool for waging this battle against weight-based stigma in the fashion and beauty industries merits closer analysis as few fashion scholars have explored the specific ways in which clothing can be mobilized as a tool within activist projects. Indeed, the fashion blog in particular is becoming a space to explore aesthetics ‘situated outside of established canons of femininity…structured by women’s perception of and judgment on fashion in a space created and nourished by women for an audience imagined as female’, both for straight-size as well as for fat bloggers, as evidenced here.44 While fatshion blogs represent an ambivalent space for traditional fat activists, within these spaces fashion can be transformed into a tool that has the power to alter societal

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__________________________________________________________________ perceptions of the fat body as well as to promote body positivity within a market that otherwise marginalizes fat bodies.

Notes 1

Charlotte Cooper, Fat and Proud: The Politics of Size (London: The Women’s Press, 1998). 2 Charlotte Cooper, ‘What’s Fat Activism?’, University of Limerick Department of Sociology Working Paper Series, WP 2008-02 (2008): 18. 3 Lauren Gurrieri and Hélène Cherrier, ‘Queering Beauty: Fatshionistas in the Fatosphere’, in Qualitative Market Research 16.3 (2008): 279 4 Natalie Perkins, ‘An Unedited Rant about Looking into Fatshion’s Navel’, last modified 11 November, Accessed 3 May 2013, . 5 Gurrieri and Cherrier, ‘Queering Beauty’, 2013. 6 Elizabeth Wilson, Adorned in Dreams (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1985), 230. 7 Alison Adam, ‘Big Girls’ Blouses: Learning to Live with Polyester’, in Through the Wardrobe: Women’s Relationships with Their Clothes, Ali Guy, Eileen Green and Maura Banim, eds. (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001). 8 Cooper, ‘What’s Fat Activism?’, 2008, 13. 9 Guerrieri and Cherrier, ‘Queering Beauty’, 2013, 278. 10 While the shapes vary amongst different fashion and style guides, Lane Bryant’s shapes include ‘inverted triangle,’ ‘rectangle,’ ‘circle,’ ‘hourglass,’ ‘triangle,’ and the especially vague ‘average.’ 11 Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993). 12 Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991). 13 Susan Nanfeldt, Plus Style: The Plus-Size Guide to Looking Great (New York: Plume, 1996). 14 Chastity Garner, The Curvy Girl’s Guide to Style (North Charleston, South Carolina: Create Space, 2010). 15 Sophie Woodward, Why Women Wear What They Wear (New York: Berg, 2007), 125. 16 Rebecca Arnold, Fashion, Desire, and Anxiety: Image and Morality in the Twentieth Century (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2001). 17 Allison Clarke and Daniel Miller, ‘Fashion and Anxiety’, in Fashion Theory 6.2 (2002): 191-214.

