The toilet paper : Femininity, class and mis-recognition

Skeggs, Beverley (2001) The toilet paper : Femininity, class and mis-recognition. Women's Studies International Forum, 24 (3-4). pp. 295-307. ISSN 0277-5395

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Abstract

This article unpacks the paradoxical and ambivalent meaning and value of femininity; both its theorization and its practice. To do this it draws on specific empirical sites in the UK-women's toilets-to think through the significance of the contemporary politics of recognition, a politics that Nancy Fraser (1995) argues is displacing the politics of redistribution. The first part of the article explores how the appearance of femininity as a form of cultural capital is utilized and theorized. It also shows how femininity is known and judged and frequently mis-recognised through historical classed positions that are premised on appearance being read as a value of personhood. This analysis is then applied to the empirical research, drawing on two different research projects to make its arguments. Using examples of the tension in women's toilets, it shows how the feminine-appearing body is judged on the basis of excess and devalued but also, paradoxically, given authority to shame and judge. The different processes of mis-recognition invoked in the toilets expose the way class underpins any reading of bodies on the basis of appearance.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Women's Studies International Forum
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3304
Subjects:
?? educationdevelopmentsociology and political sciencelaw ??
ID Code:
144605
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
11 Jun 2020 08:58
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 20:42