The Force of Beauty

Transforming French Ideas of Femininity in the Third Republic

Nonfiction, History, Western Europe, France, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, Women&
Cover of the book The Force of Beauty by Holly Grout, LSU Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Holly Grout ISBN: 9780807159903
Publisher: LSU Press Publication: May 13, 2015
Imprint: LSU Press Language: English
Author: Holly Grout
ISBN: 9780807159903
Publisher: LSU Press
Publication: May 13, 2015
Imprint: LSU Press
Language: English

The market for commercial beauty products exploded in Third Republic France, with a proliferation of goods promising to erase female imperfections and perpetuate an aesthetic of femininity that conveyed health and respectability. While the industry's meteoric growth helped to codify conventional standards of womanhood, The Force of Beauty goes beyond the narrative of beauty culture as a tool for sociopolitical subjugation to show how it also targeted women as important consumers in major markets and created new avenues by which they could express their identities and challenge or reinforce gender norms.

As cosmetics companies and cultural media, from magazines to novels to cinema, urged women to aspire to commercial standards of female perfection, beauty evolved as a goal to be pursued rather than a biological inheritance. The products and techniques that enabled women to embody society's feminine ideal also taught them how to fashion their bodies into objects of desire and thus offered a subversive tool of self-expression. Holly Grout explores attempts by commercial beauty culture to reconcile a standard of respectability with female sexuality, as well as its efforts to position French women within the global phenomenon of changing views on modern womanhood.

Grout draws on a wide range of primary sources-hygiene manuals, professional and legal debates about the right to fabricate and distribute "medicines," advertisements for beauty products, and contemporary fiction and works of art-to explore how French women navigated changing views on femininity. Her seamless integration of gender studies with business history, aesthetics, and the history of medicine results in a textured and complex study of the relationship between the politics of womanhood and the politics of beauty.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The market for commercial beauty products exploded in Third Republic France, with a proliferation of goods promising to erase female imperfections and perpetuate an aesthetic of femininity that conveyed health and respectability. While the industry's meteoric growth helped to codify conventional standards of womanhood, The Force of Beauty goes beyond the narrative of beauty culture as a tool for sociopolitical subjugation to show how it also targeted women as important consumers in major markets and created new avenues by which they could express their identities and challenge or reinforce gender norms.

As cosmetics companies and cultural media, from magazines to novels to cinema, urged women to aspire to commercial standards of female perfection, beauty evolved as a goal to be pursued rather than a biological inheritance. The products and techniques that enabled women to embody society's feminine ideal also taught them how to fashion their bodies into objects of desire and thus offered a subversive tool of self-expression. Holly Grout explores attempts by commercial beauty culture to reconcile a standard of respectability with female sexuality, as well as its efforts to position French women within the global phenomenon of changing views on modern womanhood.

Grout draws on a wide range of primary sources-hygiene manuals, professional and legal debates about the right to fabricate and distribute "medicines," advertisements for beauty products, and contemporary fiction and works of art-to explore how French women navigated changing views on femininity. Her seamless integration of gender studies with business history, aesthetics, and the history of medicine results in a textured and complex study of the relationship between the politics of womanhood and the politics of beauty.

More books from LSU Press

Cover of the book The Bad Secret by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Uncovering Paris by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Citizen-Officers by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Galaxie Wagon by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Revolutionary Emancipation by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Power and Corruption in the Early Modern Portuguese World by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Homegrown Yankees by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Six Poets from the Mountain South by Holly Grout
Cover of the book The Mississippi Delta and the World by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Crooked Run by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Precious Perversions by Holly Grout
Cover of the book The South's Tolerable Alien by Holly Grout
Cover of the book She Let Herself Go by Holly Grout
Cover of the book Treating the Trauma of the Great War by Holly Grout
Cover of the book All Souls by Holly Grout
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy