Recruiting a self

Discussion of aesthetic labour has largely been confined to areas of interactive service work. However, current criteria for the presence of aesthetic labour have long been part of the labour process of performers and in an unusually overt and accepted way. Here, embodied characteristics are explicitly rewarded or marginalized. Much of the entertainment industry is predicated on recruitment based on physical characteristics and in this article empirical research with women performers working in theatre and television in the UK is used to extend ideas on issues around aesthetic labour.