hope in a jar the making of america's beauty culture

Cummings Professor of American Studies and English, The College of William and Mary We all know there is a politics of skin color, but is there a politics of hair? In this book, Noliwe Rooks explores the history and politics of hair and beauty culture in African American communities from the nineteenth century to the 1990s. Rooks harmonizes her voice as a scholar analyzing hair with her voice as a black woman talking politics with other black women, in salons and parlors, to the rhythms of combing, brushing, braiding, and straightening.This is a must-read!'-Gloria Wade-Gayles, Professor of English and Women's studies, Spelman College 'Rooks deconstructs dominant cultural notions of femininity and/or beauty with humor, dignity, and a defiant sassiness. Compelling.'-Booklist 'Hair Raising is insightful, engaging, and imaginative, and even musical. Readable, accessible, and helpfully illustrated.'-Choice 'Rooks digs deep to describe how beauty and culture have politicized African American women and demonstrates that Western definitions of beauty are often not endorsed by African American women. Replete with the voices and experiences of ordinary women, Hope in a Jar is a richly textured account of how women created the cosmetics industry and cosmetics created the modern woman.read more read lessĪbstract: A Choice Outstanding Book Award winner Rooks's excellent book is a welcom entry in the feminist debates about American 'beauty culture.'. From New York's genteel enameling studios to Memphis's straightening parlors, Peiss depicts the beauty trades that thrived until the 1920s, when corporations run by men entered the lucrative field, creating a mass consumer culture that codified modern femininity. Walker-in shaping a unique industry that relied less on advertising than on women's customs of visiting ('Avon calling') and conversation.

She highlights the leading role of black and white women-Helena Rubenstein and Annie Turnbo Malone, Elizabeth Arden and Madame C.

Abstract: How did powder and paint, once scorned as immoral, become indispensable to millions of respectable women? How did a Victorian 'kitchen physic,' as homemade cosmetics were called, become a multi-billion-dollar industry? In Hope in a Jar, historian Kathy Peiss gives us a vivid history in which women, far from being pawns and victims, used makeup to declare their freedom, identity, and sexual allure as they flocked to enter public life.

Hope in a jar the making of america's beauty culture