Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics

by Laura Miller

This engaging introduction to Japan's burgeoning beauty culture investigates a wide range of phenomenon―aesthetic salons, dieting products, male beauty activities, and beauty language―to find out why Japanese women and men are paying so much attention to their bodies. Laura Miller uses social science and popular culture sources to connect breast enhancements, eyelid surgery, body hair removal, nipple bleaching, and other beauty work to larger issues of gender ideology, the culturally-constructed nature of beauty ideals, and the globalization of beauty technologies and standards. Her sophisticated treatment of this timely topic suggests that new body aesthetics are not forms of "deracializiation" but rather innovative experimentation with identity management. While recognizing that these beauty activities are potentially a form of resistance, Miller also considers the commodification of beauty, exploring how new ideals and technologies are tying consumers even more firmly to an ever-expanding beauty industry. By considering beauty in a Japanese context, Miller challenges widespread assumptions about the universality and naturalness of beauty standards.

Genres: Nonfiction, Japan, Anthropology, Cultural, History, Asia, Gender

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Dr. Laura Miller received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1988. As of August 2010, she fills the Endowed Chair in Japanese Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Dr. Miller is an internationally prominent scholar of Japan studies and linguistic anthropology. She has done fieldwork in Moscow and in Japan (Kansai area, Kanazawa, and Tokyo). After graduation from the University of California, Santa Barbara with BA degrees in Anthropology and Asian Studies, Dr. Miller taught English and supervised an English language program for Teijin Educational Systems in Osaka, Japan (1977-1981). She began teaching college-level anthropology in the 1980s, and has been a faculty member at several universities. At the University of Missouri-St. Louis, she primarily teaches new courses on Japanese culture.

Dr. Miller has published more than fifty articles and book chapters on Japanese culture and language, including topics such as English loanwords in Japanese, the wizard boom, girls’ slang, and print club photos. Three recent peer-reviewed journal articles are “Cute masquerade and the pimping of Japan,” International Journal of Japanese Sociology (2011), “Tantalizing tarot and cute cartomancy in Japan,” Japanese Studies (2011 and “Subversive script and novel graphs in Japanese girls’ culture,” Language & Communication (2011). Her 2004 article, “Those naughty teenage girls: Japanese Kogals, slang, and media assessments” in Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, has been one of the most frequently accessed articles in the American Anthropological Association’s publishing database.


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Reviews

[Felipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

WARNING: Gratuitous use of the word "fantastic" ahead.

This book is absolutely fantastic, and Laura Miller is my hero.
Her prose is fantastic, and occasional snarky commentary keeps the work exceptionally readable.
The methodology is fantastic, and the wonderfully massive bibliography provides not only validity but a plethora of sources for those looking to dig deeper into any of the topics discussed.
Seriously. Fantastic.

As to who I would recommend this book to, it's particularly useful if...
No. Wait.
Everyone should read this book. I don't care what field of academia you find or do not find yourself in, everyone should read this book.

Yes, that means you.
Yes, really.

Read it.

[Dian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read. Always enjoyed Japanese viewpoint on beauty, even subscribed to beauty magazines such as BIST and Karada ni ii koto. Some things are surprising, but it helps me to understand Japanese ideals...

[Eila Mcmillin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in modern Japanese culture, this is a book for you. Miller explains well and in a matter-of-fact way how Japanese body aesthetics connect to various other part of Japanese culture such as history, every-day perspectives and, of course, anime. Great read, well written.

[Mustika Dwinita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helped me write my thesis. Thanks.

[Giada Da Ros]

Fascinating. Excellent scholarly work.

[Samantha Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

For an anthropology class at school. Inteesting ethnography about esute salons in Japan, as well as Japanese beauty aesthetics, but not my cuppa tea.

[Adam Gutschenritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, that was an interesting read....