Beauty and Inequality Physical Appearance

Tag: Beauty

Beauty is no frivolous subject

By Wanying Zhou In 2024, Wanying Zhou took an interview with Sonar Magazine from KU Leuven to share her personal journey and academic reflections on beauty standards and social inequality. Drawing on her own experience of different beauty standards in Belgium and China, she argues that beauty is far more than a matter of personal […]

Report on the rise of cosmetic procedures in Brussels 

By Sanne Pieters Cosmetic procedures are on the rise in Brussels! Sanne was asked to look at the rise of cosmetic procedures in Brussels through a sociological lense.    From the article: “In this growing market, the fine balance between commerce and medicine remains, says Pieters. “Most doctors try their best to advise patients as honestly […]

Report on the rise of boutique fitness in Brussels

By Sanne Pieters   What does the rise of boutique fitness studios as a place for networking say about Brussels?   Sanne was featured in Politico Europe to give her insights on “sweatworking”, where people in Brussels visit high-end gyms for networking purposes.   From the article: “Sanne Pieters, a PhD researcher at KU Leuven investigating […]

Fieldwork experience

By Narges Pirhayati  Managing My Appearance in the Field During my fieldwork with cosmetic surgeons in Tehran/Iran, I realized that my appearance was not a peripheral matter. On the contrary, it became a critical part of my fieldwork toolkit —something I had to carefully manage to gain access to the highly exclusive and sensitive world […]

Movie Review – The Substance

  By Narges Pirhayati Beauty Standards and Identity in The Substance  The film The Substance explores an identity crisis related to the body. It shows the fear of aging and physical change and how a famous person struggles with growing older and losing her beauty, leading her to take extreme measures to regain her lost […]

Movie Review – The Substance  

By Emmanuel Narh    “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself – younger, more beautiful, more perfect?”  This haunting question opens “The Substance”, setting the tone for a visceral critique of our obsession with beauty. It is a fitting entry point into a film that, while framed as horror, unfolds more as […]

The expanding beauty regime

In 2022, Giselinde published an article in which she explained how and why beauty become so important in today’s society. Following sociologists Norbert Elias, but with a dash of Michel Foucault and Max Weber, she calls this “The expanding beauty regime”. The article was published in Critical Studies In Fashion and Beauty (paywall) but the […]

The ex-President’s hair: Politics and beauty in Buenos Aires

All five PhD researchers are now doing their fieldwork. On this blog, they share their research impressions in short vignettes. Carolina Rabasa Rucki looks at the hairstyle of former president Cristina de Kirchner to show how beauty is politics in Buenos Aires