"A fresh, smart, insightful, entertaining, and compelling book about a topic--cosmetic surgery--that many of us thought had self-combusted in the 1990s amid irresolvable debates about whether women who wanted bigger breasts were subjects with agency or duped victims of the 'beauty myth.' "Pretty Modern" rises from the ashes of those debates to provide us with exciting new ways of thinking about what plastic surgery is, what it means, and what it does. It is first-rate anthropology and a wonderfully perceptive study of Brazil."--Don Kulick, author of "Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes"

Illustrations viii
Introduction. In the Universe of Beauty 1
Part One. The Self-Esteem in Each Ego Awakens
Siliconadas 37
The Philosopher of Plástica 47
Without Tits There Is No Paradise 57
A Brief History of Self-Esteem 75
Hospital School 89
The Right to Beauty 102
Aesthetic Health 114
Part Two. Beautiful People
Preta 123
Magnificent Miscegenation 127
The National Passion 135
Nanci's Rhinoplasty 143
My Black Is My Brand 150
Role Models 162
The Economy of Appearances 167
Part Three. Engineering the Erotic
Creating and Modeling Nature 177
Aesthetic Medicine and Motherhood 183
The Vanity of Maids 195
Lens of Dreams 204
I Love Myself 219
Conclusion 239
Acknowledgments 253
Notes 257
References 269
Index 285