Feminine Beauty Research Articles

Orara as a symbol of feminine beauty and meekness in select novels of Igbo female writers

The similitude that exists in the depiction of the major characters of pioneer Nigerian female writers (who are, incidentally, Igbo) tasks the mind as it reflects on a possible cause of this semblance. This paper located a double pronged characteristic that is shared by all the major characters in the works under study – one of beauty and gentle spirit. These features have a symbolic significance (Ọrara) in an Igbo sub-culture (Mbaise). Ọrara, a snake, is one of the symbols in Mbari representing feminine beauty and meekness in repressed strength – traits that womanism upholds. Text analysis, oral tradition and interviews provide points that aid the study of the relationship between these concepts – female characters, Ọrara and womanism. It is deduced that the identical characterization in the works of Igbo female writers - Nwapa’s Efuru and Idu; Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood and The Bride Price; and Okoye’s Behind the Clouds and Chimere - has its root in the writers’ re-creation of the real experiences of the ordinary woman in the Igbo society whose natural reactions to her plight gravitates more to the womanist than the feminist angle, producing traits that are similar to those of Ọrara. And while womanism is not new in relation to the study of the works of Igbo female writers, it has not been studied against a significant symbol in the Igbo tradition. Ọrara is, thus, seen as the ideological locus for womanism and may be put under further scrutiny to establish it as the muse of Igbo female writers.
 Key Words: Womanism, Characters, Beauty, Meekness, Symbol, Ọrara, Igbo.

Women’s Experiences of the Premenstrual Body: Negotiating Body Shame, Self-Objectification, and Menstrual Shame

Women’s body dissatisfaction and shame has been found to increase in the premenstrual phase of the cycle and to be associated with premenstrual distress. However, the factors involved remain little understood. In the present study, 116 women completed an online survey including standardized measures of premenstrual distress, body shame, menstrual shame, and self-objectification, and open-ended questions about premenstrual embodiment. Eight participants completed a semi-structured interview. Significant positive correlations were found between premenstrual distress, body shame, and menstrual shame. Self-objectification was significantly negatively correlated with body shame. Thematic analysis identified internalization and resistance of unrealistic cultural constructions of feminine beauty, concealment of the body, and reduced engagement in body-management behaviors. The implications of the findings for understanding women’s premenstrual distress and embodiment are discussed.

Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of Snapchat

Abstract What happens when the fashionable beauty ideal ‐ typically considered unattainable ‐ becomes instantly attainable for the masses with the mere tap of a touchscreen? As the widespread use of Snapchat's popular but problematic Lenses has shown, responses are mixed and critiques abound. The social media platform Snapchat introduced Lenses ‐ commonly known as face filters ‐ in 2015. These filters apply virtual accessories and edit facial features, enabling users to incorporate augmented reality technology into their daily sartorial practice. Through this 'digital adornment' users experiment with creativity and self-expression, as with cosmetics and clothing, while forging social connections. However, Snapchat's filters frequently spark controversy by slimming the jawlines and noses, enlarging the eyes and lips, and smoothing and lightening the complexions of millions of users. These effects have caused users to consider the powers of self-fashioning and question the standard of beauty being presented. By examining the observations and opinions presented in the online fashion, tech and news media, this study explores the problematic nature of Snapchat's beautifying filters. It traces users' dismay at how Snapchat, originally praised as a space for authentic, unfiltered self-presentation, became a force for aggressively perpetuating fashionable but exclusionary beauty ideals. It presents the range of reactions to these face-perfecting filters, from satisfaction and guilt to insecurity and body dysmorphia. It also explores the connection between face filters, cosmetics and feminine beauty ideals in a celebrity-led, self-image-saturated culture, with reference to brand-sponsored filters.

Cultural globalization and young Korean women’s acculturative labor: K-beauty as hegemonic hybridity

This article aims to understand how young Korean women respond to the changing ideals of K-beauty, a form of gender imagery embodied by Korean pop celebrities, when such ideals become exported as global cultural products. The findings reveal that K-beauty is characterized by three paradoxical themes: manufactured naturalness, hyper-sexualized cuteness, and the ‘harmonious kaleidoscope’. When we unravel these paradoxes further, we observe that they provoke unsettlement and ambivalence among young Korean women, who shed light on the acculturative labors of concealment, selective resistance, and compliance that permeate the field of K-beauty. We argue that through these new layers of women’s work, the paradoxes in beauty are re-domesticated, the globalizing Western dictates are brought into alignment with neo-Confucian cultural ideology, and a new hybridized hegemonic regime of feminine beauty becomes established.

