Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Media Studies

Reader 1

Ruti Talmor

Reader 2

Aly Ogasian

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Abstract

The Aesthetic Assembly Line is a capstone installation and a thesis project that critiques the global beauty industry’s commodification of women through the lens of aesthetic labor. The project argues that beauty routines are often marketed as forms of self-care or empowerment but are repetitive, industrialized processes driven by capitalist systems. Drawing theories from aesthetic labor and feminist media studies, the work challenges the idea that beauty is not a purely personal act or an act of self-expression. Instead, the paper frames beauty routines as a form of labor that is required for social acceptance, and digital visibility.

The art installation visualizes this labor through post-industrial aesthetics, using a non-operational cardboard conveyor belt and silicone molds of the artist’s face to represent the repetitive production of a “perfect” beauty ideal. These sculptural elements are accompanied by a vanity table and posters to further symbolize self-maintenance and external influences. Together, these components expose how the beauty industry dehumanizes women, reducing them to a standardized, commodified subjects who are under pressure to confirm to a certain beauty standard.

Building on works such as Aesthetic Labor and the Effortless Beauty Paradox, The Aesthetic Assembly Line contributes to media studies by reframing beauty not only as a cultural narrative but as an economic mechanism that relies on the continuous investment of time, money, and labor. Ultimately, this project seeks to reveal the unseen labor behind beauty and to challenge the feminine imperative to achieve an appearance shaped to meet society’s ideal of beauty.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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