Beauty practices, certainty and capital : on the legitimization of beauty as embodied cultural capital in everyday life

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Beauty practices,

certainty and capital

ON THE LEGITIMIZATION OF BEAUTY AS EMBODIED CULTURAL

CAPITAL IN EVERYDAY LIFE

ALEX VAN DER ZEEUW

10316175

UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM:

MAATSCHAPPIJ- EN GEDRAG WETENSCHAPPEN

SUPERVISORS:

ANNA AALTEN

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Beauty practices, certainty and capital

On the legitimization of beauty as embodied cultural capital Alex van der Zeeuw

Signature:

______________________ 10316175

University of Amsterdam Maatschappij- en gedrag wetenschappen

First supervisor: Anna Aalten Second supervisor: Marguerite van den Berg

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Acknowledgments

This research project has been conducted in the context of “the body and bodily practices”, supervised by Anna Aalten at the University of Amsterdam. An internship for Giselinde Kuipers at the “sociology of beauty” research project provoked my interest in bodily practices and the embodiment of cultural capital, and luckily I was able to join the courses given by Anna Aalten to write my BSc thesis in this context. In this thesis I emphasize beauty as the materialization of practices, which, much like culture in general, is in a constant state of flux and becoming. Beauty and appearances are the embodiment of morals and values that reflect a certain cultural belonging. My main interests concerning beauty practices are the reasons by which practices become justified by their practitioners and this has remained an important aspect during the development of this thesis.

Before continuing want I want to thank the people who have helped me throughout the research project. I owe a great debt to my first and second supervisors for the constructive criticism, feedback and comments: Anna Aalten, who has been very patient with me during entirety of the research project, and Marguerite van den Berg.

This thesis would not have been possible without the advice and guidance of Gidelinde Kuipers, who also made the data available for this thesis, Christian Broër, Sylvia Holla and Michaël Deinema. I also would like to thank my fellow students of the study group: Lana Andringa, Rosalie Brunt, Esmee Buitenhuis, Jolie Godfroy, Raïsa Hol, Rozalie Lekkerkerk, Colla Scavenius, Anne-Rose Verdel, and Marius van Rosmalen for their enthusiasm and inspiration during the research project.

The variety of the social world is nearly inexhaustible and the data that can be collected from it can be evenly as extensive and elaborate. By writing this thesis I wish to have come close to an adequate representation of a slight piece of the immense diversity that the social world can offer.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates ten emerging perspectives on the justification of beauty practices and the logic of evaluation of beauty practices to answer to the legitimization of beauty by everyday Dutch citizens. Emerging perspectives are developed as a response to (stable) fields to study social dynamics. Beauty is considered to be the embodiment of cultural capital that becomes materialized through practices. The argument that will be made in this thesis is that there are many ways to meet a certain standard of beauty that can serve as an asset, which are not necessarily determined by income and social class. This also means that distinction between perspectives on beauty is not only from the top down. The values by which beauty practices are justified as legitimate assets are: authenticity, feminine casualness, conventionality, feminine effort, classic femininity, modesty, effortless masculinity, powerful masculinity, professionalism, and healthiness. Additionally, naturalness is a description of beauty that knows multiple definitions and this is, together with the certainty of possessing legitimate culture, an important aspect in cultural capital. Furthermore, certainty will be proposed as an emerging form of cultural capital in societies without distinguishable class related cultural goods.

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1. The value of beauty for everyday citizens and the question of

legitimacy

“I once had someone on a job application who came in huffing, covered in sweat patches. Whole blouse drenched in sweat and “would you like a drink?” “Did you hurry?” “No, I did not hurry”. The man looked just really ... He was also quite large. He looked so unhealthy. I was just inattentive for twenty minutes because of how the man looked like. And that did not work out. I was not the only one who was thinking this. But it is important how you look, how you dress. You associate it with

someone’s capabilities or how much interest you put into it.”

-Female (34) spatial planning advisor.

The appearance of this man did not do him any favor, even though his technical skills might be invaluable for the company he applied for. According to Warhurst and Nickson (2006) appearances often work as an informal entry level requirement. They even argue that appearance is of more importance than technical skills or social skills as this is a determining factor during application interviews. This means people need to meet a certain “beauty premium” (Andreoni & Petrie 2008), a standard of beauty, in everyday life to gain privileges and adverse penalties. What is considered to be beautiful, however, is in the eye of the beholder. The quote above shows how a man’s appearance works as the negation of beauty, failing to meet a beauty premium, and is therefore subjected to the penalties of not meeting certain standards of beauty. Beauty however, as the embodiment of capabilities and competence, knows a multiplicity of definitions by which it can be applied in different spheres of social life. But, as the quote above implies, when the right kind of beauty is applied for the right situation, beauty is an asset that work to occupy profitable positions and thereby convert appearance into economic capital. This is not to say that beauty is purely situational. Instead, notions of beauty and their negations are deeply embedded in social structures and structures of cultural evaluation. As a consequence this thesis can be characterized by its cultural and economic approach to beauty and is heavily influenced by the works of Bourdieu (1984; 1986).

For an asset to become a capital it should be linked to legitimacy, convertibility and domination (Cf: Prieur & Savage 2014: 316). Much has been written on the subject of beauty as a form of capital (Anderson et. al. 2010; Hakim 2010; Warhurts & Nickson 2007; Warhurst & Nickson 2006; Hamermesh & Biddle 19994; Pfann et. al. 1999), but these studies begin with the convertibility of beauty into economic capital as their subject of inquiry, which leaves questions in the legitimization of beauty unanswered. When research does touch on the legitimization of beauty, it is usually done through the investigation of fields of production, like the field of fashion (Holla 2015; Mears 2008; Mears & Finlay 2005), but for everyday citizens the legitimization of beauty has remained somewhat underexposed if it comes to capital.

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In this thesis the legitimization of beauty as embodied capital has been investigated. Or more explicit, it deals with the question: what are the distinctive values by which beauty becomes legitimized as embodied cultural capital in the lives of everyday Dutch citizens? This question of legitimization is investigated by two approaches. First, what reasons for the justification of beauty practices which makes the materialization beauty into a legitimate value? And second, what is the underlying logic of evaluation by which the materialization of beauty practices become of value. This thesis in innovative by arguing that beauty is not produced in relatively autonomous fields of cultural production but is a social phenomenon that should be studied by the emerging perspectives on the justification of beauty practices. Perspectives are used as a theoretical tool for analysis without ascribing the Dutch participants of this study to predefined cultural fields and are developed with the help of Q methodology, which will be explained in section 3.2. The theoretical implications of perspectives will be explained in section 2.3.

