tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/beauty-standards-45732/articlesBeauty standards – The Conversation2023-07-17T12:23:46Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2087302023-07-17T12:23:46Z2023-07-17T12:23:46ZHow I learned to stop worrying and love the doll – a feminist philosopher’s journey back to Barbie<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537399/original/file-20230713-19-rjqtmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=173%2C77%2C3820%2C2323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The film's cast includes lesbian icon Kate McKinnon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kate-mckinnon-attends-the-press-junket-and-photo-call-for-news-photo/1501789027?adppopup=true">Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a mama trying to raise a daughter free from the gendered stereotypes of my own childhood, I steered her clear of Barbie dolls.</p>
<p>I felt compelled to nudge my now 11-year-old away from the Mattel mainstay for the same reasons I tried to avoid the shallow frivolity of all those Disney princesses waiting around to be rescued.</p>
<p>True, I’d enjoyed plenty of afternoons with these dolls of anatomically impossible proportions myself as a kid growing up in the 1980s – jamming those long spindly limbs into impossibly tiny outfits, scissoring them on mattresses fashioned from my mother’s maxi pads, staging epic domestic dramas. But by the time I was a teenager in the 1990s, I’d discovered feminism.</p>
<p>I’d later grow up to become <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=A3xkVSMAAAAJ&hl=en">a professor of feminist philosophy</a> and the author of a <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324003090">book on feminism</a> for the general public. Barbie’s hyperbolic blond femininity came to represent everything that was wrong with <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/standard-issues-white-supremacy-capitalism-influence-beauty">patriarchal beauty standards</a>. </p>
<p>My perspective began to change when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBk4NYhWNMM&ab_channel=WarnerBros.Pictures">snippets of the “Barbie” movie trailer</a> started insinuating themselves into my online feeds. Hot pink hot flashes of nostalgia merged with the realization that Barbie looks to be reinventing herself once again.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The release of the ‘Barbie’ trailer was met with waves of buzz.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Barbie’s retrograde femininity</h2>
<p>I think Barbie has long functioned as a proxy onto which cultural aspirations and anxieties about womanhood are projected.</p>
<p>The toy first <a href="http://www.barbiemedia.com/timeline.html">hit the market in 1959</a>. To earlier generations, as the first doll to encourage girls to aspire to anything other than motherhood, Barbie might have stood for the unapologetic ambitiousness of the independent career woman. But when it was my generation’s time to play with her, she’d long since been drained of anything so progressive. </p>
<p>Instead, there was the relentless whiteness of her <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90457388/barbies-latest-dolls-are-bald-and-have-vitiligo">ideal of beauty</a>. The class-obliviousness of her <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/06/23/realestate/barbie-dreamhouse.html">McMansion Dreamhouse</a>. Her protestations that “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO0cvqT1tAE">Math class is tough</a>,” driving home the message that STEM is for boys and that girls should be more concerned with being pretty than being smart, or happy, or ambitious or interesting.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Mattel’s ‘Teen Talk’ Barbie uttered phrases like ‘Math class is tough’ and ‘Do you have a crush on anyone?’</span></figcaption>
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<p>All this made Barbie an extremely convenient whipping girl for legitimate frustrations about the unfair expectations foisted onto women by a patriarchal society. Like many feminists, I came to believe that being taken seriously as a woman meant rejecting pretty much everything that Barbie stood for. </p>
<p>My ambivalence toward the kind of conventional femininity of which Barbie was the apotheosis came to feel like a central component of my identity. Sure, I might’ve felt naked if I’d left the house without wearing makeup and uncomfortably restrictive clothing. But I felt consistently guilty about the time and energy I let myself dump into such frivolous pursuits, and I made sure to hide as much of it as I could from my growing daughter. </p>
<p>If I was going to indulge in superficialities that felt completely at odds with my ideological commitments, at least I was going to protect her from internalizing the conviction that she needed to do the same. </p>
<p>No daughter of mine was going have her self-worth tied to the belief that she needs to be sexually appealing to men. So: no Barbies.</p>
<h2>Femmephobia</h2>
<p>Then the hype surrounding the movie strutted those perfectly arched plastic feet back into my consciousness, and I found myself reconsidering my long-standing aversion to Barbie’s performance of femininity. Why, I wondered, did she bring out such mean-girl energy in me? </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01641-x">Femmephobia refers</a> to the dislike of, or hostility toward, people or qualities that are stereotypically feminine. It arises against a cultural backdrop in which femininity is consistently less valued than masculinity, and in which the traits associated with masculinity – rationality and independence – are considered to be normal or ideal for all people. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, qualities associated with femininity – such as emotional expressiveness and interdependence – are thought of as inferior, substandard or deviant. But it’s not as if feminine interests and pursuits are inherently more frivolous than masculine ones. Instead, it’s the very fact that something is coded as feminine that makes people take it less seriously. </p>
<p>“Fashion,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/opinion/sunday/feminism-lean-in.html">quips author Ruth Whippman</a>, “is vain and shallow, while baseball is basically a branch of philosophy.” And Barbie’s defiantly bubbly femininity is about as unserious as it comes.</p>
<p>The trans feminist author <a href="https://www.juliaserano.com/">Julia Serano</a> argues that much of the discrimination faced by trans women has less to do with their being trans and more to do with their being willing to brazenly perform femininity. </p>
<p>The problem, in other words, is less about trans women transgressing conventional gender norms than about their picking the losing team.</p>
<p>“The fact that we identify and live as women, despite being born male and having inherited male privilege,” <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/julia-serano/whipping-girl/9781580056229/?lens=seal-press">she writes</a>, “challenges those in our society who wish to glorify maleness and masculinity.”</p>
<p>Today’s mainstream visibility of trans women has played an important role in advancing the cultural conversation about the respectability of femininity. Some <a href="https://kathleenstock.substack.com/p/pride?s=r">anti-trans critics</a> accuse the unapologetic femininity of trans women of entrenching retrograde stereotypes. Their femmephobia seems to prevent them from realizing that the objects of their scorn could be celebrating femininity, not denigrating it. </p>
<h2>Is ‘Barbie’ feminist?</h2>
<p>Mattel Films is <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/06/is-barbie-a-feminist-movie-depends-on-who-you-ask">shying away from calling the “Barbie” movie “feminist</a>” – which is unsurprising, given the sometimes controversial label’s uncomfortable fit with corporate profit motives.</p>
<p>But the studio’s choice of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1950086/">Greta Gerwig</a> to write and direct the film suggests a willingness to explore Barbie’s world through a political lens: <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-mumblecore-and-bigger-than-barbie-who-is-greta-gerwig-209389">Gerwig’s solid feminist credentials</a> include her 2017 “Lady Bird” and her 2019 adaptation of “Little Women.” And the casting in “Barbie” of lesbian icon <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0571952/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_kate%2520mcki">Kate McKinnon</a> and trans model and actor <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6341515/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1">Hari Nef</a> is a clear nod to the LGBTQ+ community. </p>
<p>The feminist philosopher Judith Butler argues that <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Gender-Trouble-Feminism-and-the-Subversion-of-Identity/Butler/p/book/9780415389556">gender isn’t some deeply rooted metaphysical fact</a>; it’s something people perform via their mannerisms, clothing and behavior. Butler says everyone could stand to take a lesson from drag queens, who understand that there’s nothing fundamental behind the smoke and mirrors, nothing to gender above and beyond what the audience thinks of the show. In the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72AAlCa1Nko">words of RuPaul</a>, perhaps the most famous drag queen of all: “You’re born naked, and the rest is drag.” </p>
<p>I think Gerwig’s “Barbie” gets that memo. The hyperbolic femininity of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3053338/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_5_nm_3_q_margot%2520robb">Margot Robbie’s portrayal of the iconic doll</a> strikes me as tantalizingly closer to <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/11694/camp">queer camp</a> than as anything that’s supposed to be taken as a sincere role model.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two drag queens march down a street wearing pink Barbie boxes to create the effect of being dolls before crowds of onlookers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536656/original/file-20230710-21-6w4m1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536656/original/file-20230710-21-6w4m1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536656/original/file-20230710-21-6w4m1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536656/original/file-20230710-21-6w4m1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536656/original/file-20230710-21-6w4m1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536656/original/file-20230710-21-6w4m1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536656/original/file-20230710-21-6w4m1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Bridal Barbie’ and ‘Cheerleader Barbie’ march in a parade before a drag event in Washington, D.C., in 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bridal-and-cheerleader-barbie-made-their-way-along-the-news-photo/106154978?adppopup=true">Mark Gail/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Barbie in the zeitgeist</h2>
<p>“Barbie” feels poised to tap into our current cultural moment, one in which conservative anti-feminist backlash is fueling the backsliding of generations of feminist gains. Meanwhile, LGBTQ+ people face unprecedented levels of both <a href="https://glaad.org/glaads-2021-2022-where-we-are-tv-report-lgbtq-representation-reaches-new-record-highs/">visibility</a> and <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/violent-victimization-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-2017-2020">violence</a>. The world’s having new cultural conversations about gender and sexuality.</p>
<p>Since coming out as queer several years ago, I have seen my relationship with my own femininity become considerably less fraught. Thanks in large part to the insights of feminists like Serano and Butler, I’m coming around to the recognition that performances of femininity can exist for purposes other than snagging a man. </p>
<p>I won’t pretend to have completely broken free from my decades of internalized femmephobia. But when “Barbie” gets to my local movie theater, you’d better believe that my daughter and I will be first in line.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Hay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Barbie has long functioned as a proxy onto which cultural aspirations and anxieties about womanhood are projected.Carol Hay, Professor of Philosophy, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2051772023-05-22T11:34:49Z2023-05-22T11:34:49ZGirls are in crisis — and their mental health needs to be taken seriously<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526896/original/file-20230517-19889-9mh2pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C52%2C8688%2C5722&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If we want to see improvements in the lives of girls in Canada and beyond, we need to first think critically about why we tend to dismiss and invalidate their concerns.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An article in the <em>Washington Post</em> recently declared “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/17/teen-girls-mental-health-crisis/">a crisis in American girlhood</a>.” Girls in the United States are experiencing alarmingly higher rates of sexual assault, mental health issues and suicidality than ever before.</p>
<p>Data collected in 2021 by the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Summary-Trends_Report2023_508.pdf">Centers for Disease Control</a> (CDC) demonstrates how dire the circumstances of American girlhood are. Fourteen per cent of teenage girls in the United States shared that they had been forced to have sex, and 60 per cent had experienced <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/13/teen-girls-violence-trauma-pandemic-cdc/">extreme feelings of sadness or hopelessness</a>. Nearly a quarter of girls had considered and planned suicide.</p>
<p>While these findings are based on U.S. data, the story is consistent with what girls in Canada have been saying for the past decade. In Canada, <a href="https://www.camh.ca/en/camh-news-and-stories/half-of-female-students-in-ontario-experience-psychological-distress-camh-study-shows">over 50 per cent of female students in Ontario have reported</a> moderate to severe psychological distress. <a href="https://assaultcare.ca/services/sexual-assault-statistics/">One in four girls</a> has been sexually abused by the time they turn 18.</p>
<p>Suicide is the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv.action?pid=1310039401">fourth leading cause of death</a> for girls up to 14 years old, an annual statistic that has remained relatively consistent since 2016.</p>
<p>The gendered wage gap in Canada has been found to <a href="https://www.girlguides.ca/WEB/Documents/GGC/media/thought-leadership/girlsonjob/GirlsOnTheJobRealitiesInCanada.pdf">start as early as 12 years old</a>. The situation is worse for girls who are <a href="https://www.girlsactionfoundation.ca/_files/ugd/0512fe_ccc6638a5e3844c8b3dcf4a0e536a9c2.pdf">racialized, living in poverty</a>, <a href="https://dawncanada.net/media/uploads/page_data/page-64/girls_without_barriers.pdf">disabled</a>, or <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28111592/">LGBTQ+</a>.</p>
<p>The dire state of girlhood has historically been attributed to the usual suspects: <a href="https://www.girlguides.ca/WEB/GGC/Parents/Thought_Leadership/IDG_Nationwide_Survey/GGC/Media/Thought_Leadership/IDG_Nationwide_Survey.aspx">unrealistic beauty standards</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/instagram-girls-body-image-1.6200969">pressures of social media</a>, <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/girlhood-studies/14/1/ghs140104.xml">living in a rape culture</a>, and more recently, the <a href="https://www.girlguides.ca/WEB/Documents/GGC/Girl_Research/Life_During_COVID19_Report.pdf">COVID-19 pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>In interviews conducted by the <em>Washington Post</em> with girls themselves, however, they point to another, perhaps unsuspected culprit: that when girls do speak up, they aren’t listened to or taken seriously.</p>
<h2>Why don’t we listen to or take girls seriously?</h2>
<p>I am a former community social worker with experience working directly with girls between the ages of 10 and 18 years old. My current doctoral research focuses on girls between the ages of eight and 12 years old who engage in activism, exploring ways that adults can better listen and support them when they tell us what they want for their lives and their worlds. I have heard countless stories from girls themselves about when they had felt dismissed by adults.</p>
<p>This dismissal was often directly tied to their identities as girls, attributed to claims that girls were just going through a phase, not accurately sharing what had happened or that they were being dramatic.</p>
<p>Put simply, when girls tell us what is happening in their lives, we have a tendency not to believe them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526901/original/file-20230517-11818-a2ke9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="close up image of two pairs of hands holding each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526901/original/file-20230517-11818-a2ke9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526901/original/file-20230517-11818-a2ke9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526901/original/file-20230517-11818-a2ke9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526901/original/file-20230517-11818-a2ke9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526901/original/file-20230517-11818-a2ke9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526901/original/file-20230517-11818-a2ke9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526901/original/file-20230517-11818-a2ke9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Adults tend to doubt girls’ credibility as speakers because of prejudices about girls and girlhood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dismissing the credibility of an entire group of people because of prejudices that we may have about their identities is what philosopher Miranda Fricker has described as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198237907.001.0001">epistemic injustice</a>.</p>
<p>In this type of epistemic injustice, a speaker’s credibility is dismissed because of prejudices that others have based on the speaker’s identity. This means that the speaker’s testimony is not listened to or taken seriously because of who they are. </p>
<p>Adults tend to doubt girls’ credibility as speakers because of prejudices about girls and girlhood. These prejudices against girls are rooted in the construction of girlhood as a time of frivolity, fun and emotionality.</p>
<h2>Do girls just want to have fun?</h2>
<p>For a long time, girlhood — and specifically <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814787083/racial-innocence/">white, middle- and upper-class, able-bodied girlhood</a> — has been seen as a time of inherent innocence, <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1109532">frivolity</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540518806954">fun</a>.</p>
<p>Constructions of girlhood are linked to expectations we have about girls as children and as gendered subjects. As children, we expect girls to have a sort of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568218811484">wide-eyed wonderment</a> about the world around them. As gendered subjects, girls are additionally stereotyped in ways typically associated with womanhood, such as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016821">emotionality</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526897/original/file-20230517-25100-wn41e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman comforts a teenage girl sitting on a bed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526897/original/file-20230517-25100-wn41e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526897/original/file-20230517-25100-wn41e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526897/original/file-20230517-25100-wn41e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526897/original/file-20230517-25100-wn41e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526897/original/file-20230517-25100-wn41e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526897/original/file-20230517-25100-wn41e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526897/original/file-20230517-25100-wn41e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When girls tell us what is happening in their lives, adults must listen and not dismiss them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a world that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.274">dichotomizes rationality and emotionality</a>, with rationality being considered more credible than emotionality, girls are dismissed because of the way girlhood is viewed.</p>
<p>When girls tell us what is happening in their lives, such as when they’ve experienced sexual assault or are feeling suicidal, these views become especially harmful.</p>
<p>If we want to see improvements in the lives of girls in Canada and beyond, we need to first think critically about why we tend to dismiss and invalidate their concerns. Challenging our own prejudices about the credibility of girls is a vital first step in this process.</p>
