Flesh Wounds: The Culture Of Cosmetic Surgery
by Virginia L. Blum /
2003 / English / PDF
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When did cosmetic surgery become a common practice, the stuff of
everyday conversation? In a work that combines a provocative
ethnography of plastic surgery and a penetrating analysis of
beauty and feminism, Virginia L. Blum searches out the social
conditions and imperatives that have made ours a culture of
cosmetic surgery. From diverse viewpoints, ranging from cosmetic
surgery patient to feminist cultural critic, she looks into the
realities and fantasies that have made physical malleability an
essential part of our modern-day identity.
When did cosmetic surgery become a common practice, the stuff of
everyday conversation? In a work that combines a provocative
ethnography of plastic surgery and a penetrating analysis of
beauty and feminism, Virginia L. Blum searches out the social
conditions and imperatives that have made ours a culture of
cosmetic surgery. From diverse viewpoints, ranging from cosmetic
surgery patient to feminist cultural critic, she looks into the
realities and fantasies that have made physical malleability an
essential part of our modern-day identity.
For a cultural practice to develop such a tenacious grip, Blum
argues, it must be fed from multiple directions: some pragmatic,
including the profit motive of surgeons and the increasing need
to appear young on the job; some philosophical, such as the
notion that a new body is something you can buy or that
appearance changes your life.
For a cultural practice to develop such a tenacious grip, Blum
argues, it must be fed from multiple directions: some pragmatic,
including the profit motive of surgeons and the increasing need
to appear young on the job; some philosophical, such as the
notion that a new body is something you can buy or that
appearance changes your life.Flesh Wounds
Flesh Wounds is an inquiry
into the ideas and practices that have forged such a culture.
Tying the boom in cosmetic surgery to a culture-wide trend toward
celebrity, Blum explores our growing compulsion to emulate what
remain for most of us two-dimensional icons. Moving between
personal experiences and observations, interviews with patients
and surgeons, and readings of literature and cultural moments,
her book reveals the ways in which the practice of cosmetic
surgery captures the condition of identity in contemporary
culture.
is an inquiry
into the ideas and practices that have forged such a culture.
Tying the boom in cosmetic surgery to a culture-wide trend toward
celebrity, Blum explores our growing compulsion to emulate what
remain for most of us two-dimensional icons. Moving between
personal experiences and observations, interviews with patients
and surgeons, and readings of literature and cultural moments,
her book reveals the ways in which the practice of cosmetic
surgery captures the condition of identity in contemporary
culture.