“医美热”何以持续?——医美实践中的逻辑依赖与社会学反思

Why does“Cosmetic Surgery Craze”Last?Logical Dependence and Sociological Reflection in Cosmetic Surgery Practices

既有研究关注“医美热”背后的结构性因素,但难以回答“医美热”何以持续的理论问题。为此,文章采用希林“肉身实在论”的理论框架,关注身体生成性特征与社会约束性特征之间的联系,并基于某中高档医疗美容机构的田野调查对这一问题进行探究。文章认为,借由身体实现的医美与社会结构的互构使得“医美热”不断持续。在这一过程中,散见于不同生活领域中同美貌相关的歧视性社会规则,如亲密关系领域中“郎才女貌”的婚姻标准,劳动力市场领域里的“美容溢价”,以及日常生活领域中外貌同个人发展机会的关联,使得美貌不断累积优势,并抬高个体寻求医美的意愿。而新自由主义文化下的医美实践,则借“赋权”与“自由”之名,以个体主体性的身体改造为代价,更以其他未经身体修饰的大多数人的身体贬值为代价,利用、加深并巩固了前述隐蔽的社会歧视性规则,以最大化身体修饰的效益。这或许是理解当前“医美热”争议的核心。

Established studies have paid attention to the structural factors behind the“medical aesthetics craze”,but it is difficult to explain the theoretical issue of why the“cosmetic surgery craze”can be sustained.Therefore,this paper adopts the theoretical framework of Shilling's Corporeal Realism,focuses on the connection between the bodily generative and socially constrained traits,and explores this issue based on a field study of mid to high-grade medical aesthetics companies.The paper argues that it is the inter-construction of medical aesthetics with the social structure through the body that makes the medical aesthetics craze continue.In this process,the discriminatory social rules related to beauty are scattered throughout the life course,such as the marital criterion of“good looks”in the realm of intimacy,the“beauty premium”in the realm of the labor market,and the association of appearance with opportunities for personal development in the realm of daily life,and allow for the accumulation of advantages of good looks,which motivates individuals to seek medical beauty.The so-called“empowerment”and“freedom”of medical aesthetics take advantage of these rules,deepening and reinforcing the current hidden social discriminatory rules to maximize the benefits of body modification at the cost of individual body modification,and at the cost of devaluing the bodies of the majority of the non-modified population.This is perhaps the core of understanding the current controversy over the“medical aesthetics craze”.