UPRISING OF THE BODY

YouTube Premiere "From Kreisky's living room"

ELISABETH SCHARANG IN CONVERSATION WITH ELISABETH LECHNER

UPRISING OF THE BODY
Why we need to see beauty politically

Elisabeth Scharang talks to cultural scientist Elisabeth Lechner about the politically explosive power of dealing with beauty and locates the debate about appearance and discrimination between capitalism, patriarchy and colonial contexts. Lechner's research on the body positivity movement, which had its beginnings in the early 1960s with so-called fat ins in New York's Central Park, flows into her current book, which deals with the effects and attributions of beauty and beauty ideals: Riot, don't Diet!
„The reprogramming of our emotional world ultimately maintains a system that hurts and marginalises us,“ says Elisabeth Lechner, describing the beauty politics of the 21st century. What is the economic dimension of the concept of beauty? What is the political and transformative potential of shame? And how has global networking changed feminist activism against beauty norms?
It's time for a beauty revolution, says Elisabeth Lechner. But who will start it?

Elisabeth Lechner, Cultural scientist, feminist and advisor for digital issues at the AK Vienna
Elisabeth Scharang, freelance filmmaker, screenwriter and journalist in Vienna

Elisabeth Lechner: Riot, don't diet!
240 pages, ISBN: 978-3-218-01254-6, €22.00 incl. VAT, also available as an e-book
Kremayr & Scheriau, April 2021