Skin-deep. The Culture of Aesthetic Change, Yesterday and Today

There is not a single society that has not celebrated an ideal look, and not a single population that has not manipulated the bodies of its members to endow them with a virtuous outward appearance. The history of the surgical transformation of bodies for aesthetic goals spans centuries. But what many different epochs have in common is not so much the appreciation of artifice, as the desire to avoid social exclusion. Today, the spread of plastic surgery represents a rift with the past, as it is viewed as a liberating experience and a way to make the individual responsible for her/his physical appearance. New trends in the culture of body change are observed among young people, for whom investing in their own ‘aesthetic capital’ can be a social shortcut. The speaker will introduce the results of a recent research project on adolescents’ practices and attitudes with respect to changing one’s body, which seem to confirm this view.