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Sociologus, Volume 65, Issue 2, p. 1 – 28 Duncker & Humblot, Berlin

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Erotic Capital as Societal Elevator: Pursuing Feminine Attractiveness in the Contemporary

Mongolian Global(ising) Economy

By Hedwig Amelia Waters*

Abstract

Inspired by Bourdieu’s forms of capital, theorists have utilized the additional category of erotic capital as a descriptor of the increasing importance of physical appearance to economic mobility. Although this phenomenon also exists in Mon-golia, the pursuit of corporeal attractiveness only depicts one prevalent erotic field highly conceptually intertwined with values of market and modernity. Ad-ditionally, the prevalence of this belief in the emancipatory power of attractive-ness also overlaps with indigenous concepts of fortune (hishig) and reputation (nerelkhüü), which most likely facilitated its integration in the Mongolian con-text. As a result, individuals from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds pursue a standard of beauty associated with the wealthy and successful. In particular, women, who have been particularly hard hit by the vagaries of the current Mon-golian economy, have increasingly turned to physical appearance capitalization as a means to safeguard their economic and social standing.

Keywords: Cosmetic Surgery, Body Commodification, Erotic Capital, Mongolia

1. Introduction

When I first traversed the Mongolian Gobi Desert to live with a semi- nomadic pastoralist family in the summer of 2011, I was laden with stereotypes from the city. Urban Mongolian friends had warned me about the unpredictable lifestyle and unkempt individuals I was to encounter, which was particularly relevant for my proposed research on contemporary concepts of feminine beauty. Yet, in addition to the expected arduous work, weather fickleness, and warm hospitality,

* 3 Victora Road, Flat C, London N43SH, United Kingdom. · E-Mail: hedwig.waters.14@ucl.ac.uk. Hedwig Amelia Waters is a PhD candidate in anthropology in the ERC-funded “Emerging Subjects of the New Economy: Tracing Economic Growth in Mongolia” research project under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Empson at the University College London. The writing phase of this paper was funded by ERC-2013-CoG, 615785, Emerging Subjects.

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Enkhjargal, the 45-year-old mother in my first nomadic household in Khanbogd, Ömnögovĭ province, proved to be a dynamic individual. Con-trary to urban visions of dishevelled nomadic mothers, Enkhjargal would frequently wear lipstick while herding, coveted the model bodies in my Mongolian Cosmopolitan, regularly slathered her face in skin care, and even tried peddling Oriflame cosmetics to neighbouring herder families. Enkhjargal was more self-conscious about appearance and more aware of trends than I was, which challenged my previous under-standing of beauty practices as a signifier of wealth and resource acces-sibility. In fact, as I later came to see, Enkhjargal’s beauty practises were indicative of the many coping strategies women had developed to navi-gate the perceived market, cultural and social instability in contempo-rary Mongolia.

Although her beauty performance initially seemed irrational to my-self and her husband in the context of their pastoralist lifestyle,1 Enkh-jargal2 insisted that her appearance was ‘fit for modernity’ (orchin üyedee taarsan).3 Living in an area that had recently been influenced by the arrival of a major mining company – and the discourses of capital, wage labour, infrastructure and property that accompanied it – she felt the need to adapt to the impending modern era. Her perception echoed a wider Mongolian understanding of modernity as an inevitable tempo-ral societal phase that Mongolia was either approaching or had arrived at. In other interviews, respondents referred to modernity as ‘the time that is recent / around now / in the surroundings’ (süüliin, odoo, orchin üye / tsag), although some individuals still viewed current society as in a stage of transition between the past and the future (shiljiltiin üye). Consequently, Mongolians have found new methods of adaptation to this unstable historical moment wrought by economic and cultural pre-carity.4 More than a passing fad, Enkhjargal’s beauty performance re-

1 Consumption is no longer a necessary sign of a family’s wealth. For example, Clara Han’s book Life in Debt (2012) destabilizes the image of the poor as destitute and material-less by demonstrating how consumer spending is encouraged under impoverished families in Santiago through systems of credit and monthly debt payments (ibid.: 42 – 43).

2 Quotations from a personal interview with Enkhjargal, 14 January 2011.3 The transcription of the word ‘hishig’ has been simplified for the flow of the

text and because of its usage in Empson (2011). Otherwise, this work utilizes the Mongolian transliteration scheme designed by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library at the University of Virginia, because I found it less cumbersome and closer to spo-ken (and urban SMS) usage than transliteration schemes focusing on traditional Mongolian script. Further information can be found at: http://www.thlib.org/tools/scripts/wiki/Transliteration%20Schemes%20Mongolian%20Cyrillic%20Script.html#ixzz33UUqopIG [Accessed 10 Apr. 2015].

4 The current historical moment in Mongolia is commonly associated not only with the market and democracy, but with instability (emkh zambaraagui). The terms for market (zakh zeel) and democracy (ardchilal) are frequently used inter-

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flects her desire to be an acknowledged actor and participant in Mon-golia’s anticipated ‘modern’ future.5

The aim of the following paper is to discuss how the market economy in contemporary Mongolia has impacted women’s body performance and material consumption, including facilitating the far-reaching ac-ceptance of cosmetic surgery. Contrary to common assumptions regard-ing the occurrence of cosmetic surgery in poor countries, Mongolians from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds participate in brand name material consumption and cosmetic surgery. I attempt to show in the following sections that – more than a simple mark of wealth or urbani-zation – the decision to undergo surgery reflects an internalization of one erotic field intertwined with values of success in modernity and the market. I begin the paper by describing the local significance of body and material comportment to the attainment of fortune. This includes a short historical interlude into beauty during Mongolia’s socialist period and its legacy in the present. Next, I will describe the current socioeco-nomic standing of Mongolian women, including the necessity to navi-gate the precarious economy through capital accumulation. Finally, these strategies are reified through ethnographic examples of women who focused on appearance, brand consumption, and plastic surgery as a means to garner success.

2. Indigenous Concepts of Beauty Performance

Enkhjargal’s impulse to materially and corporeally enact her vision of the future finds its precedent in local interpretations of cosmological order. As indicated by Caroline Humphrey in her elucidation of the rules, prohibitions and procedures concerning the Mongolian yurt (ger) (1974), Mongolian social life has historically been governed by an intri-

changeably in everyday speech and as synonyms for the current era. For more in-formation on the coeval linkage of modernity, the market economy, the current era and insecurity, see Bonilla (2015).

5 One reviewer suggested that I refine my reference to modernity and the market through the designation ‘neoliberalism’. Although the term ‘neoliberalism’ has been diversely defined and wrought by uncoordinated implementation (Reeves 2014), I agree that the emerging views of the body are a by-product of economic policies that engender extreme economic, social and cultural instability. Plastic surgery is one avenue for women to correct or minimize the resultant risk. Never-theless, as noted by the Enkhjargal quote in the introduction and the Odval quote in section 3.1., locals frequently conceive the changes as a result of the historical moment and related global forces. Thus, I prefer to stick to ‘modernity’, because it encompasses the perceived general historical epoch, including diverse economic policies. Furthermore, cosmetic surgery and beauty ideals have gendered incen-tives, which cannot fully be explained through ‘neoliberalism’.

