Flesh Wounds

The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery

Author: Virginia L. Blum
ISBN: 9780520217232

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. Flesh Wounds is an inquiry into the ideas and practices that have forged such a culture. Tying the boom in cosmetic

Publisher: University of California Press
Publish Date: 2003

Subjects: History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies), Social Science / Sociology / General, Social Science / Gender Studies

This book is available in the following Community Centers: Women's Center (Location: Body image)