Having successfully completed a first-class degree in history at Portsmouth, followed by a master’s degree, Jaina Hunt is now in the midst of studying for a PhD in history. Below she writes about her thesis on early modern beauty standards and about her poster presentation which won awards in 2024. In addition to working on her thesis, Jaina has worked as a teaching fellow at Portsmouth, as a project administrator for the British Council, a PhD tutor for the Brilliant Club, delivering university-style tutorials to high-potential students from underrepresented backgrounds, and a research-assistant on a UoP BA/ Leverhulme funded project on young women and body image. Jaina’s PhD supervisor is Dr Maria Cannon.
Beauty has always encompassed far more than just physical appearance. During the early modern period, physical appearance was thought to represent a person’s inner essence. Women who conformed to contemporary beauty ideals were thought to be virtuous, moral and fertile. These qualities could increase their value on the marriage market, increasing their chances of a prosperous match, and could aid them in obtaining prestigious roles in royal households, which could result in long and successful careers. While beauty standards were restrictive and reinforced patriarchal expectations, conforming to them could also lead to advantages. This paradox of patriarchy and female agency is explored throughout my PhD research, highlighting the constraints, contradictions and advantages of beauty in women’s experiences.
Alongside my PhD, I worked as a research assistant on a British Academy funded project on young girls and body image, led by Dr Helen Ringrow and Dr Charlotte Boyce. I examined archival evidence from the 19th to 21st centuries on the topic of women’s body image. From Barbie dolls and magazine articles to social media posts, this research highlighted just how consistent and pervasive beauty standards have been in women’s experiences for centuries. Contemporary social science research suggests that these ideas are far from historical relics. In 2022, researchers found that higher value was given to attractive women as they are perceived to possess more humanness, which ‘validates their moral capacities and fundamental rights’.[1] This shows that the early modern association between beauty and morality has not disappeared, it remains today and continues to impact women’s lived experiences.
Poster created by Jaina Hunt, PhD student at the University of Portsmouth. This poster won first place at the 2024 FHSS conference and second prize at the Festival of Doctoral Research 2024.
This continuity inspired the design of my research poster. It visually highlights how beauty ideals have changed over time by showing the changes in fashion, hair colour and style, skin tone and some facial features. It also highlights how the ideas and structures behind beauty standards have remained very much intact for centuries with the quotations found in my archival research. These quotes show that, while ideals and language have evolved over time, the underlying beliefs and experiences remain strikingly consistent. One of my passions as a PhD student is making historical research more accessible. For this poster, I combined my love of drawing with the format of an academic research poster to create something that is both informative and visually engaging. As a visual learner myself, I hope it demonstrates that historical research can be approachable, thought-provoking and relevant, even for those with no prior knowledge of the Tudor period.
[1] Ravin Alaei et al., ‘People Attribute Humanness to Men and Women Differently Based on Their Facial Appearance’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 123, no. 2 (August 2022): 400, https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000364.
See Jaina’s 2020 undergraduate blog post on women’s work in WWII here.
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