Truth and Goodness, Mirrors and Masks -- Part I: A Sociology of Beauty and the Face
1989; Wiley; Volume: 40; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/590891
ISSN1468-4446
Autores Tópico(s)Emotions and Moral Behavior
ResumoWhat is the face? The face, as unique, physical, malleable and public is the prime symbol of the self. It is unique, for no two faces are identical, and it is in the face that we recognize each other, and identify ourselves. Our faces are pictured in our passports and identification papers. The face is physical, and therefore personal and intimate, yet the face is also 'made up', 'put on' and subject to fashion. It is public, but also intensely private and intimate. And, malleable, with its eighty mimetic muscles, the face is capable of over 7,000 expressions. Furthermore, the face indicates the age, gender and race of the self with varying degrees of accuracy, also our health and socio-economic status, our moods and emotions, even perhaps our character and personality. The face is also the site of four of our five senses: sight, taste, smell and hearing, and the site for our intakes of food, drink and air. It is also the source of verbal communication, and an important source for non-verbal communication. Gloria Swanson once said: 'We didn't need dialogue. We had faces.' Moreover the face is also the principal determinant in the perception of our individual beauty or ugliness, and all that these perceptions imply for self-esteem and life-chances. The face indeed symbolizes the self, and signifies many different facets of the self. More than any other part of the body, we identify the face as me oryou. Nothing indicates the significance of the face more than the failure to recognize faces and facial expressions. Dr Sacks has described one such person, a victim of Korsakov's syndrome who, during the medical examination, apparently mistook his wife for a hat, and tried to, literally, pick her up to put on his head; not surprisingly, he could not recognize facial expressions either. Yet another patient, horrifyingly, could not recognize his own face in a mirror (1987: 11-13, 21). The face, however, and indeed beauty and the physical body also, have been largely ignored by mainstream sociology, at least until relatively recently. Only Simmel ( 1901/ 1965) and Veblen ( 1899/
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