Accounting for Cosmetic Surgery: The Accomplishment of Gender

Dull, Diana; West, Candace

doi:10.1525/sp.1991.38.1.03a00040

Cited by 35 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…Beauty work is in large part this process of transforming the natural body to fit the cultural ideal, altogether while concealing the process and making it seem natural. Dull and West (1991) observe this phenomenon in their interviews with cosmetic surgeons and patients. Surgeons and patients consider women's pursuit of aesthetic improvement as 'normal' or 'natural'.…”

Section: Beauty Work and The Reproduction Of Gendermentioning

confidence: 94%

Beauty Work: Individual and Institutional Rewards, the Reproduction of Gender, and Questions of Agency

Kwan

Trautner

2009

Sociology Compass

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Physical attractiveness is associated with a number of positive outcomes, including employment benefits such as hiring, wages, and promotion, and is correlated with social and personal rewards such as work satisfaction, positive perceptions of others, and higher self‐esteem. As a result, individuals perform various forms of beauty work, thus reproducing and strengthening a social system that privileges youth and attractiveness. In this article, we explore the beauty work practices that people perform. We begin with an examination of the cultural context in which beauty work occurs, including the individual, social, and institutional rewards accompanying physical attractiveness, and then review the practices themselves. Because these rewards and practices contribute in part to the reproduction of social relations and norms, we then turn to the gender dimensions of beauty work, along with its unique racial embodiment. Throughout, we raise the issue of individual agency in beauty work. Finally, we conclude with suggestions for future research.

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Section: Beauty Work and The Reproduction Of Gendermentioning

confidence: 94%

Beauty Work: Individual and Institutional Rewards, the Reproduction of Gender, and Questions of Agency

Kwan

Trautner

2009

Sociology Compass

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“…Such norms, then, not only shape our understandings of female embodiment; they may also, especially when enacted through medical practices, materially shape bodies inasmuch as bodies, through medical interventions, often are altered to align with that which, for example, is considered statistically normal and/or ideal (see, e.g., Connell, 1999;Doyle, 2008;Dull and West, 1991;Sandell, 2001).…”

Section: Feminist Explorations Of Female Embodimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ambivalent Ambiguity? : A study of how women with 'atypical' sex development make sense of female embodiment

Guntram¹

2014

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“…The dichoto-mous notion of the medical profession as powerful and the lay society or patients as passive victims, which has traditionally been inherent in the medicalisation concept, has, however, more recently been questioned (e.g. McLean 1990, Dull and West 1991, Becker and Nachtigall 1992, Bransen 1992, Wiles and Higgins 1996, Broom and Woodward 1996. The relationship between modern medicine and lay populace appears to be more complex than the earlier sociological theories suggest (Williams and Calnan 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicalisation by Whom? Accounts of Menstruation Conveyed by Young Women and Medical Experts in Medical Advisory Columns

Oinas

1998

Sociology Health & Illness

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The term medicalisation is considered in the light of an empirical study on menstruation as discussed in medical advisory columns. The focus is on how the medical profession responds to young women's questions about their maturing bodies. The questions are seldom of a medical nature; rather, they are concerned with normality and coping with menstruation in everyday life. The doctors' response is clear: the patient need not worry, the medical profession is both willing and able to take over the responsibility for, and control over, the body. The medicalisation of menstruation that can be found in advisory columns strengthens the position of the medical establishment as the legitimate authority on the body. Nevertheless, the letters sent to the magazines do not lend support to the idea of medicalisation as an endeavor pursued by the medical profession alone. The letters are also a means whereby young women try to establish standards for proper female gender behaviour in an area where lay society remains silent.

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Accounting for Cosmetic Surgery: The Accomplishment of Gender

Cited by 35 publications

References 0 publications

Beauty Work: Individual and Institutional Rewards, the Reproduction of Gender, and Questions of Agency

Beauty Work: Individual and Institutional Rewards, the Reproduction of Gender, and Questions of Agency

Ambivalent Ambiguity? : A study of how women with 'atypical' sex development make sense of female embodiment

Medicalisation by Whom? Accounts of Menstruation Conveyed by Young Women and Medical Experts in Medical Advisory Columns

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