Taking down the sacred: fuck-me vs. fuck-you celebrity

ABSTRACTI argue that we must talk about fucking in order to dissect the tangle of power, gender and sex that has upheld Hollywood-built celebrity. Celebrity has always been a machinery of desire organised around acts as well as fantasies of fucking, which processes of medial sublimation turn into the aura of the sacred. In the spirit of desublimation and desecration, I make a distinction between fuck-me and fuck-you celebrity, drawing on examples such as Caitlyn Jenner, Tess Holliday and Rose McGowan. Whereas fuck-me celebrity abides by standards of feminine beauty, fuck-you celebrity openly addresses sex and power. In the post-Weinstein era, it may be that the celebrity system, which has heavily favoured the fuck-me over the fuck-you, is beginning to shift.

Effects of six weeks donkey kick and squat resistance exercises on gluteal adiposity, muscle strength, and muscle bulk of young Nigerian female adults: A randomized controlled trial

Background: Rounded protruding gluteus has been asserted to be an important feature of feminine beauty and self-image. Currently, there is large influx of gymnasiums to achieve this end as claimed by gym operators amid the dearth in literature to support their claims. Aim: The aim of this study was to provide an empirical evidence to support or disprove claims about the effectiveness of resistance training exercises such as squats and donkey kick on the gluteal muscles. Materials and Methods: Randomized controlled trial involving 111 young females, aged 18–30 years, were equally assigned into the squat group (SG), donkey kick group (DKG), and control group (CG) using table of random numbers method. Outcomes, such as gluteal muscle strength (GMS), gluteal muscle bulk (GMB), and gluteal adiposity (GA), were assessed at baseline, third week, and sixth week and analyzed descriptively and inferentially (α = 0.05). Result: The post-intervention across group comparison revealed a significant difference in right (F = 4.829, P = 0.010) and left (F = 7.252, P = 0.001) GA, right (F = 12.467, P < 0.0001) and left (F = 10.235, P < 0.0001) GMS, and in the GMB (F = 8.280, P = 0.001). The post hoc test showed that the SG had the most profound effect in increasing GMS and GMB, whereas the DKG had a superlative effect on GA. Conclusion: Six weeks resistant training using squats and donkey kick can be used to improve gluteal muscle characteristic by building GMB, GMS and reducing GA of young female adults.

Sexy a morir. Belleza y putrefacción en Enrique Metinides

The article explores the complex relationship between beauty and degradation as well as the shock and morbid fascination both cause when being presented simultaneously. This exploration is carried out on the basis of the detailed analysis of Adela Legarreta Rivas is run over (1979), one of the most well-known photographs of Enrique Metinides (Mexico, 1934). This photograph, an iconic piece given its composition and reception in the visual tradition, portrays the body of a woman. A cleanly presented body, without the obvious and common marks of trauma caused by a tragic death, in compliance with feminine beauty standards, whose image is studied here in the light of the apparent contradiction between the form and the object of visual articulation.

Seksualizacja dzieciństwa. Wybrane aspekty

This paper presents an overview of issues related to the problem of child sexualisation in the context of exposing children to sexualised images of teenagers and adults, especially in the context of promoting feminine beauty ideals as well as styling young girls as adults and giving them an erotic character. As a framework the definition of sexualisation developed by the APA was used. Possible consequences of sexualisation were discussed based on a review of previously published studies.

The feminist politics of choice: lipstick as a marketplace icon

ABSTRACT Lipstick has been a dominant beauty practice across cultures and throughout history. Once deemed a sign of Satan, a potential health risk, and even an illegal product, lipstick has experienced centuries of controversy to secure its status as a marketplace icon – albeit a polarising one. Liberating to some; limiting to others. How have such tensions shaped lipstick’s cultural meanings? By examining lipstick’s gendered history, we highlight how lipstick reflects contested feminist politics of choice – regarded as playful and deliberately chosen as well as fostering appearance-based expectations based on idealised feminine beauty. We highlight how lipstick gives rise to tensions between empowerment and oppression across three main themes: self-expression and choice, privilege and choice, and morality and choice. We conclude that for lipstick to be pleasurable and freely chosen, it must first be decoupled from patriarchal standards of ideal feminine beauty for women.