<p>When considering the crisis in girlhood, girls have been clear about the way forward. In my own community practice work, girls shared that they feel most supported by adults while “<a href="https://www.womenscentrecalgary.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Girls-Lead-YYC-1.pdf">being listened to and feeling like I am being heard</a>.” In the <em>Washington Post</em> article, girls called for adults to “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/17/teen-girls-mental-health-crisis/">stop dismissing their concerns as drama</a>.”</p>
<p>Girls have never just wanted to have fun. They want — and need to be — listened to and taken seriously.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205177/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexe Bernier receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for her doctoral research. </span></em></p>In Canada, over 50 per cent of female students in Ontario have reported moderate to severe psychological distress. One in four girls has been sexually abused by the time they turn 18.Alexe Bernier, PhD Candidate, Department of Social Work, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2037512023-04-28T14:46:54Z2023-04-28T14:46:54ZBeauty ideals were as tough in the middle ages as they are now<p>After turning up at this year’s Grammys, Madonna was subjected to a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/madonna-now-grammys-facelift-recent-b2279848.html">vitriolic online attack</a> over her appearance, particularly what was deemed her excessive use of plastic surgery. The irrepressible 64-year-old instantly hit back, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny that permeates the world we live in. I look forward to many more years of subversive behaviour pushing boundaries.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s a familiar story. Standards of beauty have been embedded in different cultures, in varying forms, from time immemorial. The standards that women and, increasingly, all people are expected to meet to embody a certain level of beauty, are often based on binary notions of idealised forms of femininity or masculinity, or both. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1627713003238965248"}"></div></p>
<p>Women’s bodies have been pathologised throughout history, from Plato’s notion of the “<a href="https://www.rcn.org.uk/library-exhibitions/Womens-health-wandering-womb">wandering womb</a>” which was used to account for every female physical and emotional ailment. In medieval <a href="https://juliamartins.co.uk/what-is-the-humoral-theory">humoral theory</a>, women were considered <a href="https://www.medievalists.net/2011/08/the-female-body-in-medieval-europe-theories-of-physicality-versus-practical-gynecology/">cold and wet in constitution</a>, and more prone to certain afflictions.</p>
<p>The association of beauty with health, and ugliness with disease, has been taken up in more recent feminist debate over the modern cultural obsession with women’s appearance as an <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/beauty-sick/renee-engeln/9780062469786">epidemic</a>. It’s no wonder that instances of anxiety, depression, eating disorders and dysmorphia can all be connected to modern – and indeed, pre-modern – people’s experience of beauty standards.</p>
<p>In her 1991 book <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/oct/18/classics.shopping">The Beauty Myth</a>, Naomi Wolf argued that the standards of western female beauty were used as a weapon to stagnate the progress of women. But in medieval culture, such pressures were doubly weighted, since beauty was closely aligned with morality: beauty was associated with goodness and ugliness with evil.</p>
<p>Such cultural associations are addressed by Eleanor Janega in her book <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/events/the-once-and-future-sex-eleanor-janega-in-conversation-with-cat-jarman/london-gower-street">The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society</a>. In her lively exploration of medieval women’s social roles, Janega shows how beauty “was a key to power”, crucially connected to wealth, privilege, youth and maidenhood – to create “a ‘perfect’ sort of femininity”. </p>
<p>Janega explores medieval gender norms to consider the ways that women’s roles have – and haven’t – changed. Focusing on female beauty standards and contradictions, sex and female sexuality, and women’s roles as workers, wives and mothers, Janega reflects on what this study of women in the middle ages means now:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Turns out that the way we think about and treat women is socially malleable, and while some of our constructs have changed, we continue to treat women as inferior to men. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Weaponising beauty</h2>
<p>I’ve recently been examining a type of weaponised beauty that some religious women in the middle ages appeared to practise to emphasise the more superior beauty of their inner selves. In BBC Radio Wales’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001l1rl">The Idea</a>, I explored how some medieval saints subverted standards of “traditional” female beauty to avoid living lives that would hinder their chastity and spiritual goals: in other words, taint the beauty of their souls.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520863/original/file-20230413-14-ozhcz7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An ancient pen and ink drawing of a female saint mutilating herself in front of vikings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520863/original/file-20230413-14-ozhcz7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520863/original/file-20230413-14-ozhcz7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520863/original/file-20230413-14-ozhcz7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520863/original/file-20230413-14-ozhcz7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520863/original/file-20230413-14-ozhcz7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520863/original/file-20230413-14-ozhcz7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520863/original/file-20230413-14-ozhcz7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St Æbbe and her nuns mutilate their faces in front of the Vikings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ecclesiae_Anglicanae_Trophae_-_Plate_18.jpg">Giovanni Battista de'Cavalieri / Venerable English College, Rome / WIkipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of their tactics were extreme. In a female monastery in the Scottish borders, the abbess was a woman known as Æbbe the Younger, daughter of Æthelred, King of Northumbria. As marauding Vikings attacked the monastery, and terrified of being defiled, Æbbe attempted to repel them by disfiguring her face:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The abbess, with an heroic spirit… took a razor, and with it cut off her nose, together with her upper lip unto the teeth, presenting herself a horrible spectacle to those who stood by. Filled with admiration at this admirable deed, the whole assembly followed her maternal example. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><em><strong>From Roger of Wendover’s Flowers of History, Comprising the History of England</strong></em></p>
<p>Though the nuns’ mutilated faces did cause the Vikings to flee, they later returned to set fire to the monastery, burning the women alive. But in their martyrdom, the nuns’ souls remained beautiful and untainted, which was what they had desired.</p>
<p>In 15th-century legend, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilgefortis">Wilgefortis</a>, a young Christian Portuguese princess determined to live in perpetual virginity, was commanded by her parents to marry a pagan Sicilian king. At her refusal, her father had her imprisoned and tortured. Wilgefortis starved herself in penance and prayed to God that she should be disfigured.</p>
<p>Her prayers were answered and she miraculously grew a moustache and a beard. Horrified at the loss of her beauty the suitor rejected her, and her furious father ordered that she be crucified. As she died on the cross, Wilgefortis beseeched other women to pray through her to be delivered from vanity and erotic desire. </p>
<p>Wilgefortis’s metamorphosis from female-coded standards of medieval beauty to a type of <a href="https://www.health.com/mind-body/transmasculine">transmasculinity</a> offered by her beard and moustache, is, like Æbbe’s self-mutilation, an act of physiological resistance. Wilgefortis prays for deformity and God bestows her with the facial hair that repulses her suitor and secures the beauty of her soul.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520861/original/file-20230413-16-4lx37a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with a beard wearing a dress being crucified on a cross." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520861/original/file-20230413-16-4lx37a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520861/original/file-20230413-16-4lx37a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520861/original/file-20230413-16-4lx37a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520861/original/file-20230413-16-4lx37a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520861/original/file-20230413-16-4lx37a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520861/original/file-20230413-16-4lx37a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520861/original/file-20230413-16-4lx37a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The bearded Wilgefortis was crucified by her own father for wishing away her beauty so she didn’t have to marry a pagan king.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Hl_kuemmernis_museum_neunkirchen.jpg">Städtisches Museum Neunkirchen / Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Eternal beauty?</h2>
<p>Today’s cosmetic surgeons, in supplying women like Madonna with surgical answers to their supposed aesthetic problems, might also serve as God-like figures in the continuing quest to adhere more closely to the standards of beauty that medieval saints like Æbbe and Wilgefortis harnessed in order to subvert.</p>
<p>In fact, the “gods” of cosmetic surgery, like the God of medieval Christianity, somehow enable their worshippers to match their outward appearance with their inner feelings – the states of their souls – allowing them to make peace with the variants of beauty that they desire.</p>
<p>As in the medieval past, women today negotiate the parameters of beauty in which they have been historically confined, embracing change and letting their souls spill out as they decide what beauty means for them and their bodies.</p>
<p>The pursuit of youth and beauty – and beauty within – is rarely without pain, but as we know, that makes for a powerful weapon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203751/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Kalas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Standards of beauty have been embedded in different cultures, in varying forms, from time immemorial. What endures is that women are still regarded as inferior to men.Laura Kalas, Senior Lecturer in Medieval English Literature, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2011462023-03-08T21:06:23Z2023-03-08T21:06:23ZWomen’s weight and well-being: Why we need to accept the pregnant body as a valued female form<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513523/original/file-20230305-30-e6519h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=90%2C81%2C5373%2C3555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Societal pressures to maintain the ideal female body may be heightened during pregnancy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels/Ryutaro Tsukata)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pregnancy is a distinct life stage characterized by dramatic physiological changes, and medical tracking of those changes, <a href="https://www.pregnancyinfo.ca/your-pregnancy/healthy-pregnancy/weight-gain-during-pregnancy/">including weight gain</a>, is routine to monitor the health of the mother and the developing infant. What may be missing from weight monitoring is the psychological and emotional component of these changes. </p>
<p>Western society tends to view the female body <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cp.12010">as an object</a> that should be constantly inspected and evaluated, and valued for its utility and ability to give pleasure. Women can also ascribe to these notions, engaging in constant self-inspection and evaluation of their own bodies through the process of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x">self-objectification</a>. </p>
<p>A woman’s ability to meet societal standards for the female body can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9379-x">a source of power</a>, and any deviation from the ideal physical form can result in a loss of power. Exercise, diet or a combination of both are often seen as tools women can use to control their bodies to attain and maintain the ideal female form. </p>
<p>The ability to effectively control one’s body shape, size and appearance is seen as an accomplishment. Women who miss the mark — those who are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cp.12010">unsuccessful in controlling</a> their bodies — can be affected both physically and emotionally. These women may show signs of depression, disordered eating, negative body image and low libido. </p>
<p>Given the ubiquity of body objectification, these psychological repercussions can form part of women’s daily lives. </p>
<h2>Body image in pregnancy</h2>
<p>Societal pressures to maintain the ideal female body may be heightened during pregnancy. As women negotiate their new roles as mothers-to-be, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2005.09.002">previous research</a> has shown that women report moderate declines in body image and body satisfaction as pregnancy progresses. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fat-shaming-pregnant-women-isnt-just-mean-its-harmful-127167">Fat-shaming pregnant women isn't just mean, it's harmful</a>
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<p>Interviews with young mothers exploring their experiences of weight gain during their first pregnancy <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105304042346">revealed a view</a> of the pregnant body that is distinct from the ideal female body. This falls into the larger context of how femininity is viewed: that women’s value lies in their appearance and ability to give birth. </p>
<p>In this perspective, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2393-14-330">the pregnant body</a> is not only distinct from the ideal female body, but deliberately <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Women_Health_and_the_Mind.html?id=-QPbAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">conflicts with the view</a> of the ideal female body as an aesthetic object. The pregnant body is still monitored and evaluated, but emphasis is placed on its utility and reproductive role.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353500010003004">Previous analysis</a> of individual and group interviews with young mothers, along with examination of booklets and handouts given to pregnant women, showed discussions around pregnancy and childbirth are often filtered through a medical lens. </p>
<p>This medical context <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353500010003004">has been described</a> as reducing women’s power over their pregnant bodies by assuming women are less emotionally competent during pregnancy and are unable to make proper decisions for themselves about their bodies. It necessitates a separation between women’s minds and their bodies, and prioritizes the developing infant.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of pregnant women sitting together" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514048/original/file-20230307-1271-doqe9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514048/original/file-20230307-1271-doqe9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514048/original/file-20230307-1271-doqe9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514048/original/file-20230307-1271-doqe9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514048/original/file-20230307-1271-doqe9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514048/original/file-20230307-1271-doqe9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514048/original/file-20230307-1271-doqe9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">While medicalized monitoring during pregnancy focuses on physical health, psychosocial assessment may be neglected.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Soon after pregnancy, women often use restricted eating and structured exercise to try to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20221017-bounce-back-culture-how-pressure-to-snapback-hurts-new-mothers">craft their bodies back</a> into the societal ideal of a lean female form. If possible, they may try to remain close to this form during pregnancy.</p>
<p>A pregnant woman’s fixation on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23264">needing to return to pre-pregnancy weight</a> could meet the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psc.2006.02.001">criteria for possible presence of body dysmorphia</a> and increased risk for disordered eating.</p>
<p>When women <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x">continually monitor</a> and evaluate their bodies for deviations from the ideal female form, their well-being can become largely dependent on their physical appearance. This can further result in lower psychological functioning and minimization of their lived experiences. </p>
<h2>Defining psychosocial goals</h2>
<p>While medicalized monitoring during pregnancy has done well to focus on physical development of both mother and infant, psychosocial assessment may be a neglected part of this process. </p>
<p>There are defined psychosocial adjustment goals for several life stages. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/jado.1999.0269">emerging adults</a> are encouraged to become independent, given space for identity formation, and are nudged towards leaving the parental home. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.4.2.195">Older adults</a> are encouraged to accept the nature and extent of the physical and emotional changes associated with aging, as well as changes in identity as these relate to family and career. </p>
<p>Similarly, outlining of psychosocial adjustment goals for pregnancy would empower women in their acceptance of their body’s physical changes, and how those differ from societal expectations of the ideal female form. As the level of self-objectification is tracked during pregnancy, pregnant women can be encouraged to move from body dysmorphia towards body acceptance. </p>
<p>This could help establish positive behaviours in which food is used for comfort and nourishment, and structured physical activity is as much an enjoyable endeavour as a means towards improving health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simone Holligan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One component that may be missing from weight monitoring during pregnancy is the psychological and emotional impact of these changes.Simone Holligan, Lecturer, College of Social & Applied Human Sciences, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1686322021-10-05T15:42:23Z2021-10-05T15:42:23ZPraise for Kim Kardashian’s Skims ignores her family’s relationship with body augmentation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424549/original/file-20211004-13-1r2300t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C0%2C4612%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Valued well above US$1 billion, Kim Kardashian’s Skims is now among the most successful and quickly growing shapewear brands.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kim Kardashian’s much talked about <a href="https://skims.com/">shapewear brand, Skims</a>, made headlines in September for its most recent campaign featuring her sister <a href="https://people.com/style/kourtney-kardashian-megan-fox-pose-topless-skims-campaign/">Kourtney Kardashian and close friend, Megan Fox</a>. </p>
<p>The two appear in a intimate embrace, wearing nothing but underwear. <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/fashion/a37693560/kourtney-kardashian-megan-fox-skims-campaign-photos/"><em>Cosmopolitan</em> </a> wrote that the pair “look so good […] wow,” with industry heavyweights like <a href="https://www.nylon.com/fashion/megan-fox-kourtney-kardashian-skims-campaign"><em>Nylon</em></a> and <a href="https://www.instyle.com/fashion/megan-fox-kourtney-kardashian-skims-cotton-campaign"><em>InStyle</em></a> adding to this praise. Important questions surrounding these images and their implications for viewers however are missing from mainstream conversations. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1440846302229630983"}"></div></p>
<p>Also missing from conversation is the <a href="https://www.allure.com/story/the-kardashian-effect">Kardashians’ now infamous relationship to body augmentation</a>, beauty ideals and the pressures these ideals often cause. This should raise some concern, especially from a brand devoted to dressing, shaping and changing the body. </p>
<h2>Promises made to women</h2>
<p>Valued well above <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/business/dealbook/kardashian-skims.html?searchResultPosition=3">US$1 billion</a>, Skims is now among the most successful and quickly growing shapewear brands. Even amid COVID-19, Skims experienced <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/business/dealbook/kardashian-skims.html">an uptick in sales</a>. So, what explains this tremendous growth? </p>
