the book

I"m mostly through this book that I"ve started reading for the sake of my project and the author of course is making a lot of points about beauty culture. Her main objective seems to be to try and prove that the beauty fads that exist in the 1990's-early 2000's are not soley due to the influence of western culture but also stem from something internal as well. She goes through countless examples and extensive research to prove this.

I have yet to make up my mind as to whether or not I completely buy into what she is saying. I do however recognize the points that she is making; especially since most of them are just common sense.

She goes about her research by analyzing Japanese history, beauty advertisements, and by interviewing Japanese people. I feel that all of these things together puts a lot of validity to what she is saying.

Another major argument of hers is that beauty culture is a form of proper etiquette in Japan. I think she is trying to validate the beauty craze in Japan and why it is a billion dollar business despite reports of fraud and malpractice. I wonder also if she is trying to make the Japanese understandable to a Western audience who might stereotypically not understand them. Nonetheless I find this approach rather intriguing and may touch upon it myself in my final paper.

Because what she is saying is rather extensive and somewhat dense, I need to read through it again. I've been reading it very carefully which is why it's been taking me so long to read it. I do not yet know how much of her arguments I will post here. I wasn't really planning to post them but if people want to know what they are or think they are necessary, I will post them.