Facing the Mirror - Older Women and Beauty Shop Culture

This innovative, ethnographic study of a neighborhood beauty salon investigates how customers constitute a lively, affirming community of peers during their weekly visits. Facing the Mirror gives voice to older women, who, in a sexist and ageist society, are frequently devalued and rendered invisible. These older, mostly Jewish women articulate their experiences of bodily self-presentation, femininity, aging, and caring pertaining to their lives within and outside Julie's International Salon. This book explores the socio-moral significance of these experiences which reveals as much about society as about older women themselves. Women's narratives expose structures of power, inequality, and resistance in the ways women perceive reality, make choices and live in their worlds.

List of contents

Introduction; Chapter Chapter One; Women’s Territory; Community and the Ethic of Care at Julie’s International Salon; Chapter Two; The Witch in the Mirror; Feminine Beauty and Its Imperatives; Chapter Three; “What’s My Alternative?”; Aging and Its Challenges; Chapter Four; “The Cheese Stands Alone”; Women in Relation to Work, Caring, and the Family; Chapter Five; Energetic Anger; An Invitation to Resistance;

About the author

Frida Kerner Furman is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at DePaul University and is author of BeyondYiddishkeit: The Struggle for Jewish Identity in a ReformSynagogue.

Summary

This ethnographic study of a neighbourhood beauty salon investigates how customers constitute a lively, affirming community of peers during their weekly visits. The book seeks to give voice to older women, who, in a sexist and ageist society, are frequently devalued and rendered invisible.

Product details

• Authors: Frida Furman, Frida Kerner Furman
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.06.1997
• EAN: 9780415915243
• ISBN: 978-0-415-91524-3
• No. of pages: 230
• Weight: 430 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gerontology, Anthropology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies, Age groups: the elderly, Gender studies: women, Gender studies: women and girls, Relating to Jewish people and groups, Social groups: religious groups and communities