Why should social scientists and cultural scholars pay attention to aesthetic medical procedures? In this episode, Alka Menon (Yale University) and Anne-Mette Hermans (Tilburg University) take us beneath the surface of Botox, rhinoplasties, and Brazilian Butt Lifts to reveal what these increasingly normalised procedures can tell us about social inequality today.
With host Sanne Pieters, they explore how doctors and surgeons shape more than just faces. By deciding which appearances are acceptable, these practitioners navigate the boundaries between medicine and aesthetics, morality and beauty, economics and ethics, and in doing so play a key role in (re)defining racial categories and hierarchal beauty ideals. Our guests tackle some seemingly contradictory puzzles with no easy answers. Why do practitioners insist that “true beauty comes from within”? And how should we understand the normalisation of aesthetic procedures when those who undergo them still face persistent stigma?
This episode shows that cosmetic surgery is about much more than just appearance: it holds up a mirror to the social inequalities that exist in society.
Alka V. Menon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University. She studies the relationship between medicine, technology, and society, with a focus on race and racism. Her book, Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards shows how forces working at different scales stabilize the continuing use of racial categories in medicine.
Anne-Mette Hermans is an Assistant Professor at Tranzo, Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on (consumerist) notions of malleable bodies and cosmetic procedures in particular. Moreover, she co-established the interdisciplinary Expertisegroep Cosmetische Ingrepen, which executes several research projects related to the cosmetic surgery and beauty industry in the Netherlands.
Sanne Pieters is a PhD Researcher of cultural sociology at KU Leuven in Belgium. Her research interests include the relation between physical beauty and social inequalities, hegemonic and hybrid gender identities and bodywork as pedagogical practice.
Readings:
Hermans, A.-M. (2021). Discourses of perfection: Representing cosmetic procedures and beauty products in UK lifestyle magazines. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003001973
Hermans, A.-M., & Nash, R. (2025). Cosmetic gatekeepers: Negotiations of beauty and (re)shaping bodies by medical aesthetic practitioners. Social Science & Medicine, 380, 118165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118165
Menon, A. V. (2023). Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards (1st ed). University of California Press.
Menon, A. V. (2017). Reconstructing race and gender in American cosmetic surgery. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(4), 597–616. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1206590
Bonell, S., Barlow, F. K., & Griffiths, S. (2021). The cosmetic surgery paradox: Toward a contemporary understanding of cosmetic surgery popularisation and attitudes. Body Image, 38, 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.04.010
Haraway, Donna (1990). "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge.
Podcast editors: Luuc Brans, Sanne Pieters, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens. This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
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Why should social scientists and cultural scholars pay attention to aesthetic medical procedures? In this episode, Alka Menon (Yale University) and Anne-Mette Hermans (Tilburg University) take us beneath the surface of Botox, rhinoplasties, and Brazilian Butt Lifts to reveal what these increasingly normalised procedures can tell us about social inequality today.
With host Sanne Pieters, they explore how doctors and surgeons shape more than just faces. By deciding which appearances are acceptable, these practitioners navigate the boundaries between medicine and aesthetics, morality and beauty, economics and ethics, and in doing so play a key role in (re)defining racial categories and hierarchal beauty ideals. Our guests tackle some seemingly contradictory puzzles with no easy answers. Why do practitioners insist that “true beauty comes from within”? And how should we understand the normalisation of aesthetic procedures when those who undergo them still face persistent stigma?
This episode shows that cosmetic surgery is about much more than just appearance: it holds up a mirror to the social inequalities that exist in society.
Alka V. Menon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University. She studies the relationship between medicine, technology, and society, with a focus on race and racism. Her book, Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards shows how forces working at different scales stabilize the continuing use of racial categories in medicine.
Anne-Mette Hermans is an Assistant Professor at Tranzo, Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on (consumerist) notions of malleable bodies and cosmetic procedures in particular. Moreover, she co-established the interdisciplinary Expertisegroep Cosmetische Ingrepen, which executes several research projects related to the cosmetic surgery and beauty industry in the Netherlands.
Sanne Pieters is a PhD Researcher of cultural sociology at KU Leuven in Belgium. Her research interests include the relation between physical beauty and social inequalities, hegemonic and hybrid gender identities and bodywork as pedagogical practice.
Readings:
Hermans, A.-M. (2021). Discourses of perfection: Representing cosmetic procedures and beauty products in UK lifestyle magazines. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003001973
Hermans, A.-M., & Nash, R. (2025). Cosmetic gatekeepers: Negotiations of beauty and (re)shaping bodies by medical aesthetic practitioners. Social Science & Medicine, 380, 118165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118165
Menon, A. V. (2023). Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards (1st ed). University of California Press.
