Description
Book SynopsisThe ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.
In an era of hyper visuality, service-based labour markets, consumer culture, and times of uncertainty, physical appearance plays an increasingly important role in producing and reinforcing social inequalities. Taking a sociological approach, the authors of Appearance as Capital examine physical appearance as a normatively regulated form of capital and explore how it is possible to accumulate and convert capital based on physical appearance. The chapters examine how norms of accumulating and converting aesthetic capital intertwine with gender, age and other forms of capital and play a role in shaping inequalities.
Demonstrating how different cultural, institutional, group-specific and situational norms regulate the possibilities of accumulating and converting aesthetic capital, the authors take a critical stance towards an economics-inspired analysis of physical appearance as universally defined ‘beauty’ or ‘attractiveness’ that has standard value for all individuals. By presenting empirical work based in the context of Finnish society, often considered an egalitarian Nordic welfare state, this book provides a fresh perspective on appearance-based inequalities.
Table of ContentsPART I. ACCUMULATING A GENDERED FORM OF CAPITAL
Chapter 1. Physical Appearance as a Form of Capital: Key Problems and Tensions; Iida Kukkonen
Chapter 2. Who Performs Appearance Work, and Who Believes Appearance Works? Gendered Appearance Beliefs and Practices in Finland; Iida Kukkonen
Chapter 3. The Metrosexual Who Never Visited Finland – The Eternal Gender Gap in Appearance-Related Consumption; Outi Sarpila
Chapter 4. Seeking Age-Appropriate Appearance Among Ageing Men; Hanna Ojala and Ilkka Pietilä
PART II. CONTESTED CONVERSIONS – EVERYDAY (RE)WORKINGS OF AESTHETIC CAPITAL
Chapter 5. Too Smart-Looking for a Waiter? – Scripting Appearance Norms at the Theatre of Working-Life; Tero Pajunen
Chapter 6. Generating Aesthetic Capital: Prospects from Autobiographical Narratives; Tero Pajunen
Chapter 7. The Ouroboros of Seeking Validation? Exploring the Interconnection of Appearance (dis)Satisfaction and Content Creation on Social Media; Erica Åberg and Aki Koivula
Chapter 8. Sofie’s World: Resistance Toward the Thin Ideal in Sofie Hagen’s Fat Activist Online Content; Anna Puhakka
Chapter 9. Well-Beshaved Women Rarely Make History – Exploring the Contestation of the Hairless Beauty Ideal with Case #januhairy; Erica Åberg and Laura Salonen
