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

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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 convey normalizingdiscourses to customerson the sellingfloor. Through a case study of cosmetics saleswomen working in department 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 surveillance 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 requirementsfor 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 supervision. 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 masculine 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 assistanceof 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, and tractable bodies. Workers'bodies become a means of conveying consumer images and normalizingdiscourses to customers,as well as a target of management,discipline, and transmutation.

Research Methods My data collection was conducted in Taipei mainly between October 1994 and May 1995.A brief period of follow-upresearch was carriedout in the summer of 1998. The main researchmethods were field observations, in-depth interviews, archivalanalysis, and a small-scale survey. AlthoughI did not get a chance to work on the site, through an insider contact (one saleswoman who was my high school classmate), I hung out at a cosmetics counteron a regularbasis. I observedthe employees' dailywork and interactionswith customers,chatted with them when no customers were around, had lunch, and socialized with other saleswomen from neighboringcounters. My researchpurpose was known by the saleswomen but not the managers,a decision made at the sugges- tion of some saleswomen("That would be too much hassle. You may be kicked out").When a manageror supervisoroccasionally showed up, I disguisedmyself as a customerbrowsing around at the counters. I also conductedopen-ended interviews with twelve saleswomenand two salesmen duringtheir lunch breaks or off-hours.At the time of the interviews, seven worked at the same department store where I observed, four worked in other departmentstores, and two had left this occupation. The informants were selected based on snowballing and theoretical sampling to cover enough variationsin marital status, age, and company.Among the ten women who were workingin sales, only one was older than thirty;three were married,two had children,and the rest were single. The two informantswho had left this occupationwere both married,over thirty-fiveyears old, and had children.All the saleswomen interviewedwere high school graduates.One salesman was in his early thirties and had a junior college degree. The other salesman was only nineteen years old; he was attending college in the evening. Laterin the researchprocess, I interviewedtwo female managersof cosmetics companiesand one male departmentstore supervisor.The work experiencesof all the informantscover eight differentcosmetics companies. All interviewswere conducted and transcribedin MandarinChi- nese and later translatedinto English when quoted. All names used in this articleare pseudonyms. In addition, I coded articles and advertisementsin recent Taiwanese fashion magazines regardingbeauty culture and cosmetics products. I also widely collectedtraining manuals, working rules, recruitmentclas- sified ads, and other relevant archival material. At the end of my re- Pei-ChiaLan 25

search, I conducteda small-scalesurvey with twenty-eightsaleswomen in the departmentstore I had observedto double-checkmy field find- ings. The following analysis is divided into four parts. First, I document the development of the cosmetics industry and the transformationof body discoursesin Taiwan.Second, I identifythree types of bodily labor in the job requirementsof cosmetics saleswomen.Third, I explore how saleswomen accomplishbodily labor in differentways to negotiatetheir gender and class identities.And fourth, the last section presents a case of men selling cosmetics to underscorethe constructionof hierarchical gender differencein the performanceof bodily labor.

The Cosmetics Industry in Taiwan The cosmetics industry in Taiwan has grown rapidly in the past four decades in keeping with the developmentof Taiwan'seconomy. Before the 196os, only a few small local factoriesproduced a limited varietyof traditional cosmetics products. Due to the agricultural lifestyle and modest economic conditions then, most women neither needed nor could affordthese luxuries.Women wearing heavy makeup were often associated with "badwomen," which carried an implicit reference to prostitution. In contrast, the body image of "good women" featured plain faces and straightlong hair; their chastityand moralitywere clear withoutthe "blemish"of makeupand hair perms. Some U.S. and Japanese cosmetics companies started establishing local franchisesin Taiwanin the early 196os. The cosmetics marketra- pidly expanded in the 1970s because the growth of the gross national productraised the averageability of consumption,industrialization dra- maticallyincreased women's wage work, and the physical and cultural boundaries of Taiwanesewomen's daily lives were redefined."Foreign cosmetics companiesdrew on distinct culturalelements to rewritelocal discourses about makeup. Max Factordiffused images based on a Cau- casian ideal of beauty and thus imported U.S. popular culture. Holly- wood movie stars in cosmetics advertisementscalled for Asian women to wear makeup to produce the illusion of wide eyes, narrow cheeks, and pointed noses.'3The meanings of wearing makeupwere connected with a Western, modernizedstyle of femininityand liberatedsexuality. In contrast, Japanese companies gained a market advantage in skin- whitening products, making reference to the image of Asian women with properdelicacy and elegant manners. The discoursesdelivered by U.S. and Japanese companiesconverged to the point that skin care or wearingmakeup became a key element in the look of "modernwomen." Young single women born afterWorld War II were the pioneer generationof Taiwanesewomen who left their agri- culturalhometowns and migratedto urbanfactories far awayfrom their 26 Pei-ChiaLan

