The Myths of Plastic Surgery

A mother's body doesn't need surgical correction

The plastic surgery industry has a new target: mothers. This week, Shelby Kearns examines the truths behind the myths upholding the plastic surgery industry—and suggests a healthier way for women (and men!) to think about their bodies.

The Myths of Plastic Surgery

Shelby Kearns

Our culture is steeped in language describing a sharp division between our material bodies and immaterial selves. That can make it hard to see what’s wrong with the claims of the plastic surgery industry. But when we understand that our bodies are essential to our personhood, we can also understand the dignity of each of our life stages—and why a mother’s body is something to celebrate rather than make over.

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This Week in Sex-Realist Feminism: Body Entrepreneurs, the Online Porn Epidemic, and Sex Differences in Data

This week: Sarah Ditum on body entrepreneurs, Clare Morell on the online pornography epidemic, and Susan Madsen on sex differences at the level of data collection. Plus: dark truths about divorce, flourishing at the end of life, Trump's IVF proposal considered, an event with Featured Author Leah Libresco Sargeant—and more!

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From the Archives:

ICYMI: Lucy Dearden on the inevitibility of aging—and how women can reclaim a dignified, necessary role in old age.

Reclaiming the Matriarch: A Call to Women for Personal Fulfilment and Generational Impact

Lucy Dearden

I want to die as a matriarch: surrounded by children and grandchildren, who are grateful for the role I played in their lives and who see and value the purpose I had there. I want to be remembered fondly by the community I chose to serve. I want to leave the world, not with a bang, nor with a whimper, but as part of an ever-increasing chain.