Date of Award

Fall 12-4-2024

Document Type

Thesis (Undergraduate)

Department

Comparative Literature

First Advisor

Dennis Washburn

Second Advisor

David LaGuardia

Abstract

This project aims to examine how the image of the “modern body” is constructed, imagined, modified, and sustained by globalizing media cultures in France, Japan, and the US—investigating how factors of race, age, health, class, and gender overlap and intersect to create a vision of “ideal” beauty across different times and spaces. Previous research has focused on particular topics, such as the rise of cosmetic surgery in East Asia or the politics of modern American beauty parlors. However, my goal in this project is to evaluate these diverse studies through a broader and more comparative lens, analyzing examples of French and Japanese image and media trends from 1850 to the present in order to understand not only how conceptions of the “ideal” body or ideal look are represented in today’s global media landscape, but also how they have evolved and contributed to various gender-related, economic, and social changes over time. This project is a continuation of my previous research on representations of female beauty in 1880s-1940s France and Japan, which I conducted both at Dartmouth and abroad in Paris and Tokyo during my sophomore and senior years. By analyzing a wide range of media objects from the perspective of key critical theories on race, gender, sexuality, age, and image creation and meaning, this research provides a more intentional understanding of how certain bodies become marginalized, victimized, othered, and erased in global media cultures.

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