In collaboration with The London Migration Film Festival (LMFF), Unruly Beauty presents Aesthetic Citizenship and the Violence of Beauty, a workshop examining how aesthetic norms operate as systems of control: granting legitimacy to some and denying humanity to others.

Beauty is political. It affects how bodies are perceived and cared for by institutions, communities, and the state. It is not enough to hold legal rights; one must look like a “good citizen”.

Some move through the world with the quiet privilege of belonging—their presence unremarkable, their humanity assumed. Others are marked as deviations, as exceptions. Their bodies are questioned, judged, and forced to justify themselves at every turn. For them, belonging is not given—it must be constantly earned.

Whose presence is legitimate? Which bodies are recognised as fully human, and who may be discarded without mourning?

By engaging with these questions, this workshop invites participants to reflect collectively on the often-unseen forces that shape belonging and exclusion.

Through collaborative reflection, we will interrogate dominant beauty hierarchies and imagine a world where all bodies are recognised, valued and protected.