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cately woven web of social presentation. The idea that beauty con-sumption leads to success through correctness is particularly deep- seated in the Mongolian context because of the indigenous concepts of hishig and nerelkhüü. Expanding upon the performance regulations within a nomadic ger, Rebecca Empson (2011) discusses the pastoralist concept of harnessing fortune (hishig): the belief that an individual’s fortune, or ability to attract wealth, is intertwined with the proper management of relationships between the individual, others, and the environment (ibid.: 72). Improper action could result in a fall from for-tune. Additionally, the Mongolian concept of nerelkhüü (literally means ‘pretension’ but translated figuratively as ‘saving face’) refers to this increased awareness of the gossip of others and the need to project a calm, successful image to the rest of society. Sayings like “It’s better to break your bones than to break your name” and “Watch your reputa-tion and you’ll moult like a peacock”6 reflect the importance within Mongolia of maintaining a good societal reputation.7 The concepts of hishig and nerelkhüü thus indicate the historical importance of com-portment and material objects to the maintenance of Mongolian social relations and standing.

Beauty aesthetics is consequently one indicator of social status and fortune (Empson 2011: 96 – 101). Although the material expressions of beauty have historically changed (Stolpe 2012: 387) and were variable, the Mongolian term for beauty, goo saikhan, shares the same root as the term for good, sain (Kaplonski 2008: 335). Consequently, the pursuit, maintenance, and material expression of beauty can be interpreted as both morally and culturally correct (Fox 2013). In return for upholding the cosmological order, the individual enjoys societal and economic for-tune. Yet, not only does beauty signify a ‘good’ person with subsequent standing and fortune, but technological advances and economic pres-sures have increasingly encouraged the invitation of fortune through mimicking an auspicious appearance. The practice of prognosticating a positive future has precedents in Mongolian culture. For example, at the Mongolian New Year (Tsagaan Sar) or at other propitious moments throughout the year, Mongolians can frequently be heard making posi-tive benedictions towards the future. I speculate that possibly due to this indigenous legacy of prefiguration (bilegdekh) – using propitious speech and intention to invite a positive future – have Mongolians be-gan to alter their physical bodies in line with auspicious ideals; in other

6 Ner khugarakhaar yas khugar; Khün neree, togos ödöö.7 The importance of being nerelkhüü also coincides with the indigenous belief

that individuals can spiritually curse one another if slighted or offended. The fear of speech curses (khel am, kharaal) through negative gossip is discussed in Højer’s writings on Mongolian pawn shops (2012: 40).

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words, to look rich or blessed by fortune.8 Through the pressures of the modern economy and the possibilities of technology, imitating certain standards of beauty – thus raising one’s erotic capital – increasingly not only signifies, but is conceptualized as a means to engender further for-tune and success.

2.1 Beauty Performance in the Mongolian People’s Republic

The nomadic model of the importance of beauty styling to cosmologi-cal rightness unofficially persisted throughout the Mongolia socialist era (1924 – 1992). One informant, Narantsatsral, an Ulaanbaatar native born in the 1970s, claimed a lessening of gender-differentiating beauty ideals during the period due to the party’s overwhelming emphasis on motherhood and worker participation.9 Similarly, a 1982 collection of Mongolian riddles and sayings reflects this official emphasis on internal values: “Don’t adorn yourself with material things, adorn yourself with knowledge”; “Corpulence is pleasing to the eye, salutations are pleasing to the ear”; “Non-important things are important to material people”; “When you beautify yourself, even a grasshopper tail becomes impor-tant”; and “Pretty on the outside, dumb on the inside” (Ölziikhutag 1982).10 Yet, although physical beauty ideals were not institutionally en-couraged during the socialist era, aesthetic descriptions existed in the literature of the time and in the memories of contemporaries.

Despite the official party line, Mongolians were cognizant of beauty standards and performers (including in films, theatre and in the circus) frequently represented the standards of beauty during the period. For example, L. Tsogzolmaa, a renowned Mongolian actress born in 1924,

8 I would like to thank a reviewer for making me aware of the concepts of omen (beleg) or prognostication (bilegdekh), which could be conceived as indigenous conceptualizations of erotic capital accumulation. It is my understanding, how-ever, that bilegdekh focuses historically on auspicious speech. The transference to body appearance capitalization is a relatively recent trend in line with market and technological changes. As I will go on to argue, I find Bourdieu’s theory of capital more fitting for the Mongolian context.

9 The creation of the Mongolian People’s Republic (1924) heralded the imple-mentation of new constitutional regulations guaranteeing women equal rights in work, education and political participation (NCWNC 1999, as cited in UNIFEM 2001). Additionally, because of the low population density of Mongolia, the Mon-golian People’s Party (MPP) enacted a pronatalist policy, including the conferral of honours to women with multiple children, and the compulsory retirement of mothers with large families at age 45 (ibid.: 16).

10 Edeer biye chimikhiir, Ermeer biye chim; Kharakhad targan saikhan, Du­lakhad mend saikhan; Gangan khünd, Garkhi nemer; Goyokhod, Golionî cüül ne­mer; Gadnaa gyalantsag, Dotroo palantsag.

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expressed her youthful appraisals of beauty in a 2005 online interview with the fashion magazine Gyalbaa (2004) – “[The women of my era] only really looked at the face and clothing. It’s not like now [the current era]. Well-defined eyebrows, red cheeks like fruit … were sung about. A woman with a big face, narrow eyebrows, and red cheeks was esteemed as beautiful”. However, in contradiction to her perception of the con-temporary beauty framework as fixated on bodily perfection, styling was seen as the most important physical manifestation of beauty during her youth – “At the time, our leaders and circus performers dressed in-credibly well; they served as role models and the youth fervently tried to emulate them. They wore pants they had ironed until [they repre-sented] a blade’s edge and shoes they had polished into a mirror.” Con-sequently, women (and men) during the socialist era had an apprecia-tion for the styling and representation of physical attractiveness as a representation of success. Yet, this imperative was downplayed and deemphasized through political rhetoric.

3. Erotic Capital in Contemporary Mongolia

The post-socialist economic transformation in Mongolia has been ac-companied by a revolution in beauty performance. A quick stroll down Ulaanbaatar’s main promenade, Peace Avenue, reveals a world of style, aesthetic and performance – highly suave urbanites in carefully pur-chased and pieced together outfits of expensive jewellery, clothing, shoes, bodily comportment and accessories. Nevertheless, many Mon-golians, regardless of social class and / or economic standing, partici-pate in this body styling. Thus, in the following paragraphs, I utilize the concept of erotic capital – “the quality and quantity of attributes that an individual possesses, which elicit an erotic response in another” (Green 2008: 29) – to elucidate the fixation on bodily and external at-tractiveness that has emerged among participants in the ‘modern’, post-socialist Mongolian social, moral and political economy.

