This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Craig, M. L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Race, beauty, and the tangled knot of a guilty pleasure

California State University, East Bay

Recent feminist theory has attempted to bring considerations of women’s agency into analyses of the meaning and consequence of beauty norms in women’s lives. This article argues that these works have often been limited by their use of individualist frameworks or by their neglect of considerations of race and class. In this article I draw upon examples of African-American utilization of beauty discourse and practices in collective efforts to resist racism. I argue that there is no singular beauty standard enforced by a unified male gaze. Instead, we should conceive of fields in which differently located individuals and groups invest in and promote particular ways of seeing beauty, producing both penalties and pleasures in women’s lives.

Key Words: African-Americans • beauty • class • racial rearticulation • racism • representation

Feminist Theory, Vol. 7, No. 2, 159-177 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1464700106064414


CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. Barber The Well-Coiffed Man: Class, Race, and Heterosexual Masculinity in the Hair Salon Gender Society, August 1, 2008; 22(4): 455 - 476. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. Pedwell Weaving relational webs: Theorizing cultural difference and embodied practice Feminist Theory, April 1, 2008; 9(1): 87 - 107. [Abstract] [PDF]