A total of 30 Dutch participants contributed to qualitative data and statistical data. With Q methodology the statistical data has processed into emerging factors. Simultaneously, several research strategies from Grounded theory have been used to interpret the factors into perspectives. This thesis has been imbedded in a theoretical framework which will be discussed in section 2. The methodology and methodological considerations will be covered in section 3. The analysis of the data as perspectives on the justification of value in beauty practices will be presented in section 4, with a discussion of the logic of evaluation and its implications in section 5.

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2.0 The theoretical implications of beauty as capital in everyday life

“There's no black and white, left and right to me anymore; there's only up and down and down is very close to the ground.”

-Bob Dylan

Is it always a struggle? According to Bob Dylan it certainly is. At the center of inequality is always the struggle against the domination of the “top”. Which usually means against those with the most resources, otherwise known as capital. Capital, however comes in many forms, and what might be an asset to some, might be worthless to another. Beauty is not an exception, and neither are the beauty practices that materialize beauty. First, beauty will be discussed as the embodiment of cultural capital, with an emphasis on relational oppositions without fixed or absolute qualities. Second, the convertibility and the dominating effect of beauty will be discussed. And lastly, the perspectives on the justification of beauty practices will be discussed in relation to the theory of fields.

2.1 Cultural Capital and emerging forms of cultural capital

Beauty is culture affiliated with practices, rather than a product of classifications (Lizardo 2011). Which means that beauty is the materialization of beauty practices, or cultural practices, and not solely a product for consumption. Practices, in this context, are defined by dialectical relation between the preexisting and structured social environment and the internalized structured dispositions of people (Bourdieu 1977). The structure of a social environment, i.e. the cultural values and codes of conducts by which meaning is given to social interaction, is reproduced in a transformed form by practices because people act (appropriately) according to the embodiment of an internalized social structure (Bourdieu 1977: 20). In Bourdieusian terms of capital (1986), beauty is the embodiment of cultural capital. Beauty as cultural capital exist in in two forms: in the embodied state and in the objectified state (Ibid.). Beauty in an objectified state is generally the relation a person has to certain cultural goods and media concerning beauty, like fashion products, magazines, models (as the objectification of beauty), and advertisement. These are objects in fashion as a fields of cultural production (Holla 2015; Mears 2008; Mears & Finlay 2005). Models, for instance, might be the embodiment of beauty to some extent (Holla 2015), but are still considered to be objects within this field. Beauty in the embodied state of cultural capital is the accumulated labor of beauty practices in an internalized, or embodied, form. It's very time consuming to reproduce this form of capital, mainly done by a family upbringing with "positive" value (Bourdieu 1986). A ‘negative’ reproduction of embodied cultural capital creates a double disadvantage because of the time needed to correct this effect. This makes the "correct" use of the body, the embodiment of cultural capital through practices and moral imperatives, a scarce asset and, therefore, with the most social value (Ibid.). In other words, beauty, as a form of embodied cultural capital, acts as a body of

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competence in the eye of the beholder. Therefore, beauty and appearances work as assets and they are known to create an illustrious distinctive effect like stereotyping, stigmatization and discrimination in some of the worst cases.

According to Prieur and Savage (2014), Bourdieu never provided a formal definition of cultural capital in “Distinction” (1984), with the logical consequence that cultural capital is based on relation oppositions that are subjected to change. Thus, cultural capital cannot be boiled down into fixed or absolute qualities (Prieur & Savage 2011). In other words, because just “highbrow” can no longer be identified in as it has been done in “Distinction”, it does not mean that cultural capital does not exist. Identifying practices and preferences as belonging to the higher classes does not necessarily mean that they are forms of capital. Additionally, practices and preferences that generally belong to the lower classes can serve as a form of capital as well. Prieur and Savage ultimately conclude that if an asset is to serve as a capital, in a Bourdieusian sense, it should be linked to legitimacy, convertibility and domination (Prieur & Savage 2014: 316). Prieur and Savage discus emerging forms of cultural capital by the relations between cultural goods and those who consume them by eliminating the ‘what’ in cultural capital, and replace this with a “how”. Thus, they argue that emerging forms of cultural capital are not distinguishable to the cultural goods someone might consume, but how they consume them. This thesis adds to this concept of emerging cultural capital in section 5.2 by discussing an embodied form cultural capital that is not subjected to substance as well.

2.2 Beauty and cultural capital

For a cultural asset to become capital it must first be legitimized as such. With cultural assets in the field of the visual arts this is mostly done through institutions like galleries, museums and auctions that legitimize the value of an art piece, for instance, by the recognition of these institutions (Bourdieu 1984; Heath & Luff 2007). In this sense, legitimization is referential to the reasons of justification that assert value. Similarly, cultural assets in the field of music become legitimized through the venues that musicians play in, or the hit charts and compilation albums in which products appear that affirm these assets as being of value (Van Venrooij & Schmutz 2010; Buscatto 2010; Hesmondhalgh 1998), and thus as capital. Consequently, cultural assets become to work as capital by the relation that people have with these assets. And in the case of music and visual arts these are assets that become valued and legitimized in relatively autonomous fields. When talking about beauty it is also often discussed in relation to fashion as a cultural asset and the fashion industry as a field (Holla 2015; Mears 2008; Mears & Finlay 2005). However, beauty is not an asset in the field of fashion alone, nor do people relate to beauty only as an asset. For most people beauty is an actual representation and embodiment of culture that works as capital in everyday life.

