The Many Faces of "Natural" Beauty: How Evaluations of Beauty Reproduce Inequalities in Brussels
The Many Faces of "Natural" Beauty: How Evaluations of Beauty Reproduce Inequalities in Brussels
Thursday, 10 July 2025: 16:15
Location: SJES008 (Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (JES))
Oral Presentation
This paper argues that evaluations of physical beauty are a central factor in the (re)producing of social inequalities in contemporary urban settings. I present findings from the capital of Europe and Belgium, Brussels Capital Region, based on a mixed-method of 40 in-depth photo elicitation interviews and Q-methodology (Brown, 1993) sortings of 100 faces and bodies of women and men. To analyse these findings, I combine insights from Lamont et al.’s (2014) cultural process model of inequality with work on emerging cultural capital (Friedman et al., 2015; Prieur & Savage, 2013), cultural sociological work on beauty, status and morality (Mears, 2015; Ridgeway, 2013; Shilling, 2003) and Eurocentrism in beauty standards (Banet-Weiser, 2021; Kim, 2021).
Combining thematic interview analysis and factor analysis of the Q-sorts, I find a clear divide in beauty tastes along what interviewees deem “natural” and “unnatural” beauty. For women’s faces, it is found that those who prefer commercially pretty repertoires express notions of doubt and shame for their preferences. Contrarily, those favouring natural beauty repertoires are confident and proud in their assessments and moralize the beauty taste of others. Similar judgments are found for men and women’s bodies. However, while most interviewees favour natural beauty, they exhibit ‘contrasting styles of appreciation’ (Friedman et al., 2015, p. 6) by stressing distinct aspects of both natural and unnatural beauty. These concepts of (un)naturalness are closely linked to gendered, racialized and class-based ideas of beauty, drawing firm symbolic boundaries that morally and aesthetically reinforce social inequalities.
Existing research on beauty and inequality often assumes that beauty exists within a fixed hierarchy (Hakim, 2011; Hamermesh, 2013). This research subscribes to the importance of the contextual dimensions of beauty and shows how beauty functions as cultural capital. This research contributes to our understanding of contemporary inequalities, which are increasingly defined by appearance.
Combining thematic interview analysis and factor analysis of the Q-sorts, I find a clear divide in beauty tastes along what interviewees deem “natural” and “unnatural” beauty. For women’s faces, it is found that those who prefer commercially pretty repertoires express notions of doubt and shame for their preferences. Contrarily, those favouring natural beauty repertoires are confident and proud in their assessments and moralize the beauty taste of others. Similar judgments are found for men and women’s bodies. However, while most interviewees favour natural beauty, they exhibit ‘contrasting styles of appreciation’ (Friedman et al., 2015, p. 6) by stressing distinct aspects of both natural and unnatural beauty. These concepts of (un)naturalness are closely linked to gendered, racialized and class-based ideas of beauty, drawing firm symbolic boundaries that morally and aesthetically reinforce social inequalities.
Existing research on beauty and inequality often assumes that beauty exists within a fixed hierarchy (Hakim, 2011; Hamermesh, 2013). This research subscribes to the importance of the contextual dimensions of beauty and shows how beauty functions as cultural capital. This research contributes to our understanding of contemporary inequalities, which are increasingly defined by appearance.