Elizabeth Wissinger, author of the Spring 2010 Contexts Culture Review, The Top Model Life, tells us how the modeling world fits into the sociological world through marxism, beauty, technology and the commodification of culture.
Also, the Society Page of the Week: Text Messaging Trends on Graphic Sociology.
Comments 4
digital_flaneuse — August 24, 2010
Ashley Mears also researches models and modeling as a market. She was a model for a few years so she was able to get great interviews with models and bookers as well as sometimes painful, often hilarious, always insightful firsthand accounts from the viewpoint of the models. Her work was mentioned on Jezebel earlier this year and I believe she has a book coming out soon.
See here for Jezebel: Why One Model Makes It Big When Others Don't.
See here for the piece that was referenced on jezebel: How Supermodels are like Toxic Assets
Elizabeth Wissinger — August 25, 2010
Thank you for your interest, and for posting about Ashley's work, I thought I'd mentioned her by name, but it seems I was thinking her name and referred to her as 'a colleague.' The links you've provided are great, and in fact, the piece about Supermodels as Toxic Assets was picked up by the newsweekly 'The Week,' for national publication (way to go Ashley!). Ashley does indeed have a book coming out, so our books will be companion pieces about the field, depending on what your angle of interest is.
Arturo — August 25, 2010
Great interview. I especially liked the part about market forces underpinning the apparent uniformity of skinny models. It's an interesting idea that being excessively thin signals in an effective way "professional beauty" given the speed-up, ADHD dynamics of modern capitalism. We have so many things competing for our attention that a hyper-thin model instantly grabs the eye and informs us that this is a form of cultural commodity open for business. If the thin flapper was the traditional archetype than over the years it makes sense that industries would continually push the boundaries of highlighting and extenuating thinness. It's like being thin 2.0.
Is there historical or other data supporting this?
Not my field but I thought it was a really interesting interview.
Justin O. — April 18, 2012
I was delighted to discover this podcast. Its truly a gem. After listening to a single episode, I quickly downloaded more. I have been searching for a podcast of this academic caliber for some time now. Thank you, sincerely, for your efforts in creating this show! The topics, content, and guests are wonderful. However, I have found the poor sound quality of the some interviewees to be distracting and made listening difficult. I thought this was a shame given the content is so good. If this could be corrected, this would podcast would really be top notch. Again, thank you for your efforts. I am a fan and will continue to listen and learn.