Beauty is an asset in everyday life because it is convertible to other forms of capital, with economic capital as the most prominent form of capital, and carries it the effect of dominance that beauty

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standards entail. In a study on the effect of beauty, Anderson et. al. (2010) argue that aesthetic traits such as the face, hair, body, clothes, grooming habits and other indicators of beauty result in a form of “aesthetic capital”. This aesthetic value is important for celebrities, politicians, athletes and everyday citizens to gain perks and privileges by being beautiful and adverse penalties for not meeting a certain ‘beauty premium’ (Andreoni & Petrie 2008). Anderson et. al. continue to discuss how beauty can be converted into several sorts of wealth, such as credibility, status, power, social value, desirability and employment outcomes. Similarly, Hakim (2010) discusses “erotic capital”, as a fourth personal asset next to economic, cultural and social capital. Accordingly, there are six or seven elements of erotic capital, of which beauty is its most central one. Hakim distinguishes the element of beauty from sexual attractiveness because she argues that the latter is more about the body and the way someone moves, talks and behaves. Other elements are social skills like charm and grace, liveliness, social presentation like the style of dress or other adornments, sexuality itself, and fertility which is exclusively for women. Erotic capital, as Hakim continues, is an asset in mating and marriage markets, but also in the labor market and in workplace relations. Even though Hakim does not specify gender to all element of erotic capital, she does argue that women have a longer tradition of developing and exploiting erotic capital (Ibid.: 499). She continues by arguing that erotic capital has been overlooked in the social sciences due to a social bias (Idem.). As women generally have more erotic capital than men, it would favor men to deny the value of erotic capital. This suggest that acknowledging erotic capital, while not being assigned to a specific gender, has an empowering effect for women. And, because beauty is an element of erotic capital, beauty certainly can have an empowering effect.

Although this thesis has a strong emphasis on the cultural and economic aspects of beauty, erotic capital shows that gender is cannot be ignored. However, to address these aspects of gender in a manner that is consistent with the Bourdieusian framework of this thesis, femininity and masculinity will be discussed in terms of capital. In “Feminine capital” Orser and Elliot (2015) also discuss the empowering effect of specific traits for women, similarly like Hakim (2010). The difference is that Hakim discusses erotic capital without ascribing it to a field of cultural production, whereas Orser and Elliot (2015) relate feminine capital a commercial field of entrepreneurship. Consequently, feminine capital focusses on a different type of empowerment than erotic capital, namely by addressing personality traits like authenticity and organizational skills which the authors consider to be important for women. These might not seem to be directly related to beauty, but it certainly is when considering beauty as the embodiment of capabilities (Warhurst & Nickson 2006) or competence (Bourdieu 1986).

Additionally, masculinity is being represented in this thesis by masculine capital (De Visser et. al. 2009). Masculine capital, contrary to feminine capital, mainly focuses on the physical representation and healthiness of men and its compensability for non-masculine behavior in the fields of fashion and advertisement. De Visser et. al. discuss four domains in masculine capital, being physical prowess, lack of vanity, sexuality, and alcohol use to represent the symbolic aspect of masculinity. In other studies which do not conceptualize beauty as a form of capital, beauty and appearances are still related to

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privileges in the general labor market. First off, beauty must be considered as a determining factor to gain access to a profitable position in the labor market as this is often an informal entry level requirement (Warhurts & Nickson 2006). Instead of estimating technical and social skills, employers rely for a large extent on the physical appearance of future employees as the embodiment of capacities. Additional required technical skills are offered through “on the job” training for these employees (Ibid.: 2). Although this is a characteristic phenomenon in the service industry, the role of beauty as an informal entry level requirement is a general aspect of the labor market. As a result, the different industries that have a claim on the labor market diffuse the standards of beauty, as an embodiment of capacities, throughout the social world. Secondly, there is a positive impact of the appearance of employees on their income (Hamermesh and Biddle 1994; Pfann et. al. 1999). Employees that are considered to be below the average standard of beauty have lower wages than employees that look average. And employees that are considered to be good looking earn slightly more on than those who are average-looking. Furthermore, Hamermesh and Biddle cautiously argue that the labor market sorts the best-looking people into positions where their beauty is more productive. Lastly, the exclusion of employees from markets because of their appearance show the dominating effect of beauty standards. Warhurst and Nickson (2007) argue that physical appearances often work as a method of exclusion as markets do not want to exhibit certain styles that are to be considered unprofitable. They call this the “style labor market” in which an expanding number of retailers, hotels, bars, cafes and restaurants want employees that have the “right” look for their brand. Accordingly, this helps companies to create a distinct corporate image. The increase in value of beauty and appearances in these markets show how beauty becomes more of an asset for everyday citizens.

2.3 Fields and perspectives

Beauty, as it is used in this thesis, is not positioned in a field of cultural production, however the way that beauty becomes legitimized is similar to the dynamics that are central in a theory of fields. Fligstein and McAdam (2012) describe fields as circumscribed social arenas (Ibid.: 3), wherein participants interact with each other on the basis of a shared understanding of purpose, forms of power and rules of the field (Ibid.: 9) otherwise known as the institutional logics of a field. The membership in these fields is mostly based on a subjective position to other participants in the field and the boundaries of the fields are not fixed (Ibid.: 10). The theory of fields is a theoretical tool that is used to gain understanding of social dynamics on a meso level of society. And instead of fields, this thesis relies on perspectives as a theoretical tool for analysis, to stress the dynamics of social interactions on a micro level of society. Apart from the difference in scale of inquiry between fields and perspectives, perspectives are a critical response to the level of circumference in a theory of fields. For instance, the embodiment of beauty is not just a product from an autonomous fields of production but becomes validated by perspectives of everyday citizens that pervade different spheres in the social world. Emerging perspectives contest the

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level of circumference as it is often a predefined product of researchers. Instead, many dynamics in social phenomena, like beauty, are mostly independent of theoretical conceptualizations of circumference. Surely “A theory of fields” has led to insightful analysis on social change within a field, but Fligstein and McAdam argue that a theory of fields is also applicable in more or less stable fields. This aspect is being contested by the emerging perspectives of this thesis. Furthermore, perspectives are useful to determine different modes of evaluation that results in the justification of practices into assets. Fligstein and Mcadam recognize that a common understanding of certain values is necessary for settlements that stabilizes a field, they leave little room for different modes of evaluation. This result in a rather under explained conceptualization of the dynamics that give value to practices. The reasons for the justification for table manners, for instance, are assets that one might possess because it shows patience and decency according to one perspective but it can show gratefulness or appreciation according to another perspective. As perspectives value and evaluate differently, and these different modes of evaluation also count for beauty practices. Thus, perspectives show how beauty becomes legitimized as the embodiment of cultural capital, albeit without the convertibility into other forms of capital, which is beyond the scope of this thesis. Perspectives are the main theoretical tools of analysis in this thesis. They are holistic in the sense that they relate to each other statistically (Watts & Stenner 2012) but, most importantly, they are interpreted as a sum of individual that act in agreement. Which means that perspectives take account of the seemingly subjective considerations of individuals, while they simultaneously represent individuals with similar considerations.

