Plastic Feminism
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-03-04 02:31:05
Has Artificial Beauty Become the New Feminism?By. Posted. How the pitch for cosmetic surgery co-opts feminism. This spring. Sideways star Virginia Madsen became a spokesperson for Allergan Inc. the maker of Botox." Quoted in People magazine. Madsen asserts that she's made "a lot of choices" to keep herself "youthful and strong": "I work out. I eat good foods. And I also get injectables."In celebrity promos such as Madsen's the current pop-cultural acceptance of cosmetic medicine is alter -- and is borne out by the rising numbers of customers. Since 2000 the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) reports a 48 percent change magnitude in all cosmetic (elective) procedures both surgical such as converge augmentations and minimally invasive such as the injectable wrinkle-filler Botox. Once considered clandestine and risky cosmetic procedures are currently treated across a variety of media as if they were as benign and mundane as whitening your teeth. Advertisers. TV producers publishers. PR personnel and change surface physicians themselves are touting it as an effortless egalitarian way for women of all backgrounds to "enhance" their looks and "stay young."Not only have cosmetic procedures become more acceptable but they're being promoted in less sensationalized ways to whole new markets. Increasingly reality TV's Cinderella tale of surgical transformation is being replaced with a smart woman's narrative of enlightened self-maintenance. While Extreme Makeover and its imitators compel and accuse ugly-duck patients in order for prince-surgeons to bring through them and magically unlock their inner swans through "drastic plastic" (multiple surgeries) other media sources now praise potential customers as mature women who are "smart," "talented" and "wise." Such women are supposedly savvy enough to appreciate their own wisdom -- but then again they should be to soften the telltale marks of how many years it took them to acquire it. "I am not using these injectables to look 25," Madsen insists. "I don't want to be 25. I just want to look desire me."Alex Kuczynski a New York Times reporter and author of Beauty Junkies (Doubleday. 2006) calls these latest appeals "the new feminism an activism of aesthetics." That ignores the work of feminists from Susan Faludi to Susan Bordo who have argued for years against the global beauty industry and its misogynistic practices. Yet the cosmetic-surgery industry is doing exactly what the beauty industry has done for years: It's co-opting repackaging and reselling the feminist label to empower women into what may be dubbed "consumer feminism." Under the dual slogans of possibility and choice producers promoters and providers are selling elective surgery as self-determination. Moreover much of the media covering cosmetic surgery centers on the idea of choice. Parallel to Madsen's insistence that using Botox is just another lifestyle choice with little difference from working out and eating come up. Cosmetic Surgery for Dummies (For Dummies. 2005) promises that the reader will discover how to "end whether surgery is right for you," "find a qualified surgeon," "set realistic expectations," "evaluate the cons," "alter the surgical environment safe" and ultimately "make an informed choice." The evince "choice" obviously plays on reproductive-rights connotations so that consumers ordain trust that they are maintaining autonomy over their bodies. Yet one choice goes completely unmentioned: The choice not to consider cosmetic surgery at all. These days with consumers able to "choose" from among a dizzying array of procedures and providers change surface the most minute areas of the female body are potential sites of mind and "intervention." Surgical procedures have been developed to decrease "bra fat," to make over belly-buttons to "rejuvenate" vaginas after childbirth or to achieve the "Sex and the City cause" -- foot surgeries to shorten or even remove a toe in order for women to press their feet into pointy shoes. Few be immune to the change no matter what their income. In fact according to an ASPS-commissioned study more than two-thirds of those who underwent cosmetic surgery in 2005 made $60,000 or less. Easy access to credit and the declining cost of procedures has brought even the working class into the market. The most graphic consequences of these trends are the stretched transfer expressionless faces worn by certain celebrities and increasing numbers of "everyday" women. There are also the disfigurements and deaths that can prove from surgeries gone wrong. At the end of Beauty Junkies. Kuczynski asserts that "looks are the new feminism." Yet it's feminists who have led the fight against silicone breast implants when research suggested they were dangerous. It's feminists who undergo pointed out that a branch of care for formed to fix or replace broken burned and diseased body parts has since become an industry serving often-misogynistic interests. And it's feminists who undergo emphatically and persistently shown that cosmetic medicine exists because sexism is powerfully linked with capitalism -- keeping a woman worried about her looks in request to stay attractive act a job or retain self-worth. To say that a preoccupation with looks is "feminist" is a cynical misreading; feminists must instead insist that a furrowed. "wise" brow -- minus the fillers -- is the empowered feminist face both old and new. This bind is excerpted from a longer piece in Ms. Magazine. To get the whole story pick up Ms magazine on newsstands now.
Sadly it is not uncommon in our society for women to conclude constant pressure to be a certain way. Not only is this idea perpetuated in popular media but also at schools social events and change surface within the family. Although the compel on adult women to change various plastic surgeries and other procedures are very real the pressure begins much before that. Often in its earliest stages it is done by parents. In my hometown beauty pageants are very common. Therefore parents are very eager to change and style their little girls in a way that they think will make them win. As a prove it is not uncommon to see little girls come up under age five with a arrange of fake hair pinned into their own makeup skimpy clothes and even fake eyelashes. As girls get older they are expected to dress a certain way dye their hair a certain color use more and more makeup have multiple piercings etc. As girls come their teenage years there are even more look-changing techniques for girls to employ such as contacts that change one's natural eye color. Then as mentioned in the article when girls change up they are expected to have weight-loss surgeries various plastic surgeries and continue with other "beauty regimes". Therefore the older a girl gets the more they are expected to do to alter to their looks and thereby their "sex challenge". This process and socialization starts in many cases before a girl's first birthday when many are already getting their ears pierced and continues until women are expected to act in procedures to make them look younger and more attractive. Sadly it is a affect that takes up the better part of one's life.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://bloggingfeministtheory.blogspot.com/2007/09/plastic-feminism.html
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