<p>Kim’s brand(s), much like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-does-kylie-jenner-make-money-2018-7#in-march-2019-forbes-dubbed-kylie-jenner-then-21-the-worlds-youngest-self-made-billionaire-1">that of her sister, Kylie’s</a>, thrive off promises made to women. Namely, promises that the purchase of their products can produce a figure and face closer in shape and size to the Kardashians. Skims’ images and online advertisements communicate as much, drawing viewers’ attention to an (increasingly) narrow waist and full hips like those Kim Kardashian first made famous.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1438261345229565952"}"></div></p>
<p>Of course, these promises aren’t real, from lip kits that failed to produce Kylie’s perfect pout, <a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/kim-kardashian-says-this-suppl">to vitamin supplements</a>, <a href="https://www.revelist.com/celebrity/kim-khloe-diet-tea-defense/15085/kim-and-khlo-kardashian-have-been-promoting-flat-tummy-tea-and-other-dangerous-diet-products-for-a-while-now/1">teas</a> <a href="https://www.insider.com/kim-kardashian-sells-waist-trainers-doctors-say-dangerous-2019-9">and waist trainers</a> that couldn’t quite “snatch” a Kardashian-like silhouette. Yet, media continue to levy praise and admiration, as if these promises shouldn’t warrant some suspicion. </p>
<h2>Understanding the beauty ideal</h2>
<p>In my work as a researcher studying appearance and attractiveness, as well as their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14695405211022074">representation and reception across media platforms</a>, I take questions related to beauty, its various pressures (and privileges) seriously. </p>
<p>I look to images and advertisements, as well as videos and online trends, to better understand how beauty has come to shape our mediascape, and what this means for everyday viewers including and especially young people who consume and engage with digital content. </p>
<p>Throughout, I observe <a href="https://people.com/style/kuwtk-reunion-kim-kardashian-doesnt-think-family-promote-unrealistic-beauty-standards/">a quintessentially Kardashian ideal</a>, with an increasingly large number of social media users postured in ways that <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/7133655/charlotte-crosby-curvy-figure/">reproduce the sisters’ figures and faces</a>. Consider, for example, online makeup tutorials and outfit shots dedicated to the sisters’ likenesses. Kim’s own <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QvgzfNzHbY">beauty tutorial</a> has generated more than 15 million (and counting) views online, with everyday consumers tuning in to see just how to achieve the Kardashian look. Contour sticks and face powders — they are told — are all that is needed to sculpt, highlight and lift the face. </p>
<p>The popularity of these images and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuwtdKj4Z2g">videos</a> reflects Kim and her sisters’ respective influence within the world of beauty, even as they continue to <a href="https://people.com/style/kuwtk-reunion-kim-kardashian-doesnt-think-family-promote-unrealistic-beauty-standards/">deny their role in its pressures</a>. </p>
<p>In my ongoing work on appearance, with sociologists Shyon Baumann and Josée Johnston, young people often explain that the Kardashians define what it means to be beautiful today. Drawing our attention to the sisters’ full lips, round hips and tapered waistlines, they remind us just how important (and impossible) the Kardashian ideal has become (thin, but curvaceous, full, but flat in <em>all the right places</em>). </p>
<h2>One step forward and two steps back</h2>
<p>To her credit, Kim’s work with Skims represents a step forward in she and her sisters’ enviable empire of brands, and their relationship to beauty. The brand has a focus on more diverse bodies in many (if not most) of its images and advertisements online, and shapewear in a range of sizes and skin tones, <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/kim-kardashian-west-future-of-skims">Skims is far more inclusive than some of its industry competitors</a>. In fact, consumers can shop up to sizes 4X and 5X across most product categories to find, in the brand’s own words, “a <em>solution</em> for every body” (emphasis added). </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1443968962983776263"}"></div></p>
<p>But with this step forward, Kim has taken two steps back. As the brand’s messaging (however subtle) so often suggests, women ought to rein in their figures and discipline their bodies if they are to be <em>made</em> beautiful, sculpted and “solved” — she is suggesting that womens’ bodies are necessarily flawed, and in need of correction. </p>
<p>Though messages like this are not new in the world of beauty and fashion brands, their demands and attendant pressures from contouring the face to binding the belly, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190311-how-social-media-affects-body-image">have never been more persistent or damaging than they are today</a>. </p>
<p>As philosopher Heather Widdows, points out in her work on beauty, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691160078/perfect-me"><em>Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal</em></a>, we have, as never before, a “duty” to perfect our appearance or at the very least, try. And this duty, as Kim and her sisters well know, can be packaged for purchase.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan Foster receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Important questions surrounding the praise over Kim Kardashian’s Skims are missing from mainstream conversations.Jordan Foster, PhD Student, Sociology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1442492020-09-02T13:51:10Z2020-09-02T13:51:10ZMen are buying potentially risky steroid substitutes online to get the ‘ideal body’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354966/original/file-20200826-7087-dhrj2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C6809%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) may be perceived as a safer muscle-building alternative to steroids.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Unapproved muscle-building drugs are being <a href="https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2018-01706">sold over the internet</a>. These chemicals, called SARMS or selective androgen receptor modulators, are popular in part due to their <a href="https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/recreational-use-of-selective-androgen-receptor-modulators">perceived safety compared to anabolic steroids</a>, but the health risks of these drugs are still widely unknown and potentially serious.</p>
<h2>Images in society influence our body image</h2>
<p>Images of bodies surround us in our daily life, in advertising, media, the Twitterverse and dating apps, informing <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10523/7863">the way we feel and think about our bodies</a>. We come to understand ourselves through the images circulating in our culture and society that define what it means to belong to a particular gender. </p>
<p>For many men, social images create an understanding of what their bodies should look like to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1557988316669042">considered masculine</a>. Often the dominant ideal, both celebrated and desired, is fat-free, with bulging muscles and well-defined pecs: a celebration of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1367701">strength and power</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young man in a hoodie looks pensive with his arms folded across his chest. Behind him, on a blackboard, a drawing of caricatured muscular arms lines up with his shoulders." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354704/original/file-20200825-15-5cxmst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354704/original/file-20200825-15-5cxmst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354704/original/file-20200825-15-5cxmst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354704/original/file-20200825-15-5cxmst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354704/original/file-20200825-15-5cxmst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354704/original/file-20200825-15-5cxmst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354704/original/file-20200825-15-5cxmst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For many men, social images create an understanding of what their bodies should look like to be considered masculine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many men strive to embody this idealized image of masculinity, but it’s not one everyone can achieve. The difference between men’s actual bodies and the cultural ideas about masculinity that may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.157.8.1297">explain the rise of muscle dysmorphia and anabolic steroid abuse</a>. </p>
<p>We suggest that more discussion is needed surrounding both masculine body image ideals and the potential dangers of SARMs in our society.</p>
<h2>Body image standards affect men differently</h2>
<p>For many <a href="https://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/programs/safe-supportive/lgbt/key-terms.pdf">sexually diverse men</a> (gay, bi, pansexual, queer, men who have sex with men, etc.), the consequences of not living up to idealized standards for masculine bodies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.157.8.1297">can be toxic</a>, including negative body image and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.08.007">body dissatisfaction</a>. </p>
<p>This can influence the way people live, such as eating and exercising. For example, one study noted a small association with social media use and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.0375">body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms and thoughts about using anabolic steroids</a>. Sexually diverse men have also reported engaging in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005205">intensive anaerobic training, the use of protein powders and the use of anabolic steroids</a> to achieve their desire to become muscular. </p>
<p>Ethnicity can also intersect with body image for sexually diverse men. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2013.03.006">In one study</a>, Black, East/Southeast Asian, South Asian, Latino/Brazilian gay and bisexual men report skipping meals, vomiting and taking steroids to achieve bodies that cultural messages and images define as the most masculine. </p>
<h2>Potential danger</h2>
<p>Anabolic steroids can be viewed by men with body dissatisfaction as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.17441">a way to achieve this idolized masculine body</a>. Now SARMs, which are not steroids per se but <a href="https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/recreational-use-of-selective-androgen-receptor-modulators#:%7E:text=Discovered%20in%20the%20late%201990s,and%20facilitate%20recovery%20from%20exercise.&text=SARMs%20are%20not%20anabolic%20steroids,to%20androgen%20receptors%20">act in a similar way</a> by increasing muscle mass and strength, are perceived as a safer alternative to steroids and are easily purchased online: A potential danger for those desperate to achieve these hyper-muscular bodies.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black dumbbell with drug capsules in the foreground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354706/original/file-20200825-18-1edejsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354706/original/file-20200825-18-1edejsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354706/original/file-20200825-18-1edejsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354706/original/file-20200825-18-1edejsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354706/original/file-20200825-18-1edejsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354706/original/file-20200825-18-1edejsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354706/original/file-20200825-18-1edejsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anabolic steroids can be viewed by men with body dissatisfaction as a way to achieve the idolized masculine body. Now SARMS may be viewed as an alternative to steroids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pexels)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>SARMS have been researched for more than 20 years as treatments for medical conditions including cancer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease and muscle-wasting, but no SARMs are approved by the FDA for any medical condition yet and they are not authorized for use in Canada. In fact, Health Canada released a <a href="https://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/recall-alert-rappel-avis/hc-sc/2020/72293a-eng.php">public health advisory</a> in March 2020 advocating against the use of SARMs, and reported a seizure of various SARMs from stores in Alberta.</p>
<p>We know little about the safety and toxicity of these drugs, which is what makes them risky. A 32-year old male recently suffered <a href="https://doi.org/10.14309/crj.0000000000000370">severe liver injury</a> after taking a SARM for two weeks, suggesting there are indeed health risks.</p>
<p>A factor that may have contributed to this case is that recreational steroid users often take <a href="https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2018-01706">much higher doses than what is prescribed for medical patients</a>. SARMs, like other drugs, can have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bcp.13316">dose-dependent effects</a>. If men are taking high doses to achieve the dominant image of a masculine body, it is likely that their health risks are higher as well. </p>
<p>Although SARMs may end up being safe drugs when properly used for medical conditions, there are still major <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13543784.2020.1777275">health concerns</a> involved with taking SARMs currently, including liver damage, cardiovascular issues and testosterone suppression. Furthermore, the purity of SARMs bought online is currently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/dta.2908">highly questionable</a>.</p>
<h2>What can we do?</h2>
<p>In light of these safety concerns, the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/2895/text">SARMs Control Act of 2019</a> was introduced to the United States Congress, which seeks to tighten regulatory control over these drugs. This act effectively equates SARMs with anabolic steroids on a regulatory level. This type of regulation is necessary to help contain a drug with health risks and potential for abuse.</p>
<p>Thus, we have a storm brewing. On one hand we have unrealistic masculine body image standards for gay men, which promote and even demand the use of anabolic drugs to reach that goal. On the other hand, SARMs promise the idolized body and are easily available over the internet.</p>
<p>We need to honestly discuss the dangers of promoting unattainable masculine body image standards for men of all sexual orientations and warn about easily accessible SARMs that may not be safe to use and almost certainly not safe to abuse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144249/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Idealized standards for muscular, fat-free male bodies may be fuelling the use of SARMs, or selective androgen receptor modulators, unapproved muscle-building drugs that are easily available online.Stefan Heinze, Graduate student in Pharmacology, Dalhousie UniversityPhillip Joy, Assistant Professor, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1287172019-12-19T14:00:03Z2019-12-19T14:00:03ZSlim and skinny: how access to TV is changing beauty ideals in rural Nicaragua<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307665/original/file-20191218-11900-182hqnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C45%2C5015%2C3301&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The more television people watch the more they prefer a thinner female body type.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean-Luc Jucker</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Think about the last time you watched a film or picked up a magazine. Chances are the majority of models and actresses were young, beautiful and slim – or even underweight. </p>
<p>Research shows that in films and TV programmes heavier characters are more likely to be lower status, the target of jokes and are less likely to be <a href="https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/276547">lead or romantic characters</a>. This sends a very clear message: that thinness is normal and desirable.</p>
<p>For many young people, this emphasis on extreme thinness in women seems normal. But it’s actually relatively new and seems to have arisen in parallel with the growing cultural dominance of mass media – films, television and magazines. Models, for instance, became <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pr0.1980.47.2.483">thinner across the latter half of the 20th century</a>, and are now <a href="https://onlinedoctor.superdrug.com/evolution-miss-universe/">considerably slimmer</a> than depictions of female beauty in preceding eras. Just as in the past when the development of shape-altering garments <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0123284">changed ideas about body shape</a>, the mass media now seems to have changed ideas about body size. </p>
<p>Current body ideals in Western Europe and North America are also significantly slimmer than in other cultural groups, such as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513899000070">Tanzanian hunter-gatherers</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513806000584">black South Africans</a> or <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1740144507000769">rural Malaysians</a>. And it’s been argued this large gap between the ideal female figure and most women’s own bodies is a key factor in the endemic levels of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders in countries such as <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/jscp.2009.28.1.9">the UK</a>.</p>
<p>Body dissatisfaction and <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/wk/yco/2016/00000029/00000006/art00006">rates of disordered eating are increasing globally</a>, and the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11013-004-1067-5">spread of mass media may be one reason why</a>. But it’s a challenge to link increasing media access with changing body ideals – because as populations gain more access to media, they also change in other ways. They may become more urbanised, wealthier and have better access to nutrition – all of which can lead to <a href="http://www.mysmu.edu/faculty/normanli/Swamietal2010.pdf">differences in body ideals</a>.</p>
<h2>The Nicaragua project</h2>
<p>This is why we have spent three years running a <a href="http://www.dur.ac.uk/l.g.boothroyd/NEBP/">research project</a> in an area of rural Nicaragua – where access to mass media is often unrelated to urbanisation or nutrition. </p>
<p>The government in Nicaragua has been increasing electrification of the rural Caribbean coast. This has led to a region where very similar neighbouring villages differ in whether or not the residents have access to mains electricity – and whether they can run televisions. There are no magazines in this region. And at the time of our research, very few residents had access to smart phones, making television viewing a good measure of total media access.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307670/original/file-20191218-11896-foh37u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307670/original/file-20191218-11896-foh37u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307670/original/file-20191218-11896-foh37u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307670/original/file-20191218-11896-foh37u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307670/original/file-20191218-11896-foh37u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307670/original/file-20191218-11896-foh37u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307670/original/file-20191218-11896-foh37u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The study shows television is having a significant impact on what people think is the ideal woman’s body.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean-Luc Jucker.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We recruited 300 participants from seven villages around the region. Some villages had regular electricity supplies, others did not. Because the region is very ethnically diverse, we also balanced our sample across four main ethnic groups. Generally among our participants, those of Mestizo ethnicity – who have the highest levels of European heritage – tend to prefer slimmer figures than those of more indigenous or Afro-Caribbean heritage, such as the Miskitu, Garifuna and Creoles. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000224">Our research found</a> that above and beyond ethnicity, those who watched more television preferred slimmer bodies. Specifically, our analysis suggested that people who watched approximately three hours of TV a week preferred a body one full point slimmer on the <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/bmi-calculator/">Body Mass Index</a> than someone who didn’t watch TV. On a woman of average height, that’s about a difference of three kilos. We also found the more people watched TV, the slimmer their preferred female body size became. This was true for both men and women.</p>