patriarchalfamilies. BorrowingMike Featherstone'smetaphor, these young women no longerviewed their bodies as "avessel of sin to hide or cover,"but ratherused them to displaytheir recentlyachieved indepen- dence and freedom. This was similar to what KathyPeiss describedas occurringin the United States in the early twentieth century:"This acceptance[of cosmetics]was no mere fad or fashion,but a largechange in the way women perceivedtheir identitiesand displayedthem on the face and body.""'They used lotion and creamto maintaintheir light, smooth skin that was no longer exposed to sunshine in the field. They put on powderand lipstickto attractthe attentionsof male coworkerswho were potentialmates for marriagesbased on free love. Cosmeticsmarked the women'snew membershipin urbanlife as well as their rebellionagainst traditionalnorms of femininityand sexuality. The Taiwanesegovernment did not permit the direct import of foreign cosmetics until 1981, and from 1981 to 1985 it charged a high tariff thus making cosmetics accessible only to a small group of people who had the privilegeof travelingabroad or who could affordexpensive indi- rect imports (two to three times that of local products).The consumption of foreign cosmetics was considered a sign of fashion and status due to limited availabilityand expensiveprices. After 1985, the trend of economic liberalizationpushed the government to lower the tariff for cosmetics from 85 percent to 55 percent. Meanwhile, in 1986, after almost forty years of enforcement,martial law in Taiwanwas terminat- ed and as a consequencemost regulationsfrom state and school author- ities over adult and teenagers' bodies were lifted.'5The growth of the beauty industry, in both kind and scale, indicated the celebration of individualfreedom as well as the collectiveworship of globalfashion. Parallelingthe proliferationof cosmetics and other beauty industries, the social images associated with the occupation of cosmetics saleswomen also changed over time. In the 1970s, parents, husbands, and especially mothers-in-law objected to women working in department stores because this occupationwas stigmatizedas an inappropriatejob for "good women." Most resigned after getting married. A manager reportedthat cosmetics companieshad a difficulttime recruitingsales- women before they successfullytransformed the image of this job into a "fashionprofession." The companies provided saleswomen with fancy uniformsand free cosmetics,and they offeredtraining sessions on styles of conversation and manners. Cosmetics saleswomen often traveled aroundthe whole country,even to a small fishing island, to promotefor- eign cosmetics productsand demonstratewearing makeup. Two retired saleswomenproudly recalled that cosmetics sales was consideredone of the most glamorous jobs for Taiwanese women at that time, second only to flight attendants who enjoyed the privilege of traveling worldwide. Lin-Yi, who worked as a saleswoman in a department store for more Pei-ChiaLan 27 thanten years,recalled the situationin the early1970s: AfterI graduatedfrom high school,my firstjob was sellingaccessories in a departmentstore. I was so excitedwhen I got thatjob! I wasjust a 19-year-old girl fromthe countryside.I was amazedhow beautifulthe departmentstore was. Therewas music,air conditioning.... Andwe couldeven talk to friends whilewe wereworking! Not like workingin the factory;[that was] boring. In those days, workingin a departmentstore, you had to stand from 10 A.M.to 10 P.M.But I didn'tfeel tiredat all. I was so happy,thinking this job waswonder- ful.Every day I gotto see lots of foreigners,rich people and fashion women! Many young women such as Lin-Yiwere so fascinatedby the spar- klingly decorated, music-playing, and air-conditioned department stores that they never complained about standing twelve hours every day. In contrast to dirty, noisy, and enclosed factories, department stores attractedthem with excitement,public exposure,and the fantasy of middle-class identification. This is similar to what Susan Benson wrote about departmentstore sales work in the early-twentieth-century United Stateswhere these jobs were viewed as a "Cinderellaoccupation" that offered young women upward mobility, glamor, and white-collar respectability.'6 In the 1990s, the saturationand tight competitionof foreign cosmetics marketsresulted in huge reductionsin retail prices. The availability of importedcosmetics made previousmarketing strategies, that focused on status or exoticism, no longer sufficient to attract Taiwanese consumers. The cosmetics companies then instituted new marketingplans to establish brand distinction based on claims of "professionalism." Everett Hughes argues that the essence of professionalismis the claim "to know better than others the nature of certain matters, and to know better than their clients what ails them or their affairs."''7Professional authorityin the cosmetics industryis built on a complex system of eso- teric knowledgeabout the maintenanceand decorationof women'sbodies. It divides consumerbodies into endless typologieswith subtle differences to allow an increasing complex proliferationof products.'8Cos- metics companies consolidatetheir professionallegitimacy and market advantageson the basis of alleged scientific innovations, such as anti- wrinkle and hydroxy acid products. In Taiwan,these professionaldis- courses gained extra credibilitywhen they were transplantedfrom ad- vancedWestern countries like France,Switzerland, or the United States. As cosmetics companiesin contemporaryTaiwan "professionalized," the tendency of new managementwas to produce "skilled"salespeople who were capable of deliveringprofessional claims and other complex messages to consumers.Workers were assigned an increasingvariety of tasks on the selling floor, involving multiple performances of bodily labor. 28 Pei-ChiaLan

Tripartite Requirements of Bodily Labor Although cosmetics saleswomen are hired by cosmetics companies, their work sites are scatteredamong differentdepartment stores. Their labor process, as such, is under the supervision of "two bosses." Saleswomenare overseen by the "coordinator"from cosmetics companies, who is in chargeof five to ten counterslocated in differentdepartment stores, as well as the "floorsupervisor" of departmentstores, who patrols all the counters on the same floor. Although saleswomen are paid by cosmetics companiesrather than by departmentstores, the lat- ter can deduct money from the share of sales profitsthey release to cosmetics companies. In Taiwan,customer payments collectedby counter saleswomen are submitted to departmentstores first. After deducting an agreed portion covering rent and management fees, department stores give the remainingportion to individualcosmetics companies at the end of everymonth. Yet,because the coordinatorfrom the cosmetics companies cannot constantly watch over all counters and the department store supervisorcannot directlycontrol saleswomen'swages, neither is constantlypresent in daily labor activities.As a saleswomansaid, "youcan say we have two bosses, but you can also say we have no boss!" Another group of agents involved in the supervisionof saleswomen are the customersbrowsing and shoppingin departmentstores. Previous studies have revealed that customers and clients are often recruitedas agents to evaluate and monitor the activities of service workers."This practiceis especiallytrue at cosmeticssales counterswhere no supervisor is stationed on a constant basis. Both departmentstores and cosmetics companies encourage customers to participate in the surveillance of saleswomenas a "thirdboss." Customerswho fill out service evaluation forms can receivebonus gifts. Theirletters of complaintare often used by managersas evidencein evaluatingor punishingsaleswomen. Traditional labor process theory, grounded in the experiences of manufacturingworkers, presumes that the majorgoal of labor controlis to ensure the appropriationof surplus values produced by workers.20 However, salespeople and other service workers produce no material products.Their interactionswith customersconstitute the raw material of the labor process, and the deals they make are the only quantitative criteria for the measurement of productivity. Cosmetics saleswomen typicallyreceive a small basic salaryand earn most of their income from commissions based on either individual sales (one salesperson) or group sales (all salespeople at one counter). Some companies calculate commissionson individualsales to avoid "freeriding" by "lazy"workers. Other companies adopt group sales calculations because of concerns that competitionamong saleswomen could create a bad impression for customers.Very few cosmetics companiesin Taiwanoffer retirementor pension programs.Moreover, sales records only cover part of the labor Pei-ChiaLan 29

activitiesof cosmeticssaleswomen. Their everyday tasks actuallyin- clude two major components:backstage preparation and counter performance.Behind the counter,saleswomen take inventoryof commodities, clean the surroundings,and keep sales records. Their more visible activitiesare their interactionswith customersup front-they smile, greet, explain commodities, make deals, and collect payment.What they sell at the countersare not merely cosmetics products but the signs and images attached to the process of shopping. Cosmeticssaleswomen's bodies not only provide physical strength and movement to conduct labor activitiesbut also function as the medium of conveyingspecific images and emotionalstatus to customers. From the symbolic labor performance of cosmetics saleswomen, some questions follow: What are the images and messages conveyedto customerson the selling floor?How do saleswomenembody and convey these signs in their labor practices?How does management supervise their laborperformance in these regards?I identifythree componentsof bodily labor that are requiredfor cosmetics saleswomento perform:the disciplined body (providing deferential services through standardized bodily gestures and emotional management), the mirroring body (embodying the beauty images as a reflection of cosmetics products), and the communicating body (pursuing the professional authority of body/knowledge)."The tripartiteperformance of bodily labor conveys multiple and even contradictorymessages to customers. Saleswomen are expected to provide submissive services for customers at the same time that they pursue dominationover them. They become a sexy idol but also a figureof scientificauthority in the eyes of consumers. To supervise these different components of bodily labor, management exercises diverse or even conflicting strategies of labor control. Richard Edwards reviews the transformationof the workplace in the twentieth century and identifies two major strategies of labor control: exploitation,which assuresthe appropriationof surplusvalue produced by workers, and standardization or routinization, which disciplines workersto performstandardized bodily action under the scrutinyof scientific work-study.I identifytwo more strategiesinvolved in the supervision of bodily labor performedby cosmetics saleswomen. In contrast to maximizingthe exploitationof workers'physical strengths, managers also need to maintain the beauty of their mirroringbodies. In addition to the standardizationof work scripts to minimize uncertainty,managers have to grant a certain degree of flexibility and autonomy to workersin their communicationwith a varietyof customers.2

