Table Of ContentThe Global Beauty Industry
Th e Global Beauty Industry: Colorism, Racism, and the National Body is an interdiscipli-
nary text that uses beauty to explore topics of gender, race, class, colorism, nation,
bodies, multiculturalism, transnationalism, and intersectionality. Integrating materi-
als from a wide range of cultural and geopolitical contexts, it coalesces with initiatives
to produce more internationally relevant curricula in fi elds such as sociology, as well
as cultural, women’s/gender, media, and globalization studies.
Meeta Rani Jha is a feminist sociologist and an anti-racist activist. She is a scholar-
in-residence at Beatrice Bain Research Group (BBRG) in the Gender and Women’s
Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley, US. She has taught
sociology, globalization, transnational feminist cultural studies, critical race, ethnicity,
and media studies at a number of universities in the San Francisco Bay area (currently
at the University of San Francisco, US) and in London. For a long time she was a
community organizer on issues of racial discrimination, low pay, migration, domestic
violence, and homeworking in the UK.
Framing 21st Century Social Issues
Series Editor: France Winddance Twine, University of California–Santa Barbara, USA
Th e goal of this new, unique s eries is to off er readable, teachable “thinking frames” on today’s social
problems and social issues by leading scholars. Th ese are available for view on http://routledge.
customgateway.com/routledge-social-issues.html.
For instructors teaching a wide range of courses in the social sciences, the Routledge Social Issues
Collection now off ers the best of both worlds: originally written short texts that provide “overviews” to
important social issues as well as teachable excerpts from larger works previously published by Rout-
ledge and other presses.
As an instructor, click to the website to view the library and decide how to build your custom
anthology and which thinking frames to assign. Students can choose to receive the assigned materials
in print and/or electronic formats at an aff ordable price.
Available Unequal Prospects
Is Working Longer the Answer?
The Global Beauty Industry Tay McNamara and John Williamson
Colorism, Racism, and the National Body
Meeta Rani Jha Beyond the Prison Industrial
Complex
Oversharing, Second Edition Crime and Incarceration in the 21st Century
Presentations of Self in the Internet Age Kevin Wehr and Elyshia Aseltine
Ben Agger
Girls With Guns
Social Problems Firearms, Feminism, and Militarism
A Human Rights Perspective France Winddance Twine
Eric Bonds
Terror
The Enduring Color Line in U.S. Athletics Social, Political, and Economic Perspectives
Krystal Beamon and Chris M. Messer Mark P. Worrell
Identity Problems in the Facebook Era Torture
Daniel Trottier A Sociology of Violence and Human Rights
Lisa Hajjar
The Pains of Mass Imprisonment
Benjamin Fleury-Steiner and Jamie G. Longazel DIY
The Search for Control and Self-Reliance in
From Trafficking to Terror the 21st Century
Constructing a Global Social Problem Kevin Wehr
Pardis Mahdavi
Foreign Remedies Changing Times for Black
What the Experience of Other Nations Professionals
Can Tell Us about Next Steps in Reforming Adia Harvey Wingfield
U.S. Health Care
David A. Rochefort and Kevin P. Donnelly The Problem of Emotions in Societies
Jonathan H. Turner
Due Process Denied
Detentions and Deportations in the Rapid Climate Change
United States Causes, Consequences, and Solutions
Tanya Golash-Boza Scott G. McNall
Disposable Youth Waste and Consumption
Racialized Memories, and the Culture Capitalism, the Environment, and the
of Cruelty Life of Things
Henry A. Giroux Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi
Nuclear Family Values, Extended The Future of Higher Education
Family Lives Dan Clawson and Max Page
The Power of Race, Class, and Gender
Natalia Sarkisian and Naomi Gerstel Contentious Identities
Ethnic, Religious, and Nationalist
How Ethical Systems Change: Conflicts in Today’s World
Lynching and Capital Punishment Daniel Chirot
Sheldon Ekland-Olson and Danielle Dirks
Empire Versus Democracy
How Ethical Systems Change: The Triumph of Corporate and
Tolerable Suffering and Assisted Military Power
Dying Carl Boggs
Sheldon Ekland-Olson and
Elyshia Aseltine The Stupidity Epidemic
Worrying About Students, Schools, and
How Ethical Systems Change: America’s Future
Abortion and Neonatal Care Joel Best
Sheldon Ekland-Olson and Elyshia Aseltine
Sex, Drugs, and Death
How Ethical Systems Change: Addressing Youth Problems in American
Eugenics, the Final Solution, Society
Bioethics Tammy L. Anderson
Sheldon Ekland-Olson and Julie Beicken
Body Problems
Why Nations Go to War Running and Living Long in a Fast-Food
A Sociology of Military Conflict Society
Mark P. Worrell Ben Agger
Series Advisory Board: Rene Almeling, Yale University, Joyce Bell, University of Pittsburgh, Elizabeth
Bernstein, Barnard College, David Embrick, Loyola University Chicago, Tanya Golash-Boza, University
of California–Merced, Melissa Harris, New York University, Matthew Hughey, University of Connecticut,
Kerwin Kaye, SUNY–Old Westbury, Wendy Moore, Texas A&M, Alondra Nelson, Columbia University,
Deirdre Royster, New York University, Zulema Valdez, University of California–Merced, Victor Rios,
University of California–Santa Barbara.