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Rachel Colls, ‘Outsize/Outside: Bodily Bignesses and the Emotional Experiences of British Women Shopping for Clothes’, in Gender, Place and Culture 13.5 (2006): 529-545. 19 Joanne Entwistle, ‘Fashion and the Fleshy Body: Dress as Embodied Practice’, in Fashion Theory 4.3 (2000): 328. 20 Ibid. 21 Fat activists have found that the work of Judith Butler has resonated with their own identity work. Namely, Butler’s contention that the body’s surface is a social construct informed by discourse, but also subject to parody and subversion through performances like drag, has proven instructive in how to alter the widely-held perception that the fat body is unhealthy and unappealing aesthetically. Although a more in depth analysis of Butler’s work on discourse, gender identity and performativity is beyond the scope of this essay, I direct readers to Butler’s oftcited Gender Trouble ([1990] 2008) for further discussion. 22 Adam, ‘Big Girls’ Blouses’. 23 The problematic appropriation of queer discourse his perhaps best articulated by fat activist Kathleen LeBesco who pointedly explains, ‘Depending on how you look at it, queer may be a troubled term; some could argue that the term and thus the identity, is colonized by people with very specific same-sex physical experiences, thus disallowing, say, a position of ‘straight queerness.’ This exclusivity arguably works to a political disadvantage for groups that might otherwise benefit from such surprises of diffuseness. Others might argue that when such a term is bandied about and self-applied liberally by those who otherwise suffer none of the plights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people, it loses all meaning or is highly patronizing.’ See LeBesco, Revolting Bodies, 105. 24 Cherry Smith, ‘What is this thing called queer?’, in The Material Queer: A LesBiGay Cultural Studies Reader, Donald Morton, ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), 280. 25 Agnés Rocamora, ‘Personal Fashion Blogs: Screens and Mirrors in Digital Selfportraits’, in Fashion Theory 15.4 (2011). 26 Ibid., 410. 27 Patricia Holland, ‘Sweet is to scan…: Personal photographs and popular photography’, in Photography: A Critical Introduction, Linda Wells, ed. (London: Routledge, 2009), 123. 28 Rocamora, ‘Personal Fashion Blogs’, 413. 29 Cooper, ‘What’s Fat Activism?’. 30 Adrienne C. Hill, ‘Spatial Awarishness: Queer Women and the Politics of Fat Embodiment’ (PhD diss., Graduate College of Bowling Green State University, 2009), 11-12.

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Jessie Dress, ‘About the Project’, Accessed 4 September 2013, . 32 Dress, ‘About the Project’. 33 ‘About FYeah VBO’, Fuch Yeah VBO, Accessed 1 September 2013, . 34 Kari-Anne Pederson, ‘Fra korsetti till silikoninn legg’, in Kropp og Klær, Live Hilde Boe and Anne-Sofie Hjemdhal, eds. (Oslo: By og Bygd XXXVII, Norsk folkemuseums årbok 2000), 20. 35 Pedersen, ‘Fra korsetti’, 8. 36 ‘spookylovessugar’, Accessed 1 September 2013, . 37 ‘madamefall’, Accessed 9 September 2013, . 38 Gurrieri and Cherrier, ‘Queering Beauty’, 286. 39 Cooper, Fat and Proud. 40 Guirreri and Cherrier, ‘Queering Beauty’, 277. 41 Nikki Sullivan, A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory (New York: New York University Press, 2003), vi. 42 Rocamora, ‘Personal Fashion Blogs’, 415. 43 Ibid., 416. 44 Ibid., 420-21.

Bibliography ‘About FYeah VBO’, Fuch Yeah VBO. Accessed 1 September 2013. http://fyeahvbo.tumblr.com/about. Adam, Alison. ‘Big Girls’ Blouses: Learning to Live with Polyester’. In Through the Wardrobe: Women’s Relationships with Their Clothes, Ali Guy Arnold, Rebecca. Fashion, Desire, and Anxiety: Image and Morality in the Twentieth Century. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Clarke, Allison and Daniel Miller. ‘Fashion and Anxiety’. In Fashion Theory 6.2 (2002): 191-214.

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__________________________________________________________________ Colls, Rachel. ‘Outsize/Outside: Bodily bignesses and the emotional experiences of British women shopping for clothes.’ In Gender, Place and Culture 13.5 (2006): 529-545. Cooper, Charlotte. Fat and Proud: The Politics of Size. London: The Women’s Press, 1998. –––, ‘What’s Fat Activism?’. University of Limerick Department of Sociology Working Paper Series. WP 2008-02 (2008). Dress, Jessie. ‘About the Project’. Accessed 4 September 2013. . Duffey, Mary. H.O.A.X. Fashion Formula: Dress the Body Type You Have to Look Like the Body You Want! St. Cloud, Minnesota: HP Trade, 1987. Entwistle, Joanne. ‘Fashion and the Fleshy Body: Dress as Embodied Practice.’ In Fashion Theory 4.3 (2000): 323-348. Garner, Chastity. The Curvy Girl’s Guide to Style. North Charleston: Create Space, 2010. Giovanelli, Dina and Stephen Ostertag. ‘Controlling the Body: Media Representations, Body Size, and Self-Discipline.’ In The Fat Studies Reader, edited by Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay, 289-299. New York: New York University Press, 2009. Gurrieri, Lauren and Hélène Cherrier. ‘Queering Beauty: Fatshionistas in the Fatosphere’. In Qualitative Market Research 16.3 (2008): 276-295. Hill, Adrienne C. ‘Spatial Awarishness: Queer Women and the Politics of Fat Embodiment’. PhD diss., Graduate College of Bowling Green State University, 2009. Holland, Patricia. ‘Sweet is to Scan…: Personal Photographs and Popular Photography’. Photography: A Critical Introduction, edited by Linda Wells, 115158. London: Routledge, 2009.

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__________________________________________________________________ LeBesco, Kathleen. Revolting Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009. ‘madamefall’, Accessed 9 September 2013. http://fyeahvbo.tumblr.com/post/55813335499/madamefall-i-got-a-dress-todaywith-massive-vbo. Nanfeldt, Suzan. Plus Style: The Plus-Size Guide to Looking Great. New York: Plume, 1996. Pedersen, Kari-Anne. ‘Fra korsetti till silikoninn legg’. In Kropp og Klar, edited by Live Hilde Boe and Anne-Sofie Hjemdhal, 96-115. Oslo: By og Bygd XXXVII, Norsk folkemuseums årbok, 2000. Perkins, Natalie. ‘An Unedited Rant about Looking into Fatshion’s Navel.’ Last Modified 11 November 2012. Accessed 3 May 2013. http://www.definatalie.com/2012/11/11/an-unedited-rant-about-looking-intofatshions-navel/. Rocamora, Agnés. ‘Personal Fashion Blogs: Screens and Mirrors in Digital Selfportraits.’ Fashion Theory 15.4 (2011): 407-424. Smith, Cherry. ‘What is this thing called queer?’ In The Material Queer: A LesBiGay Cultural Studies Reader, edited by Donald Morton, 277-286. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1996. ‘spookylovessugar’. Accessed 1 September 2013. http://fyeahvbo.tumblr.com/post/60452859664/spookylovessugar-ootd-thrift-storedress-that. Sullivan, Nikki. A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Wilson, Elizabeth. Adorned in Dreams. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1985. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991. Woodward, Sophie. Why Women Wear What They Wear. New York: Berg, 2007.

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__________________________________________________________________ Lauren Downing Peters is a PhD Student at the Centre for Fashion Studies at Stockholm University where she is beginning her dissertation, which will explore the relationships between fat activism, fashion and the potential for fashion to be mobilized as a tool in feminist activism. Previously, she attended Washington University in St. Louis where she received her BA in Art History, and Parson’s The New School for Design where she received her MA in fashion studies.

Functional/Dysfunctional Beauty: On the Creation and Commodification of Cuteness Joel Gn Abstract Is cute beautiful? How is beauty inscribed or translated into cuteness, particularly in the context of contemporary consumer culture? In this paper, I question beauty within the aesthetic of cuteness by way of the emotional experience or affect shared between humans and the objects they consume. These include but are not restricted to digital pets, virtual partners and animated characters. The relationship between beauty and cuteness is not a given, but is rendered ambiguous in this inquiry. On one hand, to claim an object is ‘cute’ is to perceive it as lovable, a positive quality that fosters the ‘nurturing consumer’, according to product developers. On the other hand, cuteness is also an anthropomorphic project that humanises not by faithfully replicating a human form, but by selectively augmenting it. Cuteness is an aesthetic primarily concerned with smallness, which differs from glamour, majesty or other pompous figurations of beauty but, at the same time, simulates a deformity subjected to consumer preferences. By examining beauty through the technology of cuteness, I propose a playful aesthetics, or a dysfunctional beauty, that affects and compels one to act, to represent beauty and make it tangible, personable and claim it for oneself. In other words, cuteness speaks for beauty as transformation: a movement between forms and singularities, as opposed to a passive appreciation of a universal aesthetic in stasis. Key Words: Affect, anthropomorphism, aesthetics, beauty, cuteness, consumption, pharmakon, popular culture, representation, technology. ***** 1. Introduction Concerning the relationship between aesthetics and technology, it is essential to consider how the former contributes to the humanisation of the latter. From interaction design to ergonomics, the idea of the human — whether in terms of its physicality or psychology — has come to play an important role in transforming technical abstractions into intuitively usable objects. To be immersed in a technology means that the salience of the machinery is greatly reduced in favour of the interaction that proceeds between the user and the object. That is, in order for a technical object to be presented as attractive and useful, there needs to be a sense of familiarity that occurs simultaneously with the transparency of the interface.1 This is where the aesthetic of cuteness comes into play, precisely because it engages the user with an anthropomorphic composite of appeal and interactivity, even as it is visibly an augmentation of human biology.