<h2>Changing ideals</h2>
<p>Over the three years, we also collected data from a small village without electricity. For a short period of time, one house in this village had a small TV powered by a solar panel. Residents were also able to watch TV for short periods of time if they travelled to other communities. We found that over the three years, villagers tended to favour thinner figures when they had been able to watch more TV, suggesting that real-time change may be happening in these communities.</p>
<p>When we showed residents of two villages without TV images of typical or plus size media models, their preferences shifted in the immediate aftermath of viewing these images towards thinner figures. Again this was true for both men and women.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307671/original/file-20191218-11951-wq495t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307671/original/file-20191218-11951-wq495t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307671/original/file-20191218-11951-wq495t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307671/original/file-20191218-11951-wq495t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307671/original/file-20191218-11951-wq495t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307671/original/file-20191218-11951-wq495t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307671/original/file-20191218-11951-wq495t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Utility cables crisscross the streets in the city of Bluefields, Nicaragua.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean-Luc Jucker</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By studying one population in depth, and by also having previously ruled out evidence for <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-08653-z">impacts of nutrition in this population</a>, we have been able to give the strongest evidence to date that visual media really does change people’s perception of the ideal female body.</p>
<p>Our findings also support the argument that increasing global rates of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are driven at least in part <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11013-004-1067-5">by the expansion of globalised mass media</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, television is in many respects a valuable and important source of information. Our participants considered that besides entertainment, television gave them a vital link to the rest of Nicaragua, to political news, and lifesaving services such as storm warnings. But while it’s important that such benefits be maximised, threats to women’s body image must be minimised. </p>
<p>Body positive education can help here, and this is something <a href="http://community.dur.ac.uk/l.g.boothroyd/NEBP/wellcome_body.html">we are working on with local groups</a>. But ultimately, media producers and commissioners must do a better job of diversifying their content to reflect a range of sizes and body types.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynda Boothroyd receives funding for her research on this topic from the Leverhulme Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.</span></em></p>The more people watch TV the more likely it is that they prefer a slimmer female body size.Lynda Boothroyd, Professor in Psychology, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1238722019-11-14T19:07:37Z2019-11-14T19:07:37ZFriday essay: shaved, shaped and slit - eyebrows through the ages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301462/original/file-20191113-77326-pyg9vs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C517%2C4483%2C2622&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In ancient China, India and the Middle East, the art of eyebrow threading was popular. It is now enjoying a resurgence.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-female-face-during-eyebrow-correction-295769573">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eyebrows can turn a smile into a leer, a grumpy pout into a come hither beckoning, and sad, downturned lips into a comedic grimace. </p>
<p>So, it’s little wonder these communicative markers of facial punctuation have been such a feature of beauty and fashion since the earliest days of recorded civilisation. </p>
<p>From completely shaved mounds to thick, furry lines, eyebrows are a part of the face we <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/what-you-get-for-40-120-or-1000-worth-of-eyebrow-care-20191113-p53acj.html">continue</a> to experiment with. We seek to hide, exacerbate and embellish them. And today, every shopping strip and mall has professionals ready to assist us with wax, thread and ink. </p>
<h2>Minimising distraction</h2>
<p>In the court of Elizabeth I, to draw attention to the perceived focal point of a woman’s body – her breasts – the monarch would pluck her eyebrows into thin lines or remove them completely, as well as shaving off hair at the top of her forehead. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301415/original/file-20191113-37464-uifye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301415/original/file-20191113-37464-uifye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301415/original/file-20191113-37464-uifye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301415/original/file-20191113-37464-uifye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301415/original/file-20191113-37464-uifye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301415/original/file-20191113-37464-uifye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1305&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301415/original/file-20191113-37464-uifye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301415/original/file-20191113-37464-uifye2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1305&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of her subjects followed Queen Elizabeth’s shaved eyebrow example.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-6079-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99">New York Public Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was an attempt to make her face plain and blank, thereby directing the viewer’s gaze lower to her substantial <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=mNLZkzxmiEIC&pg=PA107&dq=eyebrows+breasts+elizabethan&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjrq9p1t_lAhUTXisKHffJCSYQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=eyebrows%20breasts%20elizabethan&f=false">décolletage</a>. </p>
<p>Although the intentions were different, nonexistent or needle-thin brows had also been common in ancient China and other Asian cultures, where women plucked their eyebrows to resemble specific shapes with designated names such as “distant mountain” (likely referring to a central and distinctive point in the brow), “drooping pearl” and “willow branch”. </p>
<p>In ancient China, as well as in India and the Middle East, the technique of threading - the removal of hairs by twisting strands of cotton <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-4362.1997.00189.x">thread</a> - was popular for its accuracy. The technique, referred to as “khite” in Arabic and “fatlah” in Egyptian, is enjoying renewed <a href="https://journals.lww.com/dermatologicsurgery/Abstract/2011/06280/Eyebrow_Epilation_by_Threading__An_Increasingly.26.aspx">popularity</a> today. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301484/original/file-20191113-77342-1n7ymcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301484/original/file-20191113-77342-1n7ymcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301484/original/file-20191113-77342-1n7ymcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301484/original/file-20191113-77342-1n7ymcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301484/original/file-20191113-77342-1n7ymcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301484/original/file-20191113-77342-1n7ymcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301484/original/file-20191113-77342-1n7ymcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301484/original/file-20191113-77342-1n7ymcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail from Tayu with Phoenix Robe, a Japanese painting by an anonymous artist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%27Tay%C3%BB_with_Phoenix_Robe%27,_anonymous_19th_century_Japanese_painting,_Honolulu_Academy_of_Arts.jpg">Honolulu Academy of Arts/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Japan between 794 and 1185, both men and women plucked their eyebrows out almost entirely and replaced them with new pencilled lines higher up on the <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=9Z6vCGbf66YC&pg=PA120&dq=eyebrows+robyn+cosio&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJ1uCXx-TkAhU0IbcAHSc3D_IQ6AEIPjAD#v=onepage&q&f=false">forehead</a>.</p>
<p>Eyebrows of Ancient Greece and Rome, on the other hand, are frozen in contemplation. </p>
<p>They are often represented in sculptures through expressive mounds devoid of individual or even vaguely suggested hairs: in men they are strong and masterful furrows above a purposeful gaze; in women, soft and emotive. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295560/original/file-20191004-118222-4xfro6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295560/original/file-20191004-118222-4xfro6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295560/original/file-20191004-118222-4xfro6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295560/original/file-20191004-118222-4xfro6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=803&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295560/original/file-20191004-118222-4xfro6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295560/original/file-20191004-118222-4xfro6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295560/original/file-20191004-118222-4xfro6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1009&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bronze portrait of a man from early first century with masterful furrows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This lack of detail demonstrates a fondness, in some corners of ancient Greek and Roman society, for joined or “continuous” brows. </p>
<p>Poet of tenderness, Theocritus, openly admired eyebrows “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=37MDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP9&dq=The+British+Poets,+including+Translations+in+One+Hundred+Volumes:+Theocritus&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw-fiWjoLlAhXBXisKHfPBC50Q6AEIMjAB#v=onepage&q=The%20British%20Poets%2C%20including%20Translations%20in%20One%20Hundred%20Volumes%3A%20Theocritus&f=false">joined over the nose</a>” like his own, as did Byzantine Isaac Porphyrogenitus. </p>
<h2>Brows as barometers</h2>
<p>For much of the 19th century, cosmetics for women were viewed with suspicion, principally as the province of actresses and prostitutes. This meant facial enhancement was subtle and eyebrows, though gently shaped, were kept relatively natural. </p>
<p>Despite this restraint, a certain amount of effort still went into cultivation. A newspaper <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/189261094?searchTerm=%22If%20a%20child%27s%20eyebrows%20threaten%22&searchLimits=">article</a> from 1871 suggested intervention during childhood to thicken them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If a child’s eyebrows threaten to be thin, brush them softly every night with a little coconut oil, and they will gradually become strong and full; and, in order to give them a curve, press them gently between the thumb and forefinger after every ablution of the face or hands. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As fashions became freer after the first world war, attention was once again focused more overtly on the eyes and eyebrows. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301505/original/file-20191113-77305-1jafapf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301505/original/file-20191113-77305-1jafapf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301505/original/file-20191113-77305-1jafapf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301505/original/file-20191113-77305-1jafapf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301505/original/file-20191113-77305-1jafapf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301505/original/file-20191113-77305-1jafapf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301505/original/file-20191113-77305-1jafapf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301505/original/file-20191113-77305-1jafapf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Louise Brooks’ high brow bob showed off her neck and her eyebrows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/252f8180-ff5d-012f-38ab-58d385a7bc34">New York Public Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was partly to do with the development of beauty salons during the 1920s, many of which offered classes in makeup application so women could create new, bold looks at home. </p>
<p>The fashion for very thin eyebrows was popularised by silent film stars such as Buster Keaton and Louise Brooks, for whom thick kohl was a professional necessity and allowed a clearer vision of the eyebrows – so crucial, after all, for nonverbal expression on screen. </p>
<p>The amount of attention paid to eyebrows continued to change according to specific global events. </p>
<p>In the 1940s, women began to favour thicker, natural brows after several decades of rigorous plucking to achieve pencil-thin lines. Considering the outbreak of the second world war had forced many out of a wholly domestic existence and into the workforce, it stands to reason they had less time to spend in front of the mirror, wielding a pair of tweezers and eyebrow pencil. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295563/original/file-20191004-118222-1tliwfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295563/original/file-20191004-118222-1tliwfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295563/original/file-20191004-118222-1tliwfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295563/original/file-20191004-118222-1tliwfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295563/original/file-20191004-118222-1tliwfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295563/original/file-20191004-118222-1tliwfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295563/original/file-20191004-118222-1tliwfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The natural look, circa 1943.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The post-war 1950s saw wide, yet more firmly defined brows and from the 1960s onwards various shapes, sizes and thicknesses were experimented with, accompanied by a firm emphasis on individuality and personal preference. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301670/original/file-20191113-77310-11rfw4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301670/original/file-20191113-77310-11rfw4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301670/original/file-20191113-77310-11rfw4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301670/original/file-20191113-77310-11rfw4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301670/original/file-20191113-77310-11rfw4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301670/original/file-20191113-77310-11rfw4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301670/original/file-20191113-77310-11rfw4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301670/original/file-20191113-77310-11rfw4v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A brow beautician in a South Yarra salon in 1960.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/222938930?q=eyebrows&c=picture&versionId=244447695">Laurie Richards Studio/National Library of Australia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More than mono</h2>
<p>When Dwight Edwards Marvin’s <a href="https://www.bartleby.com/346/14.html">collection</a> of adages and maxims, Curiosities in Proverbs, was published in 1916 it included the old English advice: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If your eyebrows meet across your nose, you’ll never live to wear your wedding clothes. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The “mono-” or “uni-brow” had become suggestive of a lack of self care, particularly in women. </p>
<p>Research undertaken in 2004 reported American women felt judged and evaluated as “dirty”, “gross” or even “repulsive” if they did not shave their underarm or leg hair, or pluck and shape their <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=y5Enl3JamIgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Embodied+Resistance:+Challenging+the+Norms,+Breaking+the+Rules,&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi54bWkjoLlAhVs7nMBHSOJCe8Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Embodied%20Resistance%3A%20Challenging%20the%20Norms%2C%20Breaking%20the%20Rules%2C&f=false">eyebrows</a>. As the most visible of these areas, untamed eyebrows perhaps point to the bravest exhibition of natural hair. </p>
<p>Today, model Sophia Hadjipanteli sports a pair of impressively large, dark joined eyebrows, and has assertively fought back against the legion of online trolls who have abused her for this point of difference. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301470/original/file-20191113-77338-2u31d2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301470/original/file-20191113-77338-2u31d2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301470/original/file-20191113-77338-2u31d2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301470/original/file-20191113-77338-2u31d2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301470/original/file-20191113-77338-2u31d2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301470/original/file-20191113-77338-2u31d2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301470/original/file-20191113-77338-2u31d2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301470/original/file-20191113-77338-2u31d2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Model Sophia Hadjipanteli and her distinctive brow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/sophiahadjipanteli/">Instagram</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A reference back to the distinctive brows of Frida Kahlo, Hadjipanteli’s look is linked to an ongoing debate surrounding women’s body hair. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301469/original/file-20191113-77326-q7f2uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301469/original/file-20191113-77326-q7f2uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301469/original/file-20191113-77326-q7f2uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301469/original/file-20191113-77326-q7f2uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301469/original/file-20191113-77326-q7f2uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301469/original/file-20191113-77326-q7f2uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301469/original/file-20191113-77326-q7f2uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301469/original/file-20191113-77326-q7f2uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Artist Frida Kahlo and her famous monobrow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frida_Kahlo,_by_Guillermo_Kahlo.jpg">Guillermo Kahlo/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Giving a pluck</h2>
<p>For many, excessive plucking and shaping has become emblematic of the myriad requirements women are expected to comply with to satisfy restrictive societal beauty norms. </p>
<p>Still, plenty of people with eyebrows are dedicating time and money to their upkeep. In Australia, the personal waxing and nail salon industry has grown steadily over five years to be worth an estimated <a href="https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/specialised-market-research-reports/consumer-goods-services/personal-waxing-nail-salons.html">A$1.3 billion</a> and employ more than 20,000 people. </p>
<p>Over this time, social media has offered a diverse and changing menu of brow choices and displays. </p>
<p>One choice: the “eyebrow slit” – thin vertical cuts in eyebrow hair – has re-emerged online and in suburban high schools. It’s important to emphasise <em>re-emerged</em> because, with beauty as with clothing, what goes around comes around. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301683/original/file-20191114-77363-1x8k3a4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301683/original/file-20191114-77363-1x8k3a4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301683/original/file-20191114-77363-1x8k3a4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301683/original/file-20191114-77363-1x8k3a4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301683/original/file-20191114-77363-1x8k3a4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301683/original/file-20191114-77363-1x8k3a4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301683/original/file-20191114-77363-1x8k3a4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301683/original/file-20191114-77363-1x8k3a4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vanilla Ice, working the eyebrow slit since 1991.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/smashhitsmag/status/1019841015874715648">Smash Hits/Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The eyebrow slit was especially popular amongst hip hop artists in the 1990s, and draws appeal due to its flexibility: there are no firm rules as to the number or width of the slits, which originally were meant to suggest scarring from a recent fight or gangsta adventure. More recent converts have been accused of <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/eyebrow-cuts-cultural-appropriation">cultural appropriation</a>. </p>
