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Choosing to conform: The discursive complexities of choice in relation to feminine beauty practices
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Choosing to conform: The discursive complexities of choice in relation to feminine beauty practices

A. Stuart and N. Donaghue
Feminism and Psychology, Vol.22(1), pp.98-121
2012
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Abstract

beauty choice empowerment femininity neoliberal subject postfeminism
There exists the idea that western societies are now postfeminist, implying that remaining differences between men and women should be understood as a result of the free exercise of individual choice. Yet this postfeminist promise of liberation is overwhelmingly packaged within the crushingly cruel beauty images that western women are judged against and incited to emulate. Theorizing female agency in light of choice and liberation discourses has been the topic of much recent feminist literature, to which this article seeks to contribute. We utilized a feminist post-structuralist framework to examine how young Australian women position themselves as freely choosing and able to throw off oppression. We discuss these findings in relation to the conception of the neoliberal feminine subject; described as someone who playfully expresses herself by freely choosing her level of participation in socially promoted beauty practices; in turn resulting in a resistance to being seen as inflexible, or critical of wider social influences

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Citation topics
6 Social Sciences
6.24 Psychiatry & Psychology
6.24.1084 Sexual Violence
Web Of Science research areas
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Women's Studies
ESI research areas
Psychiatry/Psychology
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