Abstract
Alka V. Menon’s new book Refashioning Race is a wonderful examination of the global cosmetic surgery industry. Among other virtues, this work has implications for how we understand the relationship between race, science, and technology, and the global political economy. This review highlights the text’s implicit claims about how race, technology, and political economy are “co-constituted” (p. 15) by identifying three modalities of this relationship present in the text. Sociologists of race have consistently argued that race is not a biological reality but a social construct, a perception that is frequently more illusionary than real. But despite that intellectual tradition, much research is short of theorizing explicitly the mechanism of “racecraft” (Fields and Fields [2012] 2022). They don’t delve deep into understanding how race, as an illusion, has been accomplished as a reality, thereby creating a basis for the many and various oppressions that lead to racism. Although Menon doesn’t explicitly reference the Fieldses’ notion of “racecraft,” her empirical studies indirectly resonate with the concept. She showcases cosmetic surgery as an important “racial project” (p. 4) that crafts race at the transnational level.
This race crafting is demonstrated through Menon’s account of the integral role of biomedical knowledge and technologies in rendering “race” a palpable and credible category. In a departure from the prevailing patient-centric lens employed in much of the current literature, Menon judiciously anchors her analysis on cosmetic surgeons, delineating them as crucial “race brokers” (p. 4) embedded within this expansive racial project. This proposition is compellingly corroborated both at the macro and micro echelons in cosmetic surgery, as delineated in parts I and II of the book, respectively. A striking example emerges in the realm of race-specific expertise and techniques of aesthetic noses. Menon illuminates how, within the global panorama of cosmetic surgery, surgeons skillfully navigate racial categories to formulate race-specific standards and guidelines for various nose types, such as “Latin noses,” “Middle Eastern noses,” and “Caucasian noses,” in scientific journals and international conferences. Such race-specific standards not only facilitate scientific dialogue among surgeons on an international platform but also assist in curating unique expertise that could potentially enhance their reputation in the field. Within the clinic encounter, surgeons deftly maneuver patients’ desires for a racially legible appearance toward specific surgical interventions, treating racial categories with a degree of flexibility that allows for customization to achieve the objective of ethnic preservation within a specific racial category. The ambiguity and imprecision inherent in racial classification criteria afford them the latitude to “take narratives of racial meaning and elevate or reject them” (p. 128), thereby expanding or reconfiguring notions of racial pride for both surgeon and patient alike. Consequently, Menon not only elucidates the constructed nature of race but also highlights the role of expertise and technology in materializing race as a viable category.
The second modality highlights the intricate connection between beauty technology and the political economy, most vividly observed in Menon’s account for the “Asian cosmetic surgery” niche. Through her ethnographic observations at conferences, she notes that surgeons often label procedures like blepharoplasty and rhinoplasty as “Asian.” This distinction highlights a moral preference for “natural” Asian aesthetics over the perceived “unnatural” Western ones. Digging deeper into the institutional scaffolds in Asian countries, she contends that Asian cosmetic surgery’s prominence isn’t merely about innovative beauty technologies but is deeply rooted in political negotiations. The rise of the “Asian” niche intersects with broader state interests: countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and South Korea have embraced more accommodating malpractice regulations, creating a competitive advantage in pricing, which then catalyzes medical tourism. The cosmetic surgery sector, building on the race crafting of “Asian,” becomes a tool for nation-building and positioning within the global hierarchy in biomedicine. By distinguishing “Asian” surgical practices from those in the United States, South America, and Europe, these surgeons are not just emphasizing unique expertise and technologies but challenging Western dominance in biomedicine, thereby asserting their distinctive standing on the global stage. Through the case of Asian cosmetic surgery, Menon demonstrates the politics of beauty technologies, allowing us to make sense of a realm that is not isolated but a manifestation of a larger global political economy.
The third modality underscores the intricate nexus between race and political economy. This is most vividly illustrated in Menon’s nuanced description of how the race project of cosmetic surgery operates as a field on which the economy is made. A striking observation is the distinct ways U.S. and Malaysian cosmetic surgeons employ racial categorizations to curate their brands, leading to the development of two divergent cosmetic surgery markets. In the United States, the prevailing norm of colorblindness means that directly referencing racial categories can be perceived as racist. As a workaround, U.S. surgeons often resort to racially resonant stereotypes and associations with iconic American places like the curvy, “international” Miami look and “obviously augmented” L.A. look, which invokes racially resonant cultural associations while not directly referencing race. In contrast, Malaysia’s multicultural context allows for a more overt dialogue about race. Instead of merely advertising distinctive aesthetic procedures, Malaysian surgeons prioritize offering care attuned to racial sensitivities. They consider patients’ language, religious beliefs, and body attitudes. Nonetheless, in both contexts, the idea of patients serving as “walking billboards” (p. 138) underscores the significance of racial and ethnic branding in the marketing landscape of cosmetic surgery. Menon’s descriptions here are fascinating, showing in the most concrete ways how race operates as a terrain on which capitalism can be made and remade.
Above I have re-described the co-constitutive relationship between race, technology, and political economy schematically and formally than Menon does in the text, in the interest of using these insights to better understand such relationships elsewhere. Refashioning Race is an essential read for students and scholars of race and ethnicity, sociology of medicine, and global and transnational sociology. The book skillfully illustrates how the constructs of race intertwine with beauty, biomedicine, and global political economy, revealing the subtle yet pervasive ways racecraft manifests in various domains.
