Beauty, Bodies, and Elites

Abstract This chapter considers the form and function of physical appearance at the top of the class hierarchy, among elites, to interrogate the relationship between beauty and inequality. With a focus on embodiment, we develop a gendered theory of elite display. Building on theories of social hierarchy from Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu, and the micro-sociology of Goffman, we show how elite bodies, particularly women’s, are tightly controlled, scrutinized, and managed. We illustrate these micro-processes with data from two paradigmatic elite social spaces, philanthropy galas and VIP nightclubs. Women in particular are marshalled to generate status in these spaces, and their bodily rituals and displays concretize status distinctions among men. Though women’s bodies signify wealth, the value of their display accrues disproportionately to elite men in the form of material and symbolic capital. We conclude with an agenda for how physical appearance is a useful point of entry to study the gendered foundations of the elite, and class more generally.