29th Nov 2007
The Economics of Touch
I have to say that I am uncomfortable with paying others to touch me. And it has always been the case since I started paying for hair cuts in college. I had one manicure at GhostGirl’s request prior to her wedding, but I think it was her m-i-l’s idea. And I had one facial with Anne P where it was revealed that I have the dryest skin on the planet (I guess we know how I choose contributors). But for the most part, I’ve shyed away from spa culture, which has made its way into being part of a middle class female in the United States:
It’s hard to pinpoint when this began to change, but it’s been a gradual creep, with one treatment after another redefined from an option to a necessity, the required armor of modern femininity. Treatments once performed at home, like manicures and eyebrow-plucking, are conventionally outsourced. Others, like massage, are regarded as cures, the antidote to an epidemic of female stress. Each day, a set of treatments—from exfoliation to bikini waxing—gets nudged toward the mainstream (in the pages of women’s magazines, in conversations between friends dressing for a party, in mothers’ comments to their daughters), shifting from treats to basics: the pubic “landing strip,” nearly a required part of the dating uniform for younger women; perfect nails and shaped eyebrows a requisite for professionals. Even little girls get spa treatments at birthday parties. Having such procedures done professionally is a signal (to yourself and to others) that you have it together: You are a pointedly urban creation, in control of your own body.
While I totally understand that many of us don’t have sisters and moms to paint our nails and braid our hair, and many of us travel for business and are exhausted and crave soothing touch, while I really think female stress does need to be dealt with, I just can’t shake the power inequity that exists when I hire someone for $20 to get down on her knees and scrub my feet.
This isn’t to say that massage is a bad idea or hair cuts by a professional are a terrible thing. Like everything else, I think it’s possible to seek arrangements in which people are fairly paid and treated well. However, in a booming industry where, just about across the board, minority women workers are paid minimum wage or less to deal with toxic materials, calluses, and pubic hair, one has to wonder what exactly we’re paying for.
You’ll want to read the rest of An inside look at the spa industry, which investigates the economics of touch.
Via Jezebel
I go through phases where I get expensive haircuts and get my hair professionally dyed (and I really do look better) but recently, I occaisionally dye my hair in the bathtub. My nails are clean and unremarkable. My eyebrows look odd plucked, so they are natural.
I do get that all of this will have to change when I pass the bar and start looking for a law job.
Sigh.
CC
Plenty of time to scope out somewhere that pays fairly….
Do you have suggestions for figuring out what places pay fairly?
Well, I often find that if I get my hair cut, and there isn’t anyone from management around, then stylists will be pretty open about whether or not they’re being screwed financially by management. So I’ll just ask, “What’s it like to work here?” and that leads to a discussion. (I don’t advise yelling this, or asking everyone, but sort of doing it as small talk). So one way is simply to ask.
Another way is to see the same person and develop a relationship in which you feel comfortable asking and discussing the issue rather than visiting a semi-anonymous salon. I’ve certainly done that with hair cuts. It’s harder to do in any random “spa” because in my limited experience, workers don’t speak english. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with not speaking english, but it does mean that you can’t get any verbal sense of the worker’s experience.
And, of course, one way that clients can make up for a shitty hourly wage is to tip highly, directly (straight to the worker, not receptionist), and discreetly so the tip isn’t confiscated by management and pooled, which is another way management can take a cut.
Finally, I think you can use your intuition in most work situations to see if someone is being paid fairly. I mean while there are cultural differences in how businesses are run, I can spot a “spa” that is more “sweatshop” than “retreat” and I bet most people can too.
I’ll poke around and see if I find more.
Yeah, that was M-I-L’s idea, but I complied because my nails looked like shit anyway.
I don’t mind haircuts so long as the stylist is entertaining, but they can touch my toes over my, or rather their, dead body. Most of the people I’ve gone to just rent space from a salon. They set their own prices.
Most of my “spa” experience involves hair, and hair isn’t really spa, but I think it’s made me run off topic.
Read that article on the nail salons and waxing and it really seems like a sweatshop, not some place where folks are renting space. For example, there were some very real reactions to the idea of waxing another person’s pubes.