‘What Does a Manicure Have to Do With Sex?’: Racialized Sexualization of Body Labour in Routine Beauty Services

The Feminization of Body Work

“…Moreover, where touch in body work hovers at the edge of sexual intimacy (Kang, ; Twigg et al . ), this may be exacerbated by ideologies of ethnicized sexuality (Kang, ).…”

“…For instance, whereas white women carers may evoke associations with emotional nurture (Duffy, 2005), the touch of racialized groups can reinforce associations between body work and stigmatized dirty work. Moreover, where touch in body work hovers at the edge of sexual intimacy (Kang, 2003;Twigg et al 2011), this may be exacerbated by ideologies of ethnicized sexuality (Kang, 2013).…”

“…Fourth, the relatively hidden location of the spaces in which body work is performed is consequential for power relations between worker, client and employer. For instance, where the physical proximity to clients and patients required by body work locates it in privatized spaces, whether in the home, salon backroom or behind a screen in a hospital, workers are particularly vulnerable to workplace assaults: whether the sexual harassment found in nail salons or massage (Kang, ; Purcell, ), or the violence experienced by hospital and other health care staff (Holmes et al , ) . The risk of harassment may be exacerbated by the domestic connotations of body work where recipients critically appraise treatment as falling short of the limitless concern for others expected of women (Baines and Cunningham, ).…”

“…First, body work involves (varying amounts of) embodied touch. Because the social meaning of touch is altered both by the body of the person doing the touching and the body of the person being touched (Isaksen, ; Kang, ; Twigg, ), it is consequential for the ways in which work is performed, who performs this work and the value assigned it. Second, body work imposes particular social and structural limitations on the organization of work (Cohen, ; England et al , ; Wolkowitz et al , ).…”

The changing body work of abortion: a qualitative study of the experiences of health professionals

“…Health professionals have been found to engage with women undergoing abortion on a spectrum ranging from emotional 'investment' to 'detachment', with the latter facilitating treatment of more challenging patients (Wolkomir and Powers 2007). Existing body work literature argues that workers often have to manage both the emotions of others and their own emotional responses to the fleshy corporeality of their work, while simultaneously conducting body work tasks (Kang 2013). This convergence of bodily and emotional factors may be of particular relevance to abortion work, given the social significancespecifically the physical, social and moral 'taint' (Bolton 2005)attributed to the process and bodily products dealt with in this work.…”