Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery |
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Author:
Virginia L. Blum
By University of California Press
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $3.39
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Product Description
When did cosmetic surgery become a common practice, the stuff of everyday conversation? In a work that combines a provocative ethnography of plastic surgery and a penetrating analysis of beauty and feminism, Virginia L. Blum searches out the social conditions and imperatives that have made ours a culture of cosmetic surgery. From diverse viewpoints, ranging from cosmetic surgery patient to feminist cultural critic, she looks into the realities and fantasies that have made physical malleability an essential part of our modern-day identity.
For a cultural practice to develop such a tenacious grip, Blum argues, it must be fed from multiple directions: some pragmatic, including the profit motive of surgeons and the increasing need to appear young on the job; some philosophical, such as the notion that a new body is something you can buy or that appearance changes your life. Flesh Wounds is an inquiry into the ideas and practices that have forged such a culture. Tying the boom in cosmetic surgery to a culture-wide trend toward celebrity, Blum explores our growing compulsion to emulate what remain for most of us two-dimensional icons. Moving between personal experiences and observations, interviews with patients and surgeons, and readings of literature and cultural moments, her book reveals the ways in which the practice of cosmetic surgery captures the condition of identity in contemporary culture.
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Escapism from the Self and the Turmoil of Self-Rejection, 2006-07-24
There are alot of payoffs for physical perfection ... it can easily be the quick-fix for a better life and a step up. The one thing though is that behind it all is a mask and cover up of self-rejection and a drug of choice to run away from one's true personality. Even when beauty gets you what you want ... it may not take away the inner strife that causes the behavior in the first place. Pursuing beauty can be an ugly experience.
Before you go ahead and part with hard-earned money ... go read The Hoffman Process by Tim Laurence.
Fluffy book sourced with National Enquirer articles, 2006-03-23
Here's a real-review:
*The first 100 pages are about how her mother made her get a nose job that when wrong.
*The second 100 pages are about the Frankenstein movie.
*The last 90 pages are about every movie-star that's ever gotten cosmetic surgery.
And the whole thing is stitched together with an English teacher's weekend theory on how a mix of "Simulations and Simulacra" + "The Ego and the Id" explain why people get cosmetic surgery. If you're someone who orders books online based on catchy titles, then do yourself a favor and skip this one. How can a book on cosmetic surgery not even talk about the golden ratio?
Fascinating, well written and interesting!, 2005-06-14
I was stunned to find there are no reviews of this book here at Amazon. This book is a great read. I had trouble putting it down! The author is a professor of literature and makes an apology for stepping outside her field (of literature) to write a book about plastic surgery, but it is PRECISELY her background that makes this book so wonderful.
The topic is well-researched and yet presented in layman's terms and the stats and facts are nothing but mind blowing. She makes references to Frankenstein, which prompted me to go read THAT classic and she's right; we're now formed by society's impressions of our physical appearance (which is the link to Victor Frankenstein's monster).
If you think about this, it's rather insane. When people's appearance is improved, they're treated better by society and that gives them more self-confidence and inner peace. How bass-ackwards is that?
I don't know when I've read a more thought-provoking book than "Flesh Wounds." I find myself quoting from it to friends again and again. And it's also proving INVALUABLE in writing my own book about internet dating. (Available August 2005).
Rose Thornton
Review of Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery, 2005-04-18
Virginia L. Blum examines the topic of cosmetic surgery in her research-based informational book Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery. The book, written by the English professor at the University of Kentucky, appeals to many audiences, is informative in many subjects, and is greatly influenced by her background with cosmetic surgery. Flesh Wounds can be widely used because she uses the book to inform the public on the basics and the inside
Randy/ Oklahoma State University, 2005-03-24
The book Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery by Virginia L. Blum takes the reader into the minds of the individuals influenced by cosmetic surgery. Blum is an English Professor at the University of Kentucky and she became a victim of the cosmetic surgery craze when she was a teenager. Blum writes a very intriguing book about how cosmetic surgery captivates the interests of patients. She points out that society has taken to the fascination of cosmetic surgery, due to the fixation on celebrities. Celebrities stand as a two-dimensional image, where society looks to celebrities for body images. Celebrities are also looking elsewhere for body images too. Society is slowly turning into a unified body mold. Basically society is going to one day be seperated by groups of body types. Society is losing the individual identity that has supported our cultures for years. Flesh Wounds contributes to an understanding of why society is so focused on the outter appearences. Today, society is based on two negative aspects, that is whether a person is attractive or unattractive. Beauty does not make a person more intelligent, nor does not being beautify make a person less intelligent. I liked this book, because Blum does an impressive job providing the evidence of how cosmetic surgery is destroying individualism.
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 617.952
EAN: 9780520244733
ISBN: 0520244737
Label: University of California Press
Manufacturer: University of California Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 366
Publication Date: 2005-04-04
Publisher: University of California Press
Studio: University of California Press |
