Abstract

ELLIOTT, Anthony  and  PEREZ-HENAO, Horacio. Extreme plastic: boom of aesthetic surgery culture. anagramas rumbos sentidos comun. [online]. 2011, vol.9, n.18, pp.145-164. ISSN 1692-2522.

This article is based on one of the chapters of the book Making the Cut: How Cosmetic Surgery is Transforming our Lives written by Anthony Elliott© (Reaktion Books, 2008). Translation becomes very interesting for Spanish speakers who try to understand the aesthetic surgery phenomenon in contemporary societies, from a wider perspective. Communication media have undoubtedly performed an important role when promoting, legitimating, and establish surgical cosmetic interventions as an ordinary social practice by means of which triumph can be assured nowadays. However, exploration and analysis made by Elliott appropriately combines special features of the advanced globalization, logics of the new economy, high technology development, and prevailing desire for immediate reinvention. In this way, Elliott displays an overview over which the so called aesthetic surgery culture moves. Through a narration, the author involves his experience as a sociology researcher with journalistic, scientific, and statistical reports, and he constructs a clear, accurate, and pleasant text for both new and expert readers. Translation has been authorized by Reaktion Books and is registered as one of the products of a research entitled Cuerpo Narrado (Narrated Body). I have developed it with the support of Universidad de Medellin School of Communication and its Communication Research Center (CIC, for its initials in Spanish). The research belongs to the Audiovisual Narrative research line (from the Communication, Organization, and Politics group - Colciencias category A1) and the body as a narrative category on ''Cambio Extremo'' (Extreme Change) reality show has been studies. Elliott's text is then very important since it provides key elements which allow clarifying essential aspects of the aesthetic surgery culture as a media, economic, and social phenomenon.

Keywords : cirugía estética; cuerpo; globalización; nueva economía; globalización avanzada.

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