Skin Bleaching and 'Good' Hair

Seminar 8

Women's bodies and appearances in particular have been moralised, disciplined and commercialised. When femininity and ethnicity intersect, the marketability of tools to achieve 'normative whiteness' or 'Anglo-normativity' is exponentially enhanced. So how should we explore and interpret the complex intersection between capitalism and 'race' in relation to (especially Euro-American) discourses of perfectibility and the demand for what I think of as 'mandatory perfection'?

Weekly Questions:

• How do the perfect bodies of the Renaissance differ from those of the 20th and 21st century Anglosphere?
• Are perfect bodies always functional bodies? When and when not?
• What is the relationship between capitalism and perfectionism? Is it affected by 'race', and if so, why and how?
• Is 'perfection' political?
• What role does gender play in selling (and pursuing) better bodies?
• Is 'perfection' mandatory in Euro-American cultures? And is global 'perfection' also 'Anglo- or Euro- normative'?

Readings and mini-lecture: See Talis