Accounting for Cosmetic Surgery: The Accomplishment of Gender

Dull, Diana; West, Candace

doi:10.2307/800638

Cited by 57 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Recently, advances in determining the proximate sociocultural factors underlying cosmetic surgery attitudes and decisions have emphasized the role of cultural views of femininity and power imbalance between the genders (e.g., Davis, 1995;Dull & West, 1991), as well as the roles of personality (Swami, Chamorro-Premuzic, Bridges, & Furnham, 2009) and individual differences in poor body image and appearance-related psychopathologies (e.g., Sarwer, Wadden, Pertschuk, & Whitaker, 1998;Swami, 2009Swami, , 2010Thorpe, Ahmed, & Steer, 2004). Research has shown that those who are more invested in their physical appearance , who internalize media messages about appearance (Markey & Markey, 2009;Swami, 2009), who are more conforming , who are more sensitive to rejection (Park et al, 2009), and who are more materialistic (Henderson-King & Brooks, 2009) are all more likely to express positive attitudes toward cosmetic surgery.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmetic Surgery as Intrasexual Competition: The Mediating Role of Social Comparison

Arnocky¹,

Piché²

2014

PSYCH

105

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Cosmetic surgical procedures have previously been associated with some risks to psychological and physical health. Yet such procedures are on the rise, highlighting the need for a better understanding of the factors which might underlie the decision to undergo cosmetic surgery. In a sample of 297 young adults (192 women), we examined the relationship between intrasexual competition (IC), social comparison, and individuals' attitudes, perceived risks, and desired spending on cosmetic surgical procedures. Results showed that women perceived more risk to cosmetic surgery, yet held more positive attitudes and desire to spend on cosmetic surgery compared to men. For both men and women, IC predicted positive attitudes and desired spending on cosmetic surgery. Social comparison mediated all relationships between IC and cosmetic surgery variables. Cosmetic surgery is discussed as a potential form of intrasexual competition rooted in the mate-preferences of the opposite sex.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmetic Surgery as Intrasexual Competition: The Mediating Role of Social Comparison

Arnocky¹,

Piché²

2014

PSYCH

105

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“…Contextualizing her study in this line of work would enable Kaw to benefit from insights gained by the previous studies and more directly situate her contribution in this ongoing discourse. For example, Kaw's study is one of the few that presents glimpses of physicians' views of medicalization and would provide a excellent comparison to another recent work on cosmetic surgery and gender that raises many parallel issues (Dull and West 1991). Yet we have no explication of this important aspect of medicalization.…”

Section: Medicalizationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Parallel play in medical anthropology and medical sociology

Conrad

1997

Am Soc

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In recent years, the disciplinary emphasis in the social sciences has been challenged, but barriers remain to multidisciplinary discourse. Scholars may examine similar problems or even use the same concepts, and neglect or overlook the work in sister disciplines. Developmental psychologists have identified a stage in child development called parallel play, characterized by children playing side-by-side but not interacting with one another. This article employs parallel play as a metaphor to describe the relationship between medical anthropology and medical sociology. Using recent Medical Anthropology Quarterly articles on "medicalization" and "the experience of illness" as illustrations, this article analyzes the causes and consequences of this disciplinary parallelism and suggests a rationale and mechanism of moving beyond this stage.As the social sciences emerged in the nineteenth century, one of the tasks of scholarly work was the differentiation of these new disciplines. Sociologists, for example, needed to differentiate their discipline from the more entrenched perspectives of economics and psychology. As disciplines matured they developed "rhetorics of legitimation" that represented both the continuity and the perpetuation of the autonomy of disciplines (Good and Roberts, 1993), including delineating founding fathers, key concepts, and historic choice points. As Good and Roberts (1993:5) point out, in modern social sciences concepts are seen constitutive of social reality. "Such concepts are embedded in the pervasive discourses of the human sciences, discourses which encourage and foster a false disciplinary self-sufficiency and disguise intellectual 'embeddedness'..."Concepts are often seen as emblematic of disciplines and are seen as representative of disciplinary perspectives. In recent years, this assumed self-sufficiency has been challenged from a variety of quarters: formation of interdisciplinary rePeter Conrad is on the faculty of the

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“…This branch of medicine has become increasingly prevalent since the mid-twentieth century, consolidating the use of surgical techniques to modify the body (the female one in particular) to conform to current beauty standards (Davis, 2002;Dull & West, 1991;Heyes & Jones, 2009;Löwy, 2006).…”

Section: Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgerymentioning

confidence: 98%

Shining a light on the grey zones of gender construction: breast surgery in France and Italy

Greco

2015

Journal of Gender Studies

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This article analyses the areas of overlap between cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery, using the examples of both female and male breast surgery, and shows that these areas of overlap are sites of the construction of gendered bodies. The data are drawn from two pieces of research: the first based on 17 in-depth interviews with Italian cosmetic surgeons and the second based on 99 interviews with breast cancer patients and medical oncological professionals conducted in France and Italy. The primary data are supplemented by an analysis of the medical literature. 'Too small' female breasts (micromastia) and male gynecomastia (male fatty breast tissue) are pathologised by the surgeons and the medical literature, and a surgical intervention is presented as a way to heal this pathology. The pathologisation of healthy breasts goes along with the aestheticisation of oncological breast surgery. The interventions performed during a post-mastectomy breast reconstruction are guided by normative ideas of how a female body should be. The gender norms inscribed in this surgery practice can however be contested by patients: they can ask for a breast reconstruction while refusing all forms of 'enhancement'.

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Accounting for Cosmetic Surgery: The Accomplishment of Gender

Cited by 57 publications

References 12 publications

Cosmetic Surgery as Intrasexual Competition: The Mediating Role of Social Comparison

Cosmetic Surgery as Intrasexual Competition: The Mediating Role of Social Comparison

Parallel play in medical anthropology and medical sociology

Shining a light on the grey zones of gender construction: breast surgery in France and Italy

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