Fligstein and McAdam distinguish four categories in the concept of shared understandings that structure a field (2012: 10-12), which are interesting for the development of perspectives as a theoretical tool for analysis. First, there is a shared understanding of purpose. In micro perspectives on beauty practices this translates to a common interest that beauty practices should achieve. Secondly, some participants possess more power than others and use this power to compete or cooperate with others. Cooperation and competition is an important aspect in perspectives on beauty practices. This can best be explained through a catch-22 of beauty. That is, the legitimacy of beauty is in constant competition for individuality otherwise it does not notice. But the legitimacy of beauty cannot be an individual achievement because it is in accord with what others think is beautiful. Thus, beauty needs cooperation to find an accord to create legitimacy. This aspect of competition and cooperation in perspectives is represented by competitors, which are beauty types with the power to reflect certain ideals in beauty and appearances. Third, actors know what tactics are possible and legitimate. In perspectives on beauty practices this directly refers to the actual practices. And lastly, in fields and in perspectives actors know of oppositional perspectives. This aspect is also given shape by competitors within a perspective because they define the common interest of a certain perspective by contrasting a valued representation of beauty. The emerging perspectives of this thesis provide with a response to the theory of fields by Fligstein and McAdam (2012) by investigating how participants evaluate and justify beauty practices without ascribing them to predefined fields. This gives a nuanced, yet more elaborate, view on the social

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dynamics in relation to beauty and allows for a comparative method to determine the underlying logic of evaluation.

2.4 Concluding remarks

To summarize, beauty as a form of capital is not a cultural asset that refers to a specific field in which it operates, as it is with cultural products like music or visual arts, but it is an asset for everyday citizens. Consequently, the legitimization of beauty is not only reserved by the field of fashion, but happens constantly in everyday life. Returning to the foundation of capital, namely that it should be linked to legitimacy, convertibility and domination (Prieur & Savage 2014), the convertibility and domination of beauty as an asset in everyday life has already been shown though multiple studies. However, the subject of legitimization, i.e. the reasons for justification, when it comes to beauty has mostly been neglected. Additionally, the perception of beauty is always a product that has been altered by culture. That is, one becomes beautiful through practices. Even the “natural beauty” becomes materialized through practices because culture influences the conception of what is natural. Therefore the assets of beauty, as it is perceived, are synonymous to the beauty practices that are encapsulated by it. The question that is presented in this thesis addresses the reasons for the justifications for beauty practices and the underlying logic of these reasons for justification that makes beauty a legitimate form of capital. Furthermore, Beauty, in this thesis, is mainly conceptualized as the embodiment of cultural capital and not as a distinct form as capital, nor as a relation to cultural assets like music or art. Different forms of capital like aesthetic capital, bodily capital, or erotic capital might work to denote specific aspects of social life that have a claim on beauty, but are very similar to cultural capital in their use. Therefore, these forms of capital are considered to be specifications of cultural capital. The goal of this thesis is not to elaborate on the convertibility and effects of beauty as a form of capital, but rather to investigate how different forms of beauty become of legitimate value for everyday citizens. This is conducted with the help of emerging perspectives. Perspectives are theoretical tools to gain understanding of social dynamics on a micro level of society and represent individuals that act in agreement when it comes to the evaluation of beauty practices. A larger variety in perspectives give a more appropriate representation to the amount of individuals that act in agreement and it helps to gain understanding of the determining logic of evaluation that legitimize beauty as a capital.

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3.0 Methodology and methodological considerations

“[...] we can create islands of meaning in the sea of information.”

– Freeman Dyson

The main goal of this thesis is to create and distinguish different perspectives on the justification of beauty practices. This has been done by combining two methods. The first method is based on Q methodology and this method is used to extract factors. That is, participants who share a view on what they find beautiful are grouped together. Then, with the second method of quantitative data analysis, these factors are developed into perspectives by interpreting and comparing interview data of the same participants. By combining these methods it does presume that participants that share a similar view of beauty also share what beauty practices they would justify, or find unacceptable, to become the materialization of what they would find beautiful. However, this presumption proved to be working for this thesis and therefore has been accepted for this pragmatic advantage.

Before going into the elaborate methodological considerations, a description of the data will be given. However, please keep in mind that Q methodology is not a quantitative method for data analysis and that the generalization of its findings towards a larger populations is not the main goal of the method (Watts & Stenner 2012: 53). Instead, Q methodology extracts factors of participants with similar viewpoints, using statistical procedures, that can make a conceptual difference in the understanding of the research problem (Ibid.: 73). Thus, a large number of participants is not advisable, as will be discussed below, and a smaller number of participants would be more sensible for an in-depth quantitative data analysis instead. As Q methodology has mostly been used as a tool for the qualitative analysis, which is the main focus of this thesis, most of the statistical data can be found in the appendix.

3.1 The data

The data has been collected during a five years of ‘sociology of beauty’ research project, with Giselinde Kuipers as its principal investigator (2010- 2015). This project aimed to study how beauty standards are socially shaped with a focus on a transnational modeling industry and the production and dissemination of beauty standards. For this thesis a total of 30 Dutch participants have been selected. The participants have been selected in such a manner that most social dimensions become represented in the study, which counts for the emerging of possible perspectives. These dimensions are age (18-30, 31-50, 50+), residence (capital city, smaller city/town), gender (male, female), and education (higher, lower). All participants are Dutch citizens.

The participants filled out four Q sorts of pictures for the use of Q methodology. This means that the participants were asked to sort four sets of pictures with 25 pictures in each set. These sets consist of pictures of male bodies; male faces; female bodies; female faces. The pictures have been

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carefully selected to represent a wide variety of beauty types, such as physical traits and beauty practices such as styling and grooming, in a preliminary study. The sorting was done in a pyramid shaped preset, following the contours of a normal distribution, with -4 being the least beautiful and +4 being the most beautiful. This sorting process was guided by asking the participant to make a pre-selection of the negative, neutral and positive pictures, according to their standards. Followed by asking the participants to force their selection in the pyramid shaped preset. Swapping rearranging pictures was allowed at any time during the process and the participants were asked if they accepted their arrangement before noting down the results of these Q sorts.

