Elizabeth A. Wissinger
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814794180
- eISBN:
- 9780814794197
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814794180.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Over the last four decades, the fashion modeling industry has become a lightning rod for debates about Western beauty ideals, the sexual objectification of women, and consumerist desire. Yet, as ...
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Over the last four decades, the fashion modeling industry has become a lightning rod for debates about Western beauty ideals, the sexual objectification of women, and consumerist desire. Yet, as Wissinger contends, existing theories of commercialism and gender norms fail to fully explain the enduring appeal and significance of fashion models. Instead, in the growth of informational capitalism, the transformation from print to film to the internet has had an enormous impact on what kind of body counts as “fashionable.” From Twiggy’s iconic angularity to the supermodels’ “glamazonian” contours to the waif’s hollowed out silhouette, to Kim Kardashian's curves, technologies change the fashioning of bodies, and how they are valued. The book masterfully weaves together in-depth interviews, participant observation at model castings, photo shoots, runways shows, and a careful examination of “how-to” texts to offer a glimpse into the life of the model. This life involves a great deal of physical and virtual management of the body, or what Wissinger terms “glamour labor.” Traditional forms of “glamour labor’—specialized modeling work of self-styling, crafting a ‘look,’ and building an image—have been amplified by the rise of digital media as the power of pixilation afforded unprecedented access to tinkering with the body’s form and image. As lines blur between life, work, and body management in the participatory culture of Web 2.0, the street becomes a runway and being “in fashion” a route to success. In an era where self-fashioning, self-surveillance, and self-branding are presented as a means to “the good life,” this book urges us to take seriously the presentation of bodies and selves in the digital age.Less
Over the last four decades, the fashion modeling industry has become a lightning rod for debates about Western beauty ideals, the sexual objectification of women, and consumerist desire. Yet, as Wissinger contends, existing theories of commercialism and gender norms fail to fully explain the enduring appeal and significance of fashion models. Instead, in the growth of informational capitalism, the transformation from print to film to the internet has had an enormous impact on what kind of body counts as “fashionable.” From Twiggy’s iconic angularity to the supermodels’ “glamazonian” contours to the waif’s hollowed out silhouette, to Kim Kardashian's curves, technologies change the fashioning of bodies, and how they are valued. The book masterfully weaves together in-depth interviews, participant observation at model castings, photo shoots, runways shows, and a careful examination of “how-to” texts to offer a glimpse into the life of the model. This life involves a great deal of physical and virtual management of the body, or what Wissinger terms “glamour labor.” Traditional forms of “glamour labor’—specialized modeling work of self-styling, crafting a ‘look,’ and building an image—have been amplified by the rise of digital media as the power of pixilation afforded unprecedented access to tinkering with the body’s form and image. As lines blur between life, work, and body management in the participatory culture of Web 2.0, the street becomes a runway and being “in fashion” a route to success. In an era where self-fashioning, self-surveillance, and self-branding are presented as a means to “the good life,” this book urges us to take seriously the presentation of bodies and selves in the digital age.