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__________________________________________________________________ According to the OED, the adjective ‘cute’ describes a person or thing that is attractive in a pretty or endearing way.2 Taking this definition into the context of this study, cuteness may then be said to be an affective device, because it is designed to elicit positive emotions from the one who perceives it.3 It should be noted that this definition remains a largely reductive one, given that an appreciation of cuteness is dependent on cultural nuances or shared beliefs. However, prevalent visual characteristics can still be observed. These usually include rounded facial features, infantilised or child-like body structures and character traits conveying a sense of simplicity, weakness and clumsiness. Collectively, these qualities exhibit a personality that is non-threatening and in need of care and attention -- affective states that lead to a positive and, in some instances, nurturing relationship between the human user and the object. Social robots, digital pets and video game characters, for example, are highly stylised objects that often adopt cute features in their interaction with users. From a utilitarian point of view, the apparent helplessness of a cute object functions as an indicator of its uselessness, but it nonetheless provides the user a space for emotional investment. In other words, the user enters into a social contract, whereby attending to the needs and requests of the object translates into greater attachment between the user and the object. The function of affection, in the particular case of a cute but artificial agent, is predicated on its tangible dysfunction. It is not surprising that product designers have regarded cuteness as an asset that fosters the nurturing consumer, insofar as the anthropomorphism in cute objects not only humanises the object, but makes it attractive in an amiable way. Hence, cuteness can be said to be functionalised beauty, an aesthetic that is not fashioned simply for a detached appreciation of the sublime, but is directed at the experience of intimacy. It is through beauty as a function of intimacy that the ambiguities of cuteness are brought to the surface. On one hand, cuteness remains ‘concerned with a manipulation of the human tendency to anthropomorphise.’4 Yet, on the other hand, this simulation is less the replication of human biology than it is an artificial caricature of it. As observed by Sianne Ngai, the cuteness of diminutive objects ‘has some sort of imposed-on aspect or mien—that is, that it bears the look of an object not only formed but all too easily de-formed under the pressure of the subject’s feeling or attitude towards it’.5 So, even as the ‘cute’ aesthetic renders the object lovable, such a positive affect seems to only occur at the distance of an artificiality that somehow involves a dysfunctional conceptualization of beauty and the deformation of what is recognised as actual biology. If there is indeed likeness, or simulation involved in the aesthetic of ‘cute’, it is a likeness rendered different by the alteration of realist forms. To resolve these ambiguities in cuteness, it would be necessary to examine how in playing with the binary oppositions of beauty and

