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Structural injustice and the Requirements of Beauty

2021; Wiley; Volume: 52; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/josp.12369

1467-9833

Heather Widdows,

Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art

Journal of Social PhilosophyVolume 52, Issue 2 p. 251-269 Special IssueOpen Access Structural injustice and the Requirements of Beauty Heather Widdows, Corresponding Author Heather Widdows h.widdows@bham.ac.uk Search for more papers by this author Heather Widdows, Corresponding Author Heather Widdows h.widdows@bham.ac.uk Search for more papers by this author First published: 01 February 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12369Citations: 2AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat 1 Introduction In this paper I consider whether structural injustice can capture the harms of the beauty ideal and recognize their significance. This is done in three sections. In Section 2, I set out the rising costs and harms which attach to beauty engagement in an increasingly visual and virtual culture. In Section 2.1, I outline how beauty harms are typically understood. In Sections 2.2 and 2.3, I argue that there are two communal or shared harms which are not easy to capture on individual models: first that more is required to meet minimal appearance standards; and second body image anxiety. In Section 2.4, in order to give an accurate account, I highlight beauty benefits. In Section 2.5, I show that increasingly the demands fall across genders. In Section 3, I apply Iris Marion Young's account of structural injustice to beauty. In Section 3.1, I set out the three core features of structural injustice. In the following three sections, Sections 3.2–3.4, 3.2–3.4, 3.2–3.4, I show beauty harms have the features of structural injustice. In Section 4, I consider two benefits of this approach and one challenge to it. 2 Beauty Harms and Benefits There are numerous harms which attach to engagement in beauty practices. These range from physical and psychological harms to those who engage to collective harms which arise in a more body-conscious culture. In this paper, I focus on the collective harms of the rising demands, which fall across demographics, and of body image anxiety. The extent of these harms is hard to capture on individual models, yet they are significant and extreme. It is seeking to capture the extent of these harms which motivates the use of a structural account. 2.1 Harms of Engagement There are harms to those who engage which are both physical and psychological. Beauty practices can be physically harmful across the spectrum. At the routine end practices such as tanning and skin-lightening are harmful, and surgical procedures always carry some risks and can harm.1 1 Sunbathing and tanning is harmful and dramatically increases the risk of suffering from cancer. Skin lightening is so dangerous the WHO has declared it a public health risk (WHO 2011). Non-surgical, sometimes called non-invasive procedures, are particularly risky are largely unregulated.2 2 Physical complications of fillers listed in the "Keogh Report" include infection, lumpiness, ulcers, blood vessel blockages, tissue death, allergic reactions, prolonged swelling and bruising and, in some cases, blindness (Keogh 2013, 24). Another study, by BAAPS in 2012, reported that 69 percent of its members had seen patients with complications following temporary fillers, and 49 percent following semi- or permanent fillers. (BAAPS 2008) The risks of surgery should not be over-emphasized and much cosmetic surgery is routine in medical parlance.3 3 All surgery caries the risks which come with anaesthesia, as well as risks of scaring, risks of infection and risks of further complications. However, all surgery has some risk of harm and some procedures are more risky than others. For instance, buttock lifts are particularly risky and abdominoplasties (tummy tucks), while frequently performed, have startlingly high complication rates.4 4 For example, as many as a quarter of those who have abdominoplasty have significant complications and may require further surgery (Stewart et al. 2006). Whether there are psychological benefits to surgery is contested; studies tend to be small, self-reporting and the data are not robust. However, a number of studies do suggest that recipients benefit psychologically from surgery, for instance in terms of improvements in body image and many report they are happy with the results (Sarwer et al. 2008). Other studies report psychological harm: with a particularly dramatic statistic being that there is some correlation between breast implants and suicide (Lipworth and McLaughlin 2010). On balance the empirical evidence is not robust enough to make firm judgments, especially if these individual reports of psychological benefit are set in the context of the broader rise in body dissatisfaction and body image anxiety. These individual physical and psychological harms to those who engage are the ones which policy-makers have focused on. They have emphasized the need for improved consent procedures and better regulation of practitioners, products and premises (Keogh 2013; Nuffield Council on Bioethics 2017). This focus leads to an individual account where the harms which are recognized are those to engaging individuals, rather than the extensive communal, social and cultural harms. In this paper I focus on two such harms, first that more is required to meet minimal appearance standards and second that of body image anxiety. 