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The Global Beauty Industry
Colorism, Racism, and the National Body
Meeta Rani Jha
First published 2016
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Taylor & Francis
The right of Meeta Rani Jha to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Jha, Meeta Rani.
The global beauty industry : colorism, racism, and the national body/
by Meeta Rani Jha.
pages cm. – (Framing 21st century social issues)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Beauty contests. 2. Beauty, Personal–Social aspects. 3. Beauty
culture –Social aspects. 4. Sex role. 5. Women–Identity. 6. Racism.
7. Nationalism. I. Title.
HQ1219.J495 2016
646.7’2–dc23 2015011689
ISBN: 978-1-138-18841-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-83943-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73343-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Adobe Garamond
by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Paignton, UK
Contents
Series Foreword viii
Preface x
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
I. Beauty as Structural Inequality: Beauty, Feminist Protests,
Nationalism, Neoliberal Femininity 13
II. Black Is Beautiful: Anti-racist Beauty Aesthetics and
Cultural Resistance 31
III. Globalization, Indian Beauty Nationalism, and Colorism:
Class, Caste, and Gender Stratifi cation 52
IV. Chinese Femininity, Beauty Economy, Cosmetic Surgery 73
V. A Complex Model of Beauty 90
Glossary 93
Bibliography 106
Index 118
Contents vii
Series Foreword
Th e fi rst decades of the twenty-fi rst century have been a time of paradoxes. Growing
prosperity and the growth of the middle classes in countries such as Brazil, China,
India, Russia, and South Africa have been accompanied by climate change, environ-
mental degradation, labor exploitation, sexual abuse and sexual violence targeting
girls and women, state censorship of social media, governmental corruption, and
human-rights abuses. Sociologists off er theories, concepts, and analytical frames that
enable us to better understand the challenges and cultural transformations of the
twenty-fi rst century. How can we generate new forms of collective knowledge that can
help solve some of our local, global, and transnational problems?
We live in a world in which new communication technologies and products such
as mobile cellular phones, iPads, and new social media such as Facebook, Google,
Skype, and Twitter have transformed online education, global communication net-
works, and local and transnational economies; facilitated revolutions such as the ‘Arab
Spring’; and generated new forms of entertainment, employment, protest, and
pleasure. Th ese social media have been utilized by social-justice activists, political
dissidents, educators, entrepreneurs, and multinational corporations. Th ey have also
been a resource employed to facilitate corporate deviance, government corruption,
and the increased surveillance of civilian populations. Th is form of use threatens
democracy, privacy, creative expression, and political freedoms.
Th is is the fi fth year of our Routledge ‘Framing 21st Century Social Issues’ series.
Our series includes books on topics ranging broadly from climate change, consump-
tion, eugenics, torture, sports, medical technologies, gun violence, the internet, and
youth culture. Th ese books explore contemporary social problems in ways that intro-
duce basic sociological concepts in the social sciences, cover key literature in the fi eld,
and off er original diagnoses. Th ey also engage directly in current debates within the
social sciences over how to best defi ne, rethink, and respond to the social concerns
that preoccupy the early twenty-fi rst century.
Th e goal of this series is to provide accessible essays that examine a wide range of
social issues with local, global, and transnational impact. Sociologists are ideally poised
to contribute to a global conversation about a range of issues such as the impact of
mass incarceration on local economies, medical technologies, health disparities,
viii Series Foreword
violence, torture, transnational migration, militarism, and the AIDS epidemic. Th e
contributors to this series bring the works of classical sociology into dialogue with
contemporary social theorists from diverse theoretical traditions including but not
limited to feminist, Marxist, and European social theory.
Readers do not need an extensive background in academic sociology to benefi t
from these books. Each book is student friendly in that we provide glossaries of terms
for the uninitiated that are keyed to bolded terms in the text. Each chapter ends with
questions for further thought and discussion. Th e books are ideal for undergraduates
because they are accessible without sacrifi cing a theoretically sophisticated and
innovative analysis.
Meeta Rani Jha provides a unique analysis of the global beauty industry. Moving
between the US, India, and China, Jha provides an intersectional analysis that illumi-
nates how class, caste, colorism, and nationalism structure how beauty is defi ned at
the local, national, and global level. Beauty is a site of struggle over class, caste inequal-
ity, racism, and respectability. For example, in the US, darker skin tones have been
racialized, stigmatized, and correlated with lower wages, lower-status spouses, lower
levels of education, and restricted social mobility. For US blacks, the negative relation-
ship between skin color and social mobility has been well documented. In other
words, beauty—which is partially defi ned by skin color—is a resource. Th e political
economy and cultural politics of beauty is an important topic for those interested in
the ways that beauty hierarchies are intertwined with racism, class, ethnic inequalities,
and the socio-political consequences of global capitalism. Th is book will inspire the
reader to think more critically about skin color, class, and the body, and beauty as a
form of embodied capital. In a capitalist economy in which beauty can provide access
to higher-income spouses, higher education, and more fi nancial security, women and
(increasingly) men are willing to go to great lengths to alter their skin color, hair color,
and other features as they participate in a global consumer economy. Th is book is ideal
for courses on gender, cultural sociology, sociology of the body, and global studies.
France Winddance Twine
Series Editor
Series Foreword ix