The disciplined body. One of the major messages delivered to customers on the selling floor is that "we provide better service than other stores." Deference is a major characteristic of quality service and such work is 30 Pei-ChiaLan usually carried out by women. In department stores, management adopts many disciplinarymeasures in the work scriptsthat enforceme- ticulous control over the operation of saleswomen's bodies to assure their utilityas well as their docility."3 Three to four saleswomen are usually assigned to each counter. During store hours (10:30 A.M.to 9:oo P.M.), each takes two or three shifts to keep a minimumof two staff on duty. A daily work shift is usually eight hours. The time allotted for taking meals and going to the bathroom is limited. Most department stores require saleswomen to stand all day, even without the presence of customers.Their lunch and dinner schedules are irregulardepending on their shifts and are often delayedby customers.These workingconditions may cause health prob- lems (e.g., back, kidney, or stomach) that I regularlyheard about from my informants.Each saleswoman is eligible for four or five days off a month. Duringpeak seasons, saleswomen are usually requiredto work overtimein the evening,without extra pay in some cases. Attitudestoward customers are often standardizedand instrumental- ly coded in their work scripts. For example, salespeople are requiredto repeat scripted statements, such as "how are you doing today?"and "thanksfor coming,"whenever they greet a customer, A management manual publishedby the departmentstore trade associationin Taiwan boldly suggests directionsfor the angles of bowing to customers(fifteen degrees for "pleasewait a moment,"thirty degrees for "welcome,"and forty-five degrees for "thanksfor coming"). The extreme example of body engineeringis that of elevatorladies in Japanese-styledepartment stores. These young ladies, dressed in skirt suits and wearing hats, repeat the same greetingscripts, smile, and bow to every customerenter- ing the elevator-as elegant and mechanicalas a beautifulrobot. Before the stores open every morning, some department stores request their staff to stand in line, repeating greeting words loudly and practicing bowing together. This practiceis a common exercise in Japanese management cultureand aims to "inculcatereceptiveness and a willingness to greet and appreciate others and to eliminate resistance toward re- spondingpositively toward authority."24 Saleswomenperform the disciplinedbody not only with their physical movements but also with their emotions and feelings. As a department store supervisoreloquently told me during an interview,training in manners and bodily gestures is not complete until they have become part of the workers'nature. Salespeopleare instructedto love this job based on the belief that "serving other people makes me proud and happy.""Customers first" and "customersare alwaysright" are the guid- ing principles they have to keep in mind always. A female manager drew an analogy between the roles of saleswomen and daughters-in-law in Chinese families. Customers, like parents-in-law, should be served with Pei-ChiaLan 31 courteous manners and submissive attitudes. And knowing that customers are recruitedas surveillanceagents, saleswomen need to manage their emotions and suppress their anger and frustration toward rude customers even without the presence of managers. Some saleswomen keep slogans written on the back of the counter or on their accountingbooks, such as "Yousee a clearersky and a wider ocean after takingone step backward,"and "Thosewho get angryare real losers." The abovediscussion reveals strategies of standardizationand routinization that can be traced back to the developmentof scientificmanage- ment in the early twentieth century.It is best exemplifiedby Tayloism, which treats workers'bodies as objects under scientificwork-study and disciplinesworkers to performstandardized bodily actions in a deskilled and fracturedmanufacturing labor process.' Yet, in a servicesetting that involves high unpredictabilityin accommodatingthe needs of various clients, over-standardizedwork scriptsmay become a barrierto communication ratherthan a facilitator.A service workercarrying a standardized smile may be criticizedby customers for being "phony"or acting "likea robot.""6Managers, thus, need to grant some degree of autonomy and flexibilityto saleswomenfor dealingwith diversecustomers and sit- uations. The professionalizationof the cosmetic industry in the 199os furthercalls for the additionof anothertype of bodily labor to enhance saleswomen'sstatus, which will be discussedin a later section.

The mirroring body. When customers approachthe counter,they pur- chase not only cosmetic products per se but also the cultural images attached to the products and the process of shopping. The consumer images are multilayered.The shiny mirrors, stylish counters, and the displays of delicate product packages refer to a lifestyle of fashion, wealth, and taste. The super-sized pictures of models and movie stars hanging over the countersdeliver the promises of achievingbeauty and preservingyouth. This point is well made by a Revlon manager, who was quoted by an informant,"In factories we producelipstick, in stores we sell hope!"And saleswomenwho stand and smile behind the counter act like living mannequins to display commodities and mirrorbeauty images. A saleswoman recalled the day when the cosmetics company came to her high school to recruitemployees. "Wewere asked to walk on stage. It is like a beauty contest."Age, height, weight, appearance, and skin condition, rather than relevant education or previous experi- ence, are considered more important qualifications for matching the culturalimage of this occupation,"the ambassador of beauty." After being recruitedinto this occupation,the bodies of saleswomen continue to be monitored and transformed during and after work. Dur- ing the working day, they have to wear stockings, black high heels, and fitted uniforms. Long hair has to be worn in a bun, and bangs are not 32 Pei-ChiaLan

