Cosmetic Surgery

Seminar 6 Repairing 'racial' difference?

When you think about physical perfection, or what a 'perfect 10' looks like, does the image that comes to mind fit a particular ethnic profile? How do ideals of beauty, deeply imbued with cultural values and expectations as they are, affect individuals whose bodies fall outside those boundaries based on attributes that are ethnically marked and othered? Today we will begin our look at twentieth century medical and commercial responses to the challenges faced by racialised 'others', and particularly to those who are intersectionally excluded from achieving normative physical perfection.

Weekly Questions:

• What is distinctive about facial trauma?
• How have societies responded to visible facial difference -- whether produced by trauma or by other causes -- in comparison to traumatic limb loss or mental strain?
• Plastic surgery, reconstructive surgery, cosmetic surgery: what's in a name?
• Can we compare surgeries to correct scars or alter racialised differences to gender-affirming or other identity-reinforcing surgeries?

Readings: See Talis