著者

英 美由紀

出版者

お茶の水女子大学ジェンダー研究センター

雑誌

ジェンダ-研究 (ISSN:13450638)

巻号頁・発行日

no.9, pp.59-70, 2006-03

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In contemporary literary trend, the body is regarded as a social/cultural construction and is brought to the forefront in studies of gender, sexuality, race, and class. When viewed from the perspective of such studies,the recent surge of interest in women's concerns about their physical appearance-taking such forms as dieting, fashion, and cosmetics-is an attempt to explore the power relations between the genders. The aim of this paper is to argue that the pursuit of beauty and the rise of plastic surgery as an extreme practice, both related to the female gender, reflect the asymmetrical position of the sexes in modern society. By surveying two theories that discuss women's bodies in the first section of the article,and also by examining Fay Weldon's The Life and the Loves of a She-Devil (1983) as a work exploring plastic surgery. In the following two sections, I conclude that what seems to be the heroine's active choice to undergo surgery is, in effect, formed under the strong influence of gender relations in society. I also find in the portrayal of the heroine that plastic surgery, although often discussed posi\tively in the discourse of liberation, can cause substantial harm to women, both physically and mentally.