Miscegenation Law

The thesis of this article is that ideas about race are fungible, i.e., are subject to complete revision depending on the context in which they are considered. In other words, notions of what constitutes "race" as a concept worthy of serious discourse, as well as the place of race both in the sensibilities of the culture and in the scheme of social consequences that issue from such notions are unstable. The evolution of such notions does not, however, necessarily indicate that they have been disposed of. Race in American culture is therefore problematized, and it is likely to remain so as long as variable social benefits attach to those who are identified as one race or the other.

It is important to recognize that Pascoe's intent does not appear to be to settle once and for all whatever issues are relevant to or problematic because of race. Nevertheless, it appears to be the case that Pascoe's view is that awareness, by itself, may be relevant to more complete appreciation of what direction the discourse of race might take. Of particular importance is that such discourse involves "racial ideologies," or prevailing notions of what constitutes race--which generally comes down to how limited access to the social benefits of being white/Caucasian is to be defined.

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smetics use. The idea seems to have been that if one pursued a healthful physical regimen the inner glow of beauty was bound to shine through. That explains the almost clinical approach taken by Elizabeth Arden toward marketing women's image. A latent point that Peiss has in hand but does not develop is that as a practical matter, the down-market folk could imitate but could not replicate the investment of time and in expertise that was required for achieving a standard of beauty. Thus to the extent such a standard was perceived (and marketed) as difficult to achieve, requiring the investment of time and expertise available almost exclusively to elites, it achieved resonance with the down-market classes. The practical response, over time, was to invest less in the luxury of a spa and more in the benefits of "paint." Meanwhile, the emergence of mass-market access to popular visual arts, particularly the cinema, had the effect of legitimating women's use of the artificial aesthetic support that makeup supplied. Peiss explains that there was also a divide between the mass market, mainly white, and the "ethnic" market, mainly African American, that developed for the "beauty culture" (329). Whereas elites obtained cosmetics from majo
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3669
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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