Beauty and business : commerce, gender, and culture in modern America / edited by Philip Scranton.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Scranton, Philip.

Series:

Hagley perspectives on business and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fashion.

History.

Clothing trade.

Beauty, Personal.

United States--Commerce--History.

United States.

Commerce.

Beauty, Personal--United States--History.

Clothing trade--United States--History.

Fashion--United States--History.

Physical Description:

iv, 340 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2001.

Summary:

Beauty seems simple; we know it when we see it. But of course our ideas about what is attractive are influenced by a broad range of social and economic factors, and in Beauty and Business leading historians set out to provide this important cultural context. How have retailers shaped popular consciousness about beauty? And how, in turn, have cultural assumptions influenced the commodification of beauty? The contributors here look to particular examples in order to address these questions, turning their attention to topics ranging from the social role of the African American hair salon, and the sexual dynamics of bathing suits and shirtcollars, to the deeper meanings of corsets and what the Avon lady tells us about changing American values. As a whole, these essays force us to reckon with the ways that beauty has been made, bought, and sold in modern America.

Contents:

On beauty

and the history of business / Kathy Peiss

"Any desired length": negotiating gender through sports clothing, 1870-1925 / Sarah A. Gordon

Questionable beauty: the dangers and delights of the cigarette in American society, 1880-1930 / Nancy Bowman

Collars and consumers: changing images of American manliness and business / Carole Turbin

"Fighting the corsetless evil": shaping corsets and culture, 1900-1930 / Jill Fields

A depression-proof business strategy: the California Perfume Company's motivational literature / Katina L. Manko

"I had my own business

so I didn't have to worry": beauty salons, beauty culturists, and the politics of African-American female entrepreneurship / Tiffany Melissa Gill

"At the curve exchange": postwar beauty culture and working women at Maidenform / Vicki Howard

Estée Lauder: self-definition and the modern cosmetics market / Nancy Kohen

Black is profitable: the commodification of the Afro, 1960-1975 / Susannah Walker

"Loveliest daughter of our ancient Cathay!": representations of ethnic and gender identity in the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant / Judy Tzu-Chun Wu

Hiding the scars: history of breast prostheses after mastectomy since 1945 / Kirsten E. Gardner.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0415926661

041592667X

OCLC:

44016646