Flesh wounds : the culture of cosmetic surgery / Virginia L. Blum.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blum, Virginia L., 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Surgery, Plastic--Social aspects.

Surgery, Plastic.

Surgery, Plastic--Psychological aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 356 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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 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.

Contents:

The patient's body

Untouchable bodies

The plastic surgeon and the patient: a slow dance

Frankenstein gets a facelift

As if beauty

The monster and the movie star

Being and having: celebrity culture and the wages of love

Addicted to surgery.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-340) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9780520244733

0520244737

9781417510573

1417510579

9780520938731

0520938739

9781597346160

1597346160

OCLC:

475930037