<p>Some have experimented by replacing plain slits with other shapes, such as hearts or stars, though plucking or shaving brows into unusual shapes is – as we have seen – by no means new either. </p>
<h2>Facing the day</h2>
<p>If the popularity of recent trends is anything to go by, eyebrow fashion will remain on the lush side for some time.</p>
<p>The “<a href="http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8997240/Scouse-Brow-a-beginners-guide.html">Scouse</a>” brow (very thick, wide and angular eyebrows emphasised with highly defined dark pencil shapes: named after natives of Liverpool in the United Kingdom) is still trending. </p>
<p>The “Instagram eyebrow” (thick brows plucked and painted to create a gradient, going from light to very dark as the brow ends) is inescapable on the platform and beyond. Makeup for brows is therefore also likely to continue, providing a clear linear connection through nearly all the eyebrow ideals since ancient times. </p>
<p>The latest offering to those seeking a groomed look is “<a href="https://www.elle.com.au/beauty/eyebrow-lamination-22517">eyebrow lamination</a>”, a chemical treatment that uses keratin to straighten individual hairs - a kind of anti-perm for your brow. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B4R-fgynQmr","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Those still searching for their eyebrow aesthetic may benefit from some wisdom shared by crime and society reporter Viola Rodgers in an 1898 edition of the San Francisco Call newspaper. </p>
<p>In a piece which ran alongside an interview with the man who had inspired Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer character, she advised that the appearance of one’s brow conveyed more than just their grooming <a href="https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC18981023.2.141.22&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1">habits</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>An arched eyebrow … is expressive of great sensibility … Heavy, thick eyebrows indicate a strong constitution and great physical endurance … Long, drooping eyebrows indicate an amiable disposition and faintly defined eyebrows placed high above the nose are signs of indolence and weakness. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Eyebrow slits? We can only imagine what Viola would think.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lydia Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Moulding eyebrows to make a statement is nothing new. A journey through history, across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, shows some of the highs and lows of brow fashion.Lydia Edwards, Fashion historian, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1115292019-06-27T20:44:33Z2019-06-27T20:44:33ZFriday essay: how 19th century ideas influenced today’s attitudes to women’s beauty<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281299/original/file-20190626-81737-1jlatc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An advertisement for breast implants in Sydney in 2015. Advertisements often promote a 'natural' ideal of beauty, even when advocating surgical intervention.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Millar/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the 19th century, a range of thinkers attempted to pinpoint exactly what it was that made a woman beautiful. Newly popular women’s magazines began to promote ideas about the right behaviours, attitudes, and daily routines required to produce and maintain beauty.</p>
<p>The scientific classification of plants and animals - influenced by Charles Darwin - also shaped thinking about beauty. It was seen to be definable, like a plant type or animal species. Increasingly, sophisticated knowledge of medicine and anatomy and the association of beauty with health also saw physicians weigh into the debate. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-darwins-on-the-origin-of-species-96533">Guide to the classics: Darwin's On the Origin of Species</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>A look at three significant books that focused on beauty shows several influential ideas. These include the classification of distinct beauty types, the perception of “natural” beauty as superior to the “artificial”, and the eventual acceptance of beauty as something that each woman should try to cultivate through a daily regimen of self-care.</p>
<h2>Classifying beauty types</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266614/original/file-20190330-70993-qyv7h3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266614/original/file-20190330-70993-qyv7h3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266614/original/file-20190330-70993-qyv7h3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266614/original/file-20190330-70993-qyv7h3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266614/original/file-20190330-70993-qyv7h3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266614/original/file-20190330-70993-qyv7h3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266614/original/file-20190330-70993-qyv7h3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266614/original/file-20190330-70993-qyv7h3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The three species of beauty as affecting the head and face’ in Alexander Walker’s Beauty; Illustrated Chiefly by an Analysis and Classification of Beauty in Woman (New York: William H. Colyer).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alexander Walker, a Scottish physiologist, wrote three books on the subject of “woman”. The first was <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011616485">Beauty; Illustrated Chiefly by an Analysis and Classification of Beauty in Women</a>. Here, Walker focuses on women’s beauty because he suggests it is “best calculated to ensure attention from men”. He assumes that men have the power to choose sexual partners in a way that women do not, therefore men have a crucial responsibility “to ameliorate the species”.</p>
<p>Given that one of its key functions is to signal fertility, a woman’s appearance is therefore not a frivolous topic. It is linked to the development of humanity. </p>
<p>Walker defines three types or “species” of female beauty: locomotive, nutritive, and thinking. These types derive from a knowledge of anatomy and each is related to one of the bodily “systems”.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266615/original/file-20190330-70999-1iqlubi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266615/original/file-20190330-70999-1iqlubi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266615/original/file-20190330-70999-1iqlubi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266615/original/file-20190330-70999-1iqlubi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266615/original/file-20190330-70999-1iqlubi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266615/original/file-20190330-70999-1iqlubi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266615/original/file-20190330-70999-1iqlubi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Front view illustrating mental beauty’ in Alexander Walker’s Beauty; Illustrated Chiefly by an Analysis and Classification of Beauty in Woman (New York: William H. Colyer).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The locomotive or mechanical system is highly developed in women with “precise, striking, and brilliant” bodies. The nutritive or vital system is evident in the “soft and voluptuous”. The thinking or mental system is conducive to a figure “characterised by intellectuality and grace”. </p>
<p>Walker’s ideal is the mental or thinking beauty. She has less pronounced breasts and curves and admirable inner qualities that are evident in her “intensely expressive eye”. </p>
<p>Not coincidentally, he understands intelligence to predominate in men. Walker’s ideal thinking beauty is effectively most like his idea of a man in contrast to the locomotive beauty (connected with the lower classes) and the nutritive beauty (primed to have children). </p>
<h2>‘Firm and elastic’ breasts</h2>
<p>Daniel Garrison Brinton was an army surgeon in the American Civil War. He later became a professor of ethnology and archaeology and edited The Medical and Surgical Reporter. In 1870, he and medical editor George Henry Napheys published <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011601289">Personal Beauty: How to Cultivate and Preserve it in Accordance with the Laws of Health</a>. </p>
<p>The book proposes ideal measurements for areas such as the forehead and the most distinctive features of the female body. Breasts are viewed as essential to beauty and the ideal they describe is youthful, with “firm and elastic” tissue that forms “true hemispheres in shape”.</p>
<p>Very specific distances between nipples, the collar bone, and between the breasts themselves are specified, setting out perfect proportions. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281290/original/file-20190626-81758-134udlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281290/original/file-20190626-81758-134udlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281290/original/file-20190626-81758-134udlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281290/original/file-20190626-81758-134udlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281290/original/file-20190626-81758-134udlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281290/original/file-20190626-81758-134udlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281290/original/file-20190626-81758-134udlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281290/original/file-20190626-81758-134udlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Very specific distances between breasts were specified in this beauty manual.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brinton and Napheys claim that few European and American women meet these requirements, owing to the “artificial life” adopted in both locations. Controversially, they remark that such breasts do not exist in America, apart from in “some vigorous young country girl, who has grown up in ignorance of the arts which thwart nature”. The idea that beauty was more often destroyed by “artificial” beauty methods than improved by it was predominant.</p>
<p>Personal Beauty promotes a device for improving the shape of the breast through suction because it meets the criteria for “natural” improvement. It is described similarly to <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Lovely-Exercise-Muscle-Massager-nl-argement/dp/B07PQQSPWV">breast enlargement pumps</a> that are sold today as an alternative to breast augmentation. </p>
<p>Brinton and Napheys’ reference to the potential of such a device to “restore the organs in great measure to their proper shape, size, and function” suggests they are referring to breasts that may have lost their fullness and symmetry after breastfeeding. </p>
<p>It is unclear how such a device would not only improve the shapeliness of breasts, but also render them “better adapted to fulfil their functions”. However, the notion that function, which is reliant on health, is essential to beauty helps to support a medicalised understanding of the topic. </p>
<h2>Beauty destroyed</h2>
<p>This emphasis on health contributes to a tendency to focus on the ways that women destroy their own beauty through clothing, cosmetics, or certain types of exercise. A specific target in this book is the wearing of garters below the knee, which the authors claim is the reason why a “handsome leg is a rarity, we had almost said an impossibility, among American women”. </p>
<p>Tightly-laced corsets, sucked-upon lips, and white face powders are frowned upon for potential harms to health. Yet, as doctors, Brinton and Napheys embrace early manifestations of cosmetic surgery, such as the removal of skin that might hang over the eyes. </p>
<p>A significant point in guiding the acceptability of cosmetic usage is whether such a practice appears natural and undetectable. Imitation itself is not described as distasteful, if it can be achieved convincingly, but “the failure in the attempt at imitation” does inspire revulsion. </p>
<p>As such, a wig that meshes with a women’s age and appearance can be acceptable. In contrast, it is “contrary to all good taste” to “give to the top of the head an air of juvenility which is flatly contradicted by all other parts of the person”. </p>
<p>Personal Beauty focuses on preventative measures for retaining beauty and delaying the visible onset of ageing, rather than remedying flaws once they have taken hold. The book ultimately concludes that if all the measures recommended are undertaken, “there will be little need for the purely venal cosmetic arts, such as paint, powder, patches, or rouge”.</p>
<h2> Embracing beauty culture</h2>
<p>This understanding of cosmetics as pure reflections of vanity and as separate from beauty practices related to health was gradually challenged by women writers towards the end of the 19th century. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266616/original/file-20190330-71009-1ltefwd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266616/original/file-20190330-71009-1ltefwd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266616/original/file-20190330-71009-1ltefwd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266616/original/file-20190330-71009-1ltefwd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266616/original/file-20190330-71009-1ltefwd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266616/original/file-20190330-71009-1ltefwd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266616/original/file-20190330-71009-1ltefwd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frontispiece, Mrs H.R. Haweis, [1878] 1883. The Art of Beauty. London: Chatto & Windus.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eliza Haweis wrote about the decoration and stylistic adornment of the home and body in British magazines and a series of books, the first of which was <a href="https://archive.org/details/artofbeauty00hawe/page/n10">The Art of Beauty </a>(1878). Its premise is that personal beauty and adornment of the body is of “the first interest and importance” for women. </p>
<p>Many beauty manuals warned against any significant attempts to alter the face or body beyond basic health and hygiene. Such practices, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/663140/summary">as academic Sarah Lennox suggests</a>, were seen as “objectionable — as a hiding of inner truth”. Haweis, however, encourages young women to enhance their beauty and older women to continue to use methods that “conceal its fading away”. </p>
<p>The methods that Haweis advocates reproduce prevalent ideas found in women’s magazines and beauty manuals that discouraged any visible sign of artifice and which championed the “natural”. </p>
<p>Hygienic and cosmetic intervention are framed as exposing or fostering physical qualities as they ought to be seen, or providing a delicate “veil” for flaws, rather than attempting to entirely transform them.</p>
<p>However, Haweis goes further than many beauty advisors at the time. Unlike many male writers, she is not opposed to cosmetics. She likens their use in “hiding defects of complexion, or touching the face with pink or white” to adding padding to a dress, piercing ears, or undergoing cosmetic dentistry.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270391/original/file-20190423-175518-brairf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270391/original/file-20190423-175518-brairf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270391/original/file-20190423-175518-brairf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270391/original/file-20190423-175518-brairf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270391/original/file-20190423-175518-brairf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270391/original/file-20190423-175518-brairf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270391/original/file-20190423-175518-brairf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270391/original/file-20190423-175518-brairf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eliza Haweis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Part of the reason Haweis supports cosmetics and other methods of improving the appearance is because she observes that ugly people are treated differently. </p>
<p>Walker sees beauty as a sign of higher intelligence. Many publications at the time presented a similar line of reasoning in suggesting that mean-spirited and nasty individuals would age horribly. </p>
<p>Haweis, however, is unique in her entertainment of the possibility of ugliness negatively influencing character. She proposes that “an immense number of ill-tempered ugly women are ill-tempered because they are ugly”. She acknowledges that ugliness is in fact an “impediment” and a “burden”, which thereby supports her call to all women to work to improve their appearance. </p>
<h2>Beauty today </h2>
<p>Our understanding of what makes a woman beautiful is influenced by dominant cultural beliefs and hierarchies. Though Walker’s physiological beauty types were replaced by acceptance of the idea that women can retain beauty into older age or remedy unappealing features, many historic precepts about beauty continue to influence modern beauty culture. </p>
<p>Ideas about “natural” beauty as superior to “artificial” beauty are reflected in cosmetic advertisements and plastic surgery procedures, with a “natural” or “undetectable” look to any product, facelift, or implant being the desired outcome for many women. </p>
<p>Most of all, the idea that beauty is of prime importance to girls and women remains predominant, even as the cultural conditions surrounding marriage, employment, and family have substantially transformed since the 19th century. </p>
<p>Haweis’ ideas about the significance of self-care resonate with contemporary feminists who point to women’s pleasure and empowered use of cosmetics.</p>
<p>We have recently seen the emergence of male beauty bloggers and YouTubers. However, the continued sense that beauty is largely women’s preserve and a unique form of power that requires a continual fight to keep shows how an emphasis on women’s physical appearance is still entwined with gender inequality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Smith has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Many historic ideas about women’s beauty - from prizing firm breasts to emphasising the ‘natural’ - continue to resonate today.Michelle Smith, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1083932019-01-06T14:02:13Z2019-01-06T14:02:13ZHow body ideals shape the health of gay men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252547/original/file-20190104-32121-x60llu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Body ideals can often lead gay men into feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem and depression. The photographer captioned this image, 'You just want to go in the fetal position and you kind of feel alone.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Moe)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gay men currently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10720537.2017.1304298">receive little research attention</a> when it comes to health issues such as eating disorders and other body image concerns. Yet <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7b42/4dd7d9042e62f0a30243f9fce65afbd54e7d.pdf">expectations are high for gay men</a>, as the western ideal masculine body is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1367701">muscular and fat free</a>. </p>
<p>Evidence also indicates that there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2015.0076">unique concerns for LGBTQ people</a> relating to nutrition and obesity, and that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-011-9859-5">tailored programs</a> can improve overall health outcomes for gay men. </p>
<p>Our research shows that social demands placed upon gay men to eat healthily and achieve a perfect body are linked to anxiety and depression and have serious mental health consequences. And that health researchers and practitioners need to <a href="http://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/74154">challenge beauty standards</a> among diverse groups of men through conversations, connections and support.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252542/original/file-20190104-32145-1opqgra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252542/original/file-20190104-32145-1opqgra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252542/original/file-20190104-32145-1opqgra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252542/original/file-20190104-32145-1opqgra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252542/original/file-20190104-32145-1opqgra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252542/original/file-20190104-32145-1opqgra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252542/original/file-20190104-32145-1opqgra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Find your place in life that you are no longer judged.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ralph)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our study, carried out at Dalhousie University, gay men explored how culture influences the way they think about food and their bodies through a process called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819702400309">Photovoice</a> — an <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/13561820.2011.647128">arts-based research methodology</a> in which participants submit their own photographs. </p>
