Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil. ALEXANDER EDMONDS: Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.

Abstract

In recent years, Brazil’s prominence as a site for world-class plastic surgery has joined soccer, samba, Carnival, and the Amazon as yet another exotic image of the country that circulates internationally. Why does a supposedly less developed nation, in comparison to Europe and the United States, have some of the best cosmetic surgeons in the world? Moreover, this is not merely a procedure reserved for the rich and famous or even the economically comfortable middle classes.