Biopower and postfeminism: cosmetic surgery in the mass media

Revista Teknokultura

María Isabel Menéndez Menéndez¹ 

[1] Universidad de Burgos;

关键词: biopoder;    postfeminismo;    cirugía estética;    prensa de masas;    agencia;   

DOI  :  10.5209/rev_TK.2013.v10.n3.48074

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Postfeminism; according to authors like MacRobbie; Projansky; or Ferris and Young; is a new form of backlash transmitted through popular culture. It appropriates the achievements of western feminism to propose practices of normative femininity as liberating; in an exercise of profound rejection of feminism that is deeply embedded in the neoliberal capitalist system. Applying this line of thought to bodily and aesthetic issues; critics warn about these practices becoming an instance of biopolitics that pursues the construction of docile bodies –particularly female docile bodies– through new technologies like biomedicine. This article offers a theoretical reflection about the two paradigms –postfeminism and biopower–; applying them to the representation of cosmetic surgery in the female press; and it concludes in a critical note: cosmetic surgery; presented by women’s magazines as a new way of “constructing oneself”; has become yet another mechanism of control; even among those who intend to use it as an element of resistance.

【 授权许可】

Unknown