2.2 The Harm from Rising Demands That more is required to attain minimal standards of beauty is an argument I make elsewhere at some length.5 5 I track beauty engagement across practices, from routine practices, which are done at home, to so-called extreme practices, such as surgery, and show that more is required across demographics. The same practices are not required of all groups, however, all are doing more, and all practices move toward a global mean. For example, the globally desired skin tone is golden, bronze or coffee colored skin, requiring tanning white skin and lightening black skin (Widdows 2018). For the purposes of this paper it is sufficient to note that across demographics more practices are required to meet minimal appearance standards, to be "good enough," "to be normal." To take one illustrative example, consider the changes in what is required by way of removing visible body hair. In less than a generation it has become rare to see visible body hair in public, and increasingly pubic hair is also removed (Herzig 2015,137). Body hair removal is changing from a beauty practice to a health or hygiene practice (Tiggemann and Hodgson 2008). That body hair removal is regarded as required for minimal standards is shown by the fact body hair is now considered "unnatural" and "abnormal" (Fahs 2014). A second example, is the use of hair dye, once occasional or optional, but now required in very many contexts to meet minimal standards (particularly for women, but increasingly for men). A third example, not yet required but becoming so in some groups, is painted nails.6 6 I make this argument in detail in chapter 4, "Routine maintenance, Treats and Extremes," of Perfect Me (Widdows 2018). Among some groups minimal requirements extend beyond such practices. In some circles Botox and fillers fall into the required category and it is the untreated and aging face which is abnormal (Kay 2015). Dana Berkowitz, reports that in the United States, Botox injections are "fast becoming regular body upkeep, just like teeth cleaning and haircuts" (Berkowitz 2017, 45). Even cosmetic surgery may become so normalized that this too is required. For example, Meredith Jones argues: "Increasingly in makeover culture the choice is not to have cosmetic surgery rather than to have it. Just as a contemporary woman attending an important public event will probably feel the need to wear make-up, the middle aged women of the mid twenty-first century may well live in an environment where cosmetic surgery is the absolute norm. For middle- and upper-class women the decision not to have cosmetic surgery will be a political (or aesthetically perverse) one, a resolution that says certain things about the bearer of wrinkles or the carrier of jowls." (Jones 2008, 95). It some places, surgery is already effectively required, such that not to engage is abnormal. For instance, it is estimated that between 30 percent and 50 percent of South Koreans have had cosmetic surgery, with double eyelid surgery being the most popular procedure (Jacobs and Zheng 2018). The harm which results from rising minimal requirements is significant only if the extent of it can be recognized. Adding another practice to a daily beauty routine is not a significant harm on individual models. Indeed, it may not be a harm at all as individuals may activity chose, enjoy and benefit from engagement. Only a collective account reveals harm. There are harms of opportunity cost, as resources spent on beauty are not spent elsewhere.7 7 By any reckoning the beauty industry is big business. For example, in 2001 the global market for cosmetic, toiletry and fragrance products was $175 billion, and regarded as recession proof and in 2014 the global cosmetic industry alone was estimated at €181 billion (Consultancy UK, 2016; Kumar 2005). One any model of distributive justice the needs which could be met with this level of resource are extensive. Cumulatively, the harm becomes significant as time, money and effort spent striving for improved appearance is diverted from other goals and goods. In addition, as more is required to meet minimum standards more of us will fall short and fail. This results in a toxic environment in which, in the words of Susan Bordo "the ordinary body becomes the defective body" (Bordo 1997, 55). It is already the case that the hairy body is now abnormal. A future in which the "normal" body requires extensive surgical and non-surgical intervention to reach minimal standards will not only be costly in terms of time and money, but will lead to other harms. For example, those who cannot afford to engage may become second class citizens, vulnerable to discrimination and stigma. As more is required to meet the rising bar of normal those who cannot, or cannot afford to, conform will grow. This is a harmful spiral for all and it is this harm I seek to capture using a structural account. 2.3 The Harm of Body Image Anxiety The second harm I wish to focus on is the rise in body image anxiety and the harms which attach to it. As the beauty ideal becomes more dominant in a visual and virtual culture body image anxiety and body dissatisfaction increase.8 8 A number of terms are used in the literature to signal the unease with appearance, including, body dissatisfaction, body image anxiety, appearance dissatisfaction or appearance anxiety. These terms indicate a spectrum, for some anxiety is extreme, other is low level and constant. Body dissatisfaction is so prevalent that we find it odd if a woman is not dissatisfied with her body and does not want to change it. Myriad devastating consequences attach to body dissatisfaction; including low self-esteem, disordered eating behaviors, impaired social and sexual functioning and poorer day-to-day interactions (Cash and Smolak 2011). The extent