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__________________________________________________________________ ugliness, cuteness is reified as a technē that transforms the ontology of beauty itself. 2. Beauty in the Uncanny The apparent hybridisation of cuteness with interactive technology and character merchandising might be a strategy on the part of product specialists to bridge the distance between inanimate objects and their users, but the boundary between cuteness and anthropomorphism is rarely questioned. An effective way to examine this central ambiguity in cuteness, vis-a-vis anthropomorphism, would be the conceptual model of the Uncanny Valley as theorised by roboticist Masahiro Mori. In this model, the simulation of an actual human and the corresponding response of affection from the human bring to light an inconsistency concerning appearance. As explained by Mori, a robot or artificial entity will evoke greater acceptance if it performs human-like behaviours, but there is a region in the design space where it will appear weird and even repulsive. This region, known as the Uncanny Valley, serves to maintain this distinction between a suspension of disbelief and a total replication of the human body.6 Hence, cuteness, according to Daniel Black, denotes a tendency to anthropomorphise, but there is also, by way of caricature and exaggeration, a removal of what can be conventionally regarded as negative human characteristics. As opposed to an object just like us, cuteness paradoxically complicates the anthropomorphic object, making it ‘like us, yet not’. Mori can certainly be excused for not elaborating on this contradiction of visual similarity, given that the objective behind designing visually appealing robots is to avoid this particular valley of familiarity. Yet, in order to further unpack the phenomenological complexities of cuteness, it is necessary to examine the uncanny. Are not cuteness and its uncanny otherness binary oppositions produced by the tendency to identify a sense of ‘likeness’? One response to this question can be derived from Sigmund Freud in his essay The Uncanny, where he begins by defining the uncanny as a term related to ‘what is frightening—to what arouses dread and horror…so that it tends to coincide with what excites fear in general’. 7 But besides eliciting fear, the uncanny also pertains to familiar things and experiences and this implies that the familiar thereby retains a certain ambiguity. How is it otherwise possible that something familiar or that is intimately known is also frightening? Freud subsequently elaborates on this reversal, using the polysemy of the German Heimlich, which is first taken to mean something that is ‘not strange, familiar, tame, intimate, friendly’.8 For the most part, 'Heimlich is found in various positive contexts (e.g. animal companions or objects which cultivate states of intimacy and comfort), but its other definition refers to a thing ‘to be concealed, kept from sight, so that others do not get to know of or about it’.9 Arguably, this association of the idea of Heimlich with malicious secrecy opens up the possibility

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__________________________________________________________________ for its negative, Unheimlich, a word synonymous with eerie, weird, or arousing gruesome fear. Even as Unheimlich, like Mori’s Uncanny Valley, describes a thing that is shunned, it is only avoided because of its spectral qualities, as any spectral haunting is perpetrated by the familiar ghosts of the past, of what was once known. In Freud’s postulation, the notion of the Uncanny is presupposed by these two terms that are cast in opposition, yet are intrinsically present at every turn. Likewise, in the cute object, one can see how beauty is configured as the familiar, but it is this familiar which also represses and thereby affirms undesirable or familiarly ‘ugly’ characteristics. The idea of cuteness is therefore an effect of likeness yet not, precisely because it is produced when the distinction between imagination and reality is effaced. The cute body is a humanised body, but it is also visibly non-humanised by way of the same artificiality or non-humanness that allows it to be humanised in the first place. To borrow the language of Mikhail Bakhtin, the effect of cuteness on the body presents: …an entirely finished, completed, strictly limited body, which is shown from the outside as something individual. That which protrudes, bulges or branches off…is eliminated, hidden or moderated. All orifices of the body are closed. The basis of the image is the individual, strictly limited mass, the impenetrable figure…All attributes of the unfinished world are carefully removed, as well as signs of its inner life’.10 3. ‘Kawaii’ Technē Character design, particularly in Japanese consumer culture, reiterates the broader objective of cuteness and stresses the link between cuteness as an object of desire and its uncanny character. According to Sharon Kinsella, the Japanese equivalent of cute, kawaii, refers to a child-like and prepubescent form of shyness and embarrassment that also conveys a sense of the pathetic, vulnerable, lovable and small.11 Frequently associated with animals and fictional characters such as Hello Kitty and Pokemon, the cute body is virtualised and imbued with a sense of life, even as it lacks certain features intrinsic to its biological or perhaps photorealistic counterpart. This pertinent difference again shows how caricature is often used as a tool to exaggerate certain human qualities, while at the same time erasing those which are undesirable, or in a more explicit sense, undesirably similar. One pertinent example of this anthropomorphic quality in cuteness can be observed in the Japanese virtual idol Hatsune Miku, an artificially synthesized singing avatar designed by Crypton Future Media. Sporting a baby doll smile, aquamarine pigtails and a futuristic dress sense, Miku’s physical features are deliberately programmed to foster affective consumerism. As such, both the

