Hostname: page-component-66644f4456-tnr8b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T06:48:03.108Z Has data issue: true hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Kathryn Pauly Morgan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 6 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Feminism and the Body , Fall 1991 , pp. 25 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achilles, Rona. 1988. What's new about the new reproductive technologies?Discussion paper: Ontario Advisory Council on the Status of Women. Toronto: Government of Ontario.Google Scholar
Barker‐Benfield, G. J. 1976. The horrors of the half‐known life. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Bartky, Sandra Lee. 1988. Foucault, femininity, and the modernization of patriarchal power. In Femininity and Foucault: Reflections of resistance. Diamond, Irene and Quinby, Lee, eds. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Beck‐Gernsheim, Elisabeth. 1989. From the pill to test‐tube babies: New options, new pressures in reproductive behavior. In Healing technology: Feminist perspectives. Ratcliff, Kathryn Strother, ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Berger, John. 1972. Ways of seeing. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Bordo, Susan R. 1985. Anorexia nervosa: Psychopathology as the crystallization of culture. The Philosophical Forum 2(Winter): 73–103.Google Scholar
Bordo, Susan R. 1989a. The body and the reproduction of femininity: A feminist appropriation of Foucault. In Gender/body/knowledge: Feminist reconstructions of being and knowing. Jaggar, Alison and Bordo, Susan, eds. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Bordo, Susan R. 1989b. Reading the slender body. In Women, science and the body politic: Discourses and representations. Jacobus, Mary, Fox Keller, Evelyn and Shuttleworth, Sally, eds. New York: Methuen.Google Scholar
Brown, Beverley and Adams, Parveen. 1979. The feminine body and feminist politics. M/F 3: 35–50.Google Scholar
Brownmiller, Susan. 1984. Femininity. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Burk, J., Zelen, S. L., and Terena., E. O. 1985. More than skin deep: A self‐consistency approach to the psychology of cosmetic surgery. Plastic and reconstructive surgery 6(2): 270–80.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Changing Faces. 1989. Toronto Star. May 25.Google Scholar
Computer used to pick hairstyles. 1989. Globe and Mail.Google Scholar
Corea, Gena. 1985. The mother machine. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Cosmetic surgery for the holidays. 1985. Sheboygan Press. New York Times News Service.Google Scholar
Davis, Kathy. 1991. Remaking the she‐devil: A Critical Look at Feminist Approaches to Beauty. Hypatia 6(2): 21–43.10.1111/j.1527-2001.1991.tb01391.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, Irene and Quinby, Lee, eds. 1988. Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on resistance. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and danger. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Sari. 1989. Not in man's image: Lesbians and the cultural oppression of body image. Women and Therapy 8(1, 2): 27–39.10.1300/J015v08n01_03CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easlea, Brian. 1981. Science and sexual oppression: Patriarchy's confrontation with woman and nature. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Facial regeneration. 1990. Health: A community education service of the Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital. Supplement to Milwaukee Journal, August 26.Google Scholar
Falling in love again. 1990. Toronto Star. July 23.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1979. Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Sheridan, Alan, trans. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1988. Technologies of the self: The political technology of the individual. In The technologies of the self. Martin, Luther H., Gutman, Huck and Hutton, Patrick, eds. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy. 1989. Unruly practices: Power, discourse, and gender in contemporary social theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Gimenez, Martha. 1984. Feminism, pronatalism, and motherhood. In Mothering: Essays in feminist theory. Trebilcot, Joyce, ed. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allenheld.Google Scholar
Goodman, Ellen. 1989. A plastic pageant. Boston Globe. September 19.Google Scholar
Griffin, Susan. 1978. The anatomy lesson. In Woman and nature: The roaring inside her. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Haraway, Donna. 1978. Animal sociology and a natural economy of the body politic, Parts I, II. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 4(1): 21–60.10.1086/493567CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haraway, Donna. 1989. Primate visions. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hartman, Betsy. 1987. Reproductive rights and wrongs: The global politics of population control and contraceptive choice. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Hartsock, Nancy. 1990. Foucault on power: A theory for women?. In Feminism/postmodernism. Nicholson, Linda, ed. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Haug, Frigga, ed. 1987. Female sexualization: A Collective work of memory. Carter, Erica, trans. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Hirshson, Paul. 1987. New wrinkles in plastic surgery: An update on the search for perfection. Boston Globe Sunday Magazine. May 24.Google Scholar
Holmes, Helen Bequaert and Purdy, Laura, eds. 1989. Hypatia Special Issues on Feminist Ethics and Medicine 4(2, 3).Google Scholar
Implants hide tumors in breasts, study says. 1988. Toronto Star. July 29. Summarized from article in Journal of the American Medical Association July 8, 1988.Google Scholar
