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Ashley Mears

Assistant Professor at Boston University

Schools

  • Boston University

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    Biography

    Boston University

    I study the intersections of culture and markets.  After receiving my B.A. in sociology from the University of Georgia in 2002, I went on to graduate school at New York University for my Ph.D. in sociology in 2009.  In my teaching and research, I explore generally how people assign value to things, and I focus on how gender, race, and class inequalities inform the production and change of culture.

    My recently published book, Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion Model, examines the production of value in fashion modeling markets. Through ethnography and interviews, I traced the backstage work and collaboration behind the fashion “look” in modeling markets in New York and London. I discovered an organized production process that goes into producing something most people take for granted as a natural state: beauty. These production processes are structured along racial and gendered lines, such that markets in cultural production like fashion ultimately become sites for the reproduction of cultural inequalities.

    Building off of this research, I am starting a new project on the global context of culture and beauty. I am particularly interested in the cultural and economic underpinnings of the global model scouting industry, which supplies fresh talent, often from the Global South, to fashion cities like Paris, New York, and Tokyo. This research will trace the global flows of value in this culture industry and discover how beauty, race, and gender differences are imagined and produced across and within international borders.

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    Cases

    The case for being grumpy at work

    April 25, 2017

    Quartz Ashley Mears, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences “On my birthday this year, my coworkers planned an elaborate surprise…” Expert quote: “It’s self-directed emotional labor. It could as well just be called the double work of womanhood—femininity makes two jobs out of one.” View full article. 

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    Ivanka Trump, who are you?

    February 15, 2017

    Boston Globe Ashley Mears, College of Arts and Sciences Ivanka Trump, who are you… Expert quote: “Ashley Mears, an associate professor of sociology at Boston University, says that Ivanka taps into three charged areas in our society — class, gender, and politics.” View full article

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    Debts, £300 salaries and career instability: the reality of modelling today

    December 30, 2015

    The Telegraph Ashley Mears, College of Arts & Sciences The catwalk used to be the stage on which models won a ‘super’ prefix and earned a fortune in the process. Now it’s an expensive, exhausting trial, says Ellie Pithers. Has modelling moved on? Or have we?… Expert quote: “At the agencies I studied, the median […]

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    Model life: to call it indentured servitude is no exaggeration

    February 19, 2015

    The Guardian Ashley Mears, College of Arts & Sciences Runway models, who are the faces of desirability and luxury, are in fact caught in the middle of deeply unequal and borderline exploitative labor relations… Expert quote: “Women’s bodies lend status, or are status signifiers of luxury, especially to men. Women are central to showing off […]

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    Who Runs the Girls?

    September 20, 2014

    New York Times (subscription required) By Ashley Mears, College of Arts & Sciences A few years ago, I attended a party at a nightclub in the meatpacking district of Manhattan with about 10 young women, most of them models, and two club promoters, men whose job was to bring beautiful women to exclusive parties… View […]

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    A Mixed Bag of Publicity for NYC’s Standard Hotel After Elevator Spat

    May 13, 2014

    U.S. News & World Report Ashley Mears, College of Arts & Sciences Jay Z may have been the intended recipient of Solange’s blows in elevator security footage that rocked the Internet Monday, but with the leakage of the tape – posted first on TMZ – the rapper was not the only one taking a hit. The reputation of […]

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    Underage, overworked and on their own: How do we protect teen models?

    April 2, 2014

    Salon Ashley Mears, College of Arts & Sciences A new law gives models under 18 new protections — but will it make a real difference?… View full article quoting expert Ashley Mears  

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    The Issue of Race Follows New York Fashion Week Down the Catwalk

    September 13, 2013

    U.S. News & World Report Ashley Mears, College of Arts & Sciences Style-watchers looking to this week’s New York Fashion Week for new trends saw that blue and white are hot for spring… Expert quote: “What [agents and stylists] would say in round-about ways is that nonwhite women, particularly black women, are incompatible with a […]

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    Models Strut Into U.S. as Programmers Ask Visa God for Help

    May 20, 2013

    Bloomberg Ashley Mears, College of Arts & Sciences Ravi Shanker makes weekly pilgrimages to Chilkur Balaji temple outside Hyderabad, India, asking for a little help on immigration from an incarnation of Lord Vishnu… Expert quote: “The typical model in 2009 earned $27,330, with the average magazine shoot paying about $100 daily.” View full article

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    Friends, prostitutes commingle on social networks

    May 16, 2013

    MarketWatch Ashley Mears, College of Arts & Sciences LinkedIn  is a network for all professions — even the oldest one… Expert quote: “Studies suggest that professional men looking for quick sexual encounters use social networks because it’s safer, since it’s largely invisible to police and offers a way to select and prescreen women. I wouldn’t […]

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