Bodily Labor of Cosmetics Saleswomen in Taiwan Author(S): Pei-Chia Lan Source: Feminist Studies, Vol

Working in a Neon Cage: Bodily Labor of Cosmetics Saleswomen in Taiwan Author(s): Pei-Chia Lan Source: Feminist Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 21-45 Published by: Feminist Studies, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178467 . Accessed: 16/03/2011 04:47 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=femstudies. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Feminist Studies, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Feminist Studies. http://www.jstor.org Working in a Neon Cage: Bodily Labor of Cosmetics Saleswomen in Taiwan Pei-Chia Lan Contemporarycapitalism is characterizedby its obsessionwith and anxi- ety about the body. With a never-endingexpansion of commoditiesand services in dieting, slimming, and skin care, consumer culture encour- ages individualsto combat the deteriorationof the body, a proclaimed vehicle of pleasure and self-expression.'Feminist studies have further pointed out the gendersignificance of beautyculture. Mainstream media and the beautyindustry discipline female consumersby reproducingthe dominantideal of femininityin connectionwith the contemporarybody discourse of self-control.2 One missing piece of the puzzle in the above analysisinvolves women who are not only consumersbut also employees in the beautyindustry-they are hired to embodybeauty images and con- vey normalizingdiscourses to customerson the sellingfloor. Through a case study of cosmetics saleswomen working in depart- ment stores in Taiwan, this article examines the making of gendered bodies and subjectsin the nexus of labor,production, and consumption. LaurenLangman describes the departmentstore as a "neon cage"that symbolizeshow consumersociety organizes our time, behavior,and subjectivity.3I borrow this metaphor in a broader sense to designate the multiplelayers of controlover workerswho sell productsor provideser- vices related to the cultural ideal of the body. Working in a shopping space rampant with images and desire, these workers'bodies are not only subjectedto the supervisionof managersbut are also underthe sur- veillance gaze of customers.When these workersembody and promote beauty images at work,their own desire,body image, and personalcon- sumptionare integratedinto the intrinsicelements of the laborprocess. I propose the concept of "bodilylabor" to analyze the ambiguous natureand multipledimensions of the laborprocess of selling cosmetics. I explore the following questions in this article: What are the job re- quirements for cosmetics saleswomen hired to producebeauty images Feminist Studies 29, no. 1 (spring 2003). @ 2003 by FeministStudies, Inc. 21 22 Pei-ChiaLan and manipulateconsumer desire? How are their bodies and identities constructedas an integralpart of the laborprocess? How do these women accomplishand resist the requirementsof bodilylabor? How do they negotiate their gender and class identities when workingin a shopping space that promotes an ideal femininity and a middle-classlifestyle? I identifythree differentcomponents of the job requirementsfor cosmetics saleswomen:the disciplinedbody, the mirroring body, and the com- municative body. The tripartite components of bodily labor involve diverse strategiesof labor control, conveyingcontradictory messages to customers. The performance of bodily labor also becomes a battle- groundfor saleswomento negotiatetheir gender and class identities on a dailybasis. Bringing the Body Back As the famous 1970s' slogan "ourbodies, ourselves"declared, the body has always been a key concern in the history of Anglo-Americanfemi- nism. In the 199os, the signification of the body was debated in the wake of "thelinguistic turn."Poststructuralist feminists challengedthe sex/gender distinction,that left the "sexed"biological body as a kind of "coatrack" upon which the social constructionof "gender"is expressed.' Scholarssuch as Judith Butlerargued that women are neitherborn, nor made;women appropriatethe normativeprescription on sex, according to which their bodies are shaped, cultivated, and constructed. This approach,however, faced the criticismthat it reducedthe body to a tex- tual play designatingsemiotic differences,thereby owing justice to the materialityof the body.5 This debate indicated a broader concern in contemporaryfeminist theories, that was, as Nancy Fraserphrased it, a disconnectionbetween the "discursive analysis of gender signification" and the "structural analysis of institutions and political economy."6Given that most feminist scholarshipon the body is devoted to the analysis of media images and culturaldiscourses over female consumers,I suggest an alternative research direction that focuses on the gendered body in the nexus of labor, production, and consumption. This focus explores how gender and sexualitybecome the integralelements of the service labor process, in which the worker'sbody is constructedas a productivesubject as well as a sexual objectgoverned by genderdiscourses and consumerculture.7 In the literature of labor process theory, the traditionalimage of a workeris as an abstractlabor power that has no sexuality,emotion, or body. Its gender-blindnesshas been challengedby many feminist studies that uncover how gender differenceand inequalityare constructed and perpetuated from structural segregation to daily labor performance." However, the gendered embodiment of workers has yet to be thorough- ly examined. The missing body is a serious flaw particularly in the study Pei-ChiaLan 23 of service work, whose characteristicsbreak down the old dichotomyof mental labor and physical labor, a replication of the Cartesianmind- body dualism. Recent scholarshave offeredinsights on the specificityof the service labor process and how workersare, in CandaceWest and Don Zimmer- man's words, "doinggender" in their workplaces.Arlie Hochschilduses the concept of "emotionallabor" to describe how service workers are required to produce particularemotions in customers and how their feelings become controlledby employersthrough training and supervi- sion. Througha comparisonof female attendantsand male bill collec- tors, she furtherargues that, whereas women occupy the feminine side (caring, sympathy,deference), men are usually assigned to the mascu- line type of emotionallabor (threatening,no sympathy,truth claiming). Robin Leidnerdefines "interactiveservice work" as the jobs that require workers to interact directly with customers or clients. She also found that fast-food counterworkers (mostly women) accordwith stereotypi- cal feminine characteristicswhen submissivelyserving customers and taking orders, but the work scripts of insurance sales (used mostly by men) emphasizeheroism, aggressiveness,and dominationover clients.9 Althoughthese scholars have shed light on how service workersin- teract with customers through facial expressions and bodily gestures, the significanceof the body in the service labor process is not yet suffi- ciently theorized. Further, I raise the concept of "bodilylabor" to describe servicejobs with three characteristics.First, the servicesprovided or productssold by the workersinvolve consumptionrelated to the cultural ideals of the body. Second, the main job content of these workers includes the use of bodily postures, expression,display, and movements to interactwith customers.Third, labor managementfocuses on the discipline, maintenance,and transformationof workers'bodies. As much as the body is fundamentalto the constructionof gendered selves in contemporarysocieties, gender is an integral part of bodily labor. Debra Gilmancoins the term "bodywork" to describehow women negotiate gendered identity by transformingtheir bodies through hair styles, aerobics, and plastic surgery.'o However, such body work cannot be accomplishedwithout the assistance of workersin the beauty industry-hair stylists, aerobics instructors, and cosmetics surgeons. Their bodily labor normalizes dominant body images and reproduces cultural meanings of femininity and masculinityduring their encoun- ters with consumers. The concept of bodily labor contributesto Marxistlabor process theory by examiningworkers' embodied subjectivity in the beauty industry. Drawingon Michel Foucault,"I look at labor controlnot only as repres- sive violence relatedto the appropriationof surplusvalue, but also as a productive and discursive exercise to make workers into appropriate 24 Pei-ChiaLan subjects. Capitalistswho purchasebodily labor to promote the cultural ideal of the body want their workers to be productive, docile,

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