“She Was Proud of Her Build”: Fat and Tradition in the No 1. Ladies’ Detective Agency Series

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the representation of fat in the HBO and BBC No 1. Ladies’ Detective Agency TV series, assessing, amongst other concerns, whether the depiction of the series’ heroine Mma Ramotswe as a proudly “overweight” or fat-positive character is dependent on the Western and Hollywoodian portrayal of a naïve, utopian, and exotically “other” Botswana. While Mma Ramotswe is of “traditional build” and proud of that, she must navigate the changes in notions of feminine beauty in Postcolonial Botswana, which are moving from curvaceous and dark to a more Eurocentric look. The TV series negotiates the tension between Mma Ramotswe’s traditional build and the thinness regime, skilfully using the visual elements of television to offer its own interpretation of the series’ heroine. Jill Scott, who plays Mma Ramotswe, reports wearing a fat suit for the series, but the actress’ beauty, the colorful dresses, headscarves, and earrings worn by the TV character, and the regal way in which she carries herself, create a confident, voluptuous and even sensual look that strengthens the image of a woman who is truly comfortable in her body. Though voices in the series reinforce the ideal of thinness, the heroine resists all attempts to discipline her body and offers a countermodel for a fulfilled and satisfied woman.

Seeing Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind with Fresh Eyes

By examining the ways in which Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone With the Wind (and the character of Scarlett O’Hara specifically) contests heteronormative, patriarchal, masculine constructions of Southern (ideal) femininity, this essay argues that Scarlett’s “ugliness” forces us to widen our perspective on Southern feminine beauty and purity and contributes to challenging the tropes of white Southern masculinity and femininity. The presentation of Scarlett is worthy of note because of the way it demonstrates the terrains of feminine difference and ugliness as complex (and enduring) fields for discussion.

Delicate resurgence and divine embodiment: conceptual photographic portraits of women’s divine beauty

In this article concepts of divine beauty through studio photographic portraits, digitally manipulated including composite image layering are explored. Historically, feminine beauty has maintained a prominent place in society; however, recent research suggests a majority of women are dissatisfied with their appearance and view themselves negatively as a result of continuous exposure of unrealistic beauty ideals in media . For some women, an unhealthy attitude has developed leading to dramatic increases in female cosmetic surgeries. The feminine beauty “ideal” is ever-changing, and Peg Barand recognises the appeal for a new direction in recent research. The revival of the concept of Divine Beauty is a response to increasing pressure of unachievable expectations overwhelming women. Divine beauty is beyond the physical and associated with God, aesthetics and nature. The author's photographic series challenges modern Western attitudes of feminine beauty through a series of photographic portraits. Placement of objects such as flowers and butterflies have been used as props to signify divine beauty throughout the images. This series aims to portray a concept of feminine beauty as divine and seeks to question and offer insight into feminine aesthetics in the 21st century.

The Effects of Abdominal Therapy on Quality of Life and Body Image: Focusing on extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) and manipulative therapy

This study attempted to investigate the effects of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) and manipulative therapy on aesthetic factors &#8211; obesity-related quality of life and body image. For this, the therapies were given a total of 12 times to 45 middle-aged women with abdominal obesity (BMI: 23kg/ ㎡ or higher, WHR: 0.80 or higher, waist circumference: 80cm or greater) aged 35-59 living in Busan and Gyeongnam. According to analysis using SPSS 20.0, compared to manipulative therapy, the ESWT improved the obesity-related quality of life (F=79.828, p<0.001) and had a positive influence on appearance evaluation (F=136.554, p<0.001), health evaluation (F=19.912, p<0.001), appearance orientation (F=57.377, p<0.001), fitness orientation F=5.527, p=0.023), health orientation (F=31.061, p<0.001), preoccupation with being overweight (F=68.407, p<0.001) and body area satisfaction (F=133.102, p<0.001). In fitness evaluation and self-classification weight, there were no differences between the two groups. In addition, test subjects were satisfied with the abdominal care and realized its necessity regardless of how high or low the obesity-related quality of life/body image was. It’s anticipated that the study results would be available as evidence-based effective data that has considered an aesthetic aspect referring to the pursuit of feminine beauty.

Brown Beauty: Color, Sex and Race from the Harlem Renaissance to World War II by Laila Haidarali