During the sorting process participants were asked to speak their thoughts, somewhat guided by semi structural interview techniques to discuss a number of topics, such as the source of the beauty standards, importance /or obligation of beauty, awkwardness, inappropriateness, social groups, beauty practices, beauty types, own appearance and beauty in daily life. Generally the complete exercise would take the participants between 1.5 and 2 hours. Three researcher from the research project have interviewed the participants, and the recordings of the interviews have been fully transcribed by assistants to the research project. Any obscurities or ambiguities that emerged during the analysis of the data has been resolved as much as possible by correspondence with the researchers or the transcribers. It is important to notice that the data has been analyzed independently of ‘sociology of beauty’ research project for this thesis. This counts for the analysis in Q methodology, for which different criteria and parameters have been selected, the method used for the qualitative data analysis, including the coding scheme, and the interaction between the two methods. Especially the manner of using the two methods to develop emerging perspectives has been realized in undiscovered terrain.

3.2 Q methodology

In most types of qualitative data analysis (QDA) the researcher compares the data, sometimes in relation to the background of the respondent, in order to reduce the data into findings that might give insight to the research question. This method of reduction largely relies on the skills needed for conceptualization (Glaser 2004) or the interpretative skills (Corbin & Strauss 2007; Bryman 2012) of the researcher. Perspectives and similarities between perspectives of the respondents are, therefore, limited in their

discovery by the subjective abilities of the researcher. Q methodology tries to reveal which participants

have a similar perspective through computer aided statistics so that they can be grouped together, though it might be considered a sin by some (Glaser & Holton 2007: 29). Q methodology is appealing because it induces perspectives independent of a researcher’s interpretation that can easily be overlooked otherwise, because with this method each perspective will account for the maximum amount of study variance according to statistical criteria. This does not mean that there is no interpretation involved, but it is slightly reduced at a crucial stage. Consequently, the perspectives that emerge are rather straightforward to reproduce compared to other methods of QDA. As such, it is a fitting method to

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study the emerging perspectives on the justification of beauty practices as it allows to produce rigid conceptual perspectives while being able to cope with the extensiveness of the subject and the multiplicity it entails.

Q methodology was first developed as a response to the factor analysis of R methodology, well known for Pearsons correlations statistic (Burt & Stephenson 1939). Both methods try to statistically determine the positioning of certain participants in relation to each other. However, Q methodology criticizes the factor analysis in R methodology because it would measure the correlation between variables, and thus determine the position of variables, not people, in relation to each other. In Q methodology this problem is resolved by inversing the factor analysis. That is, the variables become what normally would be called the respondents and the participants become the variables. This simple adjustment leaves with quite some consequences. To adequately respond to these consequences, Watts and Stenner’s “Doing Q methodological research” (2012) has been used somewhat as a cookbook before and during the analysis of this thesis. Consequently, most of the decisions that have been made were heavily influenced by Watts and Stenner’s views on the method.

With 25 pictures in each set, it means that the population n in an inverse factor analysis is fixed at 25. According to Kline (1994), with two respondents per variable in a normal factor analysis, this would count for 12 participants to match the set of pictures. However, in Q methodology it is accepted to consider a number of participants similar to the number of items in the Q-set (Watts & Stenner 2005:73; Stephenson 1955). Thus, a selection of 30 participants has been made, a little more than recommended, to represent a wider variety of different social dimensions.

All of the statistical procedures have been aided by PQ method, software developed by John Atkinson at the Kent State University to fit the requirements of Q methodology. It is a computer program that is widely used for q methodology and Watts and Stenner (2012) discuss it extensively. For this thesis a Horst centroid method for factor analysis (1965) has been used to extract factors the factors which have been developed into perspectives. With Horst’s method the composition of extracted factors depend on the amount of factors there are extracted altogether, which is different than Brown’s (1980) commonly used centroid method which does not do this. As a result, Horst’s criterion (1965) hardly allowed for more than 3 factors to be extracted due to the number of items in the sets. The factors have been rotated by using varimax rotation to maximize the amount of explained variance in the study and to let the factors emerge inductively from the data, which is could not have been achieved as reliable and objective while using by-hand rotation (Watts & Stenner 2012: 125-26). Furthermore, only factors with an Eigenvalue higher than 1.0 have been accepted for the analysis. This is corresponding with the often used Kaiser–Guttman criterion (Kaiser 1960; Guttman 1954). On top of that, only factors with an explained variable larger than 5% and factors with at least two significant factor loadings according to Humprey’s rule are accepted for the analysis rotation (Watts & Stenner 2012: 107). This means that with 25 items in each set a significant factor loading need to be above the level of 0.516. Ten factors have been extracted that all fit these criteria, in total. Three factors have been extracted from the picture

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set of female faces, and two factors for the picture set of female bodies. Similarly, three factors have been extracted for male faces and two male bodies. Although the pictures are relevant to study beauty ideals, they are irrelevant for the interpretation perspectives according to beauty practices. Therefore, the actual scores of these pictures will not be discussed in this thesis. However, these result can be found in the appendix. The participants who correlate the most with each factor have been used to develop the resulting factors into perspectives.

3.4 Qualitative data analysis

While Q methodology is an interesting method to reveal perspectives in the form factors, the main focus of this thesis is on the qualitative analysis, i.e. the development and interpretation of factors into perspective on the justification of beauty practices. As such, all of the interview transcripts have been analyzed by using qualitative data analysis techniques burrowed from Grounded theory to generate conceptual abstractions from the data (Glaser & Strauss 1967; Charmaz 2006). This means techniques have been used that were found fitting to analyze the data with respect to the research problem, without being fully committed to one version of Grounded theory for the entirety of the analysis because of appealing alternatives that were available for more theoretical stages during the analysis.

The coding in Grounded theory consists mainly of two stages. An initial coding stage and a focused coding stage (Charmaz 2006: 46). Both of the stages are supported by the writing of memos to give meaning to codes and structure the analytic process. By starting with initial coding the analysis remained close to the data, relatively open, with an emphasis on comparing data to data and administrative purposes (Ibid.: 49). During this stage the data has been coded by using, what Charmaz calls, “incident to incident coding” which is often used for observational data (Ibid.: 53). This has been done because the interviews are being used as accounts of sorting exercises that focus on beauty ideals, or accounts of beauty ideals in short, which is closer to observational data rather than using interviews for narrating purposes, often used to gain insight on social events. Most of the codes have been made “in vivo” to reflect condensed meanings and to pay attention to the language of the participants while coding the data (Ibid.: 55-56). From this initial stage patterns of justification emerged that begged to be studied more intensively.