of body image anxiety, especially among the young is beginning to be recognized by policy-makers. For instance a YMCA report ranked body image as the third most difficult challenge facing young people of both genders in the United Kingdom(YMCA 2016). Likewise, the annual Girls' Attitude Survey, by Girlguiding UK, has highlighted body image anxiety as a concern year on year. The 2016 survey reports that, girls "tell us they have to confront intense and unobtainable appearance pressures to be perfect and many say they feel they're not good enough" (Girlguiding 2016, 2). A few statistics from report are revealing: 38 percent of girls between 7 and 10 think they are not pretty enough, rising to 91 percent of girls between 17 and 21; 40 percent of girls between 7 and 10 feel they should lose weight at least sometimes, rising to 80 percent of girls between 17 and 21; 53 percent of girls between 7 and 10 think they need to be perfect at least sometimes, rising to 84 percent of girls between 17 and 21. These statistics speak for themselves and similar trends are repeated elsewhere, as body image anxiety is recorded across the globe (Ferguson 2013) and across genders (Hall 2014). The literature on which factors are most important in feeding this rise in body image anxiety is large, contested and indeterminate.9 9 For example, some focus on the media, arguing that the link between idealized thinness in the media and body images issues is now clearly established (Ghaznavi and Taylor 2015). While others deny media influence and argue that it is the influence of family and friends which is primary (Stice et al. 2001). But, all agree that anxiety is rising and harmful, as Diedrichs states, "the high prevalence of negative body image is a significant public health concern due to its negative physical and psychological health outcomes" (Diedrichs et al. 2011, 259). That experiencing body image anxiety is harmful is not contested. Policy-makers are recognizing its impact on individuals. However, it tends to be regarded as an individual issue which can be addressed by individuals doing things differently or thinking differently. Only when considered collectively is the significance and extent of the harm revealed. It is this extensive harm which I seek to capture applying a structural injustice model. 2.4 Beauty Benefits Before I consider whether these harms––of rising minimal standards and body image anxiety––can be captured using a structural injustice account, let me note there are positive aspects to beauty engagement. Engagement in beauty practices is both positive and negative; critical and encouraging; diminishing and empowering.10 10 That the beauty ideal is mixed is one of the core claims of Perfect Me. There are many individual pleasures, for instance, many of the practices are intrinsically enjoyable. Some practices are not enjoyable in themselves––for instance waxing or surgery––but they can still be experienced positively, for instance, there can be pleasure derived from feeling virtuous and proud of body work.11 11 The dual nature of the beauty ideal and the feelings of empowerment which derive from engagement is a topic I discuss in detail elsewhere, particularly in chapters 7 and 8 of Perfect Me (Widdows 2018). In addition to individual benefits, there are communal and social pleasures and benefits. For example, beauty practices sanction adult to adult human touching, in non-medical and non-sexual ways. Think of the hours mothers and friends spend braiding hair, painting nails, painting henna and so on. And for some, for instance, an elderly person in a care home, the only non-medical touch routinely available is that of the hairdresser or beautician. A further communal benefit is that of social bonding. In many instances beauty-talk is a means to establish and cement connection. It is friendship-talk, a way to signal care, affection and admiration, particularly between women. This is what Young is alluding to when she states: "Girls often establish relations of intimacy by exchanging clothes; sisters and roommates raid each other's closets, sometimes unpermitted; daughters' feet clomp around in their mothers shoes. I love my sweater, and in letting you wear it you wear an aspect of me." (Young 2005, 71) This type of bonding can be problematic, and some find such talk excluding and alienating. But for very many there is pleasure in these practices which enable connection with other women and across groups. Such benefits could, in theory, be delivered in non-beauty ways, however, significant social change would be required for alternative bonding and touching practices to be developed. There are times when beauty and appearance have been empowering not just of individuals but of groups. For example, the afro was very deliberately embraced as a symbol of black empowerment by the civil rights movement. However, while empowering for some individuals, and particularly important as a political symbol, the focus on "black beauty" was alienating and excluding for others. For instance, Shirley Tate recounts the story of Teresa, a mixed race women who plaited her hair and wore a head wrap to hide the straightness of her hair which she felt was not authentically black enough (Tate 2007). Recognizing that there are benefits as well as harms, and the complexity of beauty norms and practices is crucial to understanding the harms of beauty. Without recognizing the wider context not only will the harms not be adequately theorized but also the proposed solutions will be inappropriate and counterproductive. For instance, if we only see the harms and fail to see the benefits then wholesale rejection of all beauty engagement seems a reasonable response. Recognizing the extent of beauty benefits and the complicated ways they are embedded and entwined with many daily interactions is important as it shows how impractical, and even counterproductive, such simplistic solutions are.12 12 Impossible because women experience benefits and know that all engagement is not harmful and counterproductive as, in recognizing there are benefits, women are likely to reject all criticism of beauty practices. I will return to this issue in Section 4. 