Health and cosmetics: the medicalization of beauty
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3395/reciis.v5i4.765Keywords:
cosmetic surgery, cult of body, medicalization, consumer culture, agency, empowermentAbstract
This article analyzes fieldwork data collected in Brazil and England, including press materials, archive data, interviews, and observations from plastic surgery clinics in São Paulo and London. This study examines plastic surgery for cosmetic purposes as an example of the medicalization of society and the expansion of consumer culture. Thus, this study centers on the following questions: What impact do perceptions of new body shapes have on subjectivity? For women, plastic surgery is a practice conditioned by historically and culturally constructed standards that associate femininity with a socially established beauty standard; could this practice also be understood as a source of individual power? Would it then be a source of personal agency?
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Castro, A. L. de. (2011). Health and cosmetics: the medicalization of beauty. RECIIS, 5(4). https://doi.org/10.3395/reciis.v5i4.765
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