<p>Nine self-identified gay men photographed various aspects of their lives relating to their experiences with food, body image and health. Guided by their photos, they talked about their struggles with body image and the strategies that have helped them overcome negative health issues associated with trying to have the “perfect” body.</p>
<h2>Tic Tacs and musclar bodies</h2>
<p>The way <a href="http://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/74091/2-4%20JOY%20VOL%204.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">food is talked about</a> within our culture influences whether it, and the people consuming it, are labelled as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09581599908409217">“healthy” or “unhealthy”</a> and morally good or bad.</p>
<p>In this research, participants viewed food as a way to socialize and connect with other gay men. They also found it to be a source of stress, as they try to live up to idealized body standards within gay culture. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252545/original/file-20190104-32133-6qy0rd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252545/original/file-20190104-32133-6qy0rd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252545/original/file-20190104-32133-6qy0rd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252545/original/file-20190104-32133-6qy0rd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252545/original/file-20190104-32133-6qy0rd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252545/original/file-20190104-32133-6qy0rd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252545/original/file-20190104-32133-6qy0rd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘I am bombarded with lifestyles, aesthetics and bodies that gay men are pressured and expected to emulate to be attractive, worthy and happy.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ryan)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Participants reflected on how various forms of media reinforced certain body types and influenced their thoughts on food. </p>
<p>One participant talked about the hit reality TV show, RuPaul’s <em>Drag Race</em>. In this show, the top three contestants have lunch with the host, during which a single Tic Tac is served. For this participant, this scene highlights the need for gay men to be “as thin as humanly possible.” </p>
<p>But gay men also need to be strong with highly toned bodies. Participants talked about the immense pressures to showcase muscular bodies on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram and gay dating apps. At the same time, they recognized that the cultural expectations placed upon them are unrealistic. </p>
<h2>‘No one is going to love you’</h2>
<p>The health consequences for gay men of not living up to body ideals have been previously identified and include <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-017-0801-y">disordered eating</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jamal_Essayli/publication/294276565_Male_Body_Image_The_Roles_of_Sexual_Orientation_and_Body_Mass_Index_Across_Five_National_US_Studies/links/583cb03d08aeb3987e2f9a88.pdf">avoidance of sex</a>, stigma, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susan_Zieff/publication/279170365_Bearing_Bodies_Physical_Activity_Obesity_Stigma_and_Sexuality_in_the_Bear_Community/links/57c84ebd08ae28c01d51c9fd.pdf">rejection and isolation</a>.</p>
<p>The men in this study talked about how constantly thinking about food and body ideals often leads to losing themselves in feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, low self-esteem and depression. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252182/original/file-20181231-47298-1x9yh34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252182/original/file-20181231-47298-1x9yh34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252182/original/file-20181231-47298-1x9yh34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252182/original/file-20181231-47298-1x9yh34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252182/original/file-20181231-47298-1x9yh34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252182/original/file-20181231-47298-1x9yh34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252182/original/file-20181231-47298-1x9yh34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘I’m always uncomfortable even in disguise, even though I know my body doesn’t need validation.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Oliver)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Participants similarly talked about dating and believed they needed an ideal muscular body to attract other men. One man discussed his fears of being fat, saying “no one is going to want to have sex with you…be in a relationship with you… no one is going to love you.” </p>
<p>The idea that being fat means being alone is a social discourse reinforced through media.</p>
<p>Others discussed the pressures to maintain a perfect body even within their current relationships. They commented that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-018-1208-5">being in a relationship does not resolve body image concerns</a>.</p>
<h2>For every pot there is a lid</h2>
<p>Participants still struggled even after losing weight and building muscles. However, they did provide suggestions from their own experiences to help other men. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252544/original/file-20190104-32127-17emng8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252544/original/file-20190104-32127-17emng8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252544/original/file-20190104-32127-17emng8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252544/original/file-20190104-32127-17emng8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252544/original/file-20190104-32127-17emng8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252544/original/file-20190104-32127-17emng8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252544/original/file-20190104-32127-17emng8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘I relate it to comfort food.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Moe)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their ideas included increasing the portrayal of diverse bodies within media, finding supportive people and engaging in communities that celebrate all body types. They also encouraged engaging in social conversations that allow men to be open to the possibilities of dating others outside the narrow ideals of fit and muscular bodies. </p>
<p>Sharing their ideas allowed the participants to see through the “bull” of rigid beauty standards. </p>
<p>Working through their anxiety and concerns was a personal journey. It was about recognizing that for “every little pot there is a little lid” or, in other words, even though their bodies may not be socially “perfect” there can still be health, happiness and love for them. </p>
<p><em>The participants will be <a href="https://halifax.snapd.com/events/view/1209660">showcasing their photos and telling their stories</a> in an art show on Jan. 10, 2019, in Halifax.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip Joy receives funding from The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Killam Laureate scholarship. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Numer receives funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He is affiliated with the AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia, the Community-Based Research Centre. </span></em></p>In this photography-based research project, gay men document their struggles with body image, and challenge current beauty standards.Phillip Joy, PhD Candidate, Dalhousie UniversityMatthew Numer, Assistant Professor, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/989992018-07-18T15:12:01Z2018-07-18T15:12:01ZHealth clubs using tanning beds to attract members despite cancer risks, new study shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224982/original/file-20180626-112598-pyftsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Individuals using indoor tanning are exposed to two types of UV rays -- UVA and UVB -- that damage skin and DNA and can lead to cancer, including the deadliest one: melanoma. Young users are most at risk.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-beautiful-latin-lady-lying-on-88135858?src=BpuO-_EIkjDyv8-TxSQmZA-1-12">By Rido/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I drove past Planet Fitness on the way to my 10-year-old’s gymnastics class and had to chuckle at their sign advertising free pizza as part of a new member promotion. I decided to use this as a teaching moment, explaining to my daughter why we should avoid using junk food as a reward for exercise. This is one of many lectures she has heard from her mom, a cancer prevention scientist. </p>
<p>When I decided to look a little deeper into what gyms are offering to entice people to sign up, pizza turned out to be the least of my concerns. Many gyms offer access to tanning beds, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.22453">known carcinogen</a>, to their patrons. We would be astounded if gyms provided tobacco to patrons, so we must pose serious questions to gyms who provide ultraviolet radiation.</p>
<p>The comparison of tobacco and tanning beds might seem like hyperbole, but it is not. They are both rated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.22453">group 1 carcinogens</a> and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2013.6896">research</a> shows that we now have more cancers related to tanning beds than cancers related to tobacco.</p>
<h2>Gyms are supporting the tanning industry</h2>
<p>To explore how pervasive these gym-tanning salons were, I asked my research assistant to call every Planet Fitness, Anytime Fitness and Gold’s Gym in Massachusetts and Connecticut to find out just how many had tanning beds. Of the 167 gyms we found on Google, 66 percent offer patrons tanning beds, with Planet Fitness the biggest offender where a whopping 100 percent of their franchises have tanning beds. In total, these gyms have 408 tanning beds. <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/2687548">Extrapolating this to all 50 states</a> would mean that these three gym chains alone house over 10,000 tanning beds nationwide. That’s an equivalent capacity to 1,600 tanning salons. The tanning industry must be thrilled.</p>
<p>Making the presence of tanning beds in gyms even more shocking is a recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1548">study</a> showing that people who are physically active are at increased risk for melanoma, the deadly form of skin cancer. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/dju112">Tanning bed use</a> is a major risk factor for melanoma, which is now the <a href="https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2018/cancer-facts-and-figures-2018.pdf">third most prevalent cancer</a> in women under 49 years old, a popular gym demographic. Why would we put a carcinogen in the facility frequented by people who are at increased risk for the very cancer it causes? </p>
<p><a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/2687548">I decided to conduct a study</a> to learn more about people who use those gym tanning beds. We surveyed 636 people who have ever used a tanning bed in their life and found that about a quarter of them had tanned in gyms. When I compared the group who had tanned in a gym to the group who had not, I was surprised to find that the gym tanner is a much harder core tanner. They hit the tanning bed 67 percent more often than other salon tanners and were far more likely to report tanning addiction. Gyms seem to be a great place for tanners to get their fix.</p>
<p>We also found in our sample of tanners that more tanning was associated with more exercise. Now we may be onto why gyms provide tanning beds – people who tan a lot love to workout. </p>
<h2>Undermining public health messaging</h2>
<p>We do not know why tanning and exercise is linked so I can only speculate. Both activities are driven by a desire to look and feel better. Regardless, gyms that provide tanning beds reinforce the idea that tanning is part of a beauty regimen, and perhaps even worse, that tanning is part of a healthy lifestyle. Tanning is part of neither. It will destroy your skin and has the potential to completely destroy your health. For decades <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/burningtruth/base_tan_not_safe_tan.htm">public health campaigns</a> have attempted to dismantle the popular misconception that tanned skin is a sign of good health. </p>
<p>Tanning is a sign the body is receiving too much cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation. It is a warning sign.</p>
<p>Gyms should not provide tanning beds to patrons. Removing tanning beds from gyms surely won’t stop everybody from tanning, but that is certainly no argument for making them convenient for people at higher than average risk of melanoma. By pairing exercise with tanning beds, gyms undermine public health messaging and contribute to the cancer risk of their patrons. If you are
joining a gym to get healthy, my advice is: pick one that has your back.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sherry Pagoto receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Many gyms use free tanning beds to lure in new members who are eager to look and feel their best. But this, argues Sherry Pagoto, runs against the health lifestyle premise these gyms are advocating.Sherry Pagoto, Professor of Allied Health Sciences, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/940102018-04-05T10:44:48Z2018-04-05T10:44:48ZWhy are fewer and fewer Americans fixing their noses?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212825/original/file-20180402-189795-aia0jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The nose isn't going under the knife like it once did.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/medical-nose-care-concept-doctor-climbing-156779312?src=LAq4odgEPzSRK6BIMwFpRg-1-37">Lightspring/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Americans love <a href="https://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/press-releases/new-statistics-reveal-the-shape-of-plastic-surgery">cosmetic surgery</a>.</p>
<p>In 2017 in the U.S., there were 1.8 million plastic surgeries and nearly 16 million nonsurgical procedures, like Botox – about one for every 20 Americans. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/plastic-surgery-growth-statistics-facts-2016-2017-5">US$8 billion industry</a> now has entire <a href="https://www.newbeauty.com">beauty magazines</a> devoted to cosmetic procedures, along with TV shows like “Nip/Tuck” and “Botched” that explore plastic surgery in all its gory glory. There are <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hamsoft.face.follow&hl=en">apps</a> for your phone that let you see your face or body modified by surgery and even <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Mommy-Michael-Alexander-Salzhauer/dp/1601310323">children’s books</a> to explain why mommy looks so different now. </p>
<p>As someone who’s written <a href="http://www.beacon.org/American-Plastic-P767.aspx">a book</a> about the economics of plastic surgery, none of this comes as a surprise.</p>
<p>Recently, however, I ran across a statistic that stopped me in my tracks: Americans are no longer obsessed with fixing their noses. In fact, the number of nose jobs, or rhinoplasties, has gone down <a href="https://www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/News/Statistics/2016/plastic-surgery-statistics-full-report-2016.pdf">43 percent</a> since 2000. </p>
<p>Over a decade ago, nearly 400,000 Americans were having their noses made smaller, thinner and more symmetrical; now only about <a href="https://www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/News/Statistics/2016/plastic-surgery-statistics-full-report-2016.pdf">225,000 Americans</a> are doing so each year.</p>
<p>What might explain the overall decline in nose jobs, even as breast implants and tummy tucks are more popular than ever before? </p>
<h2>Why people get plastic surgery in the first place</h2>
<p>This decline is happening despite the fact that rhinoplasty procedures – which cost, on average, around <a href="https://www.plasticsurgery.org/cosmetic-procedures/rhinoplasty/cost">$5,000</a> – have become less painful and more convenient. </p>
<p>In the 20th century, rhinoplasties were usually performed with a hammer and chisel – a bloody, bruising affair. Now noses can be reshaped with a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-nose-job-takes-a-giant-leap-in-new-technology_us_593b8523e4b0b65670e56a95">vibrating crystal</a> that’s able to cut through bone but avoid damaging soft tissue – a method that decreases the pain and recovery time quite significantly. </p>
<p>But pain has never really been part of the equation. If there’s one thing I learned from interviewing over 100 cosmetic surgery patients for my book, it’s that they’re willing to suffer for what they believe will lead to a better life. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/News/Statistics/2016/plastic-surgery-statistics-full-report-2016.pdf">92 percent</a> are women, disproportionately white, and mostly members of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/fashion/16skin.html">working and middle classes</a>. They fervently believe that if they look younger, thinner or more attractive, then they’ll be more likely to keep their job or husband (or get a better job or a better husband). </p>
<p>In the end, they’re motivated by a deep desire for a more secure future – which, somewhat paradoxically, compels many of them to take on large amounts of debt to pay for the procedures.</p>
<p>A perfect nose, apparently, is less likely to be viewed as a path to a secure future. </p>
<h2>A historic aversion to ‘ethnic’ noses</h2>
<p>While there’s probably no definitive way to explain the nose job’s decline, the answer could be as plain as the nose on my face. </p>
<p>My nose, not coincidentally, is large, the genetic effect of my Jewish ancestors. Nose jobs were originally performed for people like me – immigrants who were not quite “white” because they didn’t look like Northern Europeans.</p>
<p><a href="http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/themes/surgery">In the 1800s</a>, surgeons discovered that if they put their patients under with gas and sterilized their instruments, they could stop people from dying of sepsis. These surgeons soon realized that they could also earn a quick buck by making ethnic immigrants look more American – which really meant looking more like immigrants from Northern Europe.</p>
<p>By the late 1800s, the cosmetic surgery industry had blossomed. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/6545.html">According to historian Sander Gilman</a>, cosmetic surgery was first used to help Irish and Jewish men. For Irish men, it was their noses, which they viewed as a sign of their “racial degeneracy” and “syphilitic nature.” Jewish men were actually less concerned about their noses and far more worried that their detached earlobes “Africanized” them.</p>
<p>Needless to say, the 20th century shifted which bodies and which parts needed repairing, and the focus turned to women – particularly young, white women. </p>
<p>A kind of beauty capitalism was born, teaching women that if there was something wrong with their bodies, it could be fixed. All they had to do was buy the right lipstick, stick to the newest diet, or surgically alter their bodies – especially their noses. </p>
<p>Breast implants, tummy tucks, buttock implants and <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/frankengina/26790">vaginoplasty</a> would eventually gain popularity. But for the first several decades of the 20th century, most of the women who filled the offices of cosmetic surgeons wanted their noses fixed.</p>
<h2>Shifting standards of beauty?</h2>
<p>Today’s beauty industry is worth <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2017/05/18/self-made-women-wealth-beauty-gold-mine/#5fbe06d62a3a">$445 billion dollars</a>. It mostly teaches women (although increasingly men and even children) that they need to buy things in order to become beautiful.</p>
<p>So why are our natural, imperfect noses all of a sudden more okay? </p>
<p>It could be that the beauty industry has stopped selling us the idea that there is one racial standard for beauty. The sort of racial hierarchy that put Northern European features at the top – and everyone else scrambling to catch up – might be weakening due to demographic and economic changes within a globalized culture.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/31/10-demographic-trends-that-are-shaping-the-u-s-and-the-world/">Pew Research Center</a>, by 2055 everyone in the U.S. will be a racial or ethnic minority – there will be no clear majority.</p>
