[Urbanstudy] :"DILEMMAS OF BEAUTY FROM A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE AND THE ROLE OF ADVERTISEMENTS, MEDIA

[Ateya Khorakiwala]

Dear Sutapa,
Hi,
i have recently been reading 'the bell jar' by sylvia plath and 'Reflecting
on The Bell Jar' by Pat Macpherson, and she is arguing that 'feminity' is
not simply a construct of patriarchal objectification but also a political
tool used to control the notion of the family through the body of the woman.
Feminist movements in the united states rose in the 1960s, as you pointed
out, but macpherson is looking at the situation is the 1950s, when there was
political turmoil in the united states, it was the height of McCarthyism and
the idea of the communist versus the conformist got played out on the body
of the woman. What she says is that they theorised the family as the basic
unit of the democratic capitalist moral united states ideas and to create
the family they needed to create the chaste and conformative woman. The
image of chastity and virginal beauty was propagated through the fashion
glossies. What i think she is therefore saying is that the act of policing
and objectifying the woman's body is not only patriarchal/advertorial but
also intensely political, the body is the site of political will. In
reference to your paper, what interested me, is the relationship between
this politic and the beauty industry, because there is immigrant politics
embedded in the labour of the beauty industry in mumbai. Anyway, i just
thought this was interesting because it understood modern notions of
feminity not only as a social construct but also as a political construct.
see you
Ateya

On 3/31/06, sutapa majumdar <sutapa_majumdar at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>   Hi,
> I am one of the recipient of the student stpendship programme of sarai
> and working on the "Beauty Industry" in Pune city where by i am trying
> to explore the history of Parlors in the city, its consequent
> development,notion of space, labour structures and more specifically
> the medicalisation of beauty<http://www.ntsearch.com/search.php?q=beauty&v=56>.My
> work would include  both a strong
> ethnographic work and theoretical base and in this endevour, i am
> posting my arguments on "DILEMMAS OF BEAUTY FROM A FEMINIST
> PERSPECTIVE AND THE ROLE OF ADVERTISEMENTS, MEDIA."
>
> Please go through the attachments.     Sutapa
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call
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>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "sutapa majumdar" <majumdar.sutapa at gmail.com>
> To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
> Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 10:56:46 +0530
> Subject: [Urbanstudy] :"DILEMMAS OF BEAUTY FROM A FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE AND
> THE ROLE OF ADVERTISEMENTS, MEDIA
> Hi,
> I am one of the recipient of the student stpendship programme of sarai
> and working on the "Beauty Industry" in Pune city where by i am trying
> to explore the history of Parlors in the city, its consequent
> development,notion of space, labour structures and more specifically
> the medicalisation of beauty.My work would include  both a strong
> ethnographic work and theoretical base and in this endevour, i am
> posting my arguments on "DILEMMAS OF BEAUTY FROM A FEMINIST
> PERSPECTIVE AND THE ROLE OF ADVERTISEMENTS, MEDIA."
>
> Please go through the attachments.
>
>
> Sutapa
>
>
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>
>
>


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