2.5 Men and Body Work The harms of the rising demands of beauty and those of body image dissatisfaction and anxiety are increasingly falling on all of us irrespective of gender. Recall the YMCA report which ranked body image as the third most important issue for young people in the United Kingdom across genders. In addition, statistics on eating disorders suggest that as many as a third of young sufferers are male (Griffiths et al. 2015). Likewise, the "Sexualisation of Young People" report, details that boys are under pressure to display their bodies in the virtual world in ways which show muscles and are hyper-masculine (Papadopoulous 2010). The "drive to muscularity" for men is increasingly equated to "drive to thinness" for women (Stapleton, McIntyre, and Bannatyne 2016). Appearance ideals are not as demanding for men as they are for women; and importantly there is no global ideal for men.13 13 Elsewhere I argue that there is a dominant global ideal for women, but not for men. The only feature of the male ideal which is globally valued is tallness. In contrast little divergence is permitted for women from thinness (with curves), firmness, smoothness, and youth. Yet the number of men feeling dissatisfied with their bodies and exhibiting body image anxiety is rising, along with harmful consequences (Griffiths et al. 2015). As well as experiencing body anxiety and dissatisfaction men are increasingly engaging in the third shift, body work, whether this is diet and exercise or chemical and surgical interventions. Cosmetic surgery is still largely a female activity, but men are also going under the knife. For example, BAAPS report a rise in operations on men, dubbed "the daddy makeover," including an "epic rise of 20% in male liposuction and a 13% jump in 'man boob' reductions" (BAAPS 2012). Naomi Wolf, in her landmark book, The Beauty Myth, jokes about the beauty ideal falling on men. She invites us to image "penis implants, penis augmentation, foreskin enhancement, testicular silicone injections to correct asymmetry, saline injections with a choice of three sizes, surgery to correct the angle of erection, to lift the scrotum and make it pert" (Wolf 1990, 242). Her purpose is to show how crazy and unimaginable it is that demands like these could fall on men in a parallel way to how they fall on women. Yet much of this has come to pass; penis enlargement adverts fill in boxes and Botox (scrotox) is used to smooth testicles. If Brazil is at the top of the beauty curve for men as it is for women, then the fact that men are the fastest growing demographic of cosmetic surgery patients in Brazil might foreshadow a general trend for men to engage in cosmetic surgery.14 14 Edmonds reports that 30 percent of operations are now on men, with common anxieties being losing weight, gaining muscle, hair loss, and virility (Edmonds 2010, 321). When it comes to routine practices men are also engaging more. For example, in the United States, "as of 2005, more than 60 percent of men were regularly reducing or removing hair from areas of the body below the neck" (Herzig 2015, 10). Recent studies report similar figures, with a 2011 study reporting that a majority of U.S. and Australian college men and women report removing pubic hair (Smola and Murnen 2011). Further evidence that the demands of beauty fall increasingly on men can also be found in the dramatic extension of the male market in beauty products (Elsner 2012). Men spend money on clothes, hair, and grooming products in not dissimilar ways to women and even traditionally female products, such as makeup, are now being sold to men (Miller 2014; Hall 2014). That the harms of rising demands and body image anxiety are falling on men too is important for considering the suitability of structural injustice for capturing these harms. This will be returned to in Section 4.3. 3 Structural Injustice and Beauty Having set out two communal harms of the beauty ideal, noted there are beauty benefits and that engagement is less gendered than previously, I will now explore whether structural injustice can capture these harms. I will outline three features of structural injustice and argue that the harms of rising demands and body image anxiety exhibit these features. 3.1 Structural Injustice There is no simple or single account of structural injustice. Iris Marion Young's account is still important, although alternative accounts are emerging. For example, Sally Haslanger's work on social construction, collected in Resisting Reality, is influential, and is mainstreaming in areas of philosophy hitherto resistant to non-individual accounts (Haslanger 2012). In this paper, I return to Iris Marion Young's paradigmatic account. Like others, I regard the account of structural injustice set out in Responsibility for Justice as definitive.15 15 Others who do the same are Monique Deveaux (2016) and Serena Pareck (2012). Young does not provide a formal definition of structural injustice but describes how Sandy, a single mother of two, spirals into homelessness (Young 2013, 43–44). Sandy is given notice by her landlord, who plans to develop the old and poorly maintained building in which she and