Thinking with Bevereley Skeggs - Stockholms universitet

show the time and effort put into the production of appearances,middle-class women seem to conceal the labour invested in theproduction of their bodies. A ‘natural’ look is thus produced,naturalized, and fetishized.I have the impression that the equation between naturalappearance and higher cultural value and the subsequentassociation between artifice, excess and lower cultural value (asin the case of the UK) are not always that straightforward in theBrazilian case. In that particular context, the use of artifice andexcess is not necessarily devalued. For instance, when asking a30-year-old middle-class administrative secretary whether herbreast implants were not questioned by other people as beingfake, she vehemently answered: ‘If someone tells me that theyare fake, that they are not mine, or not natural, I say: “I’ve boughtthem, I’ve paid for them and – naturally – they’re mine!”’ Almostthe same argument was given by a young black low-incomestudent who had hair extensions. ‘If people ask me whether thisis my hair, I say, “Of course it’s mine. I bought it! So what?!”’(Gomes 2006: 124, my translation).A last example to illustrate how production and the use ofartifice can be discussed in Brazil: former top model and mediacelebrity Luiza Brunet received a lot of coverage during the2008 carnival parade. In an interview, she explains in detail howshe prepared herself for the carnival: ‘I do physical exerciseseveryday, during the whole year. Besides that, I watch my mouthand try to avoid eating unhealthy things. And one month beforethe carnival I took samba lessons in order to get the right swingin my hips’ (my translation. See http://video.msn.com/?mkt=ptbr&vid=ea8407e4-1ed4-46af-bb1f-8dd4a1f0fae9for theinterview).Is it so that artifice and excess (when positively valued) areused under controlled and sanctioned forms by certain groups ofwomen?Skeggs’ analysis of contemporary forms of class struggle isdefinitely a perspective through which I can approach my own45