ISBN:
9781479840052
,
147984005X
Language:
English
Pages:
Online Ressource (ix, 259 pages)
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Talley, Heather Laine Saving Face
DDC:
305.908
Keywords:
Aesthetics Social aspects
;
Face Social aspects
;
Surgery, Plastic Social aspects
;
Disfigured persons
;
Physical-appearance-based bias
;
Face Social aspects
;
Aesthetics Social aspects
;
Surgery, Plastic Social aspects
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE ; Discrimination & Race Relations
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE ; Minority Studies
;
SOCIAL SCIENCE ; Sociology ; General
;
Aesthetics ; Social aspects
;
Disfigured persons
;
Face ; Social aspects
;
Physical-appearance-based bias
;
Surgery, Plastic ; Social aspects
;
Electronic books
Abstract:
"Imagine yourself without a face--the task seems impossible. The face is a core feature of our physical identity. Our face is how others identify us and how we think of our 'self'. Yet, human faces are also functionally essential as mechanisms for communication and as a means of eating, breathing, and seeing. For these reasons, facial disfigurement can endanger our fundamental notions of self and identity or even be life threatening, at worse. Precisely because it is so difficult to conceal our faces, the disfigured face compromises appearance, status, and, perhaps, our very way of being in the world.In Saving Face, sociologist Heather Laine Talley examines the cultural meaning and social significance of interventions aimed at repairing faces defined as disfigured. Using ethnography, participant-observation, content analysis, interviews, and autoethnography, Talley explores four sites in which a range of faces are "repaired:" face transplantation, facial feminization surgery, the reality show Extreme Makeover, and the international charitable organization Operation Smile,. Throughout, she considers how efforts focused on repair sometimes intensify the stigma associated with disfigurement. Drawing upon experiences volunteering at a camp for children with severe burns, Talley also considers alternative interventions and everyday practices that both challenge stigma and help those seen as disfigured negotiate outsider status.Talley delves into the promise and limits of facial surgery, continually examining how we might understand appearance as a facet of privilege and a dimension of inequality. Ultimately, she argues that facial work is not simply a conglomeration of reconstructive techniques aimed at the human face, but rather, that appearance interventions are increasingly treated as lifesaving work. Especially at a time when aesthetic technologies carrying greater risk are emerging and when discrimination based on appearance is rampant, this important book challenges us to think critically about how we see the human face"--
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index. - Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (ebrary platform, viewed October 21, 2014)
URL:
Volltext
(lizenzpflichtig)
URL:
https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781479840052
URL:
Volltext
(URL des Erstveröffentlichers)
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