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__________________________________________________________________ technical and the aesthetic dimensions of her character design have to be taken into account if one intends to comprehend the complexities of her embodiment. Like all animated characters, Miku is not a replica of the human body, but a synthetic caricature of it. As with all other cartoons, the main quality of the synthetic body—particularly in Japanese mass culture—is to animate objects with life, or living things with a different kind of life. Because they are visual objects, animated bodies are always embedded in the narrative of a cultural text. Embedded in this sense means that they are complicit with the structures behind their production, or in simpler terms, the world from which they derive their apparent ‘being’. To that effect, these characters are endowed with an artificiality that captures the object within quotation marks. If cute objects are endowed with a certain mode of being, it is then a being that is brought forth as an outcome of technē. In The Question Concerning Technology, Martin Heidegger states that this technē ‘belongs to a bringing-forth, to poiēsis’.12 This bringing-forth has to do with the presence of the thing, as it emerges from concealment to unconcealment, but here the use of the word technē has an interesting twist. For Heidegger, technē is both the bringing-forth of presence and a revealing. This technē not only reveals an episteme, but also exerts a ‘unreasonable demand’ on nature, insofar as the resources of nature can be stored up, unlocked and distributed.13 The ubiquitous commodification of character goods in consumer culture illustrates how cuteness is a technē of production manufacturing. In his analysis of Hello Kitty’s commercial success, Brian McVeigh argues that the cute object materialises a certain consumutopia, or state of affairs, where consumption is perceived as an idealised act of gratification.14 Although it can be argued that there are no idealised instances of consumption, the cute object does bring forth the aspiration to absolute gratification by the consuming individual. McVeigh’s analysis shows how the relationship between cute design and consumutopia can be attributed to a unifying motif that is at once consistent and affective. In other words, the cute object must not only have a consistent design (as observed in Hello Kitty and other character-related merchandising), but it also needs to communicate ‘a generalised sentiment of desire, aspiration, longing, craving, even euphoria for the product’.15 These requirements therefore constitute the technē of cuteness, a meta-template of visual features and personality traits that pre-empt the pleasure of consumption. 4. Writing, Playing Cute… The relationship between the dialectic of the uncanny and the nature of cuteness as technology contributes to the playful aesthetic that belies Jacques Derrida’s thoughts on how writing questions the primacy of speech. If cuteness simulates the human, is it possible for the authenticity of the human to be separated from this measure of difference? The relevant assumption, as Derrida describes in