<p>After centuries of worshiping a certain form of <a href="https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2014/05/16/white-as-beautiful-black-as-white/">whiteness as beautiful</a>, future beauty standards might look very different. It’s also possible that as other countries, particularly China, dominate the world economy, those countries will have more of a say in determining what’s beautiful. And popular media is increasingly depicting beautiful characters <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-so-important-for-kids-to-see-diverse-tv-and-movie-characters-92576">of all races</a>.</p>
<p>At this point, without interviewing those who go under the knife but refuse to reshape their noses, it’s tough to tell what’s inspired the change.</p>
<p>What I do know is that if the beauty industry can sell us something, it will. In fact, it’s invented <a href="https://galoremag.com/nose-bump-nose-job-reverse-plastic-surgery-unique/">reverse nose jobs</a> for people who are embarrassed that their noses have been modified – and want to make them look “real” again.</p>
<p>So fear not: The industry’s ability to profit off of our anxieties is as strong it’s ever been.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94010/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurie Essig does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People who’ve gotten nose jobs are also trying to revert to a more natural look.Laurie Essig, Director and Professor of Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies, MiddleburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/891172018-01-12T00:14:00Z2018-01-12T00:14:00ZBeyond #MeToo, Brazilian women rise up against racism and sexism<p>Women’s empowerment recently got a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/07/movies/golden-globes.html">big boost at the Golden Globes</a>, but the United States isn’t the only place having a feminist revival. </p>
<p>In 2015, two years before the #MeToo campaign got Americans talking about sexual harassment, Brazilian feminists <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/dec/03/sexism-misogyny-campaigners-brazil-social-media">launched #MeuPrimeiroAssedio</a>, or #MyFirstHarrassment. In its first five days, the hashtag racked up 82,000 tweets detailing the chronic sexual harassment of women in this South American nation. It soon spread across Latin America in Spanish translation as <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/miprimeracoso?lang=en">#MiPrimerAcoso</a>. </p>
<p>The viral success of #MeuPrimeiroAssedio spurred a spate of social media activism in Brazil, where despite decades of feminist efforts <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/protesters-end-brazilian-machismo-after-alleged-gang-rape-n584531">gender inequality remains deeply entrenched</a>. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/meuamigosecreto?lang=en">#MeuAmigoSecreto</a> – #MyAnonymousFriend – women documented misogyny on the streets and at work. Tagging <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/meuqueridoprofessor?src=hash">#MeuQueridoProfessor</a> – #MyDearTeacher – university students outed sexism in the classroom. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"662997934364078088"}"></div></p>
<p>And when the weekly news magazine Veja described the wife of Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, as “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/shannonsims/2016/04/20/the-hilarious-feminist-backlash-to-brazils-impeachment-fallout/#28066de26573">beautiful, modest and a housewife</a>” in April 2016, feminists transformed that stereotype into a meme showcasing empowered women. </p>
<p>Temer came to power following <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/world/americas/brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeached-removed-president.html">the impeachment of Brazil’s first female president</a>, Dilma Rousseff. Many saw Rousseff’s ouster as <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2016/04/brazil-sexist-impeachment-campaign-dilma-rousseff.html">misogynistic</a>. Feminists were determined that Brazilian sexism would no longer go unchecked.</p>
<h2>Black women’s bodies</h2>
<p>As race and gender researchers, we’ve been watching Brazil’s feminist resurgence closely to see whether it reflects the needs of Afro-Brazilian women, who <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-15766840">make up 25 percent of the population</a>.</p>
<p>Though the country has long <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/brazils-colour-bind/article25779474/">considered itself colorblind</a>, black and indigenous Brazilians are <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/even-it-brazil/brazil-extreme-inequality-numbers">poorer</a> than white Brazilians. Women of color in Brazil also experience <a href="https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2016/07/14/politica/1468512046_029192.html">sexual violence</a> at much higher rates than white women. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/28376972/The_Dirty_Body_that_Cleans_Representations_of_Domestic_Workers_in_Brazilian_Common_Sense">domestic workers</a>, who are predominantly Afro-Brazilian, have been <a href="http://portaldepublicacoes.ufes.br/temporalis/article/viewFile/8214/6157">systematically harassed by their male employers</a>. This centuries-old power play dates back to slavery.</p>
<p>Since both of us have recently published books – <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520293885">“The Biopolitics of Beauty”</a> and <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/78qxh7cs9780252040986.html">“Health Equity in Brazil”</a> – examining the impact of Brazilian medical practices on black women, we are particularly interested to see if Brazilian feminists will tackle two issues that particularly affect black women: health care and plastic surgery. </p>
<p>These may seem unrelated to each other and to black women’s rights, but in Brazil they are deeply intertwined. All Brazilian citizens get <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Brazil_2014.pdf">free medical care</a> under the <a href="http://www.brasil.gov.br/saude/2009/12/sus">Sistema Único de Saúde</a>, the national health care system. </p>
<p>Despite universal access to health services, black women do not always receive the best care. Though Brazil’s <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/78qxh7cs9780252040986.html">colorblind approach to health</a> has resulted in scant documentation of differential health outcomes by race, one study found that black women are <a href="http://www.huffpostbrasil.com/2017/09/28/por-que-a-criminalizacao-do-aborto-mata-mais-mulheres-negras_a_23226664/">two and a half times more likely to die from an unsafe abortion than white women</a>. </p>
<p>The startling discrepancy probably reflects a lack of high-quality prenatal and obstetric care for black women, which is <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/nothing-protects-black-women-from-dying-in-pregnancy-and-childbirth">a problem in U.S. hospitals as well</a>. Discriminatory treatment by medical professionals, which includes a <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/78qxh7cs9780252040986.html">lack of attention to the specific health needs of black Brazilians</a>, also factors in.</p>
<p>Black activists have also pointed out for decades that Afro-Brazilian women have higher rates of sterilization and <a href="http://www.saude.sp.gov.br/resources/instituto-de-saude/homepage/temas-saude-coletiva/pdfs/nascer.pdf">abortion</a>, which in Brazil is mostly illegal – <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/abortion-latin-america-and-caribbean">and thus very risky</a>. </p>
<p>Overall maternal health is also markedly worse among black women. In Brazil’s impoverished northeast, which has the country’s highest concentration of African descendants, black women are <a href="http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/saude_brasil_2013_analise_situacao_saude.pdf">10 to 20 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women</a>. </p>
<h2>The ‘negroid nose’</h2>
<p>Medical doctors may neglect black Brazilian women, but plastic surgeons pursue them. Since the 1960s, Brazilian <a href="http://www.iip.org.br/instituto.html">cosmetic surgery has been included in Brazil’s national health care system</a>. </p>
<p>In Brazil, white beauty standards remain the cultural ideal. That means many Brazilian plastic surgeons operate on the basis that more European features – facial features in particular – are better. </p>
<p>Specifically, our <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520293885">research</a> has found, they tend to target black women’s noses, which they deem a “problem feature” in lectures, publications and websites. </p>
<p>In conversation, some doctors even expressed their belief that the “negroid nose” is a “mistake” caused by racial mixing. Fortunately, they would add, it’s nothing a nose job can’t fix. </p>
<p>This occurs within a broader culture, <a href="https://psychcentral.com/blog/why-do-women-hate-their-bodies/">familiar to women worldwide</a>, of bombarding all Brazilian women with opportunities to “improve” their imperfect bodies. Brazilians are among the top consumers of plastic surgery <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2016/08/08/in-plastic-surgery-brazil-gets-the-silver-medal-behind/#57ad40333642">in the world</a>. It is estimated that more than a million cosmetic procedures are carried out <a href="http://g1.globo.com/bemestar/noticia/2016/08/cai-numero-de-plasticas-no-brasil-mas-pais-ainda-e-2-no-ranking-diz-estudo.html">every year</a>.</p>
<p>Some Brazilian plastic surgeons refer to their jobs as helping women achieve “the right to beauty.” When, in 2016, a famous plastic surgeon who promoted this idea died, his obituary read like that of a <a href="http://brasil.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,medicos-lembram-criatividade-dedicacao-e-generosidade-de-ivo-pitanguy,10000067567">national hero</a>. </p>
<p>And since most plastic surgery is covered under Brazil’s public health system, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520293885">our research uncovered</a>, surgeons have found it lucrative to develop procedures targeting the entire topography of the female body. </p>
<p>Treatments that aren’t paid by insurance come with <a href="http://g1.globo.com/bemestar/noticia/2014/09/parcelamento-financiamento-e-ate-consorcio-ajudam-pagar-plastica.html">long-term payment plans</a>. For the poorest patients, doctors have made plastic surgery accessible by exchanging their professional services for permission to use these operations as a <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520293885">teaching exercise for young medical residents</a>.</p>
<h2>Taking online to the ground</h2>
<p>Historically, feminist critiques of this industry were largely subdued. But plastic surgery is now in the spotlight of Brazil’s “<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/11/women-spring-blossoming-brazil-151130060146749.html">Women’s Spring</a>.” </p>
<p>In October 2017, one of Brazil’s biggest newspapers, Folha de São Paulo, ran <a href="http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/equilibrioesaude/2017/10/1925738-mulheres-encaram-laser-e-cirurgia-por-vulva-ideal.shtml">an article</a> extolling the “ideal vulva” and describing the surgical interventions necessary to attain it. Women <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/clarissapassos/estetica-vaginal-debate-folha?utm_term=.froQxyP4#.cxNd4DVA">lambasted the piece on social media</a>, calling it “absurd,” “unacceptable” and “sad.” </p>
<p>The assumption that some vaginas are more desirable than others, feminist commentators <a href="https://www.revistaforum.com.br/2017/10/10/folha-apanha-nas-redes-por-conta-de-materia-sobre-vulva-ideal/">pointed out</a>, imposes the male gaze on the female body. Additionally, <a href="https://superela.com/cirurgia-na-vulva-feminismo/">they argued</a>, the article’s emphasis on “pink” vaginas and its suggested use of skin-whiteners was patently racist. </p>
<p>Black feminist bloggers likely <a href="http://blogueirasnegras.org/2014/03/06/racismo-disfarcado-de-ciencia/">started this particular line of critique</a>. As early as 2014, they were denouncing Brazilian cosmetic surgery as “racism cloaked as science.” Plastic surgeons, wrote Gabi Porfírio in a June 2014 post on <a href="http://blogueirasnegras.org/2014/03/06/racismo-disfarcado-de-ciencia/">Blogueiras Negras</a>, have become “experts at using demeaning terminology for the noses of black people.”</p>
<p>But in a country where only <a href="https://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/mais-de-63-dos-domicilios-tem-acesso-a-internet-aponta-ibge.ghtml">63 percent of households</a> have internet access, black feminists also have also used more traditional forms of protest to engage women of color. </p>
<p>A year before the the hashtag #MeuPrimeiroAssedio would go viral, black feminists began working across Brazil to organize women who don’t generally participate in activism. Their efforts culminated in the <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Black-Women-March-Against-Violence-in-Brazil-20151118-0049.html">Black Women’s March Against Racism and Violence and in Favor of Living Well</a> in Brasilia, the capital. </p>
<p>There, 50,000 Afro-Brazilian women of all ages and backgrounds came together to denounce violence against black women – not just sexual violence but also deadly abortions, <a href="http://brasil.estadao.com.br/blogs/inconsciente-coletivo/a-dura-realidade-da-mulher-nas-prisoes-brasileiras/">mass incarceration</a> and medical neglect. It was the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/meridians.14.1.06">first ever national march of black Brazilian women</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201562/original/file-20180110-46700-10x0opo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201562/original/file-20180110-46700-10x0opo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201562/original/file-20180110-46700-10x0opo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201562/original/file-20180110-46700-10x0opo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201562/original/file-20180110-46700-10x0opo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201562/original/file-20180110-46700-10x0opo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201562/original/file-20180110-46700-10x0opo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first-ever national march of black Brazilian women had ‘living well’ as a central demand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brazilian Ministry of Culture</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a country that has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/10/23/what-should-brazils-next-president-do/addressing-inequality-will-be-a-long-struggle-in-brazil">long ignored inequality</a>, the protest put race squarely on the feminist agenda. By contrasting the diverse forms of violence black women face with the idea of “living well,” the Black Women’s March voiced an alternative vision of racial and gender justice for Brazil.</p>
<p>In doing so, they join #MeToo, #MeuPrimeiroAssedio and a whole chorus of female voices around the globe. Online and on the ground, Brazilian feminists demand equity from the surgeon’s table to the office.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alvaro Jarrin received funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies to carry out his research on beauty in Brazil.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kia Lilly Caldwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Before #MeToo, Brazilian women launched #MyFirstHarrassment and marched for racial equality. Today, this feminist resurgence is tackling health care, plastic surgery, violence and more.Carmen Alvaro Jarrin, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, College of the Holy CrossKia Lilly Caldwell, Associate Professor, African, African American, and Diaspora Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/881542017-11-28T00:42:52Z2017-11-28T00:42:52ZClassifying ‘national types of beauty’: from cigarette cards to Miss Universe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196574/original/file-20171127-2055-1e2t2o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 1928 cigarette card classifying an 'Egyptian beauty': these cards depicted women as exotic creatures, a trend that can still be seen at beauty contests today.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the early 1900s, international tobacco companies produced cigarette cards both to strengthen soft cigarette packets and to promote their brand. The cards often pictured soldiers, planes, boats or sporting heroes, and smokers were encouraged to collect whole sets. </p>
<p>In 1928 Major Drapkin and Co., a tobacco company once based in London, produced a uniquely different set from those described above. A series of 36 exquisitely printed black and white photographs called “National Types of Beauty” portrayed women of various races, who according to the British colonial eye exemplified the beauty of a given country. </p>
<p>On the front of each card, a black and white portrait depicted the chosen “beauty”. On the back she was classified according to facial appearance, colouring, class, level of education, and nationality. For example, the Greek beauty was described thus: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This happy, pleasing picture represents Grecian beauty of the present day. One characteristic is that the nose appears to continue straight down from the forehead. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196463/original/file-20171127-2042-1z06i1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196463/original/file-20171127-2042-1z06i1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196463/original/file-20171127-2042-1z06i1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196463/original/file-20171127-2042-1z06i1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196463/original/file-20171127-2042-1z06i1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196463/original/file-20171127-2042-1z06i1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196463/original/file-20171127-2042-1z06i1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196463/original/file-20171127-2042-1z06i1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=729&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And the Egyptian woman’s photo was labelled:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This picture typifies the beautiful Egyptian of the better classes; dainty and graceful, with dark hair, delicate features, brown eyes and an olive complexion. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These descriptions portrayed and classified the women as “exotic” creatures. They existed merely as an organised racial specimen described and depicted according to colonial desires of the era. </p>
<p>For instance, the card for Egypt presents a woman who fulfils an exotic and Orientalist fantasy of the Middle East, wearing a harem-style veil that is less fearsome burqa and more Cleveland Street belly dancer. Turkey is equally exotic in the writer and photographer’s imagination:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the most beautiful women in Turkey, Khadidje Hanoum, daughter of a government official, is said to possess every Oriental charm.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196464/original/file-20171127-2025-etjux5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196464/original/file-20171127-2025-etjux5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196464/original/file-20171127-2025-etjux5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196464/original/file-20171127-2025-etjux5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196464/original/file-20171127-2025-etjux5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196464/original/file-20171127-2025-etjux5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196464/original/file-20171127-2025-etjux5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196464/original/file-20171127-2025-etjux5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Persia is represented by a bejewelled and apparently mystical young woman wearing a turban:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Particularly striking and picturesque is the type of beauty perhaps most characteristic of Persia. In the portrait, the dark arresting eyes are suggestive of the mystic.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196465/original/file-20171127-2077-rzcd6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196465/original/file-20171127-2077-rzcd6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196465/original/file-20171127-2077-rzcd6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196465/original/file-20171127-2077-rzcd6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196465/original/file-20171127-2077-rzcd6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196465/original/file-20171127-2077-rzcd6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196465/original/file-20171127-2077-rzcd6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196465/original/file-20171127-2077-rzcd6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another noticeable characteristic of the set is that all the women are “white” or at least fair-skinned. The Australian beauty is represented by the British International Pictures film star, Miss Eve Gray; the name of the South African beauty is ironically Miss Dorothy Black – “black” only in name and not in skin colour. </p>
