Plucked: A History of Hair Removal: 8 (Biopolitics) - Softcover

Herzig, Rebecca M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1479852813 ISBN 13: 9781479852819

Publisher: NYU Press, 2016

Synopsis

From the clamshell razors and homemade lye depilatories used in colonial America to the diode lasers and prescription pharmaceuticals available today, Americans have used a staggering array of tools to remove hair deemed unsightly, unnatural, or excessive. This is true especially for women and girls; conservative estimates indicate that 99% of American women have tried hair removal, and at least 85% regularly remove hair from their faces, armpits, legs, and bikini lines. How and when does hair become a problem―what makes some growth “excessive”? Who or what separates the necessary from the superfluous?  In Plucked, historian Rebecca Herzig addresses these questions about hair removal. She shows how, over time, dominant American beliefs about visible hair changed: where once elective hair removal was considered a “mutilation” practiced primarily by “savage” men, by the turn of the twentieth century, hair-free faces and limbs were expected for women. Visible hair growth―particularly on young, white women―came to be perceived as a sign of political extremism, sexual deviance, or mental illness. By the turn of the twenty-first century, more and more Americans were waxing, threading, shaving, or lasering themselves smooth. Herzig’s extraordinary account also reveals some of the collateral damages of the intensifying pursuit of hair-free skin. Moving beyond the experiences of particular patients or clients, Herzig describes the surprising histories of race, science, industry, and medicine behind today's hair-removing tools. Plucked is an unsettling, gripping, and original tale of the lengths to which Americans will go to remove hair.

About this title

Review:

"Herzig unites anthropology, sociology, history and psychology in this gripping study...Plucked is an important work, not least because it is so very readable.  What's more, Herzig is angry, and anger is the first step towards social change."-Times Higher Education

"Few people would link the forced beard shaving of Guantanamo Bay detainees with Gwyneth 'I work a seventies vibe' Paltrow, but historian Rebecca Herzig connects the dots in her new book, Plucked."-The Toronto Globe and Mail

“Plucked moves beyond current discourse, which is limited to whether shaving and waxing indicate subjugation to social norms or freedom and the practices associated with it.  This interdisciplinary study, which unites sociology, anthropology, and history, draws on books, letters, advertisements, magazines, and contemporary interviews to show that determinations of whether hair is ‘excessive’ or ‘peculiar’ are subjective and flexible, dependent on the person doing the looking, and subject to change based on political, scientific, technological, military, and economic shifts.”   -Women's Review of Books

"Plucked is a fascinating look into a largely untaught part of our history...meticulously researched."-Bust Magazine

“Her forthcoming book, Plucked: A History of Hair Removal in America, to be published by NYU Press in January 2015, examines techniques that Americans have used to remove their own hair, and the array of social force – including beliefs about beauty and self-determination – that create expectations about hair and hair removal.”-Sun Journal

"Humanity has used an impressive array of tools to remove hair.  This is, biologically speaking, pretty strange.  Most of earth's mammals possess luxuriant fur.  Only one seeks to remove it.  Rebecca Herzig's delightful history explains why: smooth skin is a cultural imperative."-The Economist

"This is an interesting, serious, and meticulously researched contribution to American history, offering a variety of insights around key topics in the evolution of attitudes and practices relating to hair.”-The Journal of American History

"Herzig draws from history, sociology, racial studies, anthropology, and dermatology, and has absorbed views of theologians and pornographers.  Much of what she has found is disturbing, and other findings are just funny, illustrating what a peculiar set of mammals we are."-Columbus Dispatch

 "A thoughtful and unique microhistory of hair from the eyebrows down."-Journal of American Culture

"If you ever want proof that a thoughtful, careful scholar can follow a single strand of social life and come to see race, class, gender and all the complexity of society―this is the book to read."-Barbara Katz Rothman,author of Genetic Maps and Human Imaginations

About the Author:

Rebecca M. Herzig is Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Bates College. Her previous work includes Suffering for Science: Reason and Sacrifice in Modern America and, with Evelynn Hammonds, The Nature of Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1479852813
• ISBN 13: 9781479852819
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280