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Abstract
In this article, I explore the institutional and symbolic construction of aesthetic nationalism in Colombia around a fetishization of women’s surgically exaggerated breasts and buttocks. While political scientists have focused almost exclusively on the internet and social media, other technological advancements have altered the relationships between state and society, public and private, and bodies and national inclusion. Combined with the transnational flow of ideas, goods, and people and a political economy that embraces cosmetic surgeries as a development model, this intersectional analysis suggests that aesthetic nationalism in Colombia has recentered the female body in the practice of nationalism, communicating political information, belonging, and power. Based on archival research, direct observation, and elite interviews, I argue that cosmetic interventions play a key role in conferring citizenship rights and defining the borders of the political community. This study contributes to our understanding of how intersectionality can help explain the ways in which technology shapes national body politics, disrupts conventional modes of political communication and representation, and positions the body at the center of contemporary citizenship practices.
Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in Washington D.C. and the 2015 Annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association in Las Vegas. I would like to thank the panel participants and discussants, Jennifer Disney and Margaret Farrar, in particular, as well as the editors of this special edition, Jocelyn Boryczka and Jennifer Disney, for their extensive and detailed feedback. Elle Collins provided essential research assistance for which I am deeply grateful.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on Contributor
Stacey L. Hunt is an associate professor of Political Science at Auburn University. Her research focuses on political culture, urban geography and planning, citizenship, and state construction in Latin America. She is the author of numerous journal articles and her research has been funded by the Fulbright Program, the American Association of University Women, and the Foreign Language and Areas Studies Fellowship. She is currently completing a book manuscript on the role of pageantry and state construction in Colombia.
Notes
1 Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum (1989), pp. 139–167.
2 Ibid., 139. See Nira Yuval-Davis, The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations (London: Sage, 2011) for a detailed analysis of the various efforts and a comprehensive list of scholars who have worked to theorize the way in which structures of oppression are co-constitutive.
3 Leslie McCall, “The Complexity of Intersectionality,” Signs 30:3 (2005), pp. 1771–1800; Vrushali Patil, “From Patriarchy to Intersectionality: A Transnational Feminist Assessment of How Far We’ve Really Come,” Signs 34:4 (2013), pp. 847–867.
4 Patricia Hill Collins, “Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection,” Race, Sex, and Class 1:1 (1993), pp. 25–45.
5 Devon W. Carbado, “Colorblind Intersectionality,” Signs 38:4 (2013), pp. 811–845.
6 Patil, “From Patriarchy to Intersectionality,” pp. 852–853.
7 Erica Townsend, “Ambivalent Intersectionality,” Politics and Gender 10:1 (2014), pp. 137–142.
8 Patil “From Patriarchy to Intersectionality”; Mary Hawkesworth, Political Worlds of Women: Activism, Advocacy, and Governance in the Twenty-First Century (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2012), p. 3; Yuval-Davis, The Politics of Belonging.
9 Collins, “Toward a New Vision.”
10 Rogers Smith, Stories of Peoplehood: The Politics and Morals of Political Membership (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (New York: Verso, 1991); Lila Abu-Lughod, Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
11 Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Context (New York: Routledge, 1991), p. 89; Diana Taylor, Disappearing Acts: Spectacle of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina’s “Dirty War” (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997).
12 Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989); Alexander Edmonds, Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010); Nira Yuval-Davis and Floya Anthias, Woman-Nation-State (London: MacMillan, 1989).
13 Mary Douglas, Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology (New York: Routledge, 2003).
14 Hawkesworth, Political Worlds of Women, pp. 8–9.
15 Edmonds, Pretty Modern, pp. 88–103.
16 Hawkesworth, Political Worlds of Women, p. 48.
17 McClintock, Imperial Leather.
18 Collins, “Toward a New Vision,” p. 215.
19 Brooke Meredith Beloso, “Sex, Work, and the Feminist Erasure of Class,” Signs 38:10 (2012), pp. 47–70.
20 Edmonds, Pretty Modern.
21 Pei-Chia Lan “Migrant Women’s Bodies as Boundary Markers,” Signs 33:4 (2008), pp. 833–861.
22 Alev Cinar, “Subversion and Subjugation in the Public Sphere: Secularism and the Islamic Headscarf,” Signs 33:4 (2008), pp. 891–913.
23 Donna Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s,” in Linda J. Nicholson (ed.), Feminism/Postmodernism (New York: Routledge, 1990). pp. 190–233.
