ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two types of power-seeking transformations that we, as societal members and as societies, undergo regarding our views about and behaviors surrounding social aesthetics. The first is acceptance of or accommodation to social dictates to look a certain way. The second is resistance to or rebellion against those dictates. Acceptance of the social norms of physical appearance is probably the most commonly adopted strategy and is strongly encouraged by marketers and the industries involved in appearance improvement. Accommodation is, fundamentally, a method of power enhancement. Regardless of how we look at the correctness and incorrectness of accommodation and rebellion, one observation is becoming inescapable: in at least some cultures, we are becoming homogenized in our appearance. In combination with homogenization and normalization is a third phenomenon, societal-level rebellion. Rebellion refers to a social- and individual-level rejection of social guidelines to appear a particular way.
