Beauty – Episode 9 – The Oxford Comment

In this, the 9th Oxford Comment, Lauren and Michelle investigate what makes a classic beauty icon, learn about appearance-based discrimination, talk body politics, and discover the threads that tie fashion to beauty.

Featured in this episode:

• Historian, archaeologist, and classical scholar, Duane W. Roller is emeritus professor  at Ohio State University and the author of eight books, the most recent of which is Cleopatra: A Biography. Read his OUPblog posts.
• Deborah L. Rhode is the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford University. She is the author or editor of over twenty books, including The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law.
• Margitte Leah Kristjansson is a PhD student in communication at UCSD whose work is situated within the emerging field of fat studies. She is interested in all things fat, and blogs about her interests at margitteleah.com and riotsnotdiets.tumblr.com. Margitte recently completed a documentary on fat female bodies and visibility available for viewing here.
• Jessica Jarchow is a body acceptance activist in San Diego, CA. When she’s not blogging at tangledupinlace.tumblr.com and tangledupinlace.blogspot.com, Jessica encourages body positivity by being as visible as possible – organizing and hosting events, modeling, and supporting fat-tastic designers. You can learn more about Jessica by watching Margitte’s documentary.
• Thanks to everyone who spoke to us at the Berg Fashion Library launch party at FIT: John Vollmer, Toby Slade, Edna Nahshon, Annie Van Assche, Purdy, Sachiko Hori, Justyna Zajac
• The Ben Daniels Band

Headline image credit: The Sleeping Beauty by Edward Burne-Jones, 1890. Public domain via WikiArt.