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Cosmetic Vulnerability: The New Face of Human Frailty

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Human Dignity of the Vulnerable in the Age of Rights

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice ((IUSGENT,volume 55))

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Abstract

In postmodern societies concerns about physical attractiveness arise. Many want to be eternally young, sexy, slender, unwrinkled and muscular. Therefore the queues get longer in beauty centres, gyms and cosmetic clinics. The aesthetic consumerist desire is stressful and often infinite. No beauty enhancements are possible without cosmetics, fashion industries or clinics. Cosmetic enhancements have become an important source of both income and anxiety. Dysmorphophobias, eating disorders (anorexia, bigorexia), depression, body dimorphic irreparable damage are often caused by surgery and other treatments. The chapter identifies and discusses the emergence of a new social group of vulnerable people… the cosmetically vulnerable. Some negative results of cosmetic practices are raising serious questions about the bioethics of its procedures. Are some cosmetic doctors complicit in promoting socially suspicious standards of beauty and causing the spreading of this new face of human frailty?

The beauty of the face is fragile, is a passing flower, but the beauty of the soul is firm and secure (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière (1622–1673))

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Notes

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    A. Edmonds, Can Medicine Be Aesthetic? …pp. 233–252.

  132. 132.

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  134. 134.

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  135. 135.

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  1. Department of Political Sciences, Ethics and Sociology, CEU Cardenal Herrera University, Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain

    Emilio García-Sánchez

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    Emilio García-Sánchez

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García-Sánchez, E. (2016). Cosmetic Vulnerability: The New Face of Human Frailty. In: Masferrer, A., García-Sánchez , E. (eds) Human Dignity of the Vulnerable in the Age of Rights. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 55. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32693-1_9

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