Filipino People and Beauty Salon

Mario Bellatin’s Beauty Salon, translated elegantly from the Spanish by Kurt Hollander, is a strange and beautiful parable about human bodies living and dying on the fringes of society. The brevity of Bellatin’s novella is deceptive—in just sixty-three pages, the story of this unnamed narrator, a cross-dressing, homosexual hair stylist who turns his beloved beauty salon into a hospice for victims dying of a mysterious plague, prompts us to consider our collective attitudes toward, and treatment of, the human body—in illness, in death, in poverty, and in opposition to dominant conceptions of sexual behavior.Bellatin’s narrator has become the lone caretaker for men (only men are welcome here) dying of a plague that has stricken his unnamed city. â€Å"The Terminal,† as his beloved former beauty salon for local women is now known, has become the last stop for those affected by the plague. As the disease ravages the city, leaving its victims to d ie alone in a society than shuns them, at risk of attack from the predatory Goat Killer Gang, the Terminal offers precious refuge.Curiously—and this is what makes the novella so compelling—the narrator is more concerned with describing the tropical fish he houses in the elaborate aquariums of the hospice-turned-salon than he is with the hospice itself or those he cares for within it. This obsession is a significant part of the structure of the novel: the narrator reluctantly provides information about the daily events of the Terminal in asides that distract him, to his annoyance, from the aquarium, but which he still feels compelled to offer.The narrator’s hesitance, and his unusual priorities, make reading Beauty Salon a particularly enigmatic experience. Bellatin subverts attempts to understand his character’s motivations and psychology by making this psychology opaque to readers. This deliberate opacity prevents the kind of understanding many readersâ €”particularly many American readers, I’ll contend—may be accustomed to.Contemporary mainstream American literature is dominated by a particular brand of psychological realism that rewards readers in a way that Bellatin has no apparent interest in—these novels  carefully track a character’s innermost thoughts, and the smallest of actions is revelatory of character in a strict one-to-one ratio. Bellatin, however, gives us none of this—what we are given is narrative, the narrator’s story, and there is no interceding narratorial presence to account for the protagonist’s actions, or paternally guide our interpretation. According to him Beauty Salon is a parable, but one grounded by its specific social critique.The ill are refugees from the social institutions that purport to care for them, but with a very narrow vision of what â€Å"care† actually entails—hospitals will not allow them to die there, not with any degree of respect or dignity, at least. The narrator’s distrust of religion reflects his belief that religious institutions, too, impose upon the ill, falsely leading them to believe in a fate for the body that is mystical and untrue. It is notable that the owner of the beauty salon is a homosexual man prone to cross-dressing, who occasionally engages (happily) in prostitution—his is a body that acts in discord with socio-sexual norms.Like his patients, who have been shunned and cast aside, he too is an outsider. The confluence of these factors, as well, suggests an allegorical commentary on the HIV virus and AIDS and the history of the treatment of infected individuals in our society. http://wordswithoutborders. org/book-review/mario-bellatins-beauty-salon 2. -According to the U. S. Small Business Administration, â€Å"Inventory refers to stocks of anything necessary to do business† (U. S. Small Business Administration, 2010, pp 1-2). The U. S.Small Business Administr ation publication describes what constitutes successful inventory management (balancing cost versus benefits of inventory), including 1) Maintaining a wide assortment without spreading the rapidly moving items too thin, 2) Increasing inventory turnover without sacrificing service, 3) Keeping stock low without sacrificing performance , 4) Obtaining lower prices by making volume purchases, 5) Maintaining an adequate inventory without an excess of obsolete items. Anyone in business must understand the business of inventory.Below is a look at six different inventory systems as well as a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages. Wal-Mart Inventory System Wal-Mart runs its stores on a perpetual inventory system. This system records the quantity of items sold as items are purchased. The computer system at Wal-Mart constantly keeps up with additions or deductions from inventory and tells management what items are on hand. The organization also conducts counts of employee manual counts of inventory periodically.When an item arrives at the Wal-Mart distribution center it is scanned into the inventory system. When the items are purchased by the consumer, the point-of-sale system reduces the inventory from that purchase. According to Wal-Mart’s Gail Lavielle, a leaner inventory will help clear out store clutter and help Wal-Mart focus on specific brands and products that consumers want (The Associated Press, 2006). http://www. studymode. com/essays/Related-Literature-Of-Sales-And-Inventory-613069. html 3.Janes (2011) stated that computers are extremely reliable device and very powerful calculators with some great accessories applications like word processing problem for all of business activities, regardless of size, computers have three advantages over other type of office equipment that process information because computer are faster, more accurate more economical. 