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Loading... Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aestheticsby Laura Miller
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Excellent book on Japanese concepts of beauty by Laura Miller. She is a linguist, but has written some great pieces on girl's culture in Japan. In this work Miller subjected herself to a wide range of beauty treatments, to experience it first hand. It makes for both an entertaining and educational read. She also provides a more interesting take on Japanese concepts of beauty than the often repeated "they are emulating the west" phrase, that we get so often. The book is informative both when it comes to beauty practices used by individuals and strategies employed by the beauty industry. no reviews | add a review
This engaging introduction to Japan's burgeoning beauty culture investigates a wide range of phenomenon-aesthetic salons, dieting products, male beauty activities, and beauty language-to find out why Japanese women and men are paying so much attention to their bodies. Laura Miller uses social science and popular culture sources to connect breast enhancements, eyelid surgery, body hair removal, nipple bleaching, and other beauty work to larger issues of gender ideology, the culturally-constructed nature of beauty ideals, and the globalization of beauty technologies and standards. Her sophisticated treatment of this timely topic suggests that new body aesthetics are not forms of "deracializiation" but rather innovative experimentation with identity management. While recognizing that these beauty activities are potentially a form of resistance, Miller also considers the commodification of beauty, exploring how new ideals and technologies are tying consumers even more firmly to an ever-expanding beauty industry. By considering beauty in a Japanese context, Miller challenges widespread assumptions about the universality and naturalness of beauty standards. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306.4Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Culture and Institutions Specific aspects of cultureLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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The beauty industry does so in a way that is not so much about creating an atmosphere of pampering, but rather like progress measurement and control, as if you were in a Toyota plant rather than a beauty parlour. During every treatment the hard selling techniques are combined with measurement of results to prove the value of the treatment.
The author also describes how the industry combines exotic images (be it European or Asian) with Japanese modern technology to legitimise self-indulgence. In the mean time the industry creates and/or reflects changing attitudes towards beauty, with the neck losing out in sexiness against “hypermammary fixation” and slimness.
The last chapter about the evolution of the English language in the beauty industry to evocate ideas very different from the words’ original meaning is interesting in itself. ( )