The semiotics of visible face make-up: The masks women wear

This dissertation explores the `sign' of visible face make-up and examines how women consume appearance in everyday life in contemporary Australia. Using a semiotic framework, it presents a novel new method for interpreting and gaining increased meaning into an everyday consumption phenomenon. The purpose of the study is to gain insights into why women wear make-up. It seeks to provide understanding of what this medium signifies to women and what the `sign' of make-up symbolises to the female individual. It explores how visible face make-up affects the way women consume appearance in everyday life, how they feel about themselves, and the role make-up plays in defining their own self-identity. The study utilises an interpretivist approach and uses a qualitative methodology in the form of phenomenology. The theoretical framework used to underpin this research is semiotics and this study examines the sign of make-up using two different semiotic perspectives previously not used together. The significance of this process is that by combining these perspectives a richer and more in-depth understanding is derived.

Grantor dc:publisher

Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia

Year dc:date

2005

Author dc:creator

• Ogilvie, Madeleine

• consumption of appearance
• ritual
• semiotics
• symbolism
• Law and Gender
• Sociology of Culture

Repository record dc:identifier

https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/110

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ro.ecu.edu.au:theses-1110