Cosmetics and the female body: a critical appraisal of poststructuralist theories of masquerade

2000 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Llewellyn Negrin
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
The Self ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
True Self ◽  
Poststructuralist Theory ◽  
Artificial Nature

Recently, there has emerged a new paradigm, informed by poststructuralist theory, for the appraisal of cosmetics. According to this approach, earlier critiques of cosmetics have been based on a mistaken premise that there exists a 'true' self independent of the masks one assumes when, in fact, the self is constituted by these very masks. Thus, in contrast to previous critics who proposed a return to the 'natural' body, these recent theorists advocate a cosmetics which openly declares its artificial nature. However, as will be argued in this paper, in their concern to dismantle 'essentialist' notions of the self, poststructuralist theorists have unwittingly fallen into the embrace of the cosmetics industry with their promotion of the notion of the self as masquerade. In our postmodern culture where the cult of appearances has become ubiquitous, the advocacy of a hedonistic experimentation with various guises is complicitous with contemporary capitalist consumer ideology.

Self-Prioritization Beyond Perception

2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 415-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Schäfer ◽  
Dirk Wentura ◽  
Christian Frings
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Stimulus Category ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
Relevant Word ◽  
Word Shape

Abstract. Recently, Sui, He, and Humphreys (2012) introduced a new paradigm to measure perceptual self-prioritization processes. It seems that arbitrarily tagging shapes to self-relevant words (I, my, me, and so on) leads to speeded verification times when matching self-relevant word shape pairings (e.g., me – triangle) as compared to non-self-relevant word shape pairings (e.g., stranger – circle). In order to analyze the level at which self-prioritization takes place we analyzed whether the self-prioritization effect is due to a tagging of the self-relevant label and the particular associated shape or due to a tagging of the self with an abstract concept. In two experiments participants showed standard self-prioritization effects with varying stimulus features or different exemplars of a particular stimulus-category suggesting that self-prioritization also works at a conceptual level.

Where Are The Self-Correcting Mechanisms In Science?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simine Vazire ◽  
Alex O. Holcombe
Keyword(s):  
Peer Review ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Scientific Field ◽  
The Self ◽  
Replication Crisis

It is often said that science is self-correcting, but the replication crisis suggests that, at least in some fields, self-correction mechanisms have fallen short of what we might hope for. How can we know whether a particular scientific field has effective self-correction mechanisms, that is, whether its findings are credible? The usual processes that supposedly provide mechanisms for scientific self-correction – mainly peer review and disciplinary committees – have been inadequate. We argue for more verifiable indicators of a field’s commitment to self-correction. These include transparency, which is already a target of many reform efforts, and critical appraisal, which has received less attention. Only by obtaining Measurements of Observable Self-Correction (MOSCs) can we begin to evaluate the claim that “science is self-correcting.” We expect the validity of this claim to vary across fields and subfields, and suggest that some fields, such as psychology and biomedicine, fall far short of an appropriate level of transparency and, especially, critical appraisal. Fields without robust, verifiable mechanisms for transparency and critical appraisal cannot reasonably be said to be self-correcting, and thus do not warrant the credibility often imputed to science as a whole.

The ”true me”—one or many?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris Berent ◽  
Melanie Platt
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Optimality Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
True Self ◽  
Behavioral Test ◽  
Brain Scan ◽  
Moral Behaviors ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Constraint Ranking

Recent results suggest that people hold a notion of the true self, distinct from the self. Here, we seek to further elucidate the “true me”—whether it is good or bad, material or immaterial. Critically, we ask whether the true self is unitary. To address these questions, we invited participants to reason about John—a character who simultaneously exhibits both positive and negative moral behaviors. John’s character was gauged via two tests--a brain scan and a behavioral test, whose results invariably diverged (i.e., one test indicated that John’s moral core is positive and another negative). Participants assessed John’s true self along two questions: (a) Did John commit his acts (positive and negative) freely? and (b) What is John’s essence really? Responses to the two questions diverged. When asked to evaluate John’s moral core explicitly (by reasoning about his free will), people invariably descried John’s true self as good. But when John’s moral core was assessed implicitly (by considering his essence), people sided with the outcomes of the brain test. These results demonstrate that people hold conflicting notions of the true self. We formally support this proposal by presenting a grammar of the true self, couched within Optimality Theory. We show that the constraint ranking necessary to capture explicit and implicit view of the true self are distinct. Our intuitive belief in a true unitary “me” is thus illusory.

scholarly journals „Tilfinningar eru eldsneyti fyrir hugmyndir“. Um skáldskaparheim Elísabetar Kristínar Jökulsdóttur

Ritið ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-254
Author(s):  
Soffía Auður Birgisdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Social Space ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Personal Mythology ◽  
Sexual Drive ◽  
Kate Millett ◽  
The Right ◽  
Self Examination

