Learning to Love Yourself: Esthetics, Health, and Therapeutics in Brazilian Plastic Surgery

Abstract

Brazilian plastic surgeons have successfully promoted a psychotherapeutic rationale for cosmetic surgery. This article critically engages with this 'philosophy' of health, analyzing how it is deployed in busy teaching hospitals. I show how a tradition of intimate hierarchy and class dynamics in medical institutions informs the experimental ethos of clinical practice as patients internalize a psychotherapeutic notion of health and management regimes of female reproduction and sexuality that are becoming normalized among upper social strata. In the process, cosmetic and healing rationales become blurred as patients pursue an expansive, qualitatively defined state of wellbeing that I call 'esthetic health'.

Entre saúde e aprimoramento: a engenharia do corpo por meio de cirurgias plásticas e terapias hormonais no Brasil

“…Nesse caso, como em qualquer órgão do setor público, a cirurgia é gratuita, visando oferecer "treinamento científico" aos cirurgiões residentes. Alguns cirurgiões-chefes do setor público buscam apoiar essa lógica, destacando os benefícios universais da cirurgia estética para a "saúde", que eles acreditam que deveriam ser disponibilizados igualmente para ricos e pobres (Edmonds, 2009(Edmonds, , 2010.…”

Looking good and judging gazes: The relationship between body ideals, body satisfaction and body practices among Norwegian men and women

“…The recommended procedures for looking better include commercialized body practices or "appearance management" [5] which refer to body practices such as dieting, exercising, the use of make-up and cosmetic surgery. Meredith Jones suggests that the present situation is that of a "makeover culture" which merges consumer and medical "cultures," of which cosmetic surgery is a good example [6,7]. We assume that this ubiquitous exposure to body ideals affects the way in which people judge their own and other people's bodies.…”

“…If much research is correct, depictions of idealized body images thus affect how different people think about body ideals and their own bodies [5,6,14,15]. Alterna-tively, ideal body images may make people experience affective intensities [3] that motivate them into beautification practices.…”

The Branded and Gendered Brazilian Body: Material and Symbolic Constructions in an Overlooked Context

“…molding). This process goes along with the increasing popularity among Brazilians of plastic surgery, known in the country as plástica (Edmonds 2009). Another parallel trend in body fashion is the pervasiveness of body shaping through exercising (malhação) aiming to add volume to specific body parts which are valued in the Brazilian ideal of a sexy body, such as thighs and butt.…”