The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Master's Theses Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects Fall 12-14-2012 The Globalization of Cosmetic Surgery: Examining BRIC and Beyond Lauren E. Riggs University of San Francisco, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/thes Part of the Inequality and Stratification Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Other Sociology Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Regional Sociology Commons, and the Sociology of Culture Commons Recommended Citation Riggs, Lauren E., "The Globalization of Cosmetic Surgery: Examining BRIC and Beyond" (2012). 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The Globalization of Cosmetic Surgery: Examining BRIC and Beyond Author: Lauren Riggs1 University of San Francisco Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS) November 30, 2012 1 [email protected] The Globalization of Cosmetic Surgery: Examining BRIC and Beyond In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS In INTERNATIONAL STUDIES by Lauren Riggs November 2012 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approval by all the members, this thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree. Approved: ______________________ ___________ Advisor Date __________________________ ______________ Academic Director Date __________________________ ______________ Dean of Arts and Sciences Date ii Abstract: What is driving the globalization of cosmetic surgery? Using BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries as a model, this master's thesis systematically identifies and analyzes (1) the origins of cosmetic surgery in historical, regional, and country-specific terms, and (2) examples of how cosmetic surgery has become normalized. As a result, clear patterns emerge in regards to: embedded power structures related to racism and war; the results of Western interests rapidly opening countries’ markets to high media and corporate influence—especially in the wake of political oppression and austerity; the exacerbation of pre-existing class, color, race, and gender prejudice by hyper-consumerism; the perception of the beauty industry and global beauty pageants as a gateway to the "modern" world's stage; and the practice of “Westernized” cosmetic surgery becoming synonymous with concepts of status, upward mobility, and a social transition to global citizenship. These overall patterns allowed for the subsequent analysis of a third key question: (3) Who ultimately benefits from mass-consumer cosmetic surgery? Following a comprehensive comparative analysis and a sustained theoretical framework concluding with a Foucauldian explanation of relationships of force, I argue that the globalization of cosmetic surgery is driven by pre-existing sociohistorical power structures that serve the status quo— benefitting exclusionary cultural, cosmetic, and corporate systems from the West (and those who run them), and thereby precluding authentic opportunities for individual enfranchisement via cosmetic surgery on a macro level. Furthermore, I argue that by constructing and labeling "modernity" in terms that benefit the status quo and reflect historical relationships of force, developed nations maintain hegemonic control in their own image; meaning that fast-developing countries must follow existing neoliberal consumer models if they want to enter the global stage—and look the part. Accordingly, the racist and bellicose discursive origins of cosmetic surgery are an inconvenient truth that "modern" cosmetic surgery culture seeks to ignore in order to self-perpetuate and evolve with the demands of capitalism. Recommendations for future study in this field include the industries of medical tourism, skin lightening products, and tissue harvesting, as well as an expanding market of cosmetic surgery for teens and children. Key words: Cosmetic surgery, the body, BRIC, plastic surgery, globalization, critical race studies iii Table of Contents COSMETIC SURGERY AS A TOPIC OF STUDY.................................................. 1. Table 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK............................................................................... 5. What is “Ethnic” Plastic Surgery? Cosmetic Surgery and Gender Cosmetic Surgery and Agency: How is “Choice” Framed? Theories Relating to Power DEFINITION OF TERMS........................................................................................... 26. THE UNITED STATES: MEDIA AND THE BIRTH OF COMMERCIAL MEDICINE 27. The Origins of Commercial Cosmetic Surgery in the United States The Normalization of Cosmetic Surgery: Identity and Media The Results: A Unique American Export WHY BRIC MATTERS............................................................................................... 41. A Note on Global Statistics BRAZIL: EMPIRE OF THE SCALPEL..................................................................... 45. The Origins of the ‘Democratization’ of Cosmetic Surgery in Brazil The Normalization of Brazil’s Eugenics Movement and its Roots in Cosmetic Surgery Who Benefits? Private-Public Medicine and the Social Outcomes of Cosmetic Surgery CENTRAL EUROPE AND THE WEST: THE HUB OF INNOVATION................ 74. The Origins of Western Cosmetic Surgery World War I and the Normalization of Reconstructive and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery A Foundation Firmly Placed: From “Curing” Disease to “Curing” Difference RUSSIA: THE PERILS OF LAX REGULATION...................................................... 97. The Origins of Deregulation: Neoliberal Economic Policies and the End of the U.S.S.R Normalization: ‘Modernity’ and the Media-Constructed ‘Western’ Body Who Does an Unregulated Cosmetic Surgery Market Benefit? Medical Commercialization 2.0 INDIA: ANOTHER OPEN MARKET.......................................................................... 112. The Origins of Indian Plastic Surgery: Teaching the West The Normalization of Cosmetic Surgery in India The Results of Cosmetic Surgery Culture: Social Critique or Social Networking? CHINA: COSMETIC SURGERY AND THE JOB MARKET.................................... 127. Closed and Opened Doors: The Long Origins of Globalization The Normalization of Cosmetic Surgery: China on the Global Stage The Result: Embodied Capital EAST ASIA: THE VESTIGES OF OCCUPATION—PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE 157. Japan: The Origins of Cosmetic Surgery in East Asia Vietnam: A Similar Pattern of Normalization South Korea: Outlier or the Future of Globalized Cosmetic Surgery? DISCUSSION................................................................................................................. 194. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE STUDY............... 204. REFERENCES................................................................................................................ 210. iv Thank you to my loving family, all of my USF MAIS instructors and fellow graduate students, MAIS Director, Dr. Anne Bartlett, my Thesis Advisor, Dr. Nicole Raeburn, my second half, Andrew, and my employer for their support and guidance during the course of this project— and throughout my graduate studies. v 1 COSMETIC SURGERY AS A TOPIC OF STUDY Although alterations of hair, skin color, diet, dress, and body accessories have always existed in order to reach the beauty ideals popularized by dominant groups, the increased precision, “invisibility,” and permanence of cosmetic surgery has changed the nature, pressures, and results of physical transformation like never before in human history as the practice rapidly spreads across the globe. This paper specifically asks: What is driving the globalization of cosmetic surgery? In order to answer this research question, I must also address three auxiliary questions within the scope of this paper: (1) What are the origins of cosmetic surgery? (2) How does it become normalized? and (3) Who does it benefit? The early origins of this project are based primarily on a decade’s worth of personal interest in the rise of consumer cosmetic surgeries, as well as my own informal theories and critical arguments derived mainly from the analysis of mainstream sources. However, the actual construction of this thesis topic relied on countless hours of academic research under the wise guidance of the University of San Francisco’s global awareness-expanding, Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS) program. Newly equipped with a deeper multidisciplinary understanding of globalization from the lens of my MAIS coursework but having no prior specific undergraduate or graduate experience in gender studies, I was pleasantly surprised to find at the onset of my research what I had hitherto not known existed: a rich selection of academic studies on cosmetic surgery examining the “tremendously complex and significant social trends concerning the body, gender, psyche, medical practice and ethics, globalization, aesthetic ideologies, and both communication and medical technologies” (Heyes