allowed.Their makeupand nail polish have to complywith the fashionable colors being promoted that season. Attentive supervisorsperiodi- cally show up without notice to make sure that these regulations are obeyed. Ubiquitous mirrors around the counters also remind saleswomen to check on makeup and hairdos a dozen times a day. In addition, the companyprovides free makeupand skin care that is used both duringworking hours and afterwork. These free productsrepresent not only a benefit for employees but also a measure for maintainingtheir bodies. Just as ammoniais used to maintainthe shininess of shop win- dows and mirrors, saleswomen are encouraged to constantly engage themselves in body maintenanceso they can effectivelyembody beauty images at work. However,human bodies are not mirrors.They get old, sick, and pregnant, therebybecoming "unable"to performthe image of young, pretty bodies. Duringthe 196os and 1970s, most cosmetics companiesin Tai- wan forcedpregnant saleswomen to quit theirjobs. In 1995,when I conducted my fieldwork,at least one companystill requiredpregnant saleswomen to be off duty duringthe last six months at half their basic pay. Discriminationagainst pregnant women is differentin the cases of cosmetics saleswomen and factoryworkers. Taiwan's newspapers used to report that some factory employers exploited pregnantworkers by co- ercingthem to continueworking until the day of givingbirth. In contrast, pregnantcosmetics saleswomenare forced to take a leave and deprived of their rights to work. This contrastunderscores the significanceof the mirroringbody in the labor process of selling cosmetics,which empha- sizes beautymaintenance rather than physicalexploitation only. For a young woman who just graduatedfrom high school with little work experienceor skills, selling cosmeticsis one of the best-payingjobs she can get. Women's youth and beauty constitute one kind of capital that derivesjob opportunitiesand monetaryvalue in the beauty industry. Yet, unlike economic or cultural capital, "bodycapital" cannot be accumulatedover time and will decline with increasingage. In Taiwan, the occupationof cosmetics sales is perceivedas limited. A saleswoman will become unqualifiedfor the job after reaching a certain age, when her body is no longeryoung and pretty.Almost all of my informantsrec- ognized strong social pressuresin this regard(e.g.,"an old lady will feel embarrassedto stay in the job"). This social perception pushes many saleswomen to voluntarilyquit or shift to other positions after getting pregnant or turning thirty. When I asked my informants about their companies'retirement policies, most had no knowledgeand showed no concern about it. One laughed at me and said, "Comeon, almost every- body leaves the job afterthirty. Who needs retirement,anyway?" The dead-end nature of this occupationreflects the social deprecia- tion of body capital.Most cosmetics companiesoffer few promotionsfor Pei-ChiaLan 33

saleswomen except for a limited number of positions as patrol supervisors and training instructors. Only lower-ranking supervisors are recruited from counter workers, whereas higher-ranking "areaman- agers"are recruitedfrom office employees and are mostly men. In fact, the salaries of instructors and supervisors are usually lower than the commission-based wages of saleswomen. Most saleswomen shift to supervisorpositions after getting marriedor having childrenin orderto seek a nine-to-five work schedule that allows them to accommodate their family life more easily. I later discuss how saleswomen cope with the limited opportunitieson this career ladder and how this situation impacts their performancesof bodily labor.

The communicating body. Shopping for cosmetics may be a pleasure trip, but it is also an occasion for consumers to acquire information about beauty products and rituals. As mentioned earlier, cosmetics companieshave establishedtheir professionalauthority by developinga complicated knowledge/ power system regarding skin care and body maintenance.They constantlyupdate fashion-sensitiveadvertisements about makeup products and styles. Saleswomen serve as their on-site agents who enact the normalizingbody discourses through their communicationwith customersin verbalas well as body language. Cosmeticscompanies have improvedupon many aspects of the work scripts to achieveprofessionalization of the selling floor. The title, saleswoman, is euphemizedas "beautycounselor" or "beautydirector." Some companyuniforms even imitate the pharmacist'swhite suit. Their work has expandedto includeexplaining the chemicalcomponents of cosmetics, providingpersonal skin care direction,using technical instruments for skin tests, and even performing cybernetics (computer skin tests, video make-upsimulations, and so forth).The trainingprogram for cosmetics saleswomenhas also been broadenedto includemore varietiesof professional courses. Saleswomen are trained to be familiar with the whole system of products that are designed and classified for women with differentskin types and ages and for their uses in differentseasons, climates, regions, altitudes, times of day, modes of activity,and so on. Some saleswomen still recall the pain of taking quizes every morning duringthe month-longtraining program. Cosmetics companies periodi- cally offer courses on makeupskills and prescribefashion magazinesas requiredreadings for saleswomento catchup on currenttrends. Saleswomen establish their professional status over customers by claimingtheir expertiseon skin care ("Theproducts you are using now, whatever brand they are, are not working for you"), aesthetics ("I don't think this color [of makeup] you are wearing really fits you"), and fashion ("'Yourstyle of makeup is kind of out-of-date. Would you like to try something more fashionable?"). They increase their credibility by dis- 34 Pei-ChiaLan playing high-tech instruments for skin examination or showing off chemicaljargon aboutproduct components. Saleswomen also develop their own skills for dominatingcustomers of different ages and genders and share them with each other. They warn adult women of the urgency of fighting the decay of the body ("Didn'tyou notice that? More and more wrinkles have appeared on your forehead").They pressureteenage girls to start beautificationas a feminine rite of passage ("It'snever too earlyto start takingcare of your skin. You don't want to wait until it's too late").And, they drawon their personal experiences to convince embarrassedmale customers to approachthe counterand buy cosmeticsfor their wives or girlfriends("We understandwhat women want. Yourwife will definitelylove this!"). In general,saleswomen agree with ratherthan resist these work routines in their pursuit of the professionalization of cosmetics sales. Adopting the managementrhetoric of professionalism,they positively interpretthe disciplinarymeasures over their bodies, such as their uni- form, makeup,and even standardizedbehaviors, as things "justto help us look more professional."The reason saleswomen love to practice these work routines is because their professionalstatus provides what Hochschildcalled a "statusshield" that protects saleswomenfrom customers' attacksupon their self-esteem. Leidneralso points out that, in the triangularrelationship among service workers,employers, and customers, the interests of workers and employersare not necessarilyop- posed to each other. Insuranceagents in her study embracedmanageri- ally imposed routinizationbecause these routines increasedthe agents' controlover serviceinteractions." In the triangularrelationship among saleswomen,managers, and customers, I observed differentkinds of alliances occurringdepending on what kind of bodilylabor and what kind of messagewas involved.As the disciplined body and the mirroring body, saleswomen are requiredto provide humble service and to convey beauty images. The interests of employersand customerstend to be congruent,and customersare incor- poratedinto the managerial"team" to assist body disciplineover workers. Yet, as the communicatingbody, the interests of the employerand saleswomenare consistent.Employers depend on saleswomento convey the professionalauthority on the selling floor, and saleswomenare will- ing to acceptthe workrules that empowerthem vis-A-viscustomers.

Performance of Bodily Labor So far, I have documentedthe tripartiterequirements of bodilylabor; this sectionfurther explores agency and diversityin the performanceof bodily labor. Individual saleswomen accomplish bodily labor in different ways- some complywith it and some resist it, and they may embracepart of it while challenging another part of it. Hochschild suggests that emotional Pei-ChiaLan 35 labor can be accomplishedthrough either "surfaceacting"-to disguise what you feel and pretendto feel what you do not, or "deepacting"- to take over "thelevers of feeling production"and actuallyalter what you feel.28Drawing on this distinction,I raise a similarquestion to analyzethe performanceof bodily labor. Do cosmetics saleswomen internalizethe body disciplineenforced by employersas deep acting,or do they perform bodilylabor only on the surfaceand leave theirbodies intact? My researchfound both ways for saleswomen to accomplishbodily labor. On the one hand, saleswomenengage themselvesin a deep acting of bodily labor. They may internalizethe body disciplineto achieve the ideal feminizedbody, or they embracethe professionalrole to downplay more sexualizedcomponents of bodily labor. On the other hand, saleswomen limit their performanceof bodilylabor on the surfaceby resisting or loosening labor control on a daily basis. The temporarynature and high turnoverrate of this occupationencourage saleswomen to stage a skin-deep performanceof emotional labor, but reinforcetheir engage- ment in restlessmaintenance against the agingof theirbody capital.