Erotic capital is frequently interpreted as an extension of Bourdieu’s delineation of the various forms of capital. In The Forms of Capital (1986), Bourdieu argues that capital, accumulated labour in the form of living or reified labour (1986: 241), is dictated by social relations. An individual’s access to economic capital – resources “directly convertible into money” – can be dependent on either the communal obligations, group membership(s) and connections (social capital); the forms of knowledge, educations, skills and advantages (cultural capital); and / or the specific honour, prestige or recognition (symbolic capital, cf. Bourdieu 1984: 291) that the individual has access to. Theorists have argued that beauty can be perceived as either social – i.e. through an

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individual’s membership in various ethnic / racialized groups (Glenn 2008) – or cultural capital (Kühne 2010) – i.e. as individually achievable body work. Yet, others, like Catherine Hakim (2011), have conceptual-ized erotic capital as a fourth external category (in addition to social, cultural and symbolic) that affects one’s access to economic capital. Ac-cording to Hakim, erotic capital consists of six categories including: beauty; sexual attractiveness; social skills; vivaciousness; social pres-entation; and sexuality (2011: 500 – 501). However, my usage of erotic capital differs from Hakim’s definition.

In contrast to an additional static category, I expand upon Green’s (2008) definition of erotic capital as a relational and contextual catego-ry. First, erotic capital depends on the commodification and sexualis-ation of an individual through the eyes of others, making it relational, contextual, and, at times, highly subjective. The process of sexual pleasure through the sight of a person “is not reducible to the workings of nerve endings, but must include an account of meaning” (28). Thus, the cultural context and concomitant values associated with certain physical and behavioural attributes are highly intertwined in local meaning. Secondly, Green defines sexual capital as dependent on its erotic field or social milieu with unique properties “… wherein capital may take a variety of novel forms, including physical traits (e.g., the size of breasts, height, hair colour), affective presentations (e.g., butch, nebbishy, animalistic), and eroticized sociocultural styles (e.g., the blue-collar construction worker, the Catholic schoolgirl)” (29). Conse-quently, erotic capital is not only variable between people but also within the same overarching social sphere – i.e. blue-collar construc-tion workers and Catholic schoolgirls probably move within different erotic fields and are attracted to different sexual milieus.11 Thus, Hakim’s interpretation doesn’t allow for differences in style, taste, orientations and cultural interaction with beauty and sexuality.

My own usage of erotic capital – the maximization of attractiveness that reciprocally influences other aspects of social, cultural, and eco-nomic life – refers to an erotic field exemplified by the wealthy – those blessed with success in modernity and the market. Despite the associa-tion of the current historical epoch with the market and democracy, my

11 For example, in his discussion on the sexual capital of African-American gay men in bars in Chelsea and the West Village, Green notes that “the status hierarchy within the downtown sexual field [of Chelsea and the West Village] is not a simple extension of social inequality in the United States” (2008: 44). In fact, different Af-rican-American men enjoy variegated forms of erotic capital based on their inter-action with the cliché of African-American men as sexual predators within vary-ing social spheres. Essentially, the same overarching cultural context can include different erotic fields.

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informants did not talk about the pursuit of the associated ideal in equalizing and / or juridical terms. In describing the commonly lauded ‘right to beauty’ among Brazilian cosmetic surgery patients, Edmonds (2010) emphasized the conception of beauty as a great social equalizer, unconcerned with class or background, whose pursuit offered avenues for the actualization of dreams. Beauty thus “mirror[ed] the ambiguous emancipatory power of capital itself” (Edmonds 2010: 250). In contrast, the ethnographic quotes in this paper include verbs like ‘conform’, ‘fit’, ‘endeavour’, ‘aspire’, ‘assert’ as a reflection of the conceptualization of beauty as less emancipatory than necessary for upward mobility. Ra-ther than a social equalizer, beauty is a societal elevator.12 Pursuing the standard of beauty associated with market and modern success brings rewards – be it through the purchase of drinks and meals from admirers; matching the requirements for a lucrative job; or acceptance into the latest clubs, restaurants and powerful social circles in Mongolia.

3.1 The Commodified (Feminine) Body

This article analyses the usage of erotic capital within only one of many frameworks of beauty existent in contemporary Mongolia. Throughout my research, I was struck by the different appreciation of the importance of the physical body to attractiveness among different segments of Mongolian society. For example, Odval, a renowned Mon-golian actress born in the 1940s and known for her beauty and signa-ture leading-lady film roles, expressed concern regarding emerging ideals of beauty. When asked concerning Mongolian feminine beauty, Odval drew a clear delineation between the ‘traditional’ standards of her youth, and the body trait awareness of her granddaughters:

On average, my Mongolian people don’t massively focus on the external appear-ance, which is a vestigial of our traditions and still lingers to this day. Percent-age wise, it’s about 50 / 50. Generally, the focus on the external is rising”. Slight-ly earlier in the conversation she attributes these changes to ‘globalization’: “Through globalization, [Mongolian] beauty standards are now changing to the way it is in other countries, which I don’t like. And thus, my daughters (note: young Mongolian girls) are now aspiring to be thin, have long legs, and be slen-der … they have really been trying to conform themselves to this [globalized] standard, I feel. [From a personal interview with Odval, 4 January 2012]

12 Contrary to Edmond’s assertion that “beauty … can disturb other unfair hierar-chies” (2007: 237), in the Mongolian context beauty (i.e. erotic capital, which includes performance, consumption patterns, etc.) is a socioeconomic expression that rein-forces hierarchies. The prolific assertions by Ulaanbaatar-natives that they can quickly sniff out and recognize a ‘countryside’ person (khödöönii khün) trying to mimic urban fashion attests to the hierarchical nature of erotic capital. Here, back-ground does influence one’s predisposition and access to ‘modern’ forms of beauty.

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Although I argue that beauty performance has a long historical foot-print in Mongolia and is not strictly engendered through ‘globaliza-tion’, Odval’s comments reflect an awareness of multiple diverging beauty norms, as well as local and global influences in contemporary Mongolia.13 Similarly, in the countryside, amongst older generations, and within conservative segments of society, varying values of tradition (as utilized by Odval) and nomadism accompanied ideals of physical attractiveness and beauty that were reminiscent of the socialist ideals described in the previous section.14 These ideals included aspects of physical beauty and comportment, but also emphasized marriageabil-ity characteristics, like ideals of nurturing motherhood, needlework and calming dispositions. Thus, multiple frameworks of what consti-tutes beauty (to wit: different erotic fields) concurrently exist within contemporary Mongolia.

