The Commoditization of the female body as a Luxury Good: The Result of French Culture at Intersection of Fine Art and Popular Culture Media
Open Access
- Author:
- Quinnan, Kaleigh
- Area of Honors:
- Interdisciplinary in Art and French and Francophone Studies
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Brian Alfred, Thesis Supervisor
J.-Marc Authier, Thesis Honors Advisor
Steven D. Rubin, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Consumption
Femininity
Fashion
Objectification
women
luxury
France - Abstract:
- Luxury, or more broadly the luxury industry, operates in modernity as a way to indicate our preferences for fashion and taste in consumer goods; understood as “the flaunting of wealth through acquisitions” that “defines our political, social, and economic standing and our self-worth” (Hurt 2007). It is an element of the upper class that is just as aligned to a lifestyle as it is to a display of material goods. In this sense, luxury can be understood as performative wealth; demonstrated via adornment and acquisitions distributed through media and advertising. In the first part of this thesis, I argue that luxury and the luxury industry that we see today is a result of withstanding French cultural values that were invented and implemented by Louis XIV in the 17th Century (DeJean 2005). In maintaining the argument that Louis XIV invented, defined and marketed “luxury,” this work also wishes to assert that women were and still are grouped as a part of that luxury via an analysis of 17th century media texts as compared to modern media. Departing from the 17th century, I then describe the persistence of the culture surrounding luxury consumption. Through this more contemporary lens, I articulate the role of women’s bodies as art objects in the context of luxury consumption. By analyzing the French cultural ideals and artistic movements as they relate to luxury consumption, I am able to draw parallels from this history to contemporary trends in the theoretical application towards my own work and how aligns with the often performative ideals of luxury consumption. I hope this thesis and the contributing works provide culture insight into the background of luxury consumption and encourage thought on the way that women are commoditized in the media in face of an increasingly digitized and commercialized world.