Deep acting of bodily labor. The performanceof the mirroringbody, inseparable from the personal consumer experiences of saleswomen, usually involves deep acting. Some saleswomen admitted to me that a major sense of their job satisfaction came from the public admiration and confirmationof theirbeauty. "The reason why I chose this job is very simple-for vanity! Everywoman is obsessed with beauty.""If you are able to work at a cosmeticscounter, you've got to be pretty,right?" Some male customerscome to the counterto strike up conversations.There is even a Cinderella story circulating among the counters-some saleswomen marriedhandsome rich men whom they met at work.An invisi- ble but effectivemechanism of oversightactually comes from customers passing by every day in department stores. The gazes from male customers evaluatethe saleswomen'sbodies, and the gazes from female customers representan imitation or envy of the beauty of saleswomen.As Sandra Barktyargues, "the disciplinarypractices of femininity usually lack a formalinstitutional structure, creating the impressionthat the production of femininityis voluntaryor natural."29The disciplinarymecha- nisms for feminizedbodies extend beyond the boundariesof the workplace. They are not centralizedor oppressivebut are dispersed,anony- mous, and seductive. Workingin a neon cage, a saleswomanis also a consumersurround- ed and seduced by abundant commodities and images. The performance of her bodily labor is inseparable from her consumer activities, which require extensive knowledge and constant efforts as well. Susan Benson insightfully described, "What a saleswoman learned behind the counter helped her consume more intelligently, while what she learned 36 Pei-ChiaLan from the other side of the counter enabled her to sell with extra assur- ance.'"30Many saleswomen, especially single and young ones, spend large amounts of money shopping in their workplace.Two informants explained: Workingin the departmentstore, you needstrong willpower [laugh]. I am not kiddingyou. It canbecome really horrifying. I have to forbidmyself to bringmy walletwhen I go to the bathroom.Otherwise ... [smiles],especially because nowyou can put everything on the creditcard. We all spenda hell a lot of money.Because when you workin a department store,you alwaysknow what's on sale.And people working in othercounters willgive you discounts and all that. Then you just can't help it. These remarks, along with my observations, identify three institu- tional factors that facilitate and accelerate the consumer behaviors of saleswomen. First, because the workplaceoverlaps a consumer space, the activities of labor and consumption are convenientlyconnected in time and space. I often noticed that many saleswomen returnedfrom their lunch breaks, and even from the bathroom, with shopping bags. Second, on a particularday of every month (usuallyright after payday), all departmentstore staff enjoy a twenty- to forty-percentdiscount on commodities. They also get informal discounts from saleswomen at neighboringcounters, called "favorprice" or "mutual-helpprice." The third mechanism stimulating consumption is credit cards, which have only become popular in Taiwan since the mid-199os. One credit card agent I ran into in a departmentstore told me that saleswomenare one of the majortargets in their promotionplan. With the conveniencepro- vided by credit cards, saleswomen are able to delay payments, enlarge purchases,and defer rationalcalculation on debts. As a result, most of their monthlywages go to their shoppingbills. Saleswomen also performbodily labor in the way of deep acting to negotiatetheir identities among contested discoursesat work.As I have demonstrated,the performanceof bodily labor involves contradictory messages and diverse components.Saleswomen may identifyand inter- nalize some aspects of bodily labor in an attempt to minimize other aspects of it. Some saleswomenembrace and internalizethe professional identity not only to safeguardthemselves from customer attacksbut also to resist the deprecatingimage of a "sexylady" that is imposed on their bodies and occupation. For example, Pin-Yu graduated from a prestigioushigh school but gave up her plan of going to college due to financial difficulties. During our conversations, she often emphasized the professionalaspect of herjob: Mostof my high schoolclassmates are collegestudents now. Someof them weresurprised to see me workingin a departmentstore. They would say, "how comeyou aredoing this" and so on. I knowwhat they are thinking. I am not as Pei-ChiaLan 37 vain as someother saleswomen you met.I believethis occupationis changing. It'sbecoming more and more professional, really. Anotherevent in the summerof 1996 demonstratedhow saleswomen maneuveredthe contradictorymessages in their performanceof bodily labor to empower themselves. A French-Taiwaneseco-capitalized department store that had allowed saleswomen to sit in chairs to convey an elegant Europeanstyle decided to copy a managementrule from its Japanese-styledcompetitors. The new rule, which requiredsaleswomen to stand during all of their workingtime even without the presence of customers, induced strong reaction among its saleswomen.They orga- nized on-site oppositionby sitting in chairswhile servingcustomers as a way of defending their "elegant service style." This collective action, however,failed in the end. The departmentstore refused to rescind the new rule, and those who were visible figures in the protest had to quit theirjobs underthe pressureof their cosmetics or clothingcompanies. This scenario reveals that the multiple components of bodily labor are actuallylopsided. The "professional"status and "elegant"images of saleswomen (as they performin the communicatingbody and the mirroringbody) are prone to break down, exposing their vulnerablestatus in performingsubmissive services (the disciplined body). Saleswomen hold no professionalpower based on exclusive training,licensed privilege, or collectiveorganization. They possess only limited autonomyand temporaryauthority granted by the "twobosses," the cosmetics company and the department store, instead of "no boss." For example, one saleswomantold this story:A saleswomanonce had an argumentwith a departmentstore supervisor.She said to him that "Thisis none of your business! I am not paid by your company. Don't bother me!" She then got fired after the cosmetics company was informed of this event. Be- sides, saleswomen also need to defer to the demands and judgments of customers, the third boss. When customers challenge the professional authority of saleswomen or treat them rudely, the two bosses usually stand on the side of customers,who are "alwaysright."

