Amending the abject body : aesthetic makeovers in medicine and culture / Deborah Caslav Covino.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Covino, Deborah Caslav, 1960-

Series:

SUNY series in feminist criticism and theory

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Body image in women.

Self-perception in women.

Women--Physiology.

Women.

Human body--Social aspects.

Human body.

Surgery, Plastic.

Feminist theory.

Physical Description:

ix, 152 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2004]

Summary:

Feminist theorists have often argued that aesthetic surgeries and body makeovers dehumanize and disempower women patients, whose efforts at self-improvement lead to their objectification. Amending the Abject Body proposes that although objectification is an important element in this phenomenon, the explosive growth of "makeover culture" can be understood as a process of both abjection (ridding ourselves of the unwanted) and identification (joining the community of what Julia Kristeva calls "clean and proper bodies"). Drawing from the advertisement and advocacy of body makeovers on television, in aesthetic surgery trade books, and in the print and Web-based marketing of face lifts, tummy tucks, and Botox injections, Deborah Caslav Covino articulates the relationship among objectification, abjection, and identification, and offers a fuller understanding of contemporary beauty-desire.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 137-148) and index.

ISBN:

0791462315

0791462323

OCLC:

54454600