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Remaking the She-Devil: A Critical Look at Feminist Approaches to Beauty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Kathy Davis
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Abstract

Cosmetic surgery provides a problematic case for feminist theorizing about femininity and women's relationship with their bodies. Feminist accounts of femininity and beauty are unable to explain cosmetic surgery without undermining the women who opt for it. I argue that cosmetic surgery may have less to do with beauty and more to do with being ordinary, taking one's life into one's own hands, and determining how much suffering is fair.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , Summer 1991 , pp. 21 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 by Hypatia, Inc.

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