Making an Appearance:  Exploring the Emotional Labour of Aesthetic Labour.

In their analysis of fashion modelling industries, Entwistle and Wissenger argue for the emotional content of aesthetic labour, conceptualising it as “adding to, or extending, rather than supplanting emotional labour” (774). This definition of aesthetic labour recognises that “the effort to keep up appearances, while physical, has an emotional content to it” (774). The work that actors undertake to maintain a “castable” appearance can also be conceptualised in this way and this paper will explore how performers respond to the emotional demands of aesthetic labour.

The paper will draw on the findings of the “Making an Appearance” research project. The project – an AHRC Creative Economy Engagement Fellowship and research collaboration with performers’ trade union, Equity – explores performers’ experiences of aesthetic labour, examining how actors feel about their bodies and the work they undertake to make a “castable” appearance. Analysing responses to a survey of professional performers, this paper will discuss the emotional demands of making an appearance for work. It will consider how performers feel about the activities they undertake to make their appearance and how these activities relate to aspects of identity such as gender, race, age, and disability.
 
Works Cited
Entwistle, Joanne, and Elizabeth Wissenger. "Keeping Up Appearances: Aesthetic Labour in the Fashion Modelling Industries of London and New York." Sociological Review, vol. 54, no.4, 2006, pp.774-94.

Sara is an AHRC Creative Economy Engagement Fellow in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research project – “Making an Appearance” – explores actors’ experiences of aesthetic labour and builds on work she undertook as part of her AHRC-funded doctoral research examining casting and the construction of femininity in contemporary stagings of Shakespeare’s plays. Sara is also an emerging director and has worked on a number of productions on the London fringe.​​​​