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Cosmetic vulnerability
the new face of human frailty
pp. 189-217
Abstract
In postmodern societies concerns about physical attractiveness arise. Many want to be eternally young, sexy, slender, unwrinkled and muscular. Therefore the queues get longer in beauty centres, gyms and cosmetic clinics. The aesthetic consumerist desire is stressful and often infinite. No beauty enhancements are possible without cosmetics, fashion industries or clinics. Cosmetic enhancements have become an important source of both income and anxiety. Dysmorphophobias, eating disorders (anorexia, bigorexia), depression, body dimorphic irreparable damage are often caused by surgery and other treatments. The chapter identifies and discusses the emergence of a new social group of vulnerable people… the cosmetically vulnerable. Some negative results of cosmetic practices are raising serious questions about the bioethics of its procedures. Are some cosmetic doctors complicit in promoting socially suspicious standards of beauty and causing the spreading of this new face of human frailty?
Publication details
Published in:
Masferrer Aniceto, García-Sánchez Emilio (2016) Human dignity of the vulnerable in the age of rights: interdisciplinary perspectives. Dordrecht, Springer.
Pages: 189-217
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-32693-1_9
Full citation:
García-Sánchez Emilio (2016) „Cosmetic vulnerability: the new face of human frailty“, In: A. Masferrer & E. García-Sánchez (eds.), Human dignity of the vulnerable in the age of rights, Dordrecht, Springer, 189–217.