C.IAS Lecture - Denise Sutton

Abstract:

This presentation explores the shifting cultural and social constructions of beauty over the life-course, tracing a movement from the beauty industry’s earlier obsession with anti-aging products toward contemporary emphases on body positivity, women’s empowerment, and the fluidity of embodied identities. Drawing on feminist reassessments of menopause and aging from the 1990s onward, the project highlights how age is not biologically fixed but socially produced, allowing for a reconceptualization of beauty as relational, dynamic, and context-dependent across time and space. By situating these shifts within the broader business strategies of the global beauty industry, the paper examines how consumers and corporations have both shaped and responded to these cultural narratives, monetizing new ideals of inclusivity and empowerment. Ultimately, this presentation demonstrates how the commercial imperatives of the beauty industry intersect with feminist and cultural discourses to redefine consumer markets and challenge traditional boundaries of beauty.