Beauty Work: Individual and Institutional Rewards, Gender Reproduction, and Agency in Society

Abstract

Physical attractiveness is associated with numerous positive outcomes, impacting employment benefits like hiring, wages, and promotions, while also correlating with social rewards, such as work satisfaction, positive perceptions from others, and higher self-esteem. This article explores beauty work practices individuals engage in to enhance physical attractiveness, contextualizing these within social and cultural frameworks that privilege youth and attractiveness, particularly regarding its gendered and racial dimensions. The intricacies of agency in these practices are also examined, leading to suggestions for future research.

Cultural Context of Beauty Work

Homogeneous Beauty Ideals

In contemporary Western societies, homogenous standards of beauty prevail, emphasizing:

  • Feminine Ideal: Slenderness and firmness (Bordo 2003; Hesse-Biber 1996; Kilbourne 1999)

  • Masculine Ideal: Strength and muscularity (Bordo 1999; Pope et al. 2000)

  • These ideals also prioritize youth and maintain a privilege for whiteness, emphasizing traits such as fair skin, eye color, and hair texture (Collins 1991).

Competing Theories on Beauty Ideals

Debates exist around whether beauty ideals are:

  • Socially Constructed (Wolf 1991) or

  • Derived from Evolutionary Psychology (Etcoff 1999)
    Despite these debates, there is consensus on the widespread prevalence of these norms throughout society.

Types of Body Work

Body Work vs. Beauty Work

  • Body Work: Broader category including self-work and labor performed on others (Kang 2003).

  • Beauty Work: Specific types of appearance-related practices focused on oneself or others (Roth and Neal 2006).

Examination Focus

The article specifically investigates beauty work practices that individuals undertake to gain social benefits within established hierarchies, considering factors such as individual agency and societal norms surrounding beauty.

Importance of Beauty Work

Positive Stereotypes and Impacts

Early research shows that:

  • Beautiful individuals are often perceived in a favorable light, with traits like happiness and competence attributed to them (Dion et al. 1972).

  • The adage “what is beautiful is good” reflects this stereotype, indicating a widespread belief that beauty correlates with positive social characteristics.

Halo Effect

This concept outlines how perceptions of attractiveness can skew evaluations of individuals. For instance:

  • Attractive individuals may receive leniency in the assessment of their work performance, where inferior work is often overlooked due to their attractiveness (Landy and Sigall 1974).

Disadvantages of Attractiveness

Despite the beauty stereotype:

  • Attractive individuals may also face assumptions of vanity and self-centeredness, leading to social repercussions (Dermer and Thiel 1975).

  • Research (Eagly et al. 1991) indicates that while the beauty stereotype exists, its impact can vary greatly across different traits like social competence and integrity.

Social Outcomes of Beauty

Physical attractiveness not only fosters personal benefits but translates into institutional advantages across various sectors, including:

  • Workplace: Attractive individuals experience improved hiring outcomes and promotions (Hosoda et al. 2003).

  • Education: Teachers bias evaluations based on a student's attractiveness (Clifford and Walster 1973).

  • Marriage: Beauty correlates with better marital prospects, particularly for women, who often marry more economically advantaged partners (Conley and Glauber 2005).

Beauty Work Practices

Hair and Body Hair

Norms Surrounding Hair

Hair plays a significant role in beauty work, where hegemonic norms dictate:

  • Long, blonde, and styled hair as ideals for women (Gimlin 1996; Weitz 2001).

Choices and Resistance

Women often navigate these norms through choices that promote accommodation or resistance, impacting perceptions in personal and professional contexts.

Body Hair Removal

Cultural scripts dictate that women maintain hairlessness:

  • Prevalence of hair removal among women: over 90% regularly remove leg and underarm hair (Basow 1991).

  • Norms surrounding hair removal are tied to femininity and societal acceptability (Tiggemann and Lewis 2004).

Makeup

Makeup serves various purposes:

  • Enhances perceived health and fitness in professional settings (Dellinger and Williams 1997).

  • Markets women as heterosexual or concerned about their appearance, influencing workplace dynamics.

Body Size and Shape

Consequences of striving for the thin ideal include:

  • Increasing mental health issues and body dissatisfaction among women, described as a 'tyranny of slenderness' (Chernin 1994).

  • Varied dietary practices employed to attain culturally ideal body shapes lead to significant emotional and physical consequences (Sprague-Zones 1997).

Gender Dynamics in Beauty Work

Double Standards

  • There is a notable double standard in beauty standards between genders; while men encounter some biases, women face pronounced pressure to conform to beauty ideals. Failing to conform often incurs harsher social and economic penalties for women.

  • Research indicates upward mobility through marriage is notably affected by women’s attractiveness (Hammermesh and Biddle 1994).

Agency and Conformity

  • Women navigating beauty norms can either comply or resist, with beauty work as a site of struggle and negotiation within structural constraints (Davis 1991; Weitz 2001).

  • Notable is the trend of women opting for cosmetic surgery as an act of agency, despite the norms that necessitate it being oppressive.

Racial Dimensions of Beauty Norms

Eurocentrism in Beauty

The dominant beauty aesthetic in Western culture is defined against the racialized body, particularly the black body, serving as the other against which ideals are formed (Collins 1991).

Body Dissatisfaction Across Groups

Research indicates varying body ideals and dissatisfaction among different racial groups:

  • African-American women often embrace a more flexible beauty standard compared to Eurocentric ideals, leading to higher self-esteem (Lovejoy 2001).

  • Asian-American women may struggle with adherence to both Western beauty standards and body dissatisfaction, often seeking cosmetic alterations to conform (Kaw 1993).

Conclusion

Beauty work, while subjected to complex societal and institutional forces, offers individuals a spectrum of agency. The impacts of these beauty standards propagate discomfort across various identities, necessitating in-depth examination of intersectional factors in future studies and potential avenues for social change. This article highlights the need for ongoing research into how beauty work intertwines with sociopolitical frameworks affecting race, gender, and class.