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__________________________________________________________________ his essay Plato’s Pharmacy, is that speech is authentic while writing is a perversion of that authenticity. Like the pharmakon, writing is a technē of memory—a remedy to the problem of forgetfulness. Yet it is also a poison, for it takes place in the absence of speech.16 Because it occurs and can only occur in absence, writing has the power to mislead, deceive and lead one astray. Commenting on writing as simulation, Derrida writes: For writing has no essence or value of its own, whether positive or negative. It plays within the simulacrum. It is in its type the mime of memory, of knowledge of truth, etc’17. The use of the terms ‘simulacrum’ and ‘mime’ sets writing in opposition to speech and, in a similar sense, ugliness in opposition to beauty. This polarised perspective inevitably situates writing, along with beauty, within a binary opposition, Speech would have to be more truthful than writing and beauty greater than ugliness. Nonetheless, what is uncovered in the uncanny of cuteness is the falsification of this binary opposition between remedy and poison, simulation and original, beauty and ugliness. The difference between these values, Derrida continues, is never an a priori entity, but is in fact formed and expressed by the very conditions it claims to determine. By playing with forms of beauty and ugliness, the aesthetic of cute can be read as the pharmakon or the signifier that is always ahead of the primary difference. At the same time, it humanises and makes the object intimate, lovable and even attractive as it is an alteration of human physiognomy. It is this subversion that contributes to both the violence and vulnerability of cuteness. In the words of Derrida, it ‘destroys the pharmakon, but at the same time forbids itself access to it, leaving it untouched in its reserve’.18 As such, cuteness becomes a technology that at once simulates the human by distorting what is regarded as the human’s ideal form and exaggerates the ideal, allowing it to be emulated in a playful fashion that is defined by Jean Baudrillard as kitsch. It would be erroneous to make kitsch synonymous with cute, but the latter, in its visual play, or allegorical intensification of intimacy, care and affection, renders positive anthropomorphism as a form of kitsch. Baudrillard makes this point in The Consumer Society: To the aesthetics of beauty and originality, kitsch opposes its aesthetics of simulation: it everywhere reproduces objects smaller or larger than life; it imitates materials (in plaster, plastic etc.); it apes forms or combines discordantly; it repeats fashion without having been part of the experience of fashion.19

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__________________________________________________________________ Given its artificiality, it can thus be inferred that cuteness does not have any real practical referent. The cute object is but a label that describes an indeterminate cluster of meanings. It does not actually exist separately and is not a discrete quality. As such, cuteness falls into a functional excess deprived of any utility, as observed in the way digital pets or virtual interactive agents neither directly respond to nor execute commands issued by the human user. Instead, these objects behave in a cute fashion and display an affective autonomy, which is an abstraction of signs repeatedly re-combined to fascinate and arouse the consumer. Again, in tandem with Baudrillard’s arguments, the cute object could also be called a ludic object, for it ‘consists in a play on the technical variants and potentialities of the object’.20 Like all forms of technology, cuteness is configured into a space of manipulation, resulting in the sustained fascination and reproducibility of forms and sensations. There is no need to comprehend the computational processes, or the design principles of a cute object, for as pointed out earlier, cuteness renders those aspects transparent by way of its own approachable and humanised image. 5. Conclusion Even as the aesthetic of cuteness proves useful in examining the vicissitudes of contemporary culture, this discussion has demonstrated that aesthetic phenomena are also inevitably questions of technology. Moreover, it is through the lens of cuteness that we see how technology is not just fundamentally a human affair, but that the human is imbued in technology itself.21 What is even more perplexing in these debates is how dualistic models of the human and the prosthesis, and the lovable and detestable, are gradually effaced with the indeterminacy of postmodern aesthetic categories such as cuteness. For example, the repetitive allusion to cuteness in the anti-cute subculture shows how ugliness is arbitrarily brought into the domain of the lovable.22 That is perhaps the transformational excess of an aesthetic in the simulacrum, for if authentic beauty is a radical impossibility, then all that remains are its representations. Cuteness, in its own intrusive, yet intimate way, opens up possibilities for various images of beauty to appear and be made accessible to all, This makes beauty a potent deception, or the only means by which one can get in touch with the sublime. After all, in contrast with cuteness, magnified expressions of the beautiful can only be witnessed from a distance. To conclude, if beauty is divine, cuteness can only be its incarnation closest and most alike to the human, or in more affectionate terms: that which is recognised as cute would be beautifully intimate by any other name.

