Transformaciones históricas de la cirugía estética como dispositivo de normalización. El caso de la rinoplastia

Marcelo Córdoba

doi:10.5565/rev/athenea.1714

Historical transformations of aesthetic surgery as a normalization apparatus. The case of rhinoplasty

Authors

Marcelo Córdoba Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad (CIECS-CONICET)

Abstract

In this article I develop a historical interpretation of aesthetic surgery as a normalizing technology of body appearance. The argument I present holds that the normalization apparatus of aesthetic surgery operated according to a homogenizing rationality until the middle of the past century, undergoing since the second post-war a reconfiguration process which nowadays established it as an individualizing regime. I illustrate this argument by considering the changing cultural meaning and value that the experience of rhinoplasty received along this period. The method I employ is the comparative analysis of two texts produced in different historical conditions: first, Transformation and Identity. The Face and Plastic Surgery (1974), by the American anthropologist Frances Cooke Macgregor; secondly, Hacerse. El viaje de una mujer en busca de la cirugía perfecta (2010), by the Argentine journalist Daniela Pasik.

Keywords

Aesthetic Surgery, Rhinoplasty, Normalization, Surgical Passing

References

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Author Biography

Marcelo Córdoba, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad (CIECS-CONICET)

Licenciado en Ciencia Política. Especialista en Investigación de la Comunicación. Doctor en Semiótica por el Centro de Estudios Avanzados de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. Miembro del equipo de investigación “Transformaciones culturales contemporáneas”, del Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad (CIECS-CONICET).