First Advisor

Susan Poulsen

Term of Graduation

Fall 1999

Date of Publication

12-2-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Speech Communication

Department

Speech Communication

Language

English

Subjects

Beauty culture -- United States, Cosmetics -- United States, Women -- United States

DOI

10.15760/etd.4163

Physical Description

1 online resource (ii, 109 pages)

Abstract

Traditional female places, such as a cosmetic department, and the communication that occurs in such contexts are rarely taken seriously, and often considered insignificant (Spitzack & Carter, 1987). This study, however, revealed the significance of a cosmetic department by answering the following questions: 1) How is beauty socially constructed in a cosmetic department? 2) What are the messages women receive about beauty in a cosmetic department? 3) How are messages of beauty communicated in a cosmetic department? and 4) What meanings do women make of their experiences in the cosmetic department?

Data were collected through participant observation in a cosmetic department and interviews with fourteen cosmetic customers and salespeople. Cosmetic department artifacts such as brochures and posters were also collected and analyzed.

Guided by the theories of social construction, symbolic interaction, and social comparison, this qualitative study demonstrated that the cosmetic department sold more than wrinkle creams and perfumes; it sold women apiece of their social identity. A critical move, grounded feminist theory, revealed that the cosmetic department reinforced traditional beauty ideology and gender definition.

This study analyzed and identified, but was not limited to, the following topics: the practice of "makeover," negative descriptions of aging, reinforcement of beauty ideals through mother-daughter relationships, cosmetic artifacts, and salespeople, persuasion created through war and medical metaphors, expert knowledge, and technical language, and female perspectives on aging, beauty, self-concept and gender.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44724

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