Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.
Via Context Crawler, Mary McNamara of the LA Times reviews Anthony Elliott’ s book, Making the Cut: How Cosmetic Surgery is Transforming our Lives. The book will be out in June. Elliott is Professor of Sociology at Flinders University in Australia. McNamara characterizes the book as such:
“If you think the plastic-surgery boom is just another sign that our culture is shallow, death-denying and youth-obsessed, think again. Because according to sociologist Anthony Elliott, a “mommy job” is not just shorthand for the breast augmentation/tummy tuck many women choose to have after giving birth, it’s a toxic side effect of globalization, rampant consumerism, the electronic economy and, perhaps, a worldwide epidemic of good old melancholia. His [Elliott's] purpose, and really at times it feels more like a quest, is to examine how cosmetic surgery is at once a driving force and a result of the new, international, techno-speedy, obsolescence-included economy — an almost perfect model of how capitalism not only meets consumer needs but creates them as well.”
Seems interesting. Of course, references to obsolescence economy will remind a lot of people of this fun little film called the Story of Stuff. In the film, Annie Leonard also discusses obsolescence as part of the economy. She distinguishes between “planned obsolescence” (how long is the stuff you buy supposed to work before it breaks down… and yes, production of stuff involves planning for breakdown and replacement) and “perceived obsolescence”, which relates to how advertising and marketing are conceived to make us perceive that what we use, wear, etc. is obsolete even though it works perfectly well. You do need a new flat panel monitor for your desktop or that great new super slim Mac laptop, don’t you?
Well, why not extend that reasoning to our bodies? They sure have planned obsolescence… that’s called aging. But there is also perceived obsolescence and this is where plastic surgery comes in. We can’t really fight planned obsolescence (well, not now, maybe, in the future, you know, Glenn Reynolds’ stuff… Hey I read a lot of scifi, bite me!).
But we can fight perceived obsolescence by getting under the knives, because, according to Elliott, one of the main values we have embraced in the West, but especially in the United States, is that of continuous reinvention. We have seen it in corporate management (”Who moved my cheese?”, “Good to great”? No link for that stuff though), and academic settings (continuous improvement!! Yay! through standardized testing… oh !@#$). As McNamara puts it,
“Elliott argues that people, at least the old definition of people, i.e. creatures whose bodies go through a predictable set of changes called “aging,” are increasingly perceived as not only a drag on the new capitalism, with its enjoyment of downsizing and corporate shake-ups (the former CEO with the bags under his eyes is probably tired, the woman with the pooching belly might have children who require her at home some of the time), but also a sign of woefully limited imagination.
Why be reactive when you can be proactive?
Elliott seems particularly disturbed by the young people who seem to view cosmetic surgery as an accessory, something to be purchased, used for a season and upgraded (the pages about surgical tourism are particularly hilarious, in a horrifying way).
“For better or worse,” Elliott writes, “globalization has given rise to the 24/7 society, in which continual self-actualization and dramatic self-reinvention have become all the rage.”"
That was an interesting review so far (most of the points above are mine though), but then, after that, McNamara shows how journalists can be intellectually lazy and annoying. The rest of the review is McNamara whining that the book is to hard to read! There are big words and some theory stuff, man. That stuff is hard… it’s a book about cosmetic surgery! It should be easy to read, kinda like these magazines you read in your doctor’s waiting room!
Pierre Bourdieu used to say that complex ideas have to be explained in their complexity and not watered / dumbed down. So, yes, Elliott is a sociologist, so, it’s very likely that there are formulations that are at a level of writing above People magazine. Tough luck, McNamara, didn’t they teach you some high level reading comprehension at the college where you got your journalism degree?
Good grief, and these are the people we rely on to inform us on all sorts of complex matters. No wonder they much prefer horse-race coverage for elections and “human interest” stories.
Anyway, I’ve ordered the book and will review it when I get it… that is, if it’s not too hard to read… geebus.
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