The politics of brows and lashes

CIVICS AND COMMERCEEpisode 6 — The Brow and Lash StudioShow notesThe story in this episode is composite, drawn from real events. Identifying details are changed. Real-world events the story draws on, full citations, and further reading are below.REAL-WORLD EVENTS REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODECyprus- Sophia Hadjipanteli, Cypriot-British model, and the Unibrow Movement, her ongoing project foregrounding her natural unibrow as a deliberate political and aesthetic choice. Career documented from around 2017 across international fashion press.Industry / Trade History (not country-event anchors)- Threading, an ancient hair removal technique with roots across the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau, now a global beauty service.- Modern eyelash extension techniques developed in the Japanese and South Korean beauty industries in the early to mid-2000s. The "Russian volume" technique, developed in Russia, exported internationally through training programs from the early 2010s.International- The shift in dominant Western brow aesthetics from the plucked-thin look of the late 1990s and early 2000s toward the thick, fuller, more "natural" look that dominates from the mid-2010s onward.REFERENCES[1] María Lugones, "Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System," Hypatia 22, no. 1 (Winter 2007): 186-209.María Lugones, "Toward a Decolonial Feminism," Hypatia 25, no. 4 (Fall 2010): 742-759.Lugones builds on Aníbal Quijano, "Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America," Nepantla: Views from South 1, no. 3 (2000): 533-580.[2] Heather Widdows, Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018). https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691160078/perfect-me[3] Sophia Hadjipanteli, Unibrow Movement. https://www.unibrowmovement.com[4] Threading as a hair removal technique with origins across South Asia and the Iranian plateau.[5] Modern eyelash extension industry references: International Beauty Show industry publications, 2010-2025.FURTHER READINGMaría Lugones, "Toward a Decolonial Feminism" (2010). Foundational essay arguing that gender is a colonial imposition with beauty rules embedded in it.Heather Widdows, Perfect Me (2018). On beauty as an ethical ideal that women are morally pressured to meet.Fatima Mernissi, Scheherazade Goes West (2001). On Western and Arab beauty standards as parallel forms of bodily constraint.Mimi Thi Nguyen, "The Biopower of Beauty" (2011), in Signs 36, no. 2: 359-383. On how beauty operates as political infrastructure in geopolitical contexts including post-2001 Afghanistan.Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety (2005). On bodily practice as a site of agency, not only of subjugation.About the hostLiv Roe is a civic and political adviser based in Melbourne. She works with businesses, organisations, and individuals on the political and civic context of their work. Book a consultation at livroe.org. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit civicsandcommerce.substack.com