This article deals with the authorship of Elísabet Kristín Jökulsdóttir, with special emphasis on the autofictional novel Heilræði lásasmiðsins (The locksmith’s advice), as well as other works that are based on autobiographical material. Elísabet writes a lot about the female body, its desires and erotic longings, as well as how helpless and weak it can be in particular situations. Her writing on the self, body and sexuality centres on the opposition between love and rejection. The desire for love is the driving force behind her writing and a deep and ruthless self-examination is at work in her fictional world. This desire is closely connected to the female body and sexual drive and Elísabet scrutinizes the nature of ‚femininity‘ and asks what it means to be ,a woman‘. Elísabet describes the female body in all its nakedness and vulnerability and shows how the body is the battleground where the main conflicts between self and others take place. Elísabet frequently describes two oppositional worlds in her works. There are conflicts between the magical world and reality, the father and the mother, the child and the grown-up, psychological difficulties and ‚sanity‘. a divided self is a persistent theme in her writings, as well as the struggle to remain on the right side of the „borders“, which are frequently mentioned. Elísabet’s writings reveal a struggle for marking a place for oneself in the world, to be heard and seen, to be able to createand recreate the self and through her writing, she copes with existence and difficulties that are rooted in childhood. Through writing, she finds a way out and the writing process serves as self-analysis and therapy. In her works Elísabet also creates her own personal mythology, which she connects with women’s struggle for self-realization, freedom and social space. The analysis of Elísabet’s works is inspired by the writings of feminist scholars, such as Simone de Beauvoir, Kate millett and Hélène Cixous.

scholarly journals The Metaphysics of Self in Praśastapāda’s Differential Naturalism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shalini Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
True Self ◽  
Epistemic Practice

In A Compendium of the Characteristics of Categories (Padārthadharmasaṃgraha) the classical Vaiśeṣika philosopher Praśastapāda (6th century ce) presents an innovative metaphysics of the self. This article examines the defining metaphysical and axiological features of this conception of self and the dualist categorial schema in which it is located. It shows how this idea of the self, as a reflexive and ethical being, grounds a multinaturalist view of natural order and offers a conception of agency that claims to account for all the reflexive features of human mental and bodily life. Finally, it discusses the ends of self’s reflexivity and of human life as a return to the true self. It argues that at the heart of Praśastapāda’s metaphysics of self is the idea that ethics is metaphysics, and that epistemic practice is ethical practice.

Umbria and the Laurentine Shore

2020 ◽  
pp. 132-161
Author(s):  
Roy K. Gibson
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
True Self

Pliny owned two important residences outside Rome: one on the Laurentine shore; the other in Umbria. Pliny calls the latter villa ‘Tuscan’: a reference to the ethnicity (rather than geography) of the locality. He was deeply embedded and widely connected in Umbria, but plays the region down, to give Comum prominence. A network of Umbrian friends can be documented, plus marriage to ‘Venuleia’: daughter of an established Umbro-Etruscan senatorial family. Pliny says little about her, to give the later marriage to Calpurnia of Comum more publicity. Pliny’s persona in Umbria is warm, and marked by an interest in religious sites. At the Laurentine villa, Pliny focuses on reading, writing, and improvement of the self. How does Pliny’s persona at his villas relate to ancient conceptions of the ‘true self’? Pliny’s leisure was based on the labour of those who worked his huge Umbrian estates. What were his record and practices as a wealthy landowner?

Love and Unselfing in Iris Murdoch

2020 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 169-180
Author(s):  
Julia Driver
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Iris Murdoch ◽  
True Self ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Narrow Focus ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

AbstractIris Murdoch believes that unselfing is required for virtue, as it takes us out of our egoistic preoccupations, and connects us to the Good in the world. Love is a form of unselfing, illustrating how close attention to another, and the way they really are, again, takes us out of a narrow focus on the self. Though this view of love runs counter to a view that those in love often overlook flaws in their loved ones, or at least down-play them, I argue that it is compatible with Murdoch's view that love can overlook some flaws, ones that do not speak to the loved one's true self. Unselfing requires that we don't engage in selfish delusion, but a softer view of our loved ones is permitted.

scholarly journals Unwanted appearances and self-objectification: The phenomenology of alterity for women in leadership

Leadership ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-318
Author(s):  
Claire O’Neill
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Women Leaders ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Women In Leadership ◽  
The Self ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Self Objectification ◽  
The Impact

This paper introduces the concept of dys-appearance ( Leder, 1990 ) as a way of conceptualising the lived experience of alterity (or Otherness) of women’s bodies in leadership. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study (using interviews and photo-elicitation) it contributes towards growing bodies of literature that emphasise the corporeal and highlight the Othering of the female body in the masculine discourse of leadership. Contemporary leadership scholars have drawn on Merleau-Pontian phenomenology to conceptualise the fundamental reversibility of embodied perception between the leader and the follower, but this analysis has not extended to a consideration of the sexed and gendered body. By focusing on the subjective experiences of women leaders this paper demonstrates the phenomenon of dys-appearance ( Leder, 1990 ) in which the female body, which signifies a socially problematic presence in this context, appears to the subject in a disruptive or unwanted manner within their self-perception. The self-objectification and dys-appearance of the recalcitrant body exerts a telic demand upon the self to rectify its problematic presence and return it to a state of undisruptive normality. This analysis contributes novel insights on the unique or different experiences of leadership for women, and the impact of the problematizing of the female body on their self-perceptions.

Self-injurious behaviour as part of genetic syndromes

1998 ◽  
Vol 172 (5) ◽  
pp. 385-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoumitro Deb
Keyword(s):  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Genetic Disorders ◽  
The Self ◽  
Genetic Syndromes ◽  
Specificity And Sensitivity ◽  
Broader Phenotype ◽  
The Subject

BackgroundThe purpose of this paper is to review the association between genetic syndromes and self-injurious behaviour.MethodThe information available from the literature on the subject of self-injurious behaviours and genetic syndromes was collated and presented with a critical appraisal.ResultsSelf-injurious behaviours are associated with some genetic syndromes. However, the causal relationship between the genetic syndromes and the self-injurious behaviour remains far from clear.ConclusionsAlthough self-injurious behaviour has been shown to be the part of a broader phenotype in many genetic disorders, the specificity and sensitivity of these behaviours in this context remain unclear.

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