The Medicalization of Ugliness

Journal title SALUTE E SOCIETÀ
Author/s Rossella Ghigi
Publishing Year 2009 Issue 2009/EN2
Language English Pages 11 P. 67-77 File size 76 KB
DOI 10.3280/SES2009-EN2006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

<em>The Medicalization of Ugliness</em> - The history of Western scientific and philosophical thought with regard to the human body is marked by a fascination for establishing the parameters of an ideal body shape. During the nineteenth century physiognomy and cosmetic surgery both took inspiration from the illusion of perfect geometrization of the body and its parameterization. The legitimation of cosmetic surgery, in particular, was based on the medicalization of deviations from ideal forms (normal and normative at the same time) of the body, producing the body as an object operable in potentia. This still occurs today particularly in physician-patient interactions and in media discourse. Through an analysis of cosmetic surgery texts (produced respectively by the most important Italian society for plastic surgery, a clinic and a handbook of cosmetic plastic surgery for surgeons) repertoires reading physical appearance through the lenses of normality and pathology are investigated. Based on a qualitative survey of plastic surgeons, the inertia encountered by the process of medicalization of ugliness in everyday practice is discussed. <br/><br/>Keywords: cosmetic surgery, medicalization, social costruction of the body, ugliness, normalization <br/><br/>Parole chiave: chirurgia estetica, medicalizzazione, costruzione sociale del corpo, bruttezza, normalizzazione

  • Pathologizing Ugliness: A Conceptual Analysis of the Naturalist and Normativist Claims in “Aesthetic Pathology” Yves Saint James Aquino, in The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine /2022 pp.735
    DOI: 10.1093/jmp/jhac039
  • Aesthetic Injustice Bjørn Hofmann, in Journal of Business Ethics /2024 pp.217
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05401-4

Rossella Ghigi, The Medicalization of Ugliness in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" EN2/2009, pp 67-77, DOI: 10.3280/SES2009-EN2006