Reviewed by: Brown Beauty: Color, Sex and Race from the Harlem Renaissance to World War II by Laila Haidarali Kenya Davis-Hayes BROWN BEAUTY: Color, Sex and Race from the Harlem Renaissance to World War II. By Laila Haidarali. New York: New York University Press. 2018. In an age in which cosmetic lines such as Fenty and Lancôme are seeking out an expansion of shades catering to black women, modern society seems to be making strides towards the embrace of brown skin. Brown-ness in all its glory has recently crept its way into mainstream America as a viable aspect of the national beauty terrain. This growing acceptance of the broad spectrum of beauty within the black community, specifically of black women, has been a fraught journey throughout American history. From the creation of American slavery to today, black women's appearance has been derided and legislated against; lampooned and constructed as the hideous antipole to white feminine beauty. Historically, all things black reflected the worst of humanity and the human experience. It is this historical reality that makes Laila Haidarali's text—Brown Beauty: Color, Sex and Race from the Harlem Renaissance to World War II very compelling. Nestled between America's post-Reconstruction racial nadir and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, Haidarali outlines the efforts and complexities of the black community's quest towards aesthetic legitimacy and value. Not yet having entered into the mainstream rhetoric of "Black is Beautiful," academics, authors and advertisers espoused the concept of "Brownness." In Haidarali's words, the text explores "brown beauty as a consumerist discourse that held powerful sway over the public imagining of African American women" (18). Between the 1920s and the end of World War II, the rising black middle class both utilized and was wooed by the more acceptable coding of dark skin through the use of the word "brown" to sell products, find interest in products and to promote themselves as respectable members of society. Haidarali interestingly maps the full scope of the utilization of "brownness" for the furtherance of the black community. Advocates for the betterment of the black community like Elise Johnson McDougald capitalized upon their own fair-skinned brown complexion to promote the skills and employability of black New Yorkers. She also became the first black principal in the New York Public School District thus leading to extensive coverage of her achievement in the New York City press. Stories regarding the rise of McDougald commented as much upon her complexion as her achievement thus leading her to reflect a changing expectation of "New Negro Womanhood." In Haidarali's words, images like McDougald's "appeared to embody the very qualities that were routinely denied to African American women: beauty, educated accomplishment and middle-class status" (53). As individuals worked to shift popular images of black womanhood, black entrepreneurs also invested the notion of brown for both social uplift and economic gain. Companies like the National Negro Doll Company sold attractive "brown skin" dolls for black girls. Contrasting more commonly found white dolls or unattractive black rag dolls, the NNDC imbued a sense of respectability into its young patronesses through the utilization of the word "brown." The text goes on to explore the "reliance on the verbal language of brown as a racial marker in advertising text"(80). In tandem, black women artists and poets worked to appropriate the word "brown" thus granting it a fuller, more human, meaning complete with self-acceptance and positive sexual undertones. Haidarali canvasses the works of Anita Scott Coleman, Helene Johnson, Angelina Weld Grimke [End Page 85] and others who assert the brownness of black women in truly celebratory tones. During the Harlem Renaissance, Grimke penned, "Brown girl/ You smile/And in your great eyes. . .I see little bells." In the hands of black women poets, the word "brown" superseded advocacy and advertisements and became a term for black feminine acceptance and joy. By the end of WWII, the black middle class had fully established the concept of "brownness," as found in printed texts, advertisements and popular literature, as a representation of decades-long efforts towards propriety and respectability. Those able to fully embrace the term and...

International beauty pageants and the construction of hegemonic images of female beauty

Binaries like ‘beauty/ugliness’ or ‘fair/dark’ are ideological images driving the world market for beauty products. How are these images created? How far is the process of construction of these images influenced by socio-political and economic hegemonies? This paper addresses these research questions by deploying a qualitative dominant ‘Mixed Research Methodology’ and ‘Inductive Research Approach’. The paper is based on secondary data on titleholders of a major beauty pageant held during the 50 year period from 1967 to 2017. The data was analyzed using the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) method. The research discovered that 68% of titleholders are from peripheral/semi-peripheral countries such as India and Venezuela. Further, the researchers found that the physical features of these non-European titleholders from the peripheral states closely resemble western Caucasian ‘white’ woman, conforming to ideal standards of western feminine beauty. On the other hand, ironically, 95% of branded beauty products are manufactured and distributed by multinational companies with headquarters in developed countries. Accordingly, the research concludes that the women chosen as the world’s most beautiful females display core characteristics of ‘stereotypical western feminine beauty standards’ and thereby, resemble a ‘fantasy model of feminine beauty’ conceptualized by a regime of ‘white men’, projecting its economic and political influence on the world stage. The fact that most titleholders are chosen from peripheral/semi-peripheral countries may be driven by a capitalist commercial project in which economies in the world dominant core countries have created a lucrative market for their beauty products in peripheral countries. Thus, this paper argues that the ideology and practice of international beauty pageants are shaped by the twin processes of global capitalism and world cultural-political hegemony.