The erotic capital I analyse in the following paragraphs moves within a framework of beauty that emphasizes externalized, corporeal and material attractiveness as a way to elevate one’s hishig (fortune) in the contemporary market economy. Just as the definition of hishig has changed throughout the centuries – i.e. to represent grace through rank and salary from an emperor during the Qing Dynasty (Atwood 2000: 114) – so have the material and physical manifestations of fortune. For example, I first became aware of a growing fixation and fragmentation of body parts as a constituent of female body ideals through a beauty image workshop at an Ulaanbaatar-based (UB) NGO on the 11th of Sep-tember, 2011. Upon being prompted to offer descriptors of beauty, around 40 young, UB-based professional women shouted out a stream of designations: “tall, thin, long hair, big boobs, a butt like an apple, wide hips, long legs, black hair, double-eyelids, big eyes, wide eye-brows, a large nose, brown eyebrows, red lips, white skin …” These women were identifying a physical ideal that is commonly conceptually linked with the new rich (shine bayachuud; also hurgan bayan in Emp-

13 Lee (2012) on her study in the rise of commodification of (predominantly fe-male) bodies in South Korea, echoes Scheper-Hughes (2003) in her position that commodification is not strictly a result of globalization, but that late capitalism “has opened up a range of transactions possible through a litany of new technolo-gies” (26). In her discussion of Korean beauty ideals, for example, she discusses how local idioms of suffering (han) are utilized to justify plastic surgery; thus, “beauty culture … engenders its own gendered codes of conduct that are at once particular to the local context even while they travel through transnational con-nectivities” (Lee 2012: 19). I agree that beauty in Mongolia is both highly localized and influenced by global discourses and technologies.

14 ‘Reminiscent’ implies similar but not the same. Ideas of tradition and no-madism have also been modified in the current era, especially through Sergen Mandalt, or the Tradition Renaissance, in the early 1990s. See Humphrey 1992.

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son 2012a) as the physical embodiment of success and fortune in the market economy. This emphasis on physical body fragmentation and perfection as a component of beauty is reminiscent of recent anthropo-logical scholarship on the commodification of the body.

The current “salience of the body” (Martin 1992) for Western history and social thought has engendered recent scholarship on the body as commodity and locus for social control. For example, Foucault in his various writings has documented both the transferral of power rela-tions to the creation of ‘docile bodies’ in the interest of disciplinary power and market efficiency (1995 [1975]); as well as the epistemic shift in biomedicine through the development of dissection, which al-lowed the Cartesian objectification, reconfiguration, and separation of the body from the mind (2003 [1963]). Martin (1992) agrees with Fou-cault that various historical forces in Western society – i.e. industriali-zation, nation-state citizenship, human rights laws, etc. – have aug-mented the importance and fixation on the body. Yet, she argues, the upsurge in anthropological scholarly interest can be further explained by a shift in the construction of the body from a post-Fordist to a late- capitalist, resilient, unbounded one, open to ‘upgrading’ in line with “technological innovation, specificity, and rapid, flexible change” (ibid.: 122). Commodifying the body, which, as defined by Sharp (2000), insists upon objectification in some form, transforming persons and their bodies from a human category into objects of economic desire” (ibid.: 293), allows this reconfiguration and optimization of body parts in the interest of market efficiency.15 Yet, in addition to the machinations of market interests, the commodification of the body al-lows its emergence as the canvas of the self. As noted by Shilling, in reference to affluent, Western individuals, the ‘body as project’ implies that “ … its appearance, size, shape and even contents [are now] poten-tially open to reconstruction in line with the design of its owners” (Shilling 2003: 6). I argue that the various notions of the body in West-ern social thought as a central artefact of identity, selfhood, sociality, production, performance, legality and achievement impinges upon the Mongolian present.

The commodification of the body – including its fragmentation, rear-rangement, and economic purchase of individual parts in line with per-sonal desires or economic demands – coincides with emerging trends in

15 Although I do argue that the current forms of commodification in Mongolia are intertwined with market stresses, varying forms of commodification have ex-isted throughout history – i.e. slavery as the reduction of selves to labour bodies in the name of profit; the cosmological charging of body parts with the power to harm or heal; or the fragmentation of female bodies into vaginas, wombs or breasts to underscore their reproductive potential (Sharp 2000: 294).

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beauty concepts and cosmetic surgery in Mongolia. In contrast to Shil-ling’s conception of the body as individual project, indigenous concepts of body and beauty performance in Mongolia ensure that the individual and social body are constantly in a dialectical, cultural, historical and gendered relationship with one another. Indeed, Empson, in her de-scription of the implementation of biomedical conceptions of the body through Mongolian organ transplantation legislation, describes “the patients whose bodies are the sites of [surgeons’] projects” (2012b: 136) in contrast to their own. Additionally, one’s physical styling and beauty performance in Mongolia is a reflection of the fortune they, and their family, currently enjoy (Fox 2013). Yet, in combination with local lega-cies of sociality through aesthetics, beauty ideals in the urban, ‘modern’ erotic field increasingly focus not only on self-styling in the form of clothing and environment, but through the perfection of the body. Con-sequently, the globally reoccurring centrality (and commodification) of the physical feminine body for beauty in post-socialist (see Kay 1997: 82 for Russia) and transitioning (see Edmonds 2010 for Brazil; Klenke 2011 for North Sumatra; Lee 2012 for South Korea; and Hua 2013 for Beijing) contexts overlaps with the rise of cosmetic surgery as conferrer of erotic capital associated with Mongolian concepts of modernity, ur-banity, democracy and the market economy.

3.2 The Position of Women Within the “Wolf Economy”

Enkhjargal’s approach to modernity in the introduction is inter-twined with local experience of the economy as a changeable and, at times, voracious force. The dissolution of the Mongolian People’s Re-public in 1992 heralded the transition from a centrally-planned econo-my (with extensive monetary support and health care for mothers and female workers) to a market economy with 36.3 percent of the popula-tion living below the poverty line (UNDP 2007: 29 – 30). Although the economy grew by a startling 18 percent in 2011, the gap between rich and poor continued to widen (CIA World Factbook 2015) sparking local contestations to resources (Aljazeera 2012) and augmenting prevalent uncertainty towards the future (Buyandelger 2007). These alternating boom and bust periods and divergent economic outcomes have incited Mongolia’s former Finance Minister, Ganhuyag Hutagt, to describe the emerging resource-driven market economy as the “Wolf Economy”. The image of a wolf, as opposed to an Asian tiger, exemplifies a dual inter-pretation of Mongolia’s rapid economic growth as both powerful and destructive (Empson 2013: 10).

Additionally, the party emphasis on absolute gender parity disap-peared with the dissolution of the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1992,

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which had drastic effects on the positioning and social stability of women. Studies on the spike in maternal mortality rates (Janes 2004), traditional Mongolian illnesses among women (Kohrt et al. 2004) and increases in female sex work (Carlson et al. 2015) after the transition indicate disproportionate economic and political impacts for men and women. Consequently, many Mongolians view the contemporary period with hesitant optimism and ambiguity; and many women perceive an increased need for economic self-sufficiency in the absence of state- mandated support programmes and the increase in alcohol abuse among Mongolian men.

