Beauty, Gender and Parenthood

Abstract This chapter deals with gender, beauty and parenthood, especially how beauty is part of the normative discourse of good mothering. The existing literature points out a changing notion of maternal body, highlighting the importance of “pregnant beauty” and “yummy mummy”. Another body of scholarship underlines the determinant transmission of aesthetic value in mother-daughter relationships. Many studies in body image indicate a strong and positive association between mothers’ idea about appropriate feminine look and daughters’ body (dis)satisfaction, while some anthropological and sociological works point out how daughters’ appearance is often a result of family investment in many socio-cultural contexts other than Western societies. In sum, the close relationship of beauty and parenthood challenges and nuances the dominant individualistic perspective of women’s beautification and illustrates how the relationality and the trans-individual aspect is often crucial in analysing women’s aesthetic labours. There are also unanswered research questions such as fathers’ role in improving children’s body satisfaction or what discourse and strategies are valuable in ending the intergenerational transmission of body dissatisfaction in different socio-cultural contexts.