What followed was a stage of focused coding to integrate the strong analytic directions that were established, namely that of justification, with a more theoretical approach (Charmaz 2006: 58). The data was revisited with an open mind but not with an empty head (Dey 1999: 251). In “On justification” Boltanski and Thévenot (2006) propose a theoretical framework which, as the title of the book implies, addresses the subject of justification rather elaborately. This framework has been altered to fit the research problem and respond to findings of the initial stage. The emerging factors have been developed into perspectives according to this framework with the advantage of a structured analysis for theoretical sufficiency (Dey 1991: 257) that has been reached in respect to the research problem. This means that

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every perspective has been developed with regard to five aspects that were found necessary to adequately conceptualize the justification of beauty practices. These aspects are (1) the evaluation of beauty, (2) the competitors that define and reproduce justified beauty practices, (3) forms of wealth and resources that are the beauty practices, (4) metaphors and figures of speech, and most importantly (5) the common interests that count as a forms of reference for the justification of beauty practices. These dimension also relate the theory of fields discussed in section 2.3. The findings of this analysis will be discussed in section 4. Lastly, the perspectives have been compared as conceptual abstractions from the data to each other and to concepts from other articles that have been published in relation to capital and appearances. In this concluding stage of (extended) concept comparison patterns emerged that gave insight to the underlying logic on the legitimization of beauty as embodied cultural capital, which will be discussed in section 5.

3.5 In short…

The data consists of 4 Q set of 25 pictures each that have been sorted by participants while being interviewed. Q methodology has been used to extract factors from the data with the most statistical variance so that participants who share a view on what they find beautiful could be grouped together inductively. The factors have been developed into perspectives with the help of Grounded theory and theoretical directions. The emerging perspectives have been compared to each other and other concepts to find patterns on the underlying logic of evaluation in the legitimization of beauty practices as embodied cultural capital.

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4.0.1 The gist of it…

The perspectives are conceptualizations of the data, albeit in the language in the participants. Perspectives may overlap, sometimes a great deal, but it is of importance to account for small types of diversity, and explain differences more detailed rather than putting them together because they are too similar. These perspectives are developed and compared through five dimension described in the methodology section. Before going into the qualitative data, a short description of the statistical data is given in bold text directly below the title of the perspective. However, the goal of this data is not to generalize the findings but to give an impression of the participants that developed a perspective. More elaborate statistical data can be found in the appendix. The essence of the analysis is explained below.

The data is in quotations, which are the utterances of the participants. Most of the data consist of descriptions given by the participants are about the pictures that they were sorting and therefore heavily fragmented. Thus, instead of using quotations in full sentences, word-by-word quotations of in

vivo data has been chosen to represent the data in a comparative manner. These quotations are written

in quotation marks e.g. “sleazy”, “piercings”, “models”. Beauty practices are practices that are used to achieve a certain standard or ideal of beauty. In relation to the research problem these are often described as justified, unjustified, or acceptable to describe how they are evaluated by the participants. These beauty practices can be seen as forms of wealth or resources that can be applied to achieve a certain goal. However, since these practices are not measured in relation to each other they are only being described as in the form of justification. Competitors are the beauty types as they are described by the respondents within a perspective. They compete with each other by representing different standards. Competitors have a role in defining the perspective through the standards and types that they have come to represent, and influence the justification of beauty practices as such. These competitors are only evaluated on two sides of a spectrum i.e., as positive or negative beauty types. The positively evaluated competitors reaffirm the mode of evaluation through the acceptation of the beauty standards that they represent, whereas the negatively evaluated competitors reaffirm the mode of evaluation through the rejection of the beauty standards that they represent. Worthiness is the mode of evaluation through which perspectives are defined and what gives value to practices. And Common interests are the modes of reference that count as for the justification of beauty practices. It is the common interest of a perspective and those that associate themselves with this perspectives, the participants in this thesis through correlations, and not the common interest of the competitors within a perspective. Even though the positively evaluated beauty practices and competitors may overlap in how the common interest is defined, the negatively evaluated beauty practices and competitors are often in contrast with the common interests.

The main differences are between the categories in which the emerging perspectives have been placed. A perspectives themselves might appear very similar to another within a category but are

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distinguishable by the reasons for the justification of beauty practices. Either by the beauty practices themselves or through the competitors that endorse them. The first category is about perspectives on everyday women whereas the second category emphasizes femininity in beauty practices. Both categories have a distinct manner of dealing with naturalness that result in conflicting perspectives. The third category is mostly about masculinity in relation to beauty practices. The last category is about professionalism and healthiness, where naturalness is less prominent than in the other categories.

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4.1.0 Beauty practices and naturalness concerning everyday women

The perspectives that emerged on beauty practices in the category everyday women are not defined by what women should do, but much more by what they should not do. When beauty is being discussed as an asset, this aspect is often neglected (Anderson et. al. 2010) because it is only an asset through manners of distinction. These first three perspectives are often a blind spot for a theory of fields (Fligstein & McAdam 2012) because they are defined by their everydayness. Nonetheless, these perspectives are important because they contribute to cultural perceptions of beauty and influence fields in relation to beauty in the dormant manner of everyday life. The first perspective stresses the importance of how to look emphatic in contrast to looking cold or uptight. These aspects might not seem to be related to beauty practices but they certainly are influenced by them, much like the empowering aspects of feminine capital. The second perspective is mostly about the natural beauty in a purely physical sense. The last perspective is more about the everyday and conventional beauty practices of approachable women. Whereas the first two perspectives is are interesting in relation to each other as they address physical and nonphysical concepts of naturalness, the last perspective, apart from being interesting, seem to be strongly directed against media endorsed beauty standards.

4.1.1 The perspective of authenticity

Factor 1 of Female faces (Appendix A) has an eigenvalue of 7.81 and explains 26% of the study variance. Three males and seven females, with an average age of 55.3 years, are significantly associated with this factor. Four participants are highly educated and three participants live in Amsterdam.

What defines this perspective, is that most of the beauty practices are justified because women use them on a daily basis. Women are beautiful according to this perspective mainly because of their facial expressions, smiles and glances instead of clearly defined beauty practices. Wearing no makeup is acceptable and so is wearing makeup. However, that does not mean that every beauty practice is justified by default. The beauty practices that are less acceptable can say as much on the justification of beauty practices as those that are acceptable, and in the case of this perspective they say even more. As such, wearing too much makeup “hides the woman” that is doing the practice and this is somewhat frowned upon. The type of makeup is also very important. Red lipstick, for instance, is often unacceptable or even called “whorish”. Additionally, a woman should not wear “fake hair” or “shave part of her head” as both of these practices make the person seem “artificial” and “impersonal”. The latter is often associated with a “punky” lifestyle and indicates that the woman is merely “seeking attention” rather than being herself. This is interesting because it implies that, according to this perspective, a woman can only be authentic if she acts according to certain conventions. Therefore, individuality does not seem to be synonymous with authenticityand works as an example of the catch 22 of beauty discussed in section

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2.3. The same logic goes for wearing “piercings”, which is not appreciated. Beauty practices that are justified are mostly those that are conventional. This means that a woman should “take care of herself”, as this is seen as “polite”, and she should not have a “pale skin”. What is interesting is that having an “artistic” clothing style is an appreciated practice in this perspective.

