Latina bodies in the era of elective aesthetic surgery
- PDF / 229,686 Bytes
- 23 Pages / 535.748 x 697.323 pts Page_size
- 18 Downloads / 189 Views
L a t i n a b o d i e s i n t h e er a o f e l e c t i v e aesthetic surgery
H i l d a Ll o r én s American Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI.
Abstract Using a multi-methods approach (for example, ethnographic interviews, participant observation, content analysis of television shows), I explored Latina women’s experiences with the plastic surgery industry. This article illustrates how multiple actors – doctors, beauty pageant promoters, stylists, beauty queens, media and plastic surgery consumers themselves – construct notions of universal beauty. The reality television show Dr. 90210 and the Miss Universe Pageant competition are analyzed to understand the ways in which multiple actors/agents influence Latina/o beauty ideals and how these in turn influence plastic surgery practices. This article also explores the ways in which ethnicity, race and cultural ideals disrupt, and at times, shape plastic surgery practices. What I call the Maja woman emerges as the universal beauty ideal for Latinas. Latino Studies (2013) 11, 547–569. doi:10.1057/lst.2013.32 Keywords: beauty; race; plastic surgery; Maja woman; body fashioning; reality TV
I am a firm believer in plastic surgery as a way to improve my appearance. I will go back to the operating table as many times as I deem necessary, if I want to fix something and I can afford it, then I will! –Karen, 36 years old, model and doctoral student This article explores the connections between US Latina beauty ideals and contemporary plastic surgery practices drawing from popular media and ethnographic interviews conducted with Latinas about their experiences, views and opinions regarding elective aesthetic surgery. Representations of the Latina and © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1476-3435 Latino Studies www.palgrave-journals.com/lst/
Vol. 11, 4, 547–569
Lloréns
1 A myriad of interests (for example, Anglo and ‘Latino’ media, government agencies, businesses, among others) come together to group women of presumably Latin American national and ethnic backgrounds into the broad category of US Latina (Dávila, 2001). The term Latina also evokes a specific set of stereotypes (often perpetuated by Anglo and Latino media alike) that include, but are not limited to, sexy, hypersexual, bombshell, “hot tamale,” alternately loud or submissive, spicy, feisty or hot blooded, curvaceous, fast speaking, and accented speech and histrionic. 2 Every one of the women I interviewed cited media (for example, fashion magazines, television shows
548
Latin American body by celebrity plastic surgeons and mainstream media are analyzed to understand the increasingly global character of the beauty industry. As used throughout this article Latina implies, in Myra Mendible’s (2007, 1) words, a “convenient fiction,” a “historically contingent, mass-produced combination of myth, desire, location, marketing, and political expedience,” rather than an ethnic category sensu stricto.1 Whether they are in Bogotá, Miami, San Juan, Los Angeles or New York City, the contemporary global currents of the fashion
Data Loading...