<p>Other than South Africa and Egypt, no other African nations are featured. Whilst India is noticeably omitted from Asia.</p>
<p>Whilst appealing as portraits, “National Types of Beauty” highlights photography’s murky history and its complicity in colonial and misogynist agendas. This agenda sought, first and foremost, the domination of people and places that were classified as less civilised and of lesser status. These photographs demonstrate a history of imaging that continues today to make women visibly consumable.</p>
<h2>Classifying beauty today</h2>
<p>Paper shortages during the onset of the second world war put an end to the production of cigarette cards in 1940. Yet today women are still classified by their appearance and, thanks to visual media of all kinds, this is done with speed and ease. While cigarette packets are no longer the place to picture Western standards of beauty (they now specialise in picturing the macabre), contemporary beauty pageants are.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196576/original/file-20171127-2066-16z59hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196576/original/file-20171127-2066-16z59hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196576/original/file-20171127-2066-16z59hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196576/original/file-20171127-2066-16z59hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196576/original/file-20171127-2066-16z59hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196576/original/file-20171127-2066-16z59hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196576/original/file-20171127-2066-16z59hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miss South Africa Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steve Marcus/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Television spectaculars like Miss World and Miss Universe continue to classify beauty in terms of race and through the collecting of data that suggest it is scientifically measurable. </p>
<p>While the official websites of <a href="https://www.missworld.com/#/">Miss World</a> and <a href="https://www.missuniverse.com/contestants">Miss Universe</a> publish only the age and height of the finalists, their overall body measurements (weight, bra size etc) are readily available on <a href="http://celebrityinside.com/category/body-measurements/model/">celebrity websites</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.missuniverse.com">Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters</a> from South Africa won this year’s Miss Universe 2017 crown. Nel-Peters, like her Australian counterpart Olivia Rogers among others, presents as a reflection of the prevailing beauty ideals of the West: petite noses, thick lips, “healthy breasts” and slender physiques with long legs. </p>
<p>Race comes humorously into question when the Miss Universe contestants parade their national costume. This exercise exaggerates already outdated stereotypes that hinge on the colonial parameters visualised in the 1928 cigarette cards. For example, it is uncanny how “oriental” the national costume is for <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPGmcBBX0AEJm_q.jpg">Miss Turkey 2017</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196466/original/file-20171127-2016-1ne0eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196466/original/file-20171127-2016-1ne0eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196466/original/file-20171127-2016-1ne0eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196466/original/file-20171127-2016-1ne0eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196466/original/file-20171127-2016-1ne0eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196466/original/file-20171127-2016-1ne0eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196466/original/file-20171127-2016-1ne0eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196466/original/file-20171127-2016-1ne0eej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sirea Leone’s Miss Universe candidate, Hawa Kamara, competes during a national costume preliminary competition this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erik De Castro/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other cringe-worthy costumes ensured Miss Egypt was Cleopatra, Miss Romania was Dracula’s wife and Miss Australia was the Opera House. Furthermore, many of the women presented themselves with arms outspread like exotic, parading peacocks. </p>
<p>Still, it seems not only feminist spectators are questioning this kind of parade and its methods of classifying beauty but the contestants themselves. Recently <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-01/miss-peru-pageant-turns-into-violence-against-women-protest/9109566">at the Miss Peru 2017 competition</a>, rather than give their body measurements, the women presented the disturbing statistics of violence against women and girls in their country. </p>
<p>It was rather powerful to watch as each woman marched to the microphone, in dangerously high heels, to announce their message in aid of a cause.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cherine Fahd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Collectable cigarette cards once depicted ‘exotic’ beauties, classified by the colonial eye. And today’s beauty contests still present women as exotic representatives of their nation.Cherine Fahd, Senior Lecturer Photography, School of Design, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/848442017-11-02T19:04:43Z2017-11-02T19:04:43ZFriday essay: the female dwarf, disability, and beauty<blockquote>
<p>There is no exquisite beauty … without some strangeness in the proportion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://poestories.com/read/ligeia">Edgar Allen Poe’s words</a> have a particular irony for me. I am a woman with achondroplasia dwarfism, or what is commonly referred to as “disproportionate dwarfism”. Individuals with my physicality have arms and legs significantly shorter than the average person and thus out-of-proportion to our torso, which is usually of average height. </p>
<p>According to contemporary Western standards of beauty, a woman with such disproportions would not popularly be described as beautiful. The implication seems to be that physical difference and disability cannot be considered attractive. </p>
<p>The representation of female dwarfs in the visual arts mirrors the social attitudes towards people with this physical difference. When dwarfs were viewed positively, such as in ancient Egypt, they were portrayed participating in the full spectrum of life - even worshipped as Gods. But more often, especially in the 20th century, dwarfs have been depicted in the arts in demeaned social roles: comically or as grotesque fairytale beings. </p>
<p>Today, people with dwarfism, and women in particular, are still subject to stigma, stereotyping and discrimination. Pop culture continues some of these problematic representations. The US reality TV show <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3761278/">Little Women</a> harks back to the voyeurism of circus founder P. T. Barnum but with an explicit display of female flesh and titillating foibles. </p>
<p>There is also still a clear gender disparity in the depictions of male and female dwarfs. Tyrion Lannister in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944947/">Game of Thrones</a> is portrayed as intelligent with an acute sense of social justice. Despite Tyrion’s weakness for alcohol, his sexual exploits could not be considered more risque than others in the story-line. While Tyrion is treated seriously and as a character with agency, the women of Little Women seem to be objects of mirth who are shallow.</p>
<p>However a growing number of artists, including myself, are challenging the idea that women with dwarfism cannot be beautiful thanks to their “disability”. In fact, I argue that rather than seeing disability as something inherent to a person we should see it as a product of social and physical environments.</p>
<p><a href="https://debrakeenahan.com.au/">My own sculptural work</a> represents a style of interaction all too often experienced by people of extreme short stature. That is, being spoken to like a child rather than an adult and an equal. The white marble finish of my sculpture Little Big Woman: Condescension is reminiscent of Greek statues - often considered the epitome of classical beauty. </p>
<p>The three figures in this sculpture are back-to-back, gazing out upon the viewer. Moreover, the work is raised so that a person of average height walks around it and has the experience of always being looked at by the female dwarf. Thus the work reverses what is my daily experience.</p>
<p>I also recently performed in <a href="https://www.thebiganxiety.org/events/little-big-woman/">The Big Anxiety Festival’s Awkward Conversations</a>, where I invited people to figuratively walk for 10 minutes in my shoes. By walking the Sydney streets in my company, participants witnessed a variety of public behaviours towards me. </p>
<p>Each performance gave them insight into the dynamics of interaction - sometimes subtle (glances, smirks), sometimes overt (mocking, insults) - that are disabling to a person with dwarfism. </p>
<h2>Returning the gaze</h2>
<p>Dwarfism has been a source of fascination for centuries, in writings, paintings, sculptures and photographs. From artworks, anthropologists have established that the ancient Egyptians had two gods (Bes and Besette) who were dwarfs; and that the Mayan Indians fully integrated dwarfs in their culture. However women with dwarfism were largely absent in art until the royal courts of the 15th century. </p>
<p>During this time of royal favour, dwarfs appeared more frequently in paintings. They were granted the prestige and freedom of being allowed to make cynical commentary on court proceedings with relative impunity. Art works capturing the court dwarf either with the royal hound or in the performance of their duties were not uncommon.</p>
<p>One of the earliest painted depictions of a female with achondroplasia was in a fresco by Mantegna during the Italian Renaissance (1474). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190108/original/file-20171013-31418-jzmhhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190108/original/file-20171013-31418-jzmhhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190108/original/file-20171013-31418-jzmhhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190108/original/file-20171013-31418-jzmhhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190108/original/file-20171013-31418-jzmhhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190108/original/file-20171013-31418-jzmhhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190108/original/file-20171013-31418-jzmhhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190108/original/file-20171013-31418-jzmhhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Andrea Mantegna, The Court of Mantua, fresco in the Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrea_Mantegna_054.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the next two centuries, most images of achondroplasia were of men, or of female dwarfs with rarer proportional dwarfism, such as the <a href="https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/407377/the-infanta-isabella-clara-eugenia-1566-1633-archduchess-of-austria">painting by Frans Pourbus the younger</a> of Isabella, Archduchess of Austria, and her dwarf around 1600.</p>
<p>But undoubtedly, the most prominent representation of a woman with achondroplasia is by the Baroque painter Velazquez in his masterpiece Les Meninas (1656).</p>
<p>Velasquez painted a series of portraits of dwarfs who were members of the Spanish Royal court. Of those works only one other - Prince Balthasar Charles (Carlos) with a Dwarf (1631) - represents a female dwarf, and she is a child. </p>
<p>Both Mantegna and Velasquez’s works clearly communicate the women’s lesser social status. Though they may have been valued members of royal courts and their cynical commentary tolerated, these dwarfs were predominantly amusements, novelties and “pets”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190110/original/file-20171013-31395-quh1u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190110/original/file-20171013-31395-quh1u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190110/original/file-20171013-31395-quh1u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190110/original/file-20171013-31395-quh1u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190110/original/file-20171013-31395-quh1u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190110/original/file-20171013-31395-quh1u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190110/original/file-20171013-31395-quh1u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190110/original/file-20171013-31395-quh1u1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas, 1656.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas#/media/File:Las_Meninas,_by_Diego_Vel%C3%A1zquez,_from_Prado_in_Google_Earth.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, these particular artists also present the adult female dwarf employing the “oppositional gaze”. Rather than demurring to the viewer, these women stare back at us, demanding that we take them on their own terms. Unfortunately, such assertive, respectful representation of typically maligned and marginalised people dissipated significantly and quickly soon after.</p>
<h2>Freak show</h2>
<p>Throughout the Rococo period in the 18th century there were more paintings of female dwarfs, but these were predominantly portrayed en masse in fantastical and somewhat perverted scenes. The most notable is the series of six paintings by Faustino Bocchi, including Festo dopo le nozze (or “wedding celebration”) and Grotesque Parody of an Accouchement (or “childbirth”).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192756/original/file-20171031-32619-19f9lj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192756/original/file-20171031-32619-19f9lj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192756/original/file-20171031-32619-19f9lj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192756/original/file-20171031-32619-19f9lj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192756/original/file-20171031-32619-19f9lj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192756/original/file-20171031-32619-19f9lj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192756/original/file-20171031-32619-19f9lj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192756/original/file-20171031-32619-19f9lj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Faustino Bocchi, Festa dopo le nozze.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_of_dwarfs_by_Faustino_Bocchi#/media/File:Faustino_Bocchi._Festa_dopo_le_nozze,_olio_su_tela,_50x65,_collezione_privata,_Bergamo.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fascination with people who were physically different became an overt public pastime. The capture of the image of the female dwarf became both a visual record and an opportunity for commercial profit.</p>
<p>The 19th century saw the introduction of photography for public consumption and brought with it an increase in the portrayal of the female dwarf, but with little change in her social status. </p>
<p>During the 19th and early-20th centuries photos were used to promote “freak shows” in circuses. These became an avenue for promoters, such as circus founder P. T. Barnum, to offer dwarfs a living beyond poor houses. In the display of their physical differences, the troupe members were exhibited as passive subjects for the gaze of the paying public.</p>
<p>The promotional banter of the day popularised the term “midget” to refer to someone of short stature - a label today considered deeply offensive and insulting. Moreover, the unabashed publicity of dwarfs focused upon titillating fascination with their private lives and blatant comparisons with the average individual. </p>
<p>Documentary photos subsequently reinforced dwarfs as passive objects of curiosity, whose details about physical proportions and functioning were available for public entertainment - at the mere cost of the entry ticket! For the marriage of Charles Sherwood Stratton (General Tom Thumb) to Lavinia Warren, P. T. Barnum even sold tickets to the reception to the first 5,000 applicants.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190118/original/file-20171013-31431-1a2ac50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190118/original/file-20171013-31431-1a2ac50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190118/original/file-20171013-31431-1a2ac50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190118/original/file-20171013-31431-1a2ac50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190118/original/file-20171013-31431-1a2ac50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190118/original/file-20171013-31431-1a2ac50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190118/original/file-20171013-31431-1a2ac50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190118/original/file-20171013-31431-1a2ac50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The marriage of Lavinia Warren to Charles Sherwood Stratton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The images used to promote freak shows clearly emphasised the strangeness of the proportions of the female dwarfs with complimentary concession to the quality of “cuteness”. There was no attempt to present any idea of beauty. </p>
<p>Disproportionate dwarfs did not fare any better with their representations in modern art, where they were juxtaposed with giants, everyday objects or average people. However a new discourse entered the visual narrative - that of the sad, pathetic, ridiculous, isolated, little person. </p>
<p>Famous photographs by <a href="http://gibbesmuseum.pastperfectonline.com/photo/C12344F1-8FFB-4B93-A84F-655423924800">Arthur Fellig</a> and <a href="http://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZTH6#/CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZTH6&POPUPIID=2K7O3R3DLE89&POPUPPN=2">Bruce Davidson</a> are the epitome of such stereotyping. The portrayal of women with achondroplasia was virtually nonexistent in this era, with the notable exception of a World War II photo of The Ovitz Family in 1944, a Jewish family imprisoned in Auschwitz and experimented on by Nazi scientist Josef Mengele. </p>
<h2>Disability aesthetics</h2>
<p>Other artists have explicitly examined the sexuality of the female dwarf, such as the beautifully executed contemporary <a href="http://www.margaretbowland.com/earlier-works/">paintings of Margaret Bowland</a>. Such work typifies the approach of many contemporary photographers and painters who often present these physically unique individuals as on the fringes of society. </p>
<p>In recent years, there has been a critical shift in how disability is viewed - including standards of beauty - drawing on the ever-expanding academic field of disability studies. For myself, I often say that my dwarfism does not disable me, rather, what disables me most is people’s attitudes to it. Because it is negative attitudes that result in unnecessary limitations being placed upon me.</p>
<p>Art can play a powerful role in challenging this ableism - the discrimination of those who are physically or mentally different. Artworks that challenge stereotypes around the physically different can encourage inclusion.</p>
<p>The scholar Tobin Siebers has developed the concept of “<a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472071005-ch1.pdf">disability aesthetics</a>”, which “embraces beauty that seems … to be broken, and yet it is not less beautiful, but more so, as a result”. However <a href="https://debrakeenahan.com.au/">I argue </a> that in this definition, Siebers is buying into the subjective beauty/ugly divide that excludes people with disabilities in the first place. </p>
<p>Many contemporary artists with dwarfism, including myself, are changing the conversation altogether, moving from focusing on physical difference to social treatment. <a href="http://www.amandacachia.com/curating/composing-dwarfism-reframing-short-stature-contemporary-photography/">Ricardo Gil’s street photography</a> captures the disdain and overt hostility sometimes directed at himself. While his photos do not always depict people with dwarfism, their perspective shows that of a person with dwarfism on the street. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.lauraswanson.com/#/anti-self-portraits/">Laura Swanson’s photography</a> parodies society’s exclusion of dwarfs through compositions that strategically remove her individual features from the portraits. Instead, she covers her face and body with everyday objects such as a coat on a hallway stand or an album cover. </p>
<p>The lesson learnt is that how you treat me communicates whether you consider me “a midget”, an amusement, or an equal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84844/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Debra Keenahan receives funding from Australia Council for the Arts as a recipient of a Development Grant. She is affiliated with Outlandish Arts as a Board Member. </span></em></p>For centuries, women with dwarfism were depicted in art as comic or grotesque fairytale beings. But artists are challenging these portrayals and notions of beauty and physical difference.Debra Keenahan, Lecturer, Humanitarian And Development Studies, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.