Recently, there has been a shift in attitude among some feminists towards the practice of cosmetic surgery away from that of outright rejection. Kathy Davis, for instance, offers a guarded `defence' of the practice as a strategy that enables women to exercise a degree of control over their lives in circumstances where there are very few other opportunities for self-realization. Others, such as Kathryn Morgan, Anne Balsamo and Orlan, though highly critical of the current practice of cosmetic surgery, go even (...) further than Davis in advocating its redeployment as a tool to subvert the dominant patriarchal ideals of feminine beauty. In this article I critically appraise this `rehabilitation' of cosmetic surgery, arguing, in the case of Davis, that she leaves unchallenged the social structures of inequality responsible for women's dissatisfaction with their bodies. The proposal to use cosmetic surgery as a tool of political critique is equally problematic insofar as it shares with the cosmetic industry its instrumentalization of the body as mere matter, which is almost infinitely transformable, and also effaces the economic inequalities within which such body transformations occur. (shrink)

The history of the field of intersex bodies/bodies with variations of sex development reflects the ongoing tension between sociomedical attempts to control uncertainty and reduce the duration of corporeal uncertainty by means of early diagnosis and treatment, and the embodied subjects who resist or challenge these attempts, which ultimately increase uncertainty. Based on various qualitative studies in the field of intersex, this article describes three temporal sociomedical approaches that have evolved over the last decade and aims to address the uncertainty (...) surrounding intersex/VSD bodies. These approaches are the corrective-concealing approach, which includes early surgeries and hormone therapies intended to “correct” intersex conditions and the deliberate concealment of the ambiguity and uncertainty associated with intersex conditions; the preventive approach, which involves early genetic diagnostic methods aimed at regulating or preventing the recurrence of hereditary conditions under the umbrella of VSD; and the wait-and-see approach, which perceives intersex bodies as natural variations and encourages parents to take time, wait, and give their children the right to bodily autonomy. A comparison of these approaches from biopolitical, phenomenological, and pragmatic perspectives reveals that time is an essential social agent in addressing and controlling uncertainty, a gatekeeper of social norms and social and physical orders, and, on the other hand, a sociopolitical agent that enables creative social change. (shrink)

There are large differences in the frequency and types of cosmetic surgeries performed in different countries around the world. Although availability, access, cost, and affordability each play a role in the observed differences, we tested the hypothesis that sociocultural and moral values significantly influence the level of acceptance of cosmetic surgery. In 2015, we collected the views of 206 college students in an international university in Japan to compare the views of Japanese students towards cosmetic surgery with those of South (...) Korean and Chinese students. There was an overall “negative” attitude towards cosmetic surgery among Japanese and Chinese students, compared with a “positive” attitude among Korean students, that was statistically significant. A qualitative analysis of the students’ comments suggests that the negative view of Japanese students towards cosmetic surgery was associated with the values of respect to parents, naturalness, concern for safety and health, modesty, and preserving one’s individuality. On the other hand, Korean students mentioned the values of beauty, autonomy, utility, popularity, and perceived safety as reasons for their positive attitude towards cosmetic surgery. The negative view of Chinese students was mainly associated with the value of respect to parents and preserving the inherited characteristics as well as avoiding the perceived risk of surgical procedures. Interestingly, students’ gender had no statistically significant influence on their positive/negative attitude and/or acceptance of cosmetic surgery. The finding of significant differences in sociocultural and moral values for and against cosmetic surgery suggests that cultural differences may explain the varying attitudes and thus some of the differing rates of cosmetic surgery between the countries. (shrink)