Facing the Mirror

by Frida Ke Furman

This innovative, ethnographic study of a neighborhood beauty salon investigates how customers constitute a lively, affirming community of peers during their weekly visits. Facing the Mirror gives voice to older women, who, in a sexist and ageist society, are frequently devalued and rendered invisible. These older, mostly Jewish women articulate their experiences of bodily self-presentation, femininity, aging, and caring pertaining to their lives within and outside Julie's International Salon. This book explores the socio-moral significance of these experiences which reveals as much about society as about older women themselves. Women's narratives expose structures of power, inequality, and resistance in the ways women perceive reality, make choices and live in their worlds.

Genres: Nonfiction

218 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 1997

Reviews

[Mon Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

feminist fuel

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is amazing. It follows women who go to the same beauty shop over the years, with all of the normal and unusual things that happen to women over the years. Wonderful.