Feminist debates on cosmetic surgery: theoretical models and interpretative strategies
Keywords:
cosmetic surgery, feminist theories, agency, research design, methodologyAbstract
This article aims to identify and describe the feminist theoretical debates surrounding cosmetic surgery, seeking to highlight the implications of each of these approaches for the design of social science research. The presentation is structured in three sections. The first section provides a brief characterization of the stages of a social science research design. In the second section we identify and describe the theoretical disputes that characterize the “classic” feminist debates about cosmetic surgery, with the aim of highlighting conceptual, epistemological and interpretative differences between oppressive, discursive and agency-centered approaches. In the third section we address some recent feminist research, whose point of confluence consists in highlighting the intersubjective character of the discourse on cosmetic surgery. These approaches introduce a modification in the interpretative strategy that, as we see in the last section of the paper, needs to be complemented with a reflection on the research techniques used. In closing, we highlight the potential of shifting from a causal to a processual imaginary to identify the complex web of actors and socio-economic contexts that underlie the consumption of cosmetic surgery.
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