Surface acting of bodily labor. Labor control in the neon cage is not seamless; it is filled with fracturesthat allow resistanceand subversion on a local scale. Saleswomen may performbodily labor on the surface level by resisting disciplinaryrules on a daily basis. In my observations, when no supervisors or customers were present, saleswomen sat in chairs or chatted with the saleswomen at neighboringcounters. When the supervisor, who patrolled many counters with no fixed schedule, showed up at the end of the hall, the first saleswoman to notice would instantly inform others. The warning passed around the floor so rapidly that most workers could return to their positions upon the supervisor's arrival. Right after the supervisor's visit, some saleswomen called to 38 Pei-ChiaLan their friends workingin nearbydepartments: "Get ready! The supervisor just left our counterand will get to yours soon!" A similar surface acting occurs in the dimension of the mirroring body. Although many saleswomen enjoy the role of "beautyambas- sador," some others complained to me about the trouble of wearing heavy makeup: "I have to spend at least half an hour in putting on makeupbefore coming to work. I am often late because of this trouble." "I don't like to wear makeup as heavy as the company asks us to. It is weird to wear heavy makeupstanding on the bus. People looked at me, because that is so unnatural."What attracts more resistance among saleswomenis the regulationby cosmetics companies on their styles of makeup:"Sometimes the companyasks us to wear a particularcolor of makeupfor promotion.I hate that! The color may be fashionable,but it does not fit me." Some try to wear less makeup or wear it in their own styles. To some extent, these actions lessen the dominationof a normal- izing beauty image and defend saleswomen's autonomy against the body disciplineenforced by the management.31 A surface performanceof bodily labor also results from the temporarynature of the occupation.Based on my surveyof twenty-eightsaleswomen at seventeen cosmetics countersin one departmentstore, twenty expressed a desire to changejobs in the near future, and twelve had held their currentjob for less than two years. Only six saleswomenhad stayed in their present job over five years. In an organization with a glass ceiling and age discrimination, cosmetics saleswomen tend to choose quitting and job-hopping as their strategiesfor maximizingin- terests. Once, I asked a saleswomanhow she and her colleagues dealt with the unfair and often arbitrarysales goal for calculatingcommis- sions. She loweredher voice and said, "Ourmanager is too stingy. Many of us are 'hopping'to other companiesafter the New Year." Saleswomenadopt the attitudesof conformityand toleranceinstead of open confrontationnot only because they lack enough skills to bar- gain with employersbut also because they assume they will stay in the occupationfor only a short period.Jun-Jun, who plans to open her own lingerie store in the future, told me, "Youonly do this job when you're young, so nobody will go to protest even though the sales goal is unrea- sonable. Grabthe chance to make money while you can! Then save an easy life for your older age." The temporalityof theirjob identityhas an impact on how cosmetics saleswomen perform emotional labor. Shu-Fen, single and twenty-two years old, has never stayed in the same job for more than two years since graduatingfrom high school. She abides by the rules of emotional management only superficiallybecause, she says, "I only earn a little money from them. They don't have the right to treat me like a maid! Findinga new job is no big deal for me anyway."The foreseeableresult Pei-ChiaLan 39 of having to leave because of aging also discouragessaleswomen from developinga long-termidentification with this profession.For example, Hui-Mei, married for just three months, was thinking about quitting soon. She told me: "WheneverI meet some disgusting customers,I tell myself in my heart that I will leave this job soon. Then I won't need to bow to them anymore." Yet, in the meantime, the short-lived nature of this occupation en- courages saleswomen to intensively participatein the maintenance of the mirroringbody. Because preserving beauty and youth seems the only way to prolongtheir careers,most regularlyand intensivelyengage in the practicesof beautification.Once I asked a saleswomanhow long she planned to stay in the occupation.She answeredwith a bitter smile: "Well,as long as I can. So I have to take good care of my skin. Use more products! Do more facials!" Her words disclose a circuit between a saleswoman's bodily labor and her body consumption. To resist the depreciationof body capital,saleswomen consume a varietyof beautification productsto maintaintheir glamorousappearance, and they continue to work harder and longer to pay for the expenses accruedwhile cultivatingtheir bodies.

Gender Division of Bodily Labor Cosmetics sales is often defined as a "woman'sjob." A U.S. cosmetics company in Taiwan recruited a group of men in the early 199os as a ploy to boost its declining business. The rationale was explained suc- cinctly by the company's slogan at that time, "to see women's beauty from men's eyes."Although these men were selling cosmetics like their female coworkers,they were constructedas "professionals"who enjoy privileged treatment in benefits, training, and job assignments. I use this case to demonstratehow bodily labor is divided along gender lines, and how gender discourses become subtexts for making professional claims in the beautyindustry.32 When hired, men with a college degreewere preferred(women needed only a high school diploma), and no specific requirementswere imposed on their age or maritalstatus (womenhad to be young and prefer- ably single). These men were called "malemakeup artists"or "MMAs" (theirtitle was literallyin English),which differedfrom the saleswomen's title, "Mei-Ron-Shih"(meaning "beautyadvisor" in Chinese) or "BAs." Instead of promotingfemale instructorswho had training and makeup skills, the cosmetics company chose to construct a privilegedgroup of male professionals based on the gender stereotypes prevalent among customers.33This projectof professionalizationwas achievedthrough the creation of vertical segregation within the occupation in keeping with dichotomousgender stereotypes and inequalityin the society. In this case, professionalizationwas also a gender-segregatedprocess 40 Pei-ChiaLan

of transferringknowledge and skills, in which men held privilegesand women were excluded. MMAshad access to better cosmetic tools and higherlevels of training.MMAs also enjoyeda superiorstatus in the division of labor; they were assigned to duties associated with skill and authority,such as skin-careadvising and makeup demonstrations,and excused from lower-statustasks such as cleaning and emptying trash. The recruitmentof men broughtabout the revaluationof the originally feminized, degradedjob. The upgrading was clearly indicated by the wage differentialbetween genders. An MMAreceived a basic salary of almost twice what a BA or female instructorreceived, even though an instructorwould have performedsimilar tasks and would have had even more experienceand seniority. The componentof bodily labor assignedto MMAswas differentfrom their female colleagues.The bodies of MMAswere rarelyused as the disciplined body (providing deferential services) or the mirroring body (displayingbeauty images). Instead, they were used as the communica- tive body (pursuingprofessional domination). The male body was con- sistentlyconstructed as a seeing and talkingbody, playing the role of professional authority.Manipulating masculinity as a subtext for making professional claims is a relatively smoother process, compared to the contradictorycomponents of bodily labor for saleswomen. Although saleswomen play a similar role as a professional communicator,their bodies are simultaneouslyconstructed as sexual objectsto be judged and evaluatedas well as passivecarriers of deferentialservices, both in accor- dancewith the culturalideals of femininityand women'sdomestic roles. When MMAs took this "women'sjob," many of their parents and friends (especially girlfriends)objected. To overcome the crisis of de- masculinization,they sought the professionalclaim as a status shield to safeguardtheir manhood and self-respect.34During my interview with Jeh-Min, a former MMAwho was later transferredto the office, he re- peatedly emphasizedthat "we men look much more professionalthan those BAs."To him, hierarchicallydividing MMAs and BAsby wage and job assignment was legitimate consideringtheir "sacrifice"in taking a degradedfeminized job. In his words, "Wehave sacrificed a lot! How could a man bear doing a job like cosmeticssales? We are professionals! How could we collect money or empty trash!" AfterMMAs were recruitedfor a year, no obviousprogress was made in the company'sdeclining business so the companycancelled the pro- ject. The MMAs were then shifted to regular duties (i.e., standing at counters together with the BAs). The company paid a higher price for salesmen who did not bring in extra profits with their constructedpro- fessional charms.The company,therefore, tried to push out the MMAs in informalways, for example,by puttingthem under the supervisionof senior BAs and assigning them the same jobs as BAs. Most of these Pei-ChiaLan 41