Jaggar, Alison, and Bordo, Susan R., eds. 1989. Gender/body/knowledge: Feminist reconstructions of being and knowing. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Jonas, Hans. 1979. Toward a philosophy of technology. Hastings Center Report 9, 1(February): 34–43.10.2307/3561700CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristeva, Julia. 1982. The powers of Horror: An essay on abjection. Roudiez, Leon, trans. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, Robin Tolmach, and Scherr, Raquel. 1984. Face value: The politics of beauty. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Long, strong, perfect nails usually not nature's own. 1988. Toronto Star. August 18.Google Scholar
Looking for Mr. Beautiful. 1990. Boston Globe. May 7.Google Scholar
Lowe, Marion. 1982. The dialectic of biology and culture. In Biological woman: The convenient myth. Hubbard, Ruth, Sue Henifin, Mary, and Fried, Barbara, eds. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman.Google Scholar
Luria, Gina, and Tiger, Virginia. 1976. Everywoman. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
McCabe, Nora. 1990. Cosmetic solutions. Homemaker Magazine (September): 38–46.Google Scholar
Madonna passionate about fitness. 1990. Toronto Star. August 16.Google Scholar
Markovic, Mihailo. 1976. Women's liberation and human emancipation. In Women and philosophy: Toward a theory of liberation. Gould, Carol and Wartofsky, Marx, eds. New York: Capricorn Books.Google Scholar
Matthews, Gwyneth Ferguson. 1985. Mirror, mirror: Self‐image and disabled women. Women and disability: Resources for feminist research 14(1): 47–50.Google Scholar
Mies, Maria. 1988. From the individual to the dividual: In the supermarket of “reproductive alternatives.” Reproductive and Genetic Engineering 1(3): 225–37.Google ScholarPubMed
Morgan, Kathryn Pauly. 1986. Romantic love, altruism, and self‐respect: An analysis of Simone De Beauvoir. Hypatia 1(1): 117–148.10.1111/j.1527-2001.1986.tb00525.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Kathryn Pauly. 1987. Women and moral madness. In Science, morality and feminist theory. Hanen, Marsha and Nielsen, Kai, eds. Special issue of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume 13: 201‐‐226.Google Scholar
Morgan, Kathryn Pauly. 1989. Of woman born: How old‐fashioned New reproductive technologies and women's oppression. In The future of human reproduction. Overall, Christine, ed. Toronto: The Women's Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, Julie [Julien, S]. 1984. Egg farming and women's future. In Test‐tube women: What future for motherhood? Arditti, Rita, Duelli‐Klein, Renate, and Minden, Shelley, eds. Boston: Pandora Press.Google Scholar
New bodies for sale. 1985. Newsweek May 27.Google Scholar
New profile took 3 years. 1989. Toronto Star. May 25.Google Scholar
Osherson, Samuel, and Singhham, Lorna Amara. 1981. The machine metaphor in medicine. In Social contexts of health, illness and patient care. Mishler, E., ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Piercy, Marge. 1980. Right to life. In The moon is always female. New York: A. Knopf.Google Scholar
The quest to be a perfect 10. 1990. Toronto Star. February 1.Google Scholar
Ratcliff, Hathryn Strother, ed. 1989. Healing technology: Feminist perspectives. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 10.3998/mpub.9452CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raymond, Janice. 1987. Preface to Man‐made woman. Corea, Genaet al., eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Retouching nature's way: Is cosmetic surgery worth it? 1990. Toronto Star. February 1.Google Scholar
Rich, Adrienne. 1980. Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5(4): 631–660.10.1086/493756CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothman, Barbara Katz. 1984. The meanings of choice in reproductive technology. In Test‐tube women: What future for motherhood?. Arditti, Rita, Duelli‐Klein, Renate, and Minden, Shelley, eds. Boston: Pandora Press.Google Scholar
Russett, Cynthia Eagle. 1989. Sexual science: The Victorian construction of womanhood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schiebinger, Londa. 1989. The mind has no sex? Women in the origins of modem science. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schoenfielder, Lisa, and Wieser, Barb, eds. 1983. Shadow on a tightrope: Writings by women on fat oppression. Iowa City: Aunt Lute Press.Google Scholar
Sherwin, Susan. 1984–85. A feminist approach to ethics. Dahousie Review. 64(4): 704–713.Google Scholar
Sherwin, Susan. 1987. Feminist ethics and in vitro fertilization. In Science, morality, and feminist theory. Hanen, Marcia and Nielsen, Kai, eds. Special issue of Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume 13: 265‐‐284.Google Scholar
Sherwin, Susan. 1989. Feminist and medical ethics: Two different approaches to contextual ethics. Hypatia 4(2): 57–72.10.1111/j.1527-2001.1989.tb00573.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Silver, Harold. 1989. Liposuction isn't for everybody. Toronto Star. October 20.Google Scholar
Warren, Mary Anne. 1985. Gendercide: The implications of sex selection. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Allenheld.Google Scholar
Warren, Virginia. 1989. Feminist directions in medical ethics. Hypatia 4(2): 73–87.10.1111/j.1527-2001.1989.tb00574.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weldon, Fay. 1983. The life and loves of a she‐devil. London: Coronet Books; New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Williams, John, M.D., and Williams, Jim. 1990. Say it with liposuction. From a press release; reported In Harper's (August).Google Scholar
Woman, 43, dies after cosmetic surgery. 1989. Toronto Star. July 7.Google Scholar