Pretty Modern
{{Multiple issues|
{{Cleanup|reason=improve references, change reception section into entirely prose|date=June 2018}}
{{Orphan|date=June 2018}}
}}
{{short description|2010 anthropology book}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Pretty Modern
| image = Edmonds_Pretty_Modern_Cover.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| author = Alexander Edmonds
| audio_read_by =
| title_orig =
| orig_lang_code =
| title_working =
| translator =
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = Brazil
| language = English
| series =
| release_number =
| subject =
| genre =
| set_in =
| publisher = Duke University Press
| publisher2 =
| pub_date = December 2010
| media_type =
| pages =
| awards = Winner, 2013 Eileen Basker Memorial Prize, presented by the Society for Medical Anthropology
Honorable Mention, 2011 Sharon Stephens Book Prize, presented by the American Ethnological Association
Honorable Mention, 2012 Roberto Reis Award, presented by BRASA
Winner, Diana Forsythe Prize from the Society for the Anthropology of Work section, American Anthropological Association
| isbn = 9786613251879
| isbn_note =
| dewey =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
| native_wikisource =
| wikisource =
| notes =
| exclude_cover =
| website =
}}
Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil is a book by anthropologist Alexander Edmonds published by Duke University Press in 2010.{{Cite news|url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/pretty-modern|title=Pretty Modern|work=Duke University Press|access-date=2018-01-24|language=en-US}} Edmonds examines plastic surgery as a social domain and uses it to explore the social, medical and psychological landscape and conflicts in modern-day Brazil.{{Cite web|url=http://somatosphere.net/2013/12/alexander-edmonds-pretty-modern.html|title=Alexander Edmonds' Pretty Modern {{!}} Somatosphere|website=somatosphere.net|language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-26|date=2013-12-16}} In this book, he seeks to answer the question "how did plastic surgery—a practice often associated with body hatred and alienation—take root in this city known for its glorious embrace of sensuality and pleasure?” He examine what constitutes a perfect Brazilian body and how the social and racial dynamic of Brazil affect this.{{Cite journal|last=Lloréns|first=Hilda|date=2012-05-24|title=Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil (review)|journal=Anthropological Quarterly|language=en|volume=85|issue=2|pages=639–642|doi=10.1353/anq.2012.0025|s2cid=143711991 |issn=1534-1518}}
Synopsis
The book contains three main sections, each addressing a particular aspect of plastic surgery culture in Brazil. Edmonds uses mainly interviews and observations of procedures as well as academic theories and publications. He interviews an array of people from various socio-economic backgrounds.
= Part One: The Self-Esteem in Each Ego Awakens =
This section of the book examines the roles of medicine and psychology in defining physical defects as an illness.{{Cite web|url=http://somatosphere.net/2013/12/alexander-edmonds-pretty-modern.html|title=Alexander Edmonds' Pretty Modern {{!}} Somatosphere|website=somatosphere.net|language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-27|date=2013-12-16}}{{cite news |title=Dr. Diana Gheorghita |url=https://drdiana.ro/ |access-date=18 January 2024 |publisher=Plastic Surgeon}} It focuses on the career and philosophy of Dr. Ivo Pitanguy and his idea that everyone has "the right to beauty" and how the lines between what constitutes reconstructive and aesthetic surgery are blurred.{{Cite news|url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/pretty-modern|title=Pretty Modern|work=Duke University Press|access-date=2018-04-27|language=en-US}} He is an advocate for free cosmetic surgery in public hospitals and affordability and believes in the therapeutic rational and mental treatment of plastic surgery for mental suffering.
= Part Two: Beautiful People =
This part of the book addresses race in relation to beauty standards in Brazil. He examines how the idea of a racial democracy and mestiçagem (rainbow of colors) allows racism to be ignored in Brazilian culture. He explores how the ideal Brazilian body as a mixture of both black and white features but he also explores how this standard still perpetuates racism.
= Part Three: Engineering the Erotic =
Critical reception
Alexander Edmonds received good reviews on this book from how he addressed such a multi-faceted topic from all angles whilst maintaining respect for Brazilian culture. Hilda Lloréns wrote: "Pretty Modern is a masterful ethnography about the medicalization of beauty".{{Cite journal|last=Lloréns|first=Hilda|date=2012|title=Review of Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil|jstor=41857261|journal=Anthropological Quarterly|volume=85|issue=2|pages=639–642|doi=10.1353/anq.2012.0025|s2cid=143711991 }} The book was reviewed as a "beautifully written and intimate portrait of the private worlds of Brazilian socialites, middle-class madams, and their working-class maids, all of them striving,..., for beauty, sexual prowess, social recognition, and ultimately a modicum of self-love and self-esteem through cosmetic surgery"{{Cite journal|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=53|issue=4|pages=514–518|jstor=10.1086/666624|language=en|doi=10.1086/666624|last1=Scheper-Hughes|first1=Nancy|title=Bodies, Biotechnologies, and Moral Economies Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil. By Alexander Edmonds. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2010.God's Laboratory: Assisted Reproduction in the Andes. By Elizabeth F. S. Roberts. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012|year=2012|s2cid=141504999 }} by Nancy Scheper-Hughes.
Review by Susan Besse in the Luso-Brazilian Review 50 (2013): 282–285.{{Cite journal|last=Besse|first=Susan|date=2013|title=Review of Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil by Alexander Edmonds|journal=Luso-Brazilian Review|volume=50|pages=282–285|doi=10.1353/lbr.2013.0002|s2cid=219211411 }}
Review by Donna Goldstein in American Ethnologist 39 (2012): 627-627.{{Cite journal|last=Goldstein|first=Donna|date=2012-08-01|title=Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil by Alexander Edmonds|journal=American Ethnologist|language=en|volume=39|issue=3|pages=627|doi=10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01385.x|issn=1548-1425}}
Review by Nancy Scheper-Hughes in Current Anthropology 53 (2012):514-518.{{Cite journal|last=Scheper-Hughes|first=Nancy|date=2012|title=Review of Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=53|pages=514–518|doi=10.1086/666624|s2cid=141504999 }}
Awards
- Winner, 2013 Eileen Basker Memorial Prize, presented by the Society for Medical Anthropology
- Honorable Mention, 2011 Sharon Stephens Book Prize, presented by the American Ethnological Association
- Honorable Mention, 2012 Roberto Reis Award, presented by the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA).