DOI: 10.5507/ff.25.24465821.03

Constructing the Ideal Face: The Japanese High School Girls’ Makeup

Keiko Aiba (A.)


While at least half of Japanese high school girls wear makeup, the reasons why they do so have remained understudied. Having reviewed perspectives of feminist authors and other studies on makeup use, this study interviewed 32 female high school girls in a private co-ed high school in Japan to investigate why they engage in the practice. Many reasons mentioned by the students indicate that they feel pleasure in using makeup to move toward their “imagined self.” Some girls, however, engage in makeup because they accept the norm that makeup is a form of etiquette for adult women. This study, therefore, also considers this norm’s effects on those girls who cannot use makeup for physiological reasons and those who do not want to wear makeup at all.

pages: 57-81



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