Description
Body politics has historically been trivialised in social inequality discussions. Yet, feminist scholarship increasingly recognises the body as a crucial site, through which identity, femininity, and agency are negotiated. Given growing aesthetic pressures across Asia, this presentation intends to examine how feminism manifests in the beauty contexts of China and Thailand: two dominant aesthetic markets in Asia. Based upon qualitative research on young women, the presentation unpacks how beauty practices are associated with self-expression and individualised empowerment. This means it illuminates the prevalence of postfeminism. In both contexts, narratives around self-beautifying for themselves, as opposed to men, are prominent. However, the transnational aspect presents some divergences. Regarding Thai women, the Korean wave was central to their cosmetic surgery undertaking, with respect to K-beauty standards and ‘natural’ looks, the Korean influencer/celebrity terrain, and South Korea’s worldwide surgical reputation. By contrast, in Chinese women’s self-beautification, Korean culture is peripheral compared to localised preferences and norms. Instead, national pride permeates their beauty engagement. This intra-Asian comparison will make a novel contribution to dialogues about non-Western postfeminist manifestations, highlighting positive outcomes and pitfalls from aesthetic regimes, as well as sociopolitical shifts and tensions towards the future of global politics.