The main competitors that play a defining role in this perspective are “everyday women” and, more importantly, “artistic” women. Women that appear artistic are valued to be more beautiful because of imagined personality traits that become ascribed to them and the supposed “authenticity” of their character. Competitors that are on the other side of the spectrum are those with “alternative clothing” styles such as “Goth” or “punk”. “Fashionable” women are also on this side of the spectrum of competitors because they seem “artificial”, “uptight” and “impersonal” according to this perspective. Furthermore, fashionable women are viewed “parading” or “on display” which are not practices that are justified in regard to authenticity, even though they are not necessarily unauthentic.

It is important, according to this perspective, for women to find their dignity in looking “honest” and “authentic”. However, this does not mean that every woman who does so is to be found beautiful. Those who are looking “cold”, “unfriendly” or “uptight” are valued less beautiful than those who appear “warm”, “kind” and “empathic”. Additionally, it is valued to look as if one has an “interesting” and “accessible” personality rather than looking “impersonal” or “detached”. In some instances participants argue that it is really a matter of “politeness” because one appears to be “caring” and “sincere” while doing so. Women also do well if they seem “fun” and “spontaneous”. Therefore, common interest of this perspective is authenticity. However, even though authenticity is an important aspect in the justification of beauty practices in this perspective, it is substantiated by friendliness and empathy. Women should appear as they are in their personality, and those who seem to be “good-natured” and “empathic” are valued to be more beautiful than those who seem “distant”, “boring”, “unfriendly” or “impersonal”. Interestingly, these personality traits that are reflected in the perception of beauty in this perspective are similar to the feminine traits celebrated by Orser and Elliot (2015) in feminine capital for the empowerment of female entrepreneurs in a commercial field. This concept of empowerment by personality traits is definitely an important aspect in this perspective, as women are prized for being themselves as long as they stay within certain boundaries of normalcy. However, these personality traits that become reflected in the perception of beauty are not ascribed to a specific field as is the case with feminine capital. Instead, this perspective can be considered to be a perspective of empowerment independent of fields. As such, women who are valued to be less beautiful are sometimes even described as “artificial”. Not necessarily because of their overly “fabricated appearance”, but because it is expected that their personality is good in its nature and they choose to be otherwise. Thus, in this perspective, the appearance functions as a conduit of the authentic person and becomes distorted by beauty practices that are less acceptable. That is, the appearance is influenced by a nonphysical conceptualization of naturalness and, naturalness is defined as being a genuine and warm person.

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4.1.2 Perspective of feminine casualness

Factor 2 of Female bodies (Appendix B) has an eigenvalue of 1.66 and explains 6% of the study variance. Two males and four females, with an average age of 47.4 years, are significantly associated with this factor. Four participants are highly educated and three participants live in Amsterdam.

First off, this perspective is very similar to the perspective of authenticity. It is different, however, because it has its emphasis on the physical appearance of “everyday women”, rather than the nonphysical appearance captured by expressions, glances or smiles and imagined personality traits. This difference becomes clear in the definition of naturalness, which is really about the unaltered physical in this perspective. Women are evaluated positively by “being approachable” while keeping their “femininity”. A negative evaluation comes from “flaunting” or by committing oneself to practices that are considered to be “low-brow”. Similar to the perspective of authenticity, most practices are acceptable as long as they are conventional and applied with “moderation”. This perspective also values beauty practices that focuses on femininity within the boundaries of moderation and conventionality. These are especially beauty practices such as having “long hair” or practices that accentuate the “thighs and hips” like specific clothing or exercises that result in this effect. Beauty practices that are less accepted are those that make the appearance of a women deviate to much from their natural look, or are unconventional according to this perspective. These can be relatively inconsiderable beauty practices like wearing “dark lipstick” or having “dyed hair” in an “unnatural color”. The more considerable beauty practices that carry a negative value are those that alter the shape of the “natural female body”. Being “overweight”, for instance, is often seen as an unnatural physique and therefore women should “watch their diet” or otherwise exercise. Furthermore, “plastic surgery” is strongly rejected according to this perspective. Unless for health improvement women should not alter their appearance with plastic surgery as this is one of the most unjust beauty practices in regard to naturalness. Lastly, beauty practices that are considered to be “low-brow”, like wearing “tacky” or “weird” clothes or having “ugly tattoos” is not acceptable in this perspective. These normative considerations are interesting especially to the importance of conventionality and “casualness” that imbue the justification of these beauty practices.

The women that play a defining role in this perspective are “everyday women”. These women are comparable to the competitors in the perspective of authenticity, but the aspect of artistry is completely absent. Instead, being “approachable” seems to be a key characteristic to be an important competitor. This is often achieved by being “friendly” and have somewhat of a “natural appearance”, but more importantly by being “feminine” and “casual”. Being a women, and look like it, while giving off an easygoing impression justify beauty practices that result in such an appearance. At the same time this perspective is defined by competitors of the other side of the spectrum, like the women that are more “punk” in their style of appearance. A “Punky” style of appearance was also evaluated negatively in the perspective of authenticity but for different reasons. In this perspective the reason for the negatively

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evaluation of “punk” is because these competitors do not seem to be approachable. “Showy” and “commercial” women are competitors as well, mainly for the same reason. These women are often described as being “superficial” and “caring to much” about their beauty.

