Anti-Ageing and Women's Bodies

Anti-Ageing and Women’s Bodies: Spaces, Practices, and Knowledges of Cosmetic Intervention Submitted by Katherine Jane Parker Morton to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography in June, 2014. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: .................................................................... 1 Abstract This thesis examines women’s responses to ageing through cosmetic intervention, as part of broader practices of health and wellbeing. The thesis identifies a lack of geographical attention to the embodied and emotional dimensions of the ageing process and the management and modification of bodies through anti-ageing body-work. In response to this the thesis contributes to existing feminist geographical approaches to embodied experience by addressing the multiple ways that women respond to, and negotiate, the pressures of gendered socio-cultural norms and expectations associated with the body. The embodied methodological approach I take focuses primarily on semi-structured in-depth interviews with practitioners and consumers of anti-ageing technologies and techniques, and participant observation in anti-ageing ‘treatment’ sites, including aesthetic clinics and beauty salons. Informed by corporeal feminism (Grosz, 1994) I use these approaches to engage with the fluidity and ‘fleshy materiality’ of bodies (Longhurst, 2001). In doing so I contribute to existing knowledges of gendered body- work and self-care practices, both empirically and theoretically. The thesis contributes significant new empirical data to the study of the ageing body, enabling reflexive discussion of theoretical approaches, as well as offering new perspectives on theoretical questions on the body and cosmetic intervention. Through analysis of the spaces, practices, and knowledges of anti-ageing body-work the thesis extends existing geographical approaches to emotion and embodiment, gender and identity, and health and wellbeing. I identify contradictions between the medical and therapeutic rationales of anti-ageing body-work, and the ways that such tensions are enacted through the spaces, practices and professional identities associated with ‘aesthetic health’ (Edmonds, 2010). I also develop analysis of anti-ageing body-work in terms of the ‘reframing’ and ‘realignment’ of corporeal temporalities, ‘anticipatory’ biopolitical frameworks of bodily futures, and the emotional context and consequences of the materialisation of time on the body. I also consider such practices in terms of regulation and control, highlighting the growing normalisation of cosmetic intervention as implicated in disciplinary frameworks of corporeal anxiety in relation to gendered framings of body image, risk and responsibility. Finally, I draw attention to a number of future directions in which this research could be developed. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements 5 List of Figures 6 List of Tables 6 List of Appendices 7 List of Acronyms 8 Chapter One: Introducing Corporeographies of Anti-Ageing Introduction 9 Research Aims and Questions 10 Situating the Thesis 14 Anti-Ageing and Practices of Cosmetic Intervention 19 Thesis Outline 27 Chapter Two: Approaching Ageing Bodies, Cosmetic Technologies and ‘Aesthetic Health’ Introducing the Chapter 31 Feminist Geographies, Anti-Ageing and the Body 33 Introducing Geographical Approaches to the Body 33 Critical Corporeographies of Ageing Femininity 37 Management and Modification of Ageing Bodies 40 From ‘Medical Geographies’ to ‘Aesthetic Health’: Health and Wellbeing, 46 Ageing and the Body Moving Beyond the ‘Medical’: Embodied Geographies of Health and Wellbeing 47 Approaching ‘Aesthetic Health’: Ageing Bodies, Body Image and Spatialities of 51 Health and Wellbeing Cosmetic Intervention and Narratives of Enhancement: Redefining Ageing 56 Bodies, Identities and Temporalities Feminist Perspectives of Cosmetic Intervention 62 Summary 64 Chapter Three: Researching Corporeographies of Anti-Ageing Introduction 66 Approaching the Body through Feminist Geographies 67 Research Design 70 Ethnographies of Spaces of ‘Anti-Ageing’ 71 In-Depth Interviews 78 Collection of Contextual Data 81 Analysing the Data 84 Feminism, Corporeality and the Research Encounter 85 ‘Researching’/’Researched’ Bodies 85 Emotion and the Research Encounter 89 Feminism, Positionality and the Research Process 93 Summary 94 Chapter Four: Embodied and Emotional Narratives of Ageing Introduction 97 Embodied Accounts of Ageing 99 Defining Ageing 99 ‘Reading’ Ageing Skin 103 Emotional Accounts of Ageing 106 3 Emotion and ‘Visible’ Ageing 106 Sadness, Loss and Decline 108 Diagnosing Ageing 111 Emotional Labour and Body-work in the Clinic 118 Ageing, Gender and Identity 122 Summary 130 Chapter Five: Ageing Bodies and Technologies of Cosmetic Intervention Introduction 133 Spatialising Anti-Ageing Technologies 135 Exploring Anti-Ageing Body-work Practices 140 Anti-Ageing Facials 141 Cosmeceuticals 144 Electrical Facials 146 Non-Surgical Procedures 150 Medicalised Technologies of Anti-Ageing 155 Anti-Ageing Technologies and ‘Nature’ 163 Ageing Well, Ageing Naturally 163 Working with the Body, Working with Nature 168 Harnessing and Synthesising Nature 174 Summary 183 Chapter Six: Enacting Corporeal Knowledges of Anti-Ageing Introduction 185 Consuming Embodied Knowledges of Anti-Ageing 186 ‘Responsible’ Consumption 188 Negotiating Risk 191 Consumer Research into Anti-Ageing Practices 200 Practitioner Knowledges of Anti-Ageing 206 Regulation and Professionalisation 215 Educating Patients/Clients 219 Summary 223 Chapter Seven: Conclusions Introducing the Chapter 225 Summary of Chapters 226 Revisiting the Research Aims 229 Key Conceptual Contributions of the Thesis 241 Spaces of Corporeal Modification and Management 241 Corporeal Temporalities 243 Regulation and Control 246 Thesis Limitations 250 Future Research 254 Anti-Ageing, the Life-Course and the Body-Project 254 Body-work and the Commodification of Care 255 Technologies of Life 257 Concluding Remarks 259 Appendices 261 References 279 4 Acknowledgements This research would not have been possible without the AHRC who have funded my postgraduate education. I am grateful for this opportunity, and for the assistance provided by the University of Exeter in helping me to secure this support. First and foremost I would like to thank Professor Jo Little and Professor John Wylie for their support, encouragement, and guidance through this process. Without their belief this would have been a very different experience. I would also like to thank all of the people involved in my research, who gave up their time to talk to me and share their stories, and approached my research with honesty and openness. I have been lucky enough to be supported by some wonderful colleagues within the geography department at the University of Exeter, whose friendships and good humour have lightened even the most difficult of days. Martina in particular has been a source of unwavering patience and encouragement which goes far beyond anything I could have reasonably expected, thank you for your friendship and kindness. Pepe, Sarah, Stewart, Sean, Jen, Damien, Ewan, Nicola, Ian and Andy have also offered me tremendous kindness and enthusiasm, seemingly at all of the times when I needed it most. Thanks to Steph L. for reminding me to have courage and for your infectious passion for stories and all things empirical. Huge thanks also to fellow Exeter Geography postgraduates past and present: Phil, Rose, Patrick, Jonny, James, Jenny, Dave, Zoe, Lisa, Tim, Fran, Kim, Kerry, Keri, and Becky, and most of all Steph M., whose friendship is a precious thing to have emerged from this process. Finally, ‘thank-you’ to Mum, Dad, Charles, and Henry for all your love and patience. 5 List of Figures Figure 1: Conceptualisation of the key overlapping sectors which comprise anti-ageing cosmetic intervention _________________________________________________________________ 21 Figure 2: Royal College of Surgeons categorisation of cosmetic treatments ______________ 23 Figure 3: A selection of products that Caroline (Consumer Interview Two) uses in her anti- ageing routine at home ________________________________________________________ 80 Figure 4: Using the Facial Magnifier and the Facial Scanner to examine client skin as part of the consultation and diagnostic process ___________________________________________ 1155 Figure 5: Garnier UltaLift Wrinkle Reader, ‘FEEL and SEE the results for yourself’ _______ 1177 Figure 6: Face Mapping diagram on Client Treatment Record, fragmentation and diagnosis 1177 Figure 7: ‘Discover the right No7 Anti-Ageing Regime for You’ _______________________ 1277 Figure 8: ‘Your face deserves the best’ _________________________________________ 1299 Figure 9: Treatment rooms ___________________________________________________ 1399 Figure 10: Galvanic Facial Treatment Strokes ____________________________________ 1477 Figure 11: Client receiving Galvanic non-surgical face-lift ___________________________ 1477 Figure 12: Facial Injection Sites for Botox® Treatment _____________________________ 1544 Figure 13: Micro-needling procedure following application of

Load more