TY - JOUR
T1 - More than perfect
T2 - Cosmetic surgery and ageing single women in contemporary China
AU - Chow, Yiu Fai
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by the University Grant Council, Hong Kong, under its General Research Fund scheme (Project No. 12613117).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - In this article, I want to connect my inquiry into cosmetic surgery not only to a general category of women, but to its intersections with ageing, singlehood and China. Facilitating dialogues between cultural studies, feminist studies and ageing studies, I argue for the need to be less normative, but more inquisitive, for the need to heed specificities, to hear what the women themselves have to say. Departing from the dominant feminist and neoliberal critique against beautification practices in general and cosmetic surgery in particular, I argue for alternative ways to connect with, and the concomitant refusal to flatten, women’s experience. In other words, I am less interested in how they are used by the beauty industries, but how they use beautification practices – under their specific circumstances. I draw from intersectional perspectives to re-examine the dominant critique against beauty work through this group of single, ageing, Chinese women. What motivates them to agree to acid filling, Botox injection, facial manipulation and other bodily interventions? How do they choose what to do? What factors are involved? How does the surgery impact on their personal and professional life? To answer these questions, I recruited 12 women, born between 1970 and 1989, who have undergone a diversity of interventions. Far from the type or stereotype of women who desire perfection, they articulate their experiences using four repertoires: to demonstrate they are more thoughtful, knowledgeable and mature; to underline their single sisterhood; to distance themselves from the perfectionist longing; and to experience themselves better as single women.
AB - In this article, I want to connect my inquiry into cosmetic surgery not only to a general category of women, but to its intersections with ageing, singlehood and China. Facilitating dialogues between cultural studies, feminist studies and ageing studies, I argue for the need to be less normative, but more inquisitive, for the need to heed specificities, to hear what the women themselves have to say. Departing from the dominant feminist and neoliberal critique against beautification practices in general and cosmetic surgery in particular, I argue for alternative ways to connect with, and the concomitant refusal to flatten, women’s experience. In other words, I am less interested in how they are used by the beauty industries, but how they use beautification practices – under their specific circumstances. I draw from intersectional perspectives to re-examine the dominant critique against beauty work through this group of single, ageing, Chinese women. What motivates them to agree to acid filling, Botox injection, facial manipulation and other bodily interventions? How do they choose what to do? What factors are involved? How does the surgery impact on their personal and professional life? To answer these questions, I recruited 12 women, born between 1970 and 1989, who have undergone a diversity of interventions. Far from the type or stereotype of women who desire perfection, they articulate their experiences using four repertoires: to demonstrate they are more thoughtful, knowledgeable and mature; to underline their single sisterhood; to distance themselves from the perfectionist longing; and to experience themselves better as single women.
KW - Ageing
KW - beauty
KW - China
KW - cosmetic surgery
KW - perfect
KW - single women
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128222274&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/13675494221086308
DO - 10.1177/13675494221086308
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85128222274
SN - 1367-5494
VL - 25
SP - 1448
EP - 1466
JO - European Journal of Cultural Studies
JF - European Journal of Cultural Studies
IS - 5
ER -
