Towards a Biopolitics of Beauty: Eugenics, Aesthetic Hierarchies and Plastic Surgery in Brazil

Jarrín, Alvaro

doi:10.1080/13569325.2015.1091296

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…As a response to concerns, along with a consumer drive for more ethical behaviour from businesses, there is rising enthusiasm for advertising which portrays women in more equitable and empowered ways (Baxter, Kulczynski and Ilicic 2016;Chu, Lee, and Kim 2016;Åkestam, Rosengren and Dahlen 2017;Champlin et al 2019;Royle 2019). 'Gender-positive' advertising makes ood business sense, with audiences having favourable responses to brands that promote Bocayuva 2001;Parker 2009;Edmonds 2009;Jarrin 2015) and contribute to the domination of sexism in the cultural sphere (Glick et al 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female role portrayals in Brazilian advertising: are outdated cultural stereotypes preventing change?

Middleton

Turnbull

Oliveira

2019

International Journal of Advertising

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The use of female stereotypes in advertising is damaging to women and society. In this study we examine how creative practitioners construct stereotypes within creative decision-making. In an era of brand social responsibility, it is important that advertising supports gender equality by using positive portrayals rather than harmful stereotypes. Hence, identifying and reporting on stereotyping that is negative is important to effect change in advertising practices. The study considers the influence of local cultural norms on stereotypes and finds that in Brazil, traditional conceptions of the role of women dominate creative decision-making. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews with advertising creative practitioners in Brazil, the research reveals their mental models of female stereotypes. Six distinct female stereotypes are elucidated: Housewife, Trophy, Sexual Object, Sexually Powerful, Professional and Object of Beauty. These stereotypes shape how females are depicted in Brazilian advertising. The identification of Trophy and Sexually Powerful stereotypes are novel within the extant literature. We recommend Brazilian creative practitioners seek to connect better with their female audiences in the future by representing them more equitably. However, this will require the support of advertising agency leaders to deliver training programmes that will eliminate practitioners' inherent biases. gender equality and empowerment (Association of National Advertisers 2017; Facebook Business 2017; Unstereotype Alliance 2018). In recent years, there have been notable examples of successful, breakthrough campaigns, which challenge female stereotypes (for example,

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female role portrayals in Brazilian advertising: are outdated cultural stereotypes preventing change?

Middleton

Turnbull

Oliveira

2019

International Journal of Advertising

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“…In line with Jarrin's (2015) work on the biopolitics of body modification, where surgery is seen as a tool for leveraging social worth, we see how cosmetic proceduresmore than vain impulsescan become a necessity in people's lives.…”

Section: Conspicuous Body-projects and The Reframing Of Painmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…There is a need to broaden our horizons to also consider young male consumers in future studies on cosmetic surgery as the field remains predominantly preoccupied with women (BAAPS, 2019). Moreover, race, class and colonial dynamics remain significant factors propelling cosmetic surgery, made evident in Jarrin's (2015) vivid account of Brazilian public service surgery as a form of aesthetic eugenics. Although early research on the adoption of cosmetic surgery pointed to the privileging of hegemonic, Western (read: white) appearances, where other ethnicities attempt to "fashion a Caucasian look", recent studies caution us against this cultural simplification (Elias et al, 2017, p. 11).…”

Section: Concluding Thoughts -Instagram As Lip Servicementioning

confidence: 99%

“Is it all just lip service?”: on Instagram and the normalisation of the cosmetic servicescape

Rodner

Goode

Burns

2021

JSM

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Purpose To better understand the uptake of cosmetic procedures in the wake of Instagram, this study aims to unravel how the aesthetic labour of influencers acts as the packaging of the cosmetic servicescape. In doing so, the authors contribute to theorising of aesthetic and emotional labour within the services marketing literature, fleshing out the bodywork of influential others not as employees but endorsers, who act like the “walking billboards” (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003) for the cosmetic service industry. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a dual qualitative approach to data collection, coupling netnographic material from Instagram posts with 16 in-depth interviews with female Instagram users who have undergone or hope to undergo cosmetic surgery. Using mediated discourse analysis, the authors weave their visual and discursive data together for a richer account of the commoditisation of cosmetic surgery. Findings Adopting a postfeminist neoliberal lens, where women are viewed as aesthetic entrepreneurs who are constantly working on the body and the self, the findings of the study reveal how influencers’ aesthetic and emotional labour help package, propagate and demystify the cosmetic servicescape. Through their visual storytelling, we see how influencers help endorse (local) cosmetic services; commoditise cosmetic procedures through the conspicuous display of their ongoing body projects whilst masking the labour and pain involved; and how face-filters that use augmented reality (AR) technology foster new forms of (digitised) body dysmorphia. Originality/value The authors shed light on the darker side of social media and body-enhancing technologies, where tales of body transformation trivialise cosmetic intervention and AR technology induces a digitised body dysmorphia.

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“…In Brazil, there is a racially mixed ideal defined in part by a curvier body shape. But this exists alongside a thinner ideal that some maintain is “associate[d] with a more distinguished taste” (Jarrín, 2015, p. 547). More importantly, it is far from clear that there has been any change at all for ideals of facial beauty, with unmixed blackness still considered the most unattractive 51 .…”

Section: V2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Integration and the Problem of Relational Devaluation

Matthew

2021

Dialogue

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This article argues that blacks should reject integration on self-protective and solidarity grounds. It distinguishes two aspects of black devaluation: a ‘stigmatization’ aspect that has to do with the fact that blacks are subject to various forms of discrimination, and an aesthetic aspect (‘phenotypic devaluation’) that concerns the aesthetic devaluation of characteristically black phenotypic traits. It identifies four self-worth harms that integration may inflict, and suggests that these may outweigh the benefits of integration. Further, it argues that, while the integrating process may reduce stigmatization, there is less reason to think that it can do the same for phenotypic devaluation.

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Towards a Biopolitics of Beauty: Eugenics, Aesthetic Hierarchies and Plastic Surgery in Brazil

Cited by 17 publications

References 16 publications

Female role portrayals in Brazilian advertising: are outdated cultural stereotypes preventing change?

Female role portrayals in Brazilian advertising: are outdated cultural stereotypes preventing change?

“Is it all just lip service?”: on Instagram and the normalisation of the cosmetic servicescape

Racial Integration and the Problem of Relational Devaluation

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