
Contents
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Representation Representation
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Look Look
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Performance Performance
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Practice Practice
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Conclusion Conclusion
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References References
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Cite
Extract
The body is a rich object for aesthetic inquiry. Bodies feature in many everyday aesthetic experiences: our own body is always available to us for aesthetic assessment (for better or worse), and we assess and respond to the bodily appearances of others both consciously and unconsciously. This practice can be a source of delight for both the subject and the object of the gaze. The body, whether depicted or actively performing, features centrally in aesthetic experiences of many art forms and sports as well.
A crucial thing about bodies is that they are not detachable from the persons whose bodies they are. The body is deeply intertwined with one’s identity and sense of self, and aesthetic consideration of bodies thus raises acute ethical questions. Notoriously, the aesthetic assessment of bodies can perpetuate a variety of forms of oppression. Women are disproportionately subject to narrowly defined standards of beauty that are, for many, difficult, costly, or impossible to meet; and compliance with these standards is unfairly used as a criterion for the allocation of a wide variety of social and economic goods (Rhode 2010). Standards of attractiveness in white-dominated societies are derived from norms related to white bodies, leading to judgments of exoticism and/or ugliness for members of other racial groups (Craig 2002; Hobson 2005; Tate 2012). People with visible disabilities may be seen as freakish and treated as asexual by virtue of the ways in which their bodies differ from societal norms of attractiveness (Garland-Thomson 1997; Wilkerson 2002). And people whose gender expression is thought not to fit with their presumed biological sex are sometimes subjected to harsh aesthetic judgments that motivate social penalties ranging from shunning to physical violence (Valentine 2007).
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