3.3 Women’s Precarious Economic Footing

At first glance, statistics on contemporary women’s education seem like an indicator of gender equitability in the country, yet only repre-sent a part of the complex gender relations in the market. Development indicators16 often cite the “reverse gender gap” – the higher rates of education for women than men – in Mongolia as a sign of the country’s gender progress; for example, in 2007, more women than men were en-rolled in primary, secondary, and tertiary education (Hausmann, Tyson and Zahidi 2012). Yet, the current education preponderance for women is informed by different gendered expectations for men and women preceding the transition to a market economy. During Mongolia’s ver-sion of perestroika, shinechlel, and the years prior to the reconfigura-tion of the Mongolian economy, pastoralists increasingly sent their daughters to school in the hopes that their futures would be better with increased schooling.17 According to Odval, a famous Mongolian actress born in the 1940s, men were “neglected” (khayadag) in the years before 1990, because they had been kept to labour at home with the assump-tion that a man could make his way in life without education; he would be fine one way or the other. Women, on the other hand, were consid-ered more vulnerable.18 Accordingly, when the market economy

16 As epitomized through the annual release of the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap Report” and the United Nations’ “Human Development Index”.

17 The practice of prepping women for mobility and movement has a long his-tory in Mongolia due to patrilocality; women left the natal group for the husband’s kin when married (Humphrey 1978).

18 This sentiment that men were ‘neglected’ by their parents between 1970 and the end of the 1980s was echoed in an ethnographic study on contemporary single- mother families (Altangerel 2014). According to her doctoral thesis and in personal communication, Altangerel explained how socialist-era parents worried about their daughters, due to pre-socialist spread of illiteracy among women. Haunted by the memories of the past, parents were eager to have their daughters educated,

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emerged, the belief that a woman had to be educated and must work to support her family was widely accepted – a notion that has continued until this day.

In contemporary Mongolia, women’s high education rates have in-creasingly enabled them to serve as breadwinner and primary support-er of the family. A late 1990s survey carried out by a local Ulaanbaatar NGO, the Women’s Information and Research Centre, found in the sample that 36.0 % of women generated a significant part of the family income; 33.1 % earned the majority of it; and 25.6 % grossed an amount equal to their husbands’ (Vangansuren 2007). Furthermore, the number of and societal discourse around female-headed single parent house-holds have steadily increased since the 1990 transition (Altangerel 2014). Accordingly, women currently make significant contributions to household incomes and are increasingly the sole breadwinner.

Yet, high education rates and increasing presence of female bread-winners belie the lived experience of uncertainty and vulnerability fa-miliar to many women. Mongolian women continue to populate mostly low-tiered jobs and suffer higher job precariousness than men. Accord-ing to Narantsatsral, an erudite Mongolian poet and film director, when one walks around in Mongolia, one sees women workers everywhere, but “in power positions and in government one only sees men”.19 De-spite their qualifications, she continued, women always seemed to end up in service positions (guitsetgekh ajil khiideg). Bolormaa, a 29-year-old hairdresser in a Gobi mine, also was cognizant of different gendered labour classifications while working in a mining company, because female employees were almost exclusively employed in customer ser-vice positions, while men were overwhelmingly hired to excavate.20 Her observances on gendered labour segregation are statistically document-ed: i.e. as of 2007, 64.5 % of educational sector workers are female, 71.3 % in the social welfare sector, and 63 % of judges are female (al-though only 12 % of Supreme Court judges) (Vangansuren 2007; Sen-derjav 2007). The difference in female presence between lower and higher court judges echoes a pervasive phenomenon in the upper eche-lons of institutions – a dearth of women. For example, even though the number of female political candidates tripled in the decade after the democratic transition, women’s election chances got worse (Burn and

because women were “physically weak and not as strong as boys” (2014: 159), whereas men always had the well-paid option of becoming a driver or nomad.

19 Yag erkh medliig khemjeed, ikh khurald gekhed dan ererteichüüd bolchik­hood baigaa yum. From personal interview in February, 2012.

20 This was partly due to a 1999 – 2008 ministerial decree that contained exten-sive prohibitions to women’s labour in certain industrial sectors for health and safety reasons (Khan, Brink and Baasanjav 2013: 22).

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Oidov 2001: 55). During my fieldwork in 2011 – 12, only 3 of 76 parlia-ment members were female.21 Thus, although current women seem to dominate historically male economic and educational domains, this façade masks underlying persevering asymmetrical gender relations.

The perceived instability and vagaries of employment have induced many women to overcompensate through education and work effort. In a study on education rates and the efficacy of higher education reforms in post-transition Mongolia, Satoko Yano writes that “… while men are at higher risk of being overeducated,22 once they have paid jobs their wages are less sensitive to their education status (adequately educated, overeducated, or undereducated) compared to women” (2012: 194). Based on her data, Yano posits that despite the higher rates of female education, women experience persistent disparity in wages, are more sensitive to job-education matches than men (136), and “may be pursu-ing more education in order to compensate their wage differences” (194). My qualitative interviews support this conclusion. For example, Bolormaa expressed the sentiment that the societal burden on contem-porary Mongolian women continues to grow (emegtei khünii achaalal ikhsej baina), because they have to work “like slaves” (bool shig ajildag) to earn the same amount as and stay competitive with men.23

4. Increasing Capital as Market Strategy

Many contemporary Mongolian women increasingly believe that their economic potential is dependent on their physical appearance. When I asked Odtsetseg, a 34-year-old lead singer in an Ulaanbaatar band, why she believed many contemporary Mongolian women strived to be physically beautiful she answered:

I think it is related to social needs. Prior to 1990, Mongolian society was commu-nist, so everyone had a job and once they did their job – even as a cleaner – they

21 This dramatic dip in female parliament members incited the passing of 20 per-cent quota starting in the June 2012 parliamentary election.

22 This seemingly contradictory statement is a result of the composition of data, which included both informal (herding) and formal employment sectors. Large numbers of men work in the informal herding sector and are thus overeducated, because their economic occupation has no education requirement (Yano 2012: 192).

23 As an example of effort overcompensation from Bolormaa: “Yeah, women now really have to work much harder than men. For example, if a man has to fix a nail in the wall, then he’ll come and do only that. But in comparison, a woman will come at six in the morning after breakfast, and will go to the family, and clean the house, and wash the clothing, and hang up the clothing in the evening, and will change the bed sheets.” [From personal interview with Bolormaa, 21 June 2011]

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got enough money to live off of. But now economically surviving has gotten harder and expenses are skyrocketing and women see famous girls on TV who win competitions and then later hear that she got married to a millionaire. All these beautiful young girls internalize these stories and start believing that if they are beautiful they can marry a rich man and live happily ever after. [From personal interview with Odtsetseg, 12 October 2011]

Odtsetseg consequently identifies the unstable market economy as a contributing factor to women’s focus on physical perfection. Addition-ally, Mongolian women-oriented job advertisements frequently include stipulations for height and age; further supporting the belief that ap-pearance is important for female achievement. According to Narant-satsral, “society demands a woman who is 1.78 or 80 [meters tall].” This statement is not an exaggeration; during my research, my research partner, Sarnai, decided to pursue a part time job as a waitress. She had to go through a training program to get a job, which told her height, high-heel inch, and hair length requirements for waitresses. My 40-year-old Mongolian teacher frequently lamented that it was nigh impossible for a woman over 35 to find a job; a statement collaborated by age stat-utes in job postings.24 Therefore, many women increasingly believe that maintaining a specific model of physical attractiveness (youthful, fem-inine, etc.) can attract fortune i.e. through the snaring of a wealthy mate or the attainment of a lucrative job.

