Beirut Looks - Racial Capital, National Aesthetics, and the Female Body

本研究旨在探讨时尚模特儿与商业模特儿在贝鲁特时尚模特儿产业中种族与语言资本的体现。本研究以中东时尚都市贝鲁特为例，探讨种族化与民族化美学的新殖民主义霸权叙事冲突对黎巴嫩女性模特审美劳动者的影响。植根于黎巴嫩的殖民历史和民族宗教多样性，贝鲁特的时尚产业强烈地打上了种族和民族审美理想冲突的烙印，反映在黎巴嫩模特多样化的身体外观上。这项研究询问了模特，作为积极的劳动者，并负责他们的身体变化，如何拥有代理繁殖，但更重要的是抵制和破坏霸权的审美理想，从而挑战黎巴嫩时尚产业中压倒一切的种族和国家等级。它将揭示出模特们有意识地消费、管理和使用充满种族含义的身体和语言符号的技术，这些符号是他们自我商品化和自我表现的重要组成部分。提出的方法包括参与者观察的混合，作为一种方式来构思具体化的知识，并作为后续采访问题的基础。视觉人种学，即模特的视频日记，将有助于解释模特“自我”的非常实用的视觉结构。对模特和经纪人的结构化和半结构化访谈将有助于深入了解模特的身体练习和语言模式。模特在其工作空间内、采访期间和录像中使用的语言，即阿拉伯语、英语和法语，将通过对话分析来解开，以了解在互动对话中种族、国家和个人模特身份的口头（再）生产。这个项目的动机是先前对安曼时装业模特实践的民族志研究，以及对民族身份和服装以及开罗种族首都的研究。此外，它是通过广泛的写作和研究关于时尚，身体和审美劳动。由于我在中东生活了多年，而且自己也会说多种语言，我对时尚专业人士策略性地使用视觉和语言隐喻来表达种族和国家背景以及意识形态取向有着很高的敏感度。此外，我在安曼担任健身教练的工作揭示了阿拉伯世界女性身体美的标准发生了重大变化，象征着“西方”时尚产业推动的帝国主义美学的瓦解。本研究采用布尔迪乌主义的方法，将时尚作为文化生产的一个领域，以莫里斯·梅洛-庞蒂（Maurice Merleau-Ponty）的具体化作品为基础，剖析身体实践的话语本质和变革力量。此外，它还将女性身体作为种族和国家认同的代表性媒介。这个项目将有助于了解中东尚未开发的美学劳动领域及其种族和语言含义。张晓华（2006）《人类学研究方法》。定性和定量方法。兰哈姆：阿尔塔米拉出版社。布迪厄（1993[1984]）《社会学问题》。伦敦:圣人。恩特威斯尔，J.和威辛格，E.（2012）时尚模型：图像、文本和产业。伦敦等人：伯格。马拉特，S.（2011）不仅仅是另一张漂亮的脸？了解黎巴嫩女性青年整形手术的动机。社会与行为科学系。贝鲁特，贝鲁特美国大学，文学硕士。梅洛-庞蒂，M.（1981）《知觉现象学》。劳特利奇和基根保罗：伦敦。（2009）对话分析：比较视角。剑桥：剑桥大学出版社。

This study investigates fashion and commercial models' embodiment of racial and linguistic capital within Beirut's fashion modelling industry. Taking the example of Beirut as the fashion metropolis of the Middle East, this study explores the impact of conflicting hegemonic neocolonial narratives of racialized and nationalized aesthetics on female Lebanese models as aesthetic labourers. Rooted in Lebanon's colonial history and ethno-religious diversity Beirut's fashion industry is strongly marked by conflicting racial and national aesthetic ideals, mirrored by the diverse bodily appearances of Lebanese models. This research asks how models, as active labourers and in charge of their bodily transformations, possess agency to either reproduce, but moreover resist and disrupt hegemonic aesthetic ideals, and thus challenge overarching racial and national hierarchies within the Lebanese fashion industry. It will shed light on the techniques with which models volitionally consume, manage, and employ bodily and linguistic symbols imbued with racial meaning as essential parts of their self-commodification and self-presentation.The proposed methodology consists of a mixture of participant observation, as a way to conceive embodied knowledge and as a base for subsequent interview questions. Visual ethnography, i.e. models' video diaries, will help to interpret the very practical visual constructions of models' 'selves'. Structured and semi-structure interviews with models and agents will help gain a deep understanding of models' bodily practices, and linguistic patterns. The use of language(s), namely Arabic, English and French, by models within their work space, during interviews, and video recordings will be unpacked through conversation analysis to understand the verbal (re)productions of racial, national and personal model identities in talk-in-interaction.This project is motivated by prior ethnographic research on modelling practices in the fashion industry of Amman, and research about national identity and dress, and racial capital in Cairo. Further, it is informed by extensive writing and researching about fashion, the body, and aesthetic labour. Through years of living in the Middle East and being multilingual myself, I have developed high sensitivity to the strategic use of visual and linguistic metaphors employed by fashion professionals to express racial and national background and ideological orientation. In addition, my work as a fitness instructor in Amman has revealed crucial shifts in bodily female beauty standards in the Arab world, symbolizing the disruption of imperialist aesthetics promoted by 'Western' fashion industries.Embedded in a Bourdieusian approach to fashion as a field of cultural production, this study builds on Maurice Merleau-Ponty's works on embodiment to dissect the discursive nature and transformative power of bodily practices. Further it draws on literature on the female body as a representative medium of racial and national identity.This project will contribute to knowledge about the underexplored domain of aesthetic labour in the Middle East and it's racial and linguistic implications.Key LiteratureBernard, H. (2006) Research Methods in Anthropology. Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Lanham: Alta Mira Press.Bourdieu, P. (1993 [1984]) Sociology in Question. London: Sage.Entwistle, J. and Wissinger, E. (2012) Fashioning Models: Image, Text and Industry. London et al.: Berg. Mallat, S. (2011) More Than Just Another Pretty Face? Understanding Motivations for Plastic Surgery Among Lebanese Female Youth. Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Beirut, American University of Beirut, Master of Arts.Merleau-Ponty, M. (1981) The Phenomenology of Perception. Routledge and Kegan Paul: London.Sidnell, J. (2009) Conversation Analysis: Comparative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.