Middle Class Muslim Women and Beauty Industry

Abstract

This research examines disciplining the body of middle-class Muslim women by the beauty industry through halal cosmetics using an ethnomethodology approach. Several theories are employed in this research including the theory of sociology of body, gender perspective and the concept of capitalism. Results indicates that manipulation of the beauty industry places women as active consumers but remains passive at the same time because it cannot fight the flow of legitimacy of this body. The dependence of middle-class Muslim women on beauty products shows that women are now fully under the control of the beauty industry regime which continues to direct the discourse of beauty and women's appearance needs. The beauty of middle-class Muslim women has now been reproduced and discourse uniformly by the beauty industry through halal cosmetics. The implications of this research are this study is expected to contribute information and enrich the repertoire of social science especially sociology also for the development of research on women body, middle class and gender studies.