Aesthetic surgery as false beauty

Bibliographic Data

ID4367408
AuthorsR Holliday (0000-0002-8796-1853, University of Leeds, corresponding author), Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor (University of Leeds)
Year2006
Volume7
Issue2
Pages179-195
Publication date2006-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1464700106064418
OpenAlexW2108355365
LanguageEN
Citations received49
References cited27

This article identifies a prevalent strand of feminist writing on beauty and aesthetic surgery and explores some of the contradictions and inconsistencies inscribed within it. In particular, we concentrate on three central feminist claims: that living in a misogynist culture produces aesthetic surgery as an issue predominantly concerning women; that pain - both physical and psychic - is a central conceptual frame through which aesthetic surgery should be viewed; and that aesthetic surgery is inherently a normalizing technology. Engaging with these 'myths', we explore the tensions uncovered through a historical analysis of the practices of aesthetic surgery as well as the challenges to feminist claims offered by post-feminism. In particular we seek to destabilize the connection in feminist writing between beauty and passivity. We argue that through aesthetic references to denigrated black and working-class bodies, young women may mobilize aesthetic surgeries to reinscribe active sexuality on the feminine body

Aesthetics · Art · Beauty · Feminism · Human sexuality · Literature · Mythology · Psychic · Sociology · Visual arts · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Empathy and Medical Education · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Medicine

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