her children live. She looks for a new house, but is unable to find an affordable rental apartment on her bus route. Eventually, she settles for a one bed apartment, a 45-minute car journey from her work when the roads are clear. She ends up homeless as the cost of the car means she can no longer afford the deposit on the apartment. Young describes Sandy's descent into homelessness as a "mundane" harm or injustice (Young 2013, 45). Young's structural injustice account aims to capture this particular type of injustice, harm or wrong (terms which Young uses relatively interchangeably).16 16 Young runs harm, wrong and injustice together. Her aim is to distinguish this type of harm/wrong/injustice from those which can be traced to identifiable causes rather than to distinguish between harms, wrongs and injustices. To illustrate she states "the wrong is structural injustice, which is distinct from at least two other forms of harm or wrong" (Young 2013, 45). The injustice is structural in that it results from the actions of social structures, patterns and norms, not from individual's choices or actions. Three features of Sandy's situation characterize and define structural injustice. First, Sandy's "situation does not result primarily from her own choices and actions. She is largely a victim of circumstances beyond her control" (Young 2013, 45). Second, she has not been harmed by the wrongful actions of an identifiable individual. Indeed, in contrast, "all the people whom she encounters act within the law and according to accepted norms and rules" (Young 2013, 46). Third, the injustice does not arise from "some particular unjust law or policy" (Young 2013, 47). This is not to say that laws and policies do not contribute, and Young cites a number which do, including municipal zoning laws and private investment policies (Young 2013, 47). But, and importantly, no law is obviously unjust and none can be singled out as the major cause. To explore the extent to which the demands of beauty fit a structural injustice account I will consider each of these features in turn. 3.2 Harmed as a Result of Our Own Choices For structural injustice to occur the harm must not result from the choice of the individual who is harmed. For this to be true in beauty, parallel to Sandy, those who are harmed must be "largely a victim of circumstances beyond her control" (Young 2013, 45). Some beauty harms are a result of individual choice, however, the harms of rising demands and of body image anxiety are not. Harms which could be considered the result of individual choice are, for example, physical and psychological pain which result from a cosmetic procedure which an individual has chosen and consented to. Elsewhere I argue that such engagement is less free than policy-makers assume, however, although constrained, choice remains.17 17 Chapter 9 of Perfect Me, "I'm doing it for me," considers the choice narrative and beauty engagement and argues that choice, while real, is highly constrained. When it comes to the communal harms which are the focus of this paper these are not chosen by the individual. As discussed in Section 2.3 the demands of beauty have risen such that a hairless body is normalized. Not to remove body hair is regarded as abnormal or unnatural, and hair removal has been recast as a hygiene practice rather than a beauty practice. Once this happens not conforming is no longer a live choice. This is different from previous beauty ideals which were local not global. To illustrate, consider very demanding practices such as foot-binding or corset wearing. While these were required of certain women the practices could not have been transformed from beauty practices into hygiene practices. Tiny waists and "lotus" feet were always about being beautiful, about adornment. There were evident differences between and within cultures such that the modified body––the tiny waist and feet––could not be regarded as normal or natural.18 18 Most women were working women and could not have farmed the land or performed their domestic duties had they been modified in these ways. The clear evidence of difference provided a resource for rejecting demanding practices (indeed, the suffragettes used the fact their maids did not wear corsets as proof they could be women without them). The existence of obvious difference makes it impossible that the modified body could become so ubiquitous that it could be regarded as normal or natural. As the demands of beauty rise engagement becomes required to be normal, it becomes difficult to recognize beauty practices as adornment practices rather than required hygiene practices or routine grooming. Some are less vulnerable to rising demands, but as practices and modifications, such as body hair removal, become required to be normal, less choice is possible. In addition, choice may be more limited for those lower down race and class hierarchies. Making claims that individuals in these groups "choose" to engage when other more privileged individuals do not is problematic (Holliday and Sanchez Taylor 2006). Given this it is odd to suggest that the rising demands of beauty are a result of an individual's choices. They may be a result of the cumulative choices of very many but that a beauty practice is required to be normal cannot be said to be the result of individual choice. Even less can body image anxiety be deemed a result of an individual's choice. That girls as young as three exhibit preferences for thinness and worry about some aspect of their appearance suggest that these feelings are not a result of choice (Dohnt and Tiggemann 2005; Harriger 2015). Indeed, if we consider the extent of body image anxiety to sugg