How did ordinary women and men with ordinary lives and ordinary bodies learn that they need plastic? The answer: the plastic ideological complex, a set of cultural texts that are both highly contested and yet tightly on message. It is itself so ubiquitous that it might even be described as hegemonic. In other words, the “need” for cosmetic procedures is impossible to avoid. Through advertising and TV shows, movies and magazines, we learn to want cosmetic intervention in our aging faces and imperfect bodies. This need is now so firmly implanted in our cultural psyche that it has become “common sense” to embrace cosmetic procedures.
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Tags: advertising, aging, bioethics, cosmetic surgery, gender, lifestyle, media, pop culture, tv0 Comments -
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A personals ad from a recent New York Review of Books:
WOMAN, 79 (LOOKS 78), Upper West Side pseudo-intellectual, Europe 4 years, wants man’s company occasionally for chamber concerts, lectures, meals. Platonic.
I’d love to meet this woman. I imagine her life as a Henry James novel written by Oscar Wilde.
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Jan -
December 24, 2009
Source: Wunderground When did we start calling the whole day before Christmas “Christmas Eve?” I thought Christmas Eve was the evening before Christmas. But no. Senators voted on health care reform at 1:00 AM on Thursday December 24th. To me, that’s still Wednesday night, but it was widely reported as happening on Christmas Eve. Perhaps…
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Aging Dying & Death,
Health & Medicine,
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Tags: aging, climate change, clinical medicine, corporations, death, doctor/patient relationship, exercise, health care, health news, medical profession, medicalization, politics, risk0 Comments -
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Jan -
October 20, 2009
Source: Palliative Care Foundation This past summer, thanks in large part to Sarah Palin, we were inundated with sound bites about death panels, pulling the plug on grandma, and saving the government money by dying a little sooner. Palin’s emotionally manipulative Facebook post appeared on August 7. “The America I know and love is not…
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Here are some things I’ve come across recently. Categories include: Aging/End of Life/Death, Doctors, Influenza, Genetics, and Health Care Reform. AGING, END OF LIFE, AND DEATH End-of-Life Care: Where Ethics Meet Economics (The New York Times – Uwe Reinhardt) Health spending in the United States has doubled every 10 years during the last four decades….
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Source: Terry King MD Like the appendix , collateral circulation is another part of our anatomy that was more useful to our ancestors. Collateral circulation refers to systems of veins and arteries that allow blood to continue flowing when the main pathway is blocked or damaged. These extra vessels sometimes develop in response to a…
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Source: Dictionary.com The gall bladder is another useful but expendable organ (see recent posts on the appendix and the spleen). Unlike losing your spleen, living without a gall bladder is not detrimental to your health, though it may be inconvenient at times. The gall bladder is located under the liver, on the right side of…
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My mother was decidedly vain her whole life. She’d been exceptionally good looking in her youth, which made it especially difficult to accept the slow physical decay of aging.
Surely it must be easier in our culture to accept the wrinkles, sags and bulges that come with advancing age if one has never thought of oneself as particularly attractive. Or if one has cared little about appearances. Admittedly, this is an increasingly rare point of view in contemporary Western societies.
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In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Kennedy-Dodd committee proposal released) Health news (Is Tylenol (acetaminophen) safe to take every day?) Aging (Doctors lack training in care of the elderly) Pop culture (Michael Jackson and Diprivan (propofol), Jackson’s weight, Jackson’s doctor) Health care reform The Senate health committee proposal on health care has been released. Turns…
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Categories:
Aging Dying & Death,
Arts & Media,
Health & Medicine,
Politics & Issues -
Tags: aging, FDA, health care, health news, medical profession, pharmaceuticals, politics, pop culture0 Comments -
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How did ordinary women and men with ordinary lives and ordinary bodies learn that they need plastic? The answer: the plastic ideological complex, a set of cultural texts that are both highly contested and yet tightly on message. It is itself so ubiquitous that it might even be described as hegemonic. In other words, the “need” for cosmetic procedures is impossible to avoid. Through advertising and TV shows, movies and magazines, we learn to want cosmetic intervention in our aging faces and imperfect bodies. This need is now so firmly implanted in our cultural psyche that it has become “common sense” to embrace cosmetic procedures.
