I am privileged to be part of the Beauty Demands Network based at the University of Birmingham, UK. The Beauty Demands Project began with the funding of two key research initiatives. First, a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship held by Prof Heather Widdows which finished in October 2016 and second, an AHRC Network Grant ‘The Changing Requirements of Beauty’ which finished in June 2016 (PI Heather Widdows, Co-I Jean McHale).

Since its inception, the Network has brought together scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers from across disciplines including gender studies, history, law, medicine, philosophy, psychology and sociology. The assumption of the Network was that body image is becoming ever more demanding and defining of women, and increasingly men, irrespective of their professions. Find out more about the Network here and more about Heather’s project here.

The latest beauty demands post, titled ‘Born this way’, focuses on physical and emotional scars of those with ‘congenital heart disease’. Please access the blog here.

For anyone in Oxford, on Friday 20th October, Prof Heather Widdows is hosting a feminist salon at St Hilda’s, (organised by Maeve McKeown) which will be recorded. You can read about that here.

Check out more Beauty Demands blogs here.