In my forthcoming participation in the panel discussion organised by the National Museum of Denmark (see here ), I am going to discuss Japanese beauty ideals, based on the research findings of my Master's thesis.
The original thesis, complete with the interviewed women's profiles, methodology, interview quotes and analysis can be downloaded from the Lund University archive: http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=24923&postid=3990921 . Beware, its 66 pages!
And here is an abstract:
"The purpose of this thesis was to explore gender norms, beauty ideals and social
practices and the way these become ‘visible’ on the Japanese female body as
(re)producing the ideal Japanese femininity and skin color in particular. In order to
achieve that, I investigate and identify these norms, the mechanisms that implement
them on the body and the attitudes and expression of resistance against them. The
concept of biopower is used to explain the above process and findings. The research
used both secondary and primary data that was retrieved through eleven deep
interviews and participant observation, during two months of fieldwork in Japan in
2013. As the effects of power on the gendered body become central in this research,
gender and Foucauldian theoretical perspectives were used to analyse the data. During
the analysis I found patterns in the women’s opinions, enabling me to answer my
research questions. The study found the main norms to maintain that Japanese women
have a unique Japanese skin that should be baby soft, ‘white’ and fair, should have
natural beauty, look young and innocent, behave in a cute way, avoid conflict or
standing out and be subservient to men. The mechanism of implementation of these
norms is self-surveillance, based on the forbidding and producing character of
biopower. Women supervise themselves to conform to the norms, fearing that their
lack of conformity will lead to social sanctions such as loneliness and social
exclusion. While they have positive attitudes towards resisting biopower and are
willing to resist some norms, in the end they find it difficult to overcome all the
disciplinary norms they are subjected to".
Feel free to contact me for more information.
The original thesis, complete with the interviewed women's profiles, methodology, interview quotes and analysis can be downloaded from the Lund University archive: http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=24923&postid=3990921 . Beware, its 66 pages!
And here is an abstract:
"The purpose of this thesis was to explore gender norms, beauty ideals and social
practices and the way these become ‘visible’ on the Japanese female body as
(re)producing the ideal Japanese femininity and skin color in particular. In order to
achieve that, I investigate and identify these norms, the mechanisms that implement
them on the body and the attitudes and expression of resistance against them. The
concept of biopower is used to explain the above process and findings. The research
used both secondary and primary data that was retrieved through eleven deep
interviews and participant observation, during two months of fieldwork in Japan in
2013. As the effects of power on the gendered body become central in this research,
gender and Foucauldian theoretical perspectives were used to analyse the data. During
the analysis I found patterns in the women’s opinions, enabling me to answer my
research questions. The study found the main norms to maintain that Japanese women
have a unique Japanese skin that should be baby soft, ‘white’ and fair, should have
natural beauty, look young and innocent, behave in a cute way, avoid conflict or
standing out and be subservient to men. The mechanism of implementation of these
norms is self-surveillance, based on the forbidding and producing character of
biopower. Women supervise themselves to conform to the norms, fearing that their
lack of conformity will lead to social sanctions such as loneliness and social
exclusion. While they have positive attitudes towards resisting biopower and are
willing to resist some norms, in the end they find it difficult to overcome all the
disciplinary norms they are subjected to".
Feel free to contact me for more information.
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