Examines the relationship between aging and women in a culture obsessed with youthfulness and brings alive feminist theories about aging, beauty work, femininity, and the body.
"Becoming Women offers a thoughtful examination of the search for identity in an image-oriented world. That search is told through the experiences of a group of women who came of age in the wake of second and third wave feminism, featuring voices from marginalized and misreprese…
In a culture where beauty is currency, women's bodies are often perceived as measures of value and worth. The search for visibility and self-acceptance can be daunting, especially for those on the cultural margins of "beauty."Becoming Women offers a thoughtful examination of the…
This text is an analysis of the globalization of beauty products, practices, and ideas, as seen through the lives of youth in Mexico. Far from frivolous, the beauty economy is key to youth's social and economic development.
Pretty Modern is a riveting account of Brazil's emergence as a global leader in plastic surgery. Intrigued by a Carnaval parade that mysteriously paid homage to a Rio de Janeiro plastic surgeon, anthropologist Alexander Edmonds conducted research that took him from Ipanema socia…
""A masterpiece. Pretty Modern is one of the most nuanced and beautifully crafted ethnographies out there."--Joao Biehl, author of Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment" "Pretty Modern is a riveting account of Brazil's emergence as a global leader in plastic surgery. Intrig…
Against the background of the so-called 'obesity epidemic', Media and the Rhetoric of Body Perfection critically examines the discourses of physical perfection that pervade Western societies, shedding new light on the rhetorical forces behind body anxieties and extreme methods o…
Drawing on rich interview material with cosmetic surgery patients and offering fresh analyses of various texts from popular culture, including internationally-screened reality-television, entertainment programmes and documentaries, this book examines the ways in which Western me…
"This book uses interviews with women undergoing elective cosmetic surgery to explore the way they make sense of their body project in light of dominant cultural discourses, including women's agency over their bodies and the undesirability of unnatural aesthetics"--