“It is our responsibility to change your skin”: Exploring the Politics of Beauty
Farita Binte Hannan, Rasheda Rawnak Khan · 2025
Women and women's bodies have been the target of power practice for a long time. Their experiences, existence, beliefs, practices as well as actions have often been objectified through different means of control. With the changing trends and ideals of beauty, the way a woman's worth is measured depending on their resonance with societal expectations has not changed much. The idea of beauty is a social construction. However, in a capital-driven society, even beauty ideals are used to make a profit out of women. What remains unnoticed is the fact that women are often turned into commodities through the products they use. Because skincare resorts to constructing a more counter definition of beauty, it passes through the bare eyes how these alternatives are used to turn women into social commodities. This research investigates skincare as a sociocultural construct that turns women into mere commodities with the sole purpose of bringing profit. This article examines what kind of politics are hidden in their definition of ‘beauty’. The study was conducted in the Dhaka city of Bangladesh among 40 working women, who were aware of their beautification and used skincare products regularly. During fieldwork, we employed techniques such as participant observation, in-depth interviews (IDIs), case studies, and triangulation.