4 -According to Shanker (2013), the main difference between manual and computerized systems i s speed. The processed data through accounting software can create reports much faster than manual systems. A calculation through automation minimizes errors and increases efficiency.The inputted data can easily be summarized in just a few clicks. While the manual computing with paper and pencil is much cheaper than a computerized system, which requires a machine and software. Other expenses associated with computerization include training and program maintenance. http://www. studymode. com/essays/Related-Literature-And-Studies-Inventory-System-1875708. html Foreign study 1 -according to Parisa Islam Khan from Eastern University Ayesha Tabassum, Eastern University The beauty-care service industry is one of the flourishing industries in Dhaka, the capital and largest city, in terms of population density, in Bangladesh.The growing number of beauty-conscious women and their demand for variety of services cater to the growth and importance of this industry. This study aims at measuring the service quality and customer satisfaction level of high-end women’s parlors in Dhaka. Other purposes of this study are to assess the importance of different attributes of customer’s preference, evaluate the service quality level and the extent of customer satisfaction and reveal the final factors that create customer satisfaction.This study includes in-depth interviews of beauticians and executives and questionnaire survey of 260 customers of high-end beauty parlors of Dhaka city. The findings show that customers put utmost importance in issues such as the service provider’s behavior, knowledge, environment, counseling system and affordability of the parlors. The customers of the high-end parlors are highly satisfied with the environment, executive’s politeness, complaint handling system, trustworthiness and materials.The politeness of the service providers, knowledge level of the executives and safety and hygiene issues are also satisfactory. Factor analysis (Principal Component Analysis) has been carried out by taking sixteen variables and the result indicates that four service quality factors are creating customer satisfaction. These factors are Support & Facility Factor and Employee. http://www. studymode. com/essays/Beauty-Salon-1108126. html Local Literature 1. -According to Dean Francis Alfair, Filipino men are spending millions to look — and feel — good.As was stated in his article, â€Å"Machos in the Mirror†, a metrosexual like himself doesn’t generally think of himself as vain, but then there’s this incident where Mr. Alfair remember from high school: some of his friends were assembled at his house so that they could all ride together to a party. As they were getting dressed in their Spandau Ballet-inspired finery (then the height of fashion), one of the barkada produced, from out of the depths of his bag, a can of mousse, which none of them hapless males had ever seen or even heard of before. Naturally, they all had to squirt some into their hands and smear it on their hair.Not knowing that they were then supposed to blow-dry or otherwise style it, they left the house feeling snazzy, while looking pretty much the same as they had prior to applying the mousse — at most, their hair was a little damper, vaguely crispy in texture, and certainly stickier than before. But they felt utterly transformed. They felt really good looking. Mr. Alfair stated â€Å"These days (long past high school, thanks), I don’t exactly wander around feeling guapo, but according to a survey by global research firm Synovate last year, a good many Filipino males do — 48 percent of us, in fact.This is just a slightly lower percentage than males in the United States at 53 percent, and considerably higher than our Asian neighbors: 25 percent of Singaporean men think they’re sexy, and only 12 percent of guys from Hong Kong. Moreover, while less than half of us (whi ch is already a significant figure) think that we’re God’s gift to Pinays, a whopping 84 percent of Filipinos rate their looks as â€Å"quite† or â€Å"very† important to them.Assuming that the survey is accurate, this means, statistically speaking, that there is no male racial group on earth vainer than Filipino men. And, to my shock, I am one of them. † If you think about it, , the evidence is all around us, and has been for decades. Way before the term â€Å"metrosexual† was ever coined (in 1994, by British journalist Mark Simpson, in case you’re interested), Filipino businessmen were going around toting clutch, but which also frequently contain combs and the occasional small