Women and the Knife: Cosmetic Surgery and the Colonization of Women's Bodies

Hypatia 6 (3):25 - 53 (1991)
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Abstract

The paper identifies the phenomenal rise of increasingly invasive forms of elective cosmetic surgery targeted primarily at women and explores its significance in the context of contemporary biotechnology. A Foucauldian analysis of the significance of the normalization of technologized women's bodies is argued for. Three "Paradoxes of Choice" affecting women who "elect" cosmetic surgery are examined. Finally, two utopian feminist political responses are discussed: a Response of Refusal and a Response of Appropriation.

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10.1111/j.1527-2001.1991.tb00254.x

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Citations of this work

Body, Image and Affect in Consumer Culture.Mike Featherstone - 2010 - Body and Society 16 (1):193-221.
Easy for You to Say.Maggie O’Brien - 2022 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 100 (3):429-442.

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References found in this work

Gender/body/knowledge: feminist reconstructions of being and knowing.Alison M. Jaggar & Susan Bordo (eds.) - 1989 - New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.

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