Class & Beauty

Class & Beauty

The cost of blow dryers shows the complicated relationship of the cost of beauty.

In Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power by Sandra Lee Bartky, Bartky builds off Foucault’s idea of self-surveillance (Bartky, 2010, p. 76) and suggests that women use self-surveillance against themselves through modes such as dieting and makeup, to fit ideal beauty standards (Bartky, 2010, p. 80, 85). Bartky then goes on to state that “there is little evidence that women of color or working class women are in general less committed to the incarnation of an ideal femininity than their more privileged sisters; this is not to deny the many ways in which factors of race, class, locality, ethnicity, or personal taste can be expressed within the kinds of practice” (Bartky, 2010, p.86).

Bartky makes a generalization that all women have the ability of self-surveillance. Bartky mentions that “many women are without the time and resources to provide themselves with even the minimum of what such a regimen requires, for example a decent diet” (Bartky, 2010, p.86). But fails to expand or bring it into context of how low-income women or women in poverty are unable to have the privilege of self-surveillance, if they do not have the resources or time. Bartky brushes over the idea that self-surveillance is a privilege that is related to class. When women’s bodies are analyzed by academics there needs to be a greater focus on the intersectionality beyond race and the upper and middle class. There needs to be more focus on those who are in poverty. These groups of women are often overlooked and therefore their ideas of femininity and beauty are understudied.

1 in 7 women in the United States live in poverty, which equates to about 15% of the United States population (National Women's Law Center, 2015). These numbers show that women in poverty are a large population, which further shows that there is a need for understanding them. Poverty is determined by a threshold set by the United States government. These thresholds are determined by the amount of people in household and their incomes. At Poverty Thresholds you can see the poverty thresholds (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015).

One of the claims Bartky makes in showing women use self-surveillance against themselves is through diet and exercise (Bartky, 2010, p. 81). While Bartky mentions that not all women have the ability to have a decent diet (Bartky, 2010, p. 86) she does not provide an alternative way for women in poverty to shape their bodies. Even if we try to use exercise as a claim to women in poverty shaping their bodies there are still vast generalizations within this claim such as that women have the time, women have a car to get to a gym, or women live in a safe place where they could take walks around their neighborhood. At this point it is hard to show that Bartky’s claims are applicable to all women regardless of class. It would instead seem that only certain women in classes can attain these self-surveillance goals.

Bartky also claims that women are fixated on their skin (Bartky, 2010, p.84) but again this claim fails to understand how poverty would complicate these ideas of self-surveillance. How are women supposed to afford skin care products and put in the time associated with these regimes when they are working multiple jobs, have limited access to water - such as those who live in isolated mountain regions, or are barely able to afford food to put on the table and pay rent, let alone afford the apricot face scrub even if it is CVS brand.

Bartky tries to make the claim that class doesn’t matter, but it really does. Class, specifically poverty, pokes holes in her ideas. Poverty limits women’s abilities to self-surveillance because they do not have the money or time.

Women in poverty do not have the privilege to self-surveillance, so their ideal beauty standards might look different depending on their ability to afford altering one's body. This poses the question that, does self-surveillance look different for those in poverty?

It seems as though there is a disconnect between beauty standards for different groups of people based on income. If one does not have access then what they strive for is different. In my previous experience in Central Appalachia, a region of high rates of poverty, ideas of beauty are different because these women understand their financial and time constraints. This means that not all women are striving for the same idea of beauty and maybe not all women are even striving for an idea because they simply realize they can not. I witnessed in my job that women wear the same clothes everyday because they do not have access to laundry machines unless they go into town, they do not have the ability to bathe everyday because they do not have a water heater, and women are more likely to spend their money on their children, not themselves.

I think this analysis draws on larger issues that class is often an overlooked population of people. Studying how class is related to women’s perceptions about their bodies and ability to have self-surveillance would be interesting. Unfortunately few, if any (I couldn’t find any) articles or websites explain how class affects beauty standards. Instead, article after article, such as Beauty and Wages: The Effect of Attractiveness on Income show that beauty standards affect class (Gvozdenodic, 2013). Physical attractiveness, (hair, clothing, and skin) have greater incomes (Gvozdenodic, 2013). Articles do not touch on how women must alter their beauty standards if they can not afford the same ones as those who are more privileged.

Women in poverty do not have the privilege of self-surveillance like Bartky claims. Women who live in poverty might have different modes of self-surveillance but at this point it is unclear what those might be. It is fair to say though ideas of beauty constrain and continue the cycle of poverty because they do not get paid as much as those who are able to “afford to look good”. Looks are not only biological but economic as well.   

Citations:

Bartky, S.L. Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power. In Weitz, R. (Eds.), The Politics of Women's Bodies (76-97). New York: Oxford University Press.

Gvozdenodic, V. (2013).  Beauty and Wages: The Effect of Physical Attractiveness on Income Using Longitudinal Data. Retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/honorscollege_theses/128

National Women's Law Center. (2015). Analysis of 2014 Census Poverty Data. Retrieved from: https://nwlc.org/resources/nwlc-analysis-2014-census-poverty-data/

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2015). Poverty Guidelines. Retrieved from: https://aspe.hhs.gov/2015-poverty-guidelines#threshholds