MMAsleft after a short period once the professionalimage of cosmetics sales was peeled away to expose the devalued and feminine nature of this occupation.Jeh-Min recounted how he felt about working conditions at that time, "WhenI stood behind the counter, people usually thought I was the manageror the saleswoman'sboyfriend-it was really embarrassing!That was why most of us could not stand it anymore." In recentyears, male consumers,both gay and straight,have become a target marketfor cosmetics and other fashion products.The burgeon- ing male fitness and beauty culture is reconstructingthe mainstream image of the male body and conception of manhood. Recent scholars have paid attention to the advertisementsfor male cosmetics and fashion products that celebrate male "femininity"and the erotic display of the male body, in combinationwith masculinestatements such as asser- tion and activeness.35The job of selling male cosmetics further trans- forms the body perceptionand experiencesof salesmen. For example,a nineteen-year-oldman who workedat a cosmetic counterwhile attending college in the evening told me with confidence,"Of course I've never used skin care or makeupbefore. [I thought] that was too sissy. But, I have startedusing them so I can persuadeother men to. And I am actu- ally feeling reallygood! Times are changing.Who said men cannot wear and sell makeup?"Male service workers in the beauty industry con- tribute their bodily labor to the cultivation of new male bodies while also strugglingto detach themselves from the images of effeminacyand homosexuality.This topic is beyond the scope of this article,but it does requireattention for furtheranalysis.

Conclusion This case study of cosmetics saleswomenin Taiwanexamines the making of genderedbodies in the labor process of selling cosmetics and pro- moting beauty culture.Taiwanese saleswomen, employed at the low end of the multinationalcosmetics industry,display and reproducea West- ern, heterosexual,cosmeticized mode of femininity.They performbodily labor not only during their interactions with customers but also in their personal consumption and daily body maintenance. My analysis contributes to the studies of service labor and feminist literature in three ways. First, I raise the concept of bodily labor to describe the expanding service occupationsassociated with the proliferatingbeauty industryin contemporaryconsumer societies. In these workplaces, manipulating images and delivering messages become the major work requirement and bodily interactions with customers becomes the raw material of the labor process. More dimensions of workers' bodies are involved in labor performance and are subject to discipline and surveillance. There are three components of bodily labor: the disciplined body, the mirroring 42 Pei-ChiaLan body, and the communicatingbody. Laborcontrol over the saleswomen not only targetsthe exploitationof surplusvalues createdby their physical laborbut also aims to ensure that they adequatelyembody the beauty images and successfullyappeal to consumers'desire. Second, I demonstrate how the discursive meanings of gender are materially enacted and constantly negotiated in the performance of bodily labor. My study shows that the female body, neither a biological essence nor a discursivetext alone, is materiallylocated and discursive- ly reconstructed in women's daily work. The content of bodily labor assigned to cosmetics saleswomenis inscribedwith the culturalideal of femininityand women's domestic roles. In contrast,the masculinebod- ies of salesmen signifythe professionalclaims of the cosmeticsindustry. Women with youth and beauty possess body capitalthat derives mone- tary value in this labor market.However, to combatthe depreciationof their body capital,saleswomen have to engage in ceaseless body maintenance beyondthe territoryof workplaces. Third,my analysisunderscores contestation and agencyin the power dynamics of labor control and gender politics. Cosmetics saleswomen are requiredto convey multiple messages to customers,a mix of deferential service, beauty performance,and professional communication. Workersare not passive victims but active agents who maneuverthese contradictorymeanings to negotiatetheir identities and empowerthem- selves. They endorse the professionalizationof cosmetics sales to challenge the traditionalconstructs of femininitysuch as a passive serveror a sexy idol. Despite the scarcityof collective actions and organization, saleswomen develop local tactics of resistance to enhance their life chances given the structuraland culturalconstraints. The performance of bodily labor also reveals contestation and fluidity in dichotomous gender discourses.The case of recruitingmen into this feminizedoccu- pation reveals the concurrentreconstruction of masculinity and male bodies in consumercapitalism. My analysis of bodily labor can be applied to other service workers who sell commodities or provide services associated with the cultural ideals of body, such as beauticians,hair stylists, body trainers,cosmetic surgeons, and employees in clothing boutiques, dieting centers, body- shaping studios, and so on. Giventheir variationsin gender, skill level, and employmentconditions, these workersmay performthe three components of bodily labor in different patterns and with different em- phases. We need furtherstudies to demonstratethe diversityand com- plexity of bodily labor in consumercapitalism. The oppressiveimage of an iron cage no longer adequatelydescribes the contemporaryservice workplacewhich is rather like a seductive neon cage that features the intertwiningof labor and consumption,sweat and glamor,and restraint and desire. Pei-Chia Lan 43

NOTES

I thank all the saleswomenwho satisfied my curiosityabout selling cosmetics and toler- ated my ignoranceabout wearing makeup. I am gratefulto CarolHeimer, Arthur Stinch- combe, Ken Dauber,Gary Alan Fine, OrvilleLee, BarrieThorne, G.S. Shieh, D.S. Chen, Peter Levin,Mariame Kaba, and MichelleVanNatta for their comments and assistances. Specialthanks to the reviewersof FeministStudies for their valuablesuggestions.