Menon, A. V. (2017). Reconstructing race and gender in American cosmetic surgery. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(4), 597–616. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1206590
Bonell, S., Barlow, F. K., & Griffiths, S. (2021). The cosmetic surgery paradox: Toward a contemporary understanding of cosmetic surgery popularisation and attitudes. Body Image, 38, 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.04.010
Haraway, Donna (1990). "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge.
Podcast editors: Luuc Brans, Sanne Pieters, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens. This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
Parasite: culture and inequality in a Korean yet global film
Culture & Inequality Podcast
49 minutes 12 seconds
4 years ago
Parasite: culture and inequality in a Korean yet global film
Welcome back to our new season! It is Oscar season, and we thus watch last year's Best Picture winner Parasite, together with Ricky Changwook Kim (Handong Global University) and Dan Hassler-Forest (Utrecht University). What does this movie tells us about the link between culture and inequalities? Are these links and inequalities culturally specific? Or does the film's global success reveal a universal fatigue with growing inequality in late capitalism?
**** Podcast includes major spoilers for Parasite ****
Dr. Changwook Kim (Ricky) is an assistant professor of sociology at Handong Global University in South Korea. His research focuses on creative and digital industries in Korea, and the precarious labor conditions in this industry.
Dr. Dan Hassler-Forest is an assistant professor at the Media & Culture studies department at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His research interest is in the relation between politics and entertainment.
***Readings & assignments:
* The film Parasite (2019)
* Hagen Koo (2019): Rising Inequality and Shifting Class Boundaries in South Korea in the Neo-Liberal Era, Journal of Contemporary Asia: https://bit.ly/2RoCAcc
* Hassler-Forest, D. (2020) Bong Joon-ho: Love in the Time of Capitalism. LA Review of Books: https://bit.ly/3eb2VDd
* Assignments: https://bit.ly/3eeWRtm
* Also see ECCI's website for additional readings and assignments: https://eucci.eu/podcast/
***
Presentation: prof. dr. Giselinde Kuipers
Editing: Luuc Brans
Culture & Inequality Podcast
Why should social scientists and cultural scholars pay attention to aesthetic medical procedures? In this episode, Alka Menon (Yale University) and Anne-Mette Hermans (Tilburg University) take us beneath the surface of Botox, rhinoplasties, and Brazilian Butt Lifts to reveal what these increasingly normalised procedures can tell us about social inequality today.
With host Sanne Pieters, they explore how doctors and surgeons shape more than just faces. By deciding which appearances are acceptable, these practitioners navigate the boundaries between medicine and aesthetics, morality and beauty, economics and ethics, and in doing so play a key role in (re)defining racial categories and hierarchal beauty ideals. Our guests tackle some seemingly contradictory puzzles with no easy answers. Why do practitioners insist that “true beauty comes from within”? And how should we understand the normalisation of aesthetic procedures when those who undergo them still face persistent stigma?
This episode shows that cosmetic surgery is about much more than just appearance: it holds up a mirror to the social inequalities that exist in society.
Alka V. Menon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University. She studies the relationship between medicine, technology, and society, with a focus on race and racism. Her book, Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards shows how forces working at different scales stabilize the continuing use of racial categories in medicine.
Anne-Mette Hermans is an Assistant Professor at Tranzo, Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on (consumerist) notions of malleable bodies and cosmetic procedures in particular. Moreover, she co-established the interdisciplinary Expertisegroep Cosmetische Ingrepen, which executes several research projects related to the cosmetic surgery and beauty industry in the Netherlands.
Sanne Pieters is a PhD Researcher of cultural sociology at KU Leuven in Belgium. Her research interests include the relation between physical beauty and social inequalities, hegemonic and hybrid gender identities and bodywork as pedagogical practice.
Readings:
Hermans, A.-M. (2021). Discourses of perfection: Representing cosmetic procedures and beauty products in UK lifestyle magazines. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003001973
Hermans, A.-M., & Nash, R. (2025). Cosmetic gatekeepers: Negotiations of beauty and (re)shaping bodies by medical aesthetic practitioners. Social Science & Medicine, 380, 118165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118165
Menon, A. V. (2023). Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards (1st ed). University of California Press.
Menon, A. V. (2017). Reconstructing race and gender in American cosmetic surgery. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(4), 597–616. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1206590
Bonell, S., Barlow, F. K., & Griffiths, S. (2021). The cosmetic surgery paradox: Toward a contemporary understanding of cosmetic surgery popularisation and attitudes. Body Image, 38, 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.04.010
Haraway, Donna (1990). "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge.
Podcast editors: Luuc Brans, Sanne Pieters, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens. This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