Therefore, lacking the economic and social security of the socialist era, many contemporary women increasingly compensate for the diffi-cult position and aggregate stresses they face in their career and per-sonal lives through social, economic and erotic capital accumulation. For example, Oyuunbileg, a 31-year-old long time ger-district25 resi-dent who grew up in the countryside, had a very clear vision of the successful contemporary woman and possible strategies to emulate her:

These days there are now those types of women who are capable of everything – like they were moulded from clay for the job (tegsh bükh yum nĭ zokhitschikh­son). Always wearing nice clothing. And they have a good reputation with their colleagues. And even in the rest of the country. We should look up to them as an example and a lot of women emulate them and make it to the top. Re-cently, a comedy I saw showed a woman who sat in the corner with hanging breasts and no bra and said “I can’t” and “I’m not worth anything.” Women

24 Job postings geared especially towards women on the online platform biznet-work.mn contain many more age requirements for women than for men; they are usually capped at 35 years. Although this perception is based on random sampling and not necessarily representative of the larger job market, this preponderance of female age requirements echoes the sentiments of my research informants.

25 Ger is the Mongolian word for yurt. The districts surrounding the centre of Ulaanbaatar are mostly comprised of small plots with one to several yurts on them. Consequently, these districts are commonly known as ger-districts.

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can’t be like that. And I believe women like that have decreased in number in recent years. Women just have to play a strong role in society. [From personal interview with Oyunbileg, 9 December 2011]

Furthermore, Oyuunbileg used the designation ‘white envy’ (tsagaan ataarkhal)26 to demonstrate how a successful career woman constantly pushes herself to succeed against all odds:

A woman needs to be able to really exert herself to do the right thing. She has to really put in the effort to obtain an important position in her career. This white envy has to be there and if a woman feels this pressure, then she continues to better herself. Women should always be ready to compete and should endeavour to improve themselves. That’s what I believe. [9 December 2011]

These quotes reveal Oyuunbileg’s awareness of the difficult position of contemporary women within the Wolf Economy, but instead of self-depreciation, she encourages women to become competitive and har-ness this pressure through white envy – honest and forthright rivalry amongst women.27 Not only should women overcompensate for eco-nomic instability through increasing cultural capital (i.e. educational experience) and social capital (i.e. collegial reputation), but women must dress well, think positively, self-improve and not sit with ‘hanging breasts’. Thus, a woman’s erotic capital through bodily comportment, physical appearance and material goods is synonymous with the image of fortune and success within the market economy.

26 In our interview, Oyuunbileg continued to describe the difference between ‘white’ and ‘black’ envy, while defining ‘white envy’ as honest competition. This designation between white and black as good and bad, respectively, is anchored in Shamanist and Buddhist traditions. Ines Stolpe (2012) writes comprehensively about the current vernacular usage of these categories and their instrumentaliza-tion in the cultural propagandizing campaigns during the socialist era (374 – 375).

27 It is easy to misconstrue ‘white envy’ as covetous towards beauty traits asso-ciated with Euro-American ideals. Much debate has resulted from the publication of Kaw’s (1993) article on the medicalization of Asian eyelid surgery around inter-nalized racism and the operating away of supposed ethnic traits. This perception has been critiqued quite extensively by Zane (1998) and Davis (2003), as ethnocen-tric and ignoring the central component of gender to this analysis, respectively. In this instance, and as mentioned in footnote #20, Oyuunbileg’s usage of ‘white’ re-fers to a Buddhist / Shamanist origin instrumentalized by Soviet propaganda re-flecting the multiple refractions of the term. Although it is indisputable that glob-al power relations play a role in the dissemination and incorporation of beauty ide-als, the multiple economic, historical, political and gendered contexts make the as-signment to one origin impossible. In fact, in the Mongolian context, Korean pop stars increasingly figure as beauty ideals; nevertheless, even the popularity of eye-lid surgery in South Korea has been historically attributed to the racism of the United States military in the Korean War (Kim 2008). Furthermore, the popularity of the Swedish beauty product company, Oriflame, mentioned in the introduction also alludes to non-indigenous beauty influences. This article focuses on the eco-nomic determinants of beauty, while being aware of its interconnection with glob-al forces.

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4.1 Trying Not to Look Poor

Individuals who enter (or aspire to) the upper echelons of society are subject to rigid expectations of consumption, bodily comportment, and material maintenance. The previously mentioned Narantsatsral, an ur-ban poet and film director, prided herself on her social standing in the upper echelons of Mongolian society. From her high social perch, she could confidently recall the physical markers and consumption pat-terns viewed as signifiers of having ‘made it’.

Individuals in the middle-class upwards are constantly mindful of their plas-tic surgery options (kosmetik khagalgaa), their beauty products (goo saikhnî kheregsel), nutrition (uuj idekh) and fitness. The difference between people before and after they begin working on their appearance is highly noticeable (amar medegddeg urĭd nĭ yamar baisan odoo yamar bolson). [From personal interview with Narantsatsral, 16 January 2012]

Narantsatsral’s statements on upper-crust Mongolian consumption coincide with Thorstein Veblen’s (1994 [1899]) descriptions of the emerging American nouveau riche in the Second Industrial Revolution. He coined the term conspicuous consumption to describe their predilec-tion to accrue luxury goods and accoutrements as a display of upward mobility and social class belonging. According to Narantsatsral, Ulaan-baatar’s nouveau riche (shine bayachuud) behave similarly. For exam-ple, the current success of fashion stores like Burberry and Louis Vuit­ton in Mongolia is due to the social status these brand names carry – anyone who is anyone has a Louis Vuitton bag. According to a 2013 report by the Asian Pacific Investment Partners (APIP), high end brands are conscious of this growing market in Mongolia; as a result, Guess, Armani, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss and more have recently (2012 – 14) opened Ulaanbaatar branches (Sawyer and D’Amico 2013). Conse-quently, Narantsatsral relayed to me how her daughter, who was stud-ying in Australia, begged her to not buy a Louis Vuitton purse:

All Mongolians buy Louis Vuitton, please don’t do the same! Every person is supposed to have their own opinion and wear clothing according to their per-sonality, but if everyone wears the same thing, then you lose your individuality (ööriin üzel bodoltoi). So please don’t wear it, she said. But these items are still new and so everyone aspires (khoshuurakh) to buy one. [16 January 2012]

Another current manifestation of conspicuous consumption is the im-portance of an individual’s mobile phone number;28 which, according to

28 According to rumours I heard from Sarnai and other informants, when mobile phones were first offered by Mobicom – the first Mongolian mobile provider – they were really expensive. The first numbers contained easily memorable numbers and all began with multiple ones (i.e. 1112). These days, one can tell from the phone number if it is a pre or post-paid phone. Post-paid, aka contractual, phone num-

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Narantsatsral, even incited the chairperson of a Mongolian petroleum company to have a mobile phone personally constructed out of gold. Consequently, consumption patterns, and the flaunting of luxury items, allow an individual to concurrently construct and be identified as a member of a class and person of societal worth – someone you ‘need’ to know.