장 마리 플로슈(Jean-Marie Floch) 이론에 의한 20세기 패션마네킹 컨셉의 소비가치

The purpose of this study was to analyze the implications of an intentional fashion mannequin concept by displaying a Western women’s clothing in the 20th century, which is based on the type of Floch’s consumption value. This present study uses the method of literature study. The results of this study were as follows. The concept of fashion mannequin was analyzed by practical, existential, critical, and playful values based on Floch’s consumption value theory. The following are the features of each value. Practical value is characterized by usability, convenience, and comfort. In the fashion mannequin concept, the image is focused on the natural appearance of everyday life. Existential value is characterized by identity and symbolism, which manifests itself in a form that presents an ideal female image in the concept of fashion mannequin. Critical value emphasizes fashion rather than ideal image formation through fashion mannequins. Amusement value emphasizes non-practicality, sexual pursuit and amusement as opposed to axiological values. As a result of a timely examination and analysis of the concept of fashion mannequins, two characteristics were derived in the development of practical, existential, critical, and entertainment values. First, in the expression of fashion mannequin, the development of these values minimizes the gap between reality and illusion by expressing things as if they have a life. Second, this development promotes the stereotype change of the feminine beauty of the fashion mannequin.

Sisters in the Shadows: an Examination of Prince’s “Strange Relationship” with Black Women

Many have been obsessed with the women in Prince’s life since his purple reign began in the early 1980s. Following his shocking passing, special tribute publication and countless websites featured articles on the women in Prince’s life. However, mainstream media presentations of “Prince’s women” have focused heavily on White, Latina, and mixed-race women. Black women, who are an undeniable part of Prince’s legacy, have been almost nonexistent in these publications. The exclusion of these women from Prince discourse has served to perpetuate hegemonic notions of feminine beauty while also contributing to a persistent misconception that Prince practiced colorism. However, to accept this belief, one most ignore the numerous Black women of all hues with whom Prince associated. Therefore, this article seeks to add these women to ongoing Prince discourse. In doing so, it seeks to challenge assumptions regarding his relationship with Black women and to interrogate why these assumptions are so readily accepted. Finally, in dismantling the narrative of colorism that has dogged Prince’s life and work, this article intends to situate Prince’s support of Black women as an indisputable example of his love of not only Black women but of his own Blackness and the Black community.

Fashion and the femmes tondues: Lee Miller, Vogue and representing Liberation France

This article will examine representations of the Liberation of France in the war reports of Lee Miller, an accredited photographer and correspondent for American and British Vogue during the Second World War. Miller’s frontline reports framed Liberation France in idealised images of feminine beauty and elegance, making use of fashion as a primary conduit for understanding the war and occupation for readers on the home front. As this article will argue, examining Miller’s choices and perspective as a female photographer sheds new light on the intersection of fashion, war photography and the female body. In Miller’s work, fashion becomes a site for imagining liberation in ways that foreground the gendering of war experience and the legacies of conflict for women. By charting Miller’s representations of French women at the Liberation, and above all the chastised figure of the femme tondue, this article will analyse how French women function as carriers of multiple messages about war, liberation and reconstruction in Miller’s work. Unlike the sensationalist images of the femmes tondues published in the British picture press and newspapers in the summer of 1944, Miller’s war reports in Vogue construct an empathic relationship with such underprivileged female subjects. Miller’s work opens a space, therefore, for speculation on the role of fashion in shaping how the Second World War was understood by a first generation of female memory producers and consumers.

Belleza, "venustà" y virtud: De la "bella donna anonima" al retrato de la esposa virtuosa en la Venecia de inicios del Cinquecento

Algunas imágenes femeninas de inicios del Cinquencento veneciano han sido objeto de diversas interpretaciones. Por un lado la apariencia física de cuadros como la Flora o la Bella de Tiziano, ha llevado a algunos investigadores a defender que son una materialización de la Belleza misma. Por otro lado, se ha interpretado su iconografía específica como propia de una joven esposa, considerándolas en su mayoría retratos pero eludiendo el papel de su apariencia considerada hermosa. En el presente artículo se detallará la pluralidad semántica de la belleza femenina representada, como parte clave del discurso de virtud del retrato de una perfecta esposa.

Sports, physical practice, and the female body, 1980–1989: women’s emancipation in Romania under communism

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the promotion and practice of physical exercise and sport in relation to social class and the shifting roles of women in communist-governed Romania during the 1980s. Since sport played a central role in communist ideology, especially as a means of maintaining a healthy and growing workforce, the government encouraged physical activity through gymnastics at work (in the form of “production gymnastics”), in public wellness centers, and at home. In this study, the authors trace societal shifts related to changing policies and laws through corresponding shifts in the representation of female bodies engaged in sport and exercise by the media. Content analysis of Romanian magazine and newspaper articles published during the 1980s reveals how group physical exercises, such as maintenance gymnastics, were promoted to working-class women and how images of women became increasingly feminized and sexualized, thereby reinforcing new norms of feminine beauty.