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Notes 1

Julian Rohrhuber, ‘Implications of Unfolding’, Paradoxes of Interactivity: Perspectives for Media Theory, Human-Computer Interaction and Artistic Investigations, ed. Uwe Seifert, Jin Hyun Kim and Anthony Moore (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2008), 179. 2 ‘Oxford Dictionaries: Cute’, viewed 24 August 2015, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/cute. 3 The Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza first conceptualised the term affect (Latin ‘affectus’) as a state of the body, by which its capacity to act is diminished or enhanced. Affect is traditionally applied in the context of emotion, but it also refers to a relationship or action between bodies that can be affected by each other. As Spinoza states, a body would project its states onto a body similar to it. Given that users are likewise capable of projecting certain ‘states of mind or personalities onto technological artefacts, this concept of affect will prove valuable in understanding the verisimilitude of cute objects. Benedict Spinoza, Ethics (London: Wordsworth, 2001), 118. 4 Daniel Black, ‘The Virtual Ideal: Virtual Idols, Cute Technology and Unclean Biology’, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 22.1 (2008): 39. 5 Sianne Ngai, ‘The Cuteness of the Avant Garde’, Critical Inquiry 31.4 (2005): 816 6 Masahiro Mori, ‘The Uncanny Valley’, Energy 7.4 (1970): 33-35. 7 Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny, Viewed 7 June 2012, https://wiki.uiowa.edu/download/attachments/570/Freud-Uncanny.pdf. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), 320. 11 Sharon Kinsella, ‘Cuties in Japan’, Women, Media and Consumption in Japan, ed. Lise Skov and Brian Moeran (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995), 220. 12 Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays (New York: Torchbooks, 1977), 13. 13 Ibid., 16. 14 Brian J. McVeigh, ‘How Hello Kitty Commodifies the Cute, Cool and Camp: “Consumutopia” versus “Control” in Japan’, Journal of Material Culture 5.2 (2000): 227-228. 15 Ibid., 235. 16 Jacques Derrida, Dissemination (London: Athlone, 1981), 70. 17 Ibid., 105. 18 Ibid., 99.

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Jean Baudrillard, The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures (London: Sage, 1998), 111. 20 Ibid., 114. 21 Bernard Stiegler, Technics and Time I: The Fault of Epimetheus (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 1998), 141. 22 In Japan, as a reaction to the gender politics underpinning the marketing of cute merchandise targeted primarily at a male audience, female consumers popularised the aesthetic of the kimo kawaii, a trend understood to be ‘cuteness that gives you the creeps’. By warping conventionally cute traits and using them to produce objects of affection, these alternative forms of cuteness introduce a distortion reflecting the ‘resentments and anxieties circulating in girls’ culture’. In Laura Miller, ‘Cute Masquerade and the Pimping of Japan’, International Journal of Japanese Sociology 20:1, (The Japanese Sociological Society, 2011), 25.

Bibliography Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984. Baudrillard, Jean. The Consumer Society: Myths & Structures. Translated by Chris Turner. London: Sage, 1998. Black, Daniel. ‘The Virtual Ideal: Virtual Idols, Cute Technology and Unclean Biology.’ Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 22.1 (2008): 37-50. Derrida, Jacques. Dissemination. Translated by Barbara Johnson. London: Athlone, 1981. Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny. 26 February 2007. http://wiki.uiowa.edu/download/attachments/570/Freud-Uncanny.pdf. Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology & Other Essays. Translated by William Lovitt. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1977. Kinsella, Sharon. ‘Cuties in Japan.’ Women, Media and Consumption in Japan, edited by Lise Skov and Brian Moeran, 220-54. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995.

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__________________________________________________________________ Miller, Laura. ‘Cute Masquerade and the Pimping of Japan.’ International Journal of Japanese Sociology 20.1 (2011): 18-29. Mori, Masahiro. ‘The Uncanny Valley’. Energy 7.4 (1970): 33-35. Ngai, Sianne. ‘The Cuteness of the Avant Garde.’ Critical Inquiry 31.4 (2005): 811-847. Oxford Dictionaries. ‘Cute’. Viewed 24 August 2015. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/cute. Spinoza, Benedict. Ethics. Translated by W.H White and A.H Stirling. London: Wordsworth, 2001. Stiegler, Bernard. Technics and Time I: The Fault of Epimetheus. Standford CA: Standford University Press, 1998. Joel Gn is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore. His research considers cute design as a technology and explores the phenomenological implications of the aesthetic in interactive agents such as digital partners and social robots. Joel’s other interests include critical theory, science fiction and East Asian popular culture.