The coalescence of autochthonous concepts of hishig (physical and material comportment as a cornerstone of wealth) and nerelkhüü (main-taining moral correctness in dealings with others) with the values of the market economy have resulted in aggrandized social pressure to look successful. For example, Narantsatsral credits a conscious decision to increase her erotic capital with an elevation in her success. She had decided to switch to more feminine clothing and become increasingly mindful of her appearance after hearsay travelled back to her:

Six years ago, I went shopping with my daughter in the supermarket and, be-cause I had really bad migraines, I just entered the store with jeans and a jacket and was very tired. I ended up running into a friend with her 13-year-old son in this dishevelled state. A few days later, my friend called me up and told me that her son had seen me and asked if I had really been *that* Narantsatsral, and was apparently very disappointed in me and my appearance (manai khüü ayagui uramgui baina lee), and this comment really bothered me for a long time. [16 January 2012]

Odtsetseg, a 34-year-old lead singer in an Ulaanbaatar band, is also hyper conscious of the social stigma facing successful women if they choose to neglect their appearance. When asked why looking good was important to her job as a singer, she answered:

I have to [pay attention to beauty]. Because I’m well-known, I’m not famous but people just know me. Like they say: ‘oh there’s Odtsetseg, look at her, is she really that small?’ etc. Frequently, I don’t want to put on makeup and just want to go shopping and be myself, but I can’t, because when I walk through crowds of people I can literally hear them talking next to me about how small I am, and if I really didn’t put on makeup today. Like some people say ‘oh my, she must be so poor now’ (note: after leaving her previous band) or ‘look at those jeans or cheap clothes she’s wearing’ although I might like it. But I can’t wear what I want because Mongolians see me with these relaxed outfits and they think I’m poor and whisper ‘did you see her??!’ [12 October 2011]

Both women were cognizant of heightened social pressure from their contemporaries to be constantly mindful of their external appearance.

bers are considered preferential, because they indicate that the user probably has a job and / or enough money to pay a set price every month. Thus, when Sarnai, who had multiple mobile phones (as most Mongolians do to take advantage of the inner-company service benefits), would use her contractual phone with a profes-sional number, our calls were received and returned more readily.

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Failing to do so, for example, garnered Odtsetseg with the reprimand of ‘looking poor’ through rumours of an economic fall from grace.

According to this framework of erotic capital, not maintaining the aforementioned specific appearance standard garners the aspersion ‘poor’, which indicates poverty of multiple forms of capital and a lack of fortune. For Oyuunaa, a 29-year-old Ulaanbaatar native, changing her consumption patterns when she left high school served as a rite of passage into womanhood:

In high school, I was one of these geeks, I mean I was *really* a geek. I had long hair, wore no makeup, no fancy clothing, nothing [decorative] you know. I was like a man with long hair. I was really geeky, so I never got attention from anyone, people just talked to me because I was a good student, and my person-ality was fine … In high school, my parents told me what to wear and I didn’t have any rights to choose my own clothing, which I didn’t like. But when I went to university, my mom allowed me to cut my hair, I had my eyes operated on … and it was very good opportunity for me to change myself and become my own person and find myself … so I went to Korea [to study] and I wore short dresses, sexy clothing, I started to wear makeup, change my hairstyles, and I changed and found myself (literally: found my own Oyuunaa) and am very confident with this … If I hadn’t gone I would be a very very, you know, poor person. [From personal interview with Oyuunaa, 18 December 2011]

Oyuunaa’s decision to redo her appearance and increase her erotic capital had a revolutionary effect on her life. To her, erotic capital con-sumption consisted of clothing, hair, makeup, plastic surgery opera-tions, and sexiness. Utilizing the metaphor of money, she indicates that not doing so would have left her ‘poor’ in multiple ways: friendless, goalless, ambitionless, manly, charisma-less and asexual.29 In using this allegory, she reflects a widespread understanding in contemporary Mongolia of the importance of physical and material attractiveness as an indicator, and conferrer, of manifold expressions of fortune. Through beauty, she actualizes her potential. Not doing so indicates impoverish-ment and a lack of fortune.

4.2 Cosmetic Surgery as Sexual Capital

Amongst Mongolians aspiring to participate in the contemporary economy, cosmetic surgery is often interpreted as an extension of the material adornment of the body. Yet, in line with the recent genesis of

29 Commodifying her body in the interest of appearance perfection also allowed Oyuunaa to be socially recognized as a woman and not a ‘man with long hair’. This quote also alludes to the economic and social value increasingly placed on physical appearance for women.

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this framework of beauty, the cosmetic surgery industry is a relatively recent phenomenon in Mongolia. Prior to the switch to the market economy, cosmetic surgery was only performed within the realm of re-constructive surgery for burn victims and patients with physical de-formities. According to an online interview with Dr. N. Oyuun of the well-known “Tügs” (“Perfect”) cosmetic surgery clinic, basic cosmetic surgery was first performed in Mongolia in 1987 under the guidance of a Soviet doctor, K.K. Zamyatin (Shudarga 2010). Currently, most Mon-golian cosmetic surgery doctors are trained in foreign countries, due to the lack of residency opportunities in Mongolia. In line with this lack of formal schooling and regulation, official statistics on the current preva-lence of cosmetic surgery clinics do not exist; these statistics are also difficult to compile due to the rumoured prevalence of small, unofficial and unregistered clinics in the poorer areas of Ulaanbaatar. Neverthe-less, cosmetic surgery, and its status as an important constituent of erotic capital, is important to this emerging framework of beauty asso-ciated with fortune in modernity and the market.

In contrast to Veblen’s conceptualization of conspicuous consump-tion, mongolians from all economic and social strata of society can par-ticipate in the accrual of erotic capital through plastic surgery. Physi-cally and materially mimicking the auspicious appearance of the nou-veau riche is envisioned as one avenue to improve one’s lot. As indicated by Narantsatsral, select cosmetic surgeries – especially eyelid surgery and rhinoplasty – are increasingly interpreted as a necessary component of the performance of success akin to the purchase of a Louis Vuitton bag. She continued to list several current Mongolian politicians, busi-ness figures, entertainment stars and models and the surgery rumours surrounding each. According to her, many prominent Mongolian stars have had their eyes enlarged (dawkhraa khiilgesen) and received Botox shots (ürchleegee tatuulchikhsan). Additionally, “even the average per-son, as soon as they get a steady job and begin to earn money, starts to get operations (engiin khümüüs amĭdral nĭ saijirwal zasuuldag) – in my group of friends, even people who are jobless get their eyelids done.” Narantsatsral’s awareness that even ‘jobless’ individuals can get plastic surgery indicates the widespread acceptance of surgery as a means to erotic capital accumulation among all economic strata of Mongolian so-ciety. Similarly, when queried regarding her openness to plastic surgery, Oyuunbileg, a poor ger-district resident answered:

I have stayed away from it until now because I am scared. But I am a woman. So occasionally I have these thoughts that maybe I could have something fixed.30 [9 December 2011]

30 End tendee neg yumaa yanzluulchikhĭya gej boddog.

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Even though she does not have the same economic flexibility that Narantsatsral does, she still sees cosmetic surgery as a conventional and necessary component of female attractiveness. Furthermore, both women used words for repairing – zasuulakh and yanzluulakh – in ref-erence to their bodies. Consequently, the body within emerging con-ceptualizations of erotic capital accumulation becomes a commodified, external object that can be tweaked and improved upon in line with economic and social desires.