In this perspective women can find their worth in “looking casual” and “feminine”. Naturalness is an important aspect but it is not the ultimate goal for women to look as natural as possible. This is different from the perspective of authenticity, where there is more of an imperative for women to be natural. Instead, they should be “casual” and “easygoing” about their beauty practices according to this perspective. Women should not “flaunt” with their appearance and any practices that make it seem as if they do are frequently rejected. Yet, a women should still be “feminine”, this includes that they should do beauty practices that are feminine by conventionality. However, the aspect of feminine empowerment in the perspective of authenticity is mostly absent in this perspective, and is replaced by a casual approach to specific feminine characteristics. While both perspectives reject women for their unnatural appearance they do so with a different motive, i.e. to empower authentic women or to praise casualness. Therefore, these perspectives give a nuanced view on the motive of rejection which is often overlooked by a theory of fields (Fligstein & McAdam 2012). The common interests of this perspective is a mix between casualness and femininity. Beauty practices become justified by being referred to as “casual” and “feminine” in their nature. Accordingly, beauty practices are not justified because they are “too feminine”, “not feminine enough”, or make women seem to be “trying too hard” to be “original” and/or “beautiful”. Sometimes resulting in a “tacky” or “low-brow” style of appearance which is regarded as “untasteful” in this perspective.

4.1.3 Perspective of conventionality

Factor 3 of Female faces (Appendix A) has an eigenvalue of 2.61 and explains 9% of the study variance. One male and two females, with an average age of 30.6 years, are significantly associated with this factor. One participant is highly educated and one participant lives in Amsterdam.

Whereas the previously discussed perspectives are surrounded by the concept of conventionality, it is the most important aspect of this perspective. Additionally, this perspective is strongly directed against the media and fashion as fields of cultural production. Even though this perspective is not situated in a specific field, and therefore easily remains unnoted, it certainly imposes pressure on the social dynamics that influence the perceptions of beauty in relation to fields of fashion and media. Acceptable beauty practices are those that are conventional. That is, “grooming” and “taking care” of oneself in such a manner that is considered “normal” or “natural” to do so. However, it is necessary for a woman that she commits herself to these beauty practices as she can expect normative penalties otherwise, like losing “respect”. Conventionality, according to this perspective, is definitely not “boring” as it is considered in the perspective of feminine effort that will be discussed later in section 4.2.1. Nonetheless, there is nothing specified such as artistry or femininity that characterizes these beauty practices as with the

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previously discussed perspectives. What is interesting about this perspective is that it is quite strongly directed against media endorsed beauty standards. Accordingly, this is the polar opposite of conventionality when it comes to beauty an important aspect that gives shape to this perspective. Tied to this aspect are beauty practices like wearing “necklaces”, “earrings” or any other kind “frills” that gives an “over-styled” impression. Similarly, anything that results in looking to “dressy”, “tawdry” or “pretty-pretty” is less acceptable as well. A reoccurring topic in this perspective is the practice of “using Botox”. The injection of chemicals to prevent the wrinkling of the skin is a practice frequently described with a comical undertone. Making women “unable to express emotions”, an important aspect of everyday life, the use of Botox functions as a caricature of what this perspective is directed against. That is, the “superficial” and objectified beauty in exchange for the profundity of “natural women”.

There are roughly two types of competitors that influence the justification of beauty practices in this perspective. There are “everyday women”, characterized as by their conventionality, and often described as being “natural” or “natural beauties”, on one hand. These are “approachable women” with whom one could “enjoy a conversation”, very similar to the competitors in the perspective of feminine casualness. On the other hand, there are women that are “beautiful” and “look like they know it”. “Pretty-pretty” women that can be seen on the television or in magazines and are expected to be “superficial” and “fake” in conversation. Consequently, these women are often referred to as “dolls” or “football women” i.e., the women of famous football players that are mainly valued for their beauty and objectified as such.

This perspective revolves around a common interest of conventionality. Most of the beauty practices that are beyond the grasp of “everyday women” are seen as “unnatural” or “distasteful”. Naturalness, therefore, is defined as what is most common in everyday life that it might become as a second nature. The main difference between this perspective and the perspective of feminine casualness, is that the latter is directed against beauty practices that make it seem as if competitors care too much about beauty. This means that there is a conflict between priorities that is at the center of the perspective of feminine casualness. In the perspective of conventionality a conflict situated is between the natural and the unnatural, i.e. between the routine beauty practices of daily life and those practices which are being endorsed through mainstream media as a field of cultural production. This means that this perspectives is related to this field and its dynamics. However, the influences of this relation are easily overlooked when focusing on fields rather than perspectives.

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4.2.0 Beauty practices concerning naturalness and femininity

The previous category can be seen as contrast of this category, because everyday women have been replaced by women that are eye-catching and women that meet a certain standard of beauty, the women that were previously quite negatively evaluated. In other words, this category is addressing the imperative for women to be feminine. This category is interesting because of the rather clear diversity of beauty practices that are available for women. The first perspective is mainly focused in the beauty standard endorsed by mainstream media as fields of cultural production. In this perspective women are metaphorically referred to as birds which creates a typical dynamic between competitors. The second perspective emphasizes femininity as an essence of being. In both perspectives women are encouraged to live up to a potential of being a real women.

4.2.1 Perspective of feminine effort

Factor 2 of Female faces (Appendix A) has an eigenvalue of 3.90 and explains 13% of the study variance. Five males and three females, with an average age of 45 years, are significantly associated with this factor. Three participants are highly educated and four participants live in Amsterdam.

What makes this perspective typical is that metaphors with associations to birds are fairly common. In the slang of popular culture women, young women especially, are sometimes referred to as chicks or birds. This metaphor is typical because when birds show the colorfulness of their feathers, it is an indicator of good health and physical attractiveness for the general spectator. These two properties are key aspects of this perspective. Beauty practices that do well according to this perspective are those that highlight femininity. These generally are beauty practices that have an empowering effect according to erotic capital (Hakim 2010). Women should ensure that they have a “smooth skin”, are “wearing makeup”, and have “long hair”, or more preferably, “blond hair”. In other words, women should make an “effort” of “taking care” of themselves, as this is what “respectable” and “healthy” women do. Beauty practices that are more unacceptable are those that addressing alternative subcultures, which make women seem as if they are “just looking for attention”, or those beauty practices that are not feminine enough. Practices such as having “short hair”, hair dyed in a “strange hair color”, or “shaving” a part of the head are generally unacceptable. But also being “pale” or having “piercings” or “tattoos” is less acceptable. These beauty practices make women look “sleazy”, “unhappy” and/or “unhealthy”. Accordingly, women that do not meet the standard of femininity, because they are unable to or do not want to put in the effort to do so, are being referred to as “dead birds” or “grey pigeons”.

The women that define this perspective as “respectable” competitors are “models” or “eye-catching” women. Women that can be seen in magazines and on television, and are well known for being “beautiful”, these competitors are considered to be the “canon” of the beauty standard for “real”