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

本研究调查时装和商业模特儿在贝鲁特时装模特儿行业中的种族和语言资本的体现。以中东时尚大都会贝鲁特为例，本研究探讨了冲突的霸权新殖民主义叙事的种族化和民族化的审美黎巴嫩女性模特作为审美劳动者的影响。植根于黎巴嫩的殖民历史和民族宗教多样性，贝鲁特的时装业具有强烈的种族和民族审美理想冲突的特点，反映在黎巴嫩模特多样化的身体外观上。这项研究探讨了模特作为活跃的劳动者和负责他们身体转变的人，如何拥有既能复制又能抵制和破坏霸权美学理想的能力，从而挑战黎巴嫩时装业中压倒一切的种族和民族等级制度。它将阐明的技术与模型有意识地消费，管理，并采用身体和语言的符号充满种族意义的自我商品化和自我presentation.The建议的方法包括一个混合物的参与者观察，作为一种方式来构思具体的知识，并作为随后的采访问题的基础。视觉民族志，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。与模特和代理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实践和语言模式。模特在工作场所、面试过程中使用的语言，即阿拉伯语、英语和法语，以及视频记录将通过对话分析进行解析，以了解模特在互动对话中的种族、民族和个人身份的口头（再现）。以及对开罗的民族身份、服饰和种族资本的研究。此外，它还通过对时尚，身体和审美劳动的广泛写作和研究而获得信息。通过多年在中东的生活和自己的多语种，我对时尚专业人士在表达种族和民族背景以及意识形态取向时所使用的视觉和语言隐喻的战略使用具有高度的敏感性。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标准的重大转变，象征着“西方”时尚产业推动的帝国主义美学的颠覆。本研究以莫里斯·梅洛-庞蒂的身体实践作品为基础，以布迪厄的方式将时尚作为文化生产的一个领域，剖析身体实践的话语性质和变革力量。此外，它还借鉴了女性身体作为种族和民族认同的代表性媒介的文学作品。该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。（2006）人类学研究方法。定性和定量方法。Lanham：阿尔塔米拉出版社.Bourdieu，P.（1993 [1984]）《社会学问题》.伦敦：Sage.Entwistle，J. and Wissinger，E.（2012）时尚模式：图像、文本和行业。伦敦等人：贝格。Mallat，S. 2011年：《More Than Just Another Pretty Face？了解黎巴嫩女青年整形外科的动机。社会与行为科学系。贝鲁特，美国贝鲁特大学，文学硕士。1981年，《知觉现象学》（The Phenomenology of Perception）出版。《会话分析：比较视角》，伦敦，Sidnell，J.（2009）。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.