A plethora of salons offering numerous price ranges and surgery op-tions exist in contemporary Mongolia, in order to cater to the varying socioeconomic standings of potential cosmetic surgery patients. Ac-cording to Oyuunbileg, only the ‘well situated’ Mongolians could go to the reputable cosmetic salons and thus get a ‘high quality’ product for their money: “It’s like how people say that there is the first type of flour, the top brand, and then the second and then the third. The same exists for beauty [surgery] salons; people say that Bolor [salon] is the best.” In the manner of buying an imitation instead of a genuine Louis Vuitton (Fox 2013), patients can purchase a lower quality surgery prod-uct in the hopes of producing the same effect. 31 Affluent patients, like Oyuunaa, frequently fly to South Korea for a weekend of cosmetic sur-gery treatment. The abundance of South Korean surgery clinics with websites in Mongolian and a 2013 cosmetic surgery radio programme financed by the South Korean Wonjin Beauty Medical Group attest to international awareness of this growing market. Within Mongolia, a nurse at a high-end Ulaanbaatar clinic mentioned in a 2012 unofficial interview that no operations in her clinic, including eyelid surgery, cost below 400,000 Mongolian Tugrik (around 300 USD at the time). In com-parison, the Ulaanbaatar Dermatology Centre offers eyelid surgery for 100,000 Tugrik (50 – 80 USD based on exchange rate).32 And in 2009, Bolor, a 16-year-old recent transplant from the countryside to urban Ulaanbaatar, paid 120,000 Tugrik (around 85 USD at the time) at the Yeonsai Korean Hospital. At the Ulaanbaatar clinic Uran Kholboo prices can vary between 18 – 25 USD for the tattooing of a beauty mark to 788 USD for a nose job (i.e. nose lengthening or fixing a crooked or downward-sloping nose) (Myagmarjav 2013). Thus, patients from nu-merous socioeconomic strata can participate in the cosmetic surgery boom at a diverse set of clinics.

31 It is also increasingly common for Mongolians to receive short-term loans through pawning items – another way to finance a surgery.

32 The full list of surgery prices can be found at: http://dermatologycenter.gov.mn/index.php/2012-04-27-06-07-40.html [Accessed on 11 Apr. 2015].

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4.3 Investing in the Self

In line with theories on the commodification of the body, striving for physical perfection through the implementation of cosmetic surgery has become an increasingly common method of erotic capital accrual. The affluent may implement cosmetic surgery as either a signifier of status or a generator of further fortune. In contrast, less fortunate Mon-golians may instrumentalize surgery to increase erotic capital and im-prove their socioeconomic fortune. For example, while doing fieldwork among single-mothers in Mongolia, Ganchimeg Altangerel encountered Naran, a poor single-mother who entrusted in cosmetic surgery to in-crease her employment chances:

The employers are now highly selective; they now have a selection process (songon shalgaruuldag). It is really hard for me to get a job as a lawyer. I con-tinue to educate myself: I read books, like specialist books. I go to courses for computer programming … External appearance is also very important for the employers. They only see your outside appearance (gadaad üzemj khardag). So I have to change my look to fit the requirements. That’s why I had my eyelids operated. [Quoted from an unpublished interview with Naran, conducted by Altangerel, 10 June 2014]

Although employers fall short of writing ‘eyelid surgery’ in the job requirements, Naran believes that her success is appearance-contingent; if she does not have the ‘look’ – including the necessary consumption items like clothing, purse, and eyelid surgery – then she will not succeed. As a woman, she believes increasing cultural capital (i.e. education) is not sufficient to guarantee a job in this economically unstable and com-petitive world. Furthermore, in conjunction with the monetary allusion in ‘poor’, Oyuunaa described her own eyelid surgery as an ‘investment’:

I think it was the best investment I could do to myself. Through changing my eyes and getting this operation I really increased my confidence. Before that, I had some problems; even though I was one of the top students, I was a bit dif-fident and shy and ashamed of my eye. [18 December 2011]

According to Naran and Oyuunaa, the resolution to undergo cosmetic surgery can be viewed as a prudent financial decision that will eventu-ally bring a return. Oyuunaa credits her physical transformation, in-cluding the fiscal step to undergo eyelid surgery, with her contemporary success. As also reflected through the ‘reverse gender gap’, both women did not see education as sufficient to reach their goals; only through aesthetic surgery can they actualize their job and personality poten-tials, respectively. Consequently, within the beauty framework com-monly associated with market competitiveness and modernity, women from multiple economic tiers imbibe cosmetic surgery with the power to both communicate and attract capital and success.

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5. Conclusion

The cumulative quotes in this paper indicate that many Mongolian women might choose to concentrate on physical appearance, including reifying desires through cosmetic surgery, for a plethora of reasons – to increase femininity ergo sexuality; to get a better job; to network and have better relations with family, friends and colleagues; and to self-ac-tualize and increase confidence. The emergence of this erotic field, and its concomitant erotic capital, is historically intertwined with the im-plementation (i.e. part of the ‘modern era’ a la Enkhjargal) and inter-nalization of values (i.e. competitiveness or ‘white envy’) associated with the market economy. Consequently, these motivations are anchored by an underlying wish to not ‘look poor’ either in the social, cultural or economic sense. These fears are particularly relevant for women, who were disproportionately impacted by the loss of governmental support from the Mongolian People’s Republic. However, this aforementioned strategy only applies to one erotic field in contemporary Mongolia; the commodification of individual body parts as reification of (economic) status differs from other erotic fields defined by characteristics of i.e. marriageability, kinship and / or domestic role abilities. By extension, the ease with which certain norms of physical attractiveness, including cosmetic surgery, were linked with values in modernity and the market was likely facilitated by the local historical importance of physical and material rightness to visions of fortune. In essence, if you look rich, you probably will be.

Acknowledgements

This paper has benefited greatly from the many minds that have shaped its trajectory. I would like to thank the “Emerging Subjects” research team for their invaluable comments, read-throughs, intel-lectual support and contributions, especially Dr. Empson, Dr. Plueck-hahn and (soon Dr.) Bonilla. Liz Fox’s BSc dissertation (2013) was the first to discuss ‘fortune’ in terms of urban beauty performance, which influenced my thought process. Additionally, I wish to very heartily thank both Dr. des. Ganchimeg Altangerel and Prof. Dr. Hansjörg Dil-ger for spending countless hours with me discussing gender in Mongo-lia and shaping my thoughts on capital in beauty performance, respec-tively. Finally, this paper would not exist without the openness I was showered with by many Mongolian women – especially Zaya, my stead-fast friend.

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