1. See Brian Turner, "Recent Developments in the Theory of the Body," and Mike Featherstone,"The Body in ConsumerCulture," in The Body: Social Process and Cul- tural Theory,ed. Mike Featherstone,Mike Hepworth,and BrianTurner (London: Sage, 1990), 1-35, 170-96. 2. SandraBartky, "Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernizationof PatriarchalPower," in Feminism and Foucault: Reflection and Resistance, ed. Irene Diamond and Lee Quinby(Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988), 61-86; Susan Bordo,Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture,and the Body (Berkeley:University of California Press, 1993). 3. Lauren Langman,"Neon Cage: Shopping for Subjectivity,"in Lifestyle Shopping: TheSubject of Consumption,ed. Rob Shields (New York:Routledge, 1992), 40-82. 4. Linda Nicholson, "Interpreting Gender," Signs 20 (spring 1994): 79-105. 5. Judith Butler asks herself in the introductionof Bodies That Matter: On the Dis- cursive Limits of "Sex"(New York:Routledge, 1993): "If everythingis discourse, what happens to the body? If everythingis a text, what about violence and bodily injury?" (28). 6. Nancy Fraser, "Pragmatism,Feminism, and the LinguisticTurn," in her Feminist Contentions:A PhilosophicalExchange (New York:Routledge, 1995), 160. 7. The making of sexual objects in the production process is discussed by Leslie Salzingerin her study of a Mexican export-processingfactory, "ManufacturingSexual Objects:'Harassment,' Desire, and Discipline on a MaquiladoraShopfloor," Ethnogra- phy 1 (spring 2000): 67-92. 8. Joan Acker,"Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies:A Theoryof GenderedOrganizations," Gen- der and Society 4 (summer 1990): 139-58. Also see BarbaraReskin and Irene Padavic, Men and Womenat Work(Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge,1994); David Knightand Hugh Willmott, Gender and the LabourProcess (London:Gower, 1986); and Jennifer Pierce,Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in ContemporaryLaw Firms (Berkeley:Univer- sity of CaliforniaPress, 1995). 9. CandaceWest and Don Zimmerman,"Doing Gender," in The Social Constructionof Gender,ed. Judith Lorberand SusanA. Farrell(London: Sage, 1991);Arlie Hochschild, The Managed Heart: Commercializationof Human Feeling (Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress, 1983); Robin Leidner,Fast Food, Fast Talk: Service Work and the Routinizationof Everyday Life (Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress, 1993). 10. DebraGilman, Body Work:Beauty and Self-Imagein American Culture(Berkeley: Universityof CaliforniaPress, 2002). 11. Michel Foucault,Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York:Vin- tage, 1977). 12. Taiwan's"economic miracle" was groundedin the cheap labor force of women. In the early 1970s, only 18.6%of female workers were employed in manufacturing.By 1987, the percentage had jumped to 41.5%.See Ping-ChunHsiung, Living Rooms as Factories: Class, Gender, and the Satellite Factory System in Taiwan (Philadelphia: TempleUniversity Press, 1996). 13. The domination of Caucasianbody images has a similar effect on Asian American women. Eugenia Kaw reported that a higher proportion of Asian American women pur- 44 Pei-ChiaLan sue cosmetic surgerythan any other ethnic groupin the United States. Most choose nose implantsor have double-eyelidsurgery. See her article,"'Opening' Faces: The Politicsof CosmeticSurgery and AsianAmerican Women," in Many Mirrors:Body Image and So- cial Relations, ed. Nicole Sault (New Brunswick,N.J.: RutgersUniversity Press, 1994), 241-65. 14. Featherstone,170; KathyPeiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture(New York:Henry Holt, 1998), 6. 15. For example, until 1987 high school students in Taiwan were requiredby school authoritiesto wear uniformsand particularhairstyles (no perms, no bangs, and no ear- length cuts for girls, and military-likecropped hair for boys). Even now, wearingmakeup is not allowed at high schools. Duringthe 196os and 1970s, the police often arrested long-hairedmen for "disruptingsocial morality." 16. Susan PorterBenson, CounterCulture: Saleswomen, Managers, and Customersin American Department Stores, 189o-1940 (Urbana:University of Illinois Press, 1986), 210. 17. EverettC. Hughes,"Professions" in his TheSociological Eyes: SelectedPapers (Chi- cago:Aldine and Atherton,1971), 375. 18. Gail Faurschou,"Obsolescence and Desire: Fashion and the CommodityForm," in Postmodernism-Philosophyand the Arts, ed. Hugh J. Silverman(New York:Routledge, 1990), 234-59. 19. See Leidner,41-43; John Walsh, SupermarketsTransformed: Understanding Or- ganizational and TechnologicalInnovations (New Brunswick,N.J.: RutgersUniversity Press, 1993); LindaFuller and Vicki Smith, "Consumers'Reports: Management by Cus- tomers in a ChangingEconomy," in Workingin the Service Society, ed. CameronLynne MacDonaldand CarmenSirianni (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), 74-89. 20. Michael Burawoy,The Politics of Production: Factory Regime under Capitalism and Socialism (New York:Verso, 1985). 21. My typologyof bodily labor is partlyinspired by ArthurFrank. In his article,"For a Sociology of Body: An Analytic Review,"in The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory, 36-102, Frankproposes four types of body use with different media of body action: the disciplined body (regimentation),the mirroringbody (consumption), the dominating body (force), and the communicatingbody (recognition). The difference between my argument and Frank'sis that Frank aims to create a general theoretical scheme appliedto all bodily action, and I situate my analysis in a particularsocial field (the laborprocess) and powernexus (laborcontrol). 22. RichardEdwards, Contested Terrains: The Transformationof the Workplacein the TwentiethCentury (New York:Basic Books, 1979);elsewhere, I providemore details on the multiple forms of labor control over the body. See my "BodyControl of Service Workers:Cosmetics Retailers in DepartmentStores and Direct Selling,"in The Critical Studies of Work: Labor, Technology, and Global Production, ed. Richard Baldoz, CharlesKoeber, and Philip Kraft(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001), 83-105. 23. Elaine Hall, "Smiling,Deferring, and Flirting:Doing Genderby Giving 'GoodSer- vice,' " Work and Occupation 20 (winter 1993): 452-71; Foucault, 137. 24. Dorinne Kondo, CraftingSelves: Power, Gender,and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace(Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1990), 87. 25. Edwards, 94-107. 26. Leidner, 122; Hochschild, 136. 27. Hochschild, 163; Leidner, 127-28, 151. 28. Hochschild, 33. 29. Barkty, 75. 30. Benson, 233. 31. In some cases, wearingmakeup may become an act of agencyfor women. For example, Page D. Delano found that Americanwomen duringWorld War II used makeupto Pei-ChiaLan 45 disrupt wartime's masculine code of power. See "MakingUp for War: Sexuality and Citizenshipin Wartime Culture,"Feminist Studies 26 (spring 2000): 33-68. Also see KristenDellinger and ChristineWilliams, who discuss how employedwomen transform the meanings of wearing makeup to subvert institutionalized norms in "Makeupat Work:Negotiating Appearance Rules in the Workplace,"Gender and Society 11 (April 1997): 151-77. 32. My analysis here is limited to a supplementaryanalysis of the gendered construc- tion of bodily labor. For a more detailed discussion on men in predominantlyfemale occupations,see ChristineWilliams, Still a Men's World:Men WhoDo Women'sWork (Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress, 1995); on professionalizationas a gendered social process, see AnnaWitz, Professions and Patriarchy(New York:Routledge, 1992). 33. Instead of attributing gender discrimination to intentional bias or prejudice in employers,Cas Sustein arguesthat discriminationsometimes persists because it is eco- nomicallyrational to rely on a race- or sex-based generalizationfor saving information costs in surveyingconsumer needs; see Cas Sustein, "WhyMarkets Don't Stop Discrimi- nation,"Social Philosophyand Policy 8 (summer1991): 22-37. 34. KathyPeiss also found that U.S. male cosmeticiansin the 1930s, such as Max Fac- tor, erasedthe taint of effeminacyand homosexualityby creatingpublic images as artic- ulate, lab-coatedexperts (115-16). 35. Susan Bordo, The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (New York: Farrar,Straus, and Giroux, 2000), 179. The incorporation of masculinity into advertisements for male toiletries and shaving products was initiated in the United States in the 1920osand 1930S (Peiss, 160-66); for a contemporaryexample, see Pat Kirkhamand Alex Welter,"Cosmetics: A CliniqueCase Study,"in The GenderedObject, ed. Pat Kirkham(Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1996), 196-203.