mirror.Your average Pinoy traffic cop, while likely to sport an enormous gut that completely engulfs his regulation belt, is just as likely to brandish gleaming, rosy-hued, meticulously manicured fingernails. And practically everyone has at least one uncle or o ther older male relative who keeps his hair so slickly brilliantined that everyone else can conveniently fix his or her own hair by merely glancing at its mirror-like surface. Those are just what we’ll call the â€Å"traditional† examples.Among the younger set, the author recall a time when you couldn’t walk into a classroom of boys without nearly asphyxiating on the overwhelming communal scent of Drakkar cologne. Nowadays the choice of fragrance is more varied, but the rabidly enthusiastic application of cologne, aftershave, or that hybrid substance strangely labeled as â€Å"deo-cologne† remains constant. The Synovate survey tells us that Filipino men bathe an average of 1. 5 times a day.(I’m not really sure how one takes half a bath, but I’m told by informed sources that such regular male hygiene is a source of relief and delight for Filipino women. ) Since the 1970s, the majority of Philippine beauty salons have become â€Å"unisex,â₠¬  resulting in a large and growing number of young men who have never even set foot in a barber shop, which means that most of us go to salons — every three weeks or so, according to salon magnate Ricky Reyes, â€Å"for pampering. † Not that barbershops themselves are exactly bastions of simplicity and pure functionality anymore.High-end ones offer â€Å"personal care† services ranging from facials to foot scrubs to ear cleaning. (Does ear cleaning count as vanity? ) Men also go to massage parlors — real ones, not quote-unquote massage parlors — not just to soothe their tired muscles, but often for skin-improving treatments like mud baths and herbal wraps. And speaking of skin treatments, more and more cosmetics companies are coming out with â€Å"just for men† lines of grooming products, including face scrubs, lotions, and astringents.What’s significant is that more and more Pinoy men are actually buying them: just 10 years ago, me n accounted for only 10 percent of the total Philippine beauty care buying public. That figure has now mushroomed to 40 percent, meaning that there are nearly equal numbers of Pinoys and Pinays out there, snapping up creams and cleansers. Even cosmetic surgery has become not just acceptable, but desirable for many Filipino men — from standard dermatology for simple problems like acne, to unapologetic vanity procedures such as liposuction and â€Å"age-defying† Botox injections.Dr. Vicky Belo of the popular Belo Medical Clinic confirms, â€Å"Before, (men) only accounted for one-fourth of my total clientele. Now they are about one-third. † It’s gotten to the point where â€Å"Who’s your derma? † is a topic that can actually enjoy lengthy discussion time in a man-to-man conversation, and surgical treatment has become something of a mark of status in Philippine showbiz.Actors Albert Martinez and John Lloyd Cruz, as well as singer Janno Gibbs, a mong others, readily (and proudly!) admit to being regular clients at the Belo Medical Clinic. Can all this male vanity be laid at the door of celebrities like these and metrosexual poster boy David Beckham? Apparently not. For one thing, as Mr. Alfair mentioned earlier, the Filipino trait of being vanidoso well predates Becks and his ilk. Besides, a metrosexual, by definition, is â€Å"a male who has a strong aesthetic sense and spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance.†While it seems that Pinoys certainly do make the time and shell out the cash for our looks, we don’t always have enough of an aesthetic sense to know what we’re doing†¦ unless there actually is a segment of the female populace I don’t know about that really does swoon over pink, manicured fingernails on a man. I can’t be sure there isn’t, having never tried the look myself. As for why metrosexuals willing to spend so much time and money, it may, surprisin gly, be a product of social and economic factors. During the U. S. recession, it was observed that lipstick sales shot up, only to taper down again once the recession was over.Consistent repetition of this phenomenon led economists to conclude that, when consumers feel less than confident about the future, they tend to purchase small, comforting indulgences such as lipstick rather than splurging on larger items like appliances and electronic gadgets. Correspondingly, Ricky Reyes has noted that more customers flocked to salons during the 1997 economic crisis in the Philippines, turning to relatively low-priced services like haircuts in order to make themselves feel better in an unstable living environment.While the purchase of lipstick per se may not exactly be applicable to the Filipino male, we can obviously draw a corollary with your average Pinoy, who might be understandably reluctant to buy, say, a flat-screen TV in a country where coup d’etat rumors circulate at least tw ice a year. Instead, he might choose to spend his money on his appearance, perhaps subconsciously http://chrisonis. wordpress. com/2012/07/08/chapter-2-local-literature/