24 Ibid., 223.
25 Hawkesworth, Political Worlds of Women, p. 110.
26 Ruth Miller, “Rights, Reproduction, Sexuality and Citizenship in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey,” Signs 32:2 (2007), pp. 347–375.
27 As quoted, Charlet Duboc, “Fashion Week Internationale: Colombia,” Vice, 2011, available online at: <http://www.vice.com/fashion-week-internationale/colombia-full-length>.
28 As quoted, Michelle Rocío Nasser, “Feminized Topographies: Women, Nature and Tourism in Colombia es Pasión,” (ND) Colombianistas.org.
29 “Sordomudos,” Colombia es Passion, nd, available online at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ZBSW7c66w>.
30 Nasser, “Feminized Topographies,” p. 19.
31 Salazar 1990; Omar Rincón, “Narco.estética y Narco.cultura en Narco.lombia,” Nueva Sociedad 222 (July–August, 2009), pp. 147–163.
32 Michael Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia,” Antípoda 6 (enero–junio, 2008), pp. 18–40: 30.
33 Mimi Yagoub, “Narco-aesthetics: How Colombia’s Drug Trade Constructed Female ‘Beauty’,” Colombia Reports, February 5, 2014, available online at: <http://colombiareports.com/narco-aesthetics-colombias-drug-trade-constructed-female-beauty/> (accessed August 25, 2015).
34 Salazar 1990; Rincón, “Narco.estética y Narco.cultura,” p. 151.
35 Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia.”
36 Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia,” p. 30.
37 Rincón, “Narco.estética y Narco.cultura,” p. 148.
38 D.C. Mexico: Grijalbo, 2007.
39 Rincón, “Narco.estética y Narco.cultura,” p. 160.
40 Yagoub, “Narco-aesthetics”; DANE, “Pobreza monetaria y multidimensional,” 2013, available online at: <https://www.dane.gov.co/files/investigaciones/condiciones_vida/pobreza/bol_pobreza_13.pdf>.
41 DANE, “Pobreza monetaria y multidimensional.”
42 UNDP Human Development Report “Colombia,” 2013, available online at: <http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/Country-Profiles/COL.pdf> (accessed August 25, 2015).
43 Ibid.
44 Duboc, “Fashion Week Internationale.”
45 Yagoub, “Narco-aesthetics”; Rincón, “Narco.estética y Narco.cultura.”
46 Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia,” p. 30.
47 Yagoub, “Narco-aesthetics.”
48 Duboc, “Fashion Week Internationale”; Daisy Dumas, “‘By the Age of 17, Most Girls have had Surgery’: Behind-the-Scenes at Colombia Fashion Week Reveals Butt Implants and 'Mountains of Cocaine,” Daily Mail, November 11, 2011, available online at: <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2060082/Colombia-fashion-week-2011-Butt-implants-mountains-cocaine.html> (accessed August 25, 2015).
49 Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia,” p. 31.
50 Duboc, “Fashion Week Internationale”; Yagoub, “Narco-aesthetics”; Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia.”
51 Yagoub, “Narco-aesthetics.”
52 Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia,” p. 31.
53 International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. 2012 and 2014. Global Statistics, available online at: <www.ISAPS.org> (accessed August 25, 2015).
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 “El Boom de las Cirugias Esteticas” ND Español y Sociedad, available online at: <http://www.veintemundos.com/wp-content/themes/vm/pdf/sociedad/4/estudiante.pdf>.
58 Ibid.
59 Ibid.
60 Maria del Pilar Castillo V, “El Cuerpo y la Economia: El Bello Negocio de la Cirugia Plastica,” Posiciones 2 (2009), p. 62.
61 “El Boom de las Cirugias Esteticas,” np.
62 Ibid.
63 El Tiempo, “Por Problemas de Cirujía Estética, Murió Joven Cantante de Vallenato,” December 13, 2011.
El Tiempo, “Trágico Final de una Cirugía Estética,” January 12, 2012, available online at: <http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-1641346>.
64 El Tiempo, “Trágico Final de una Cirugía Estética.”
65 Castillo, “El Cuerpo y la Economia,” p. 61.
66 Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia,” p. 36.
67 “El Boom de las Cirugias Esteticas.”
68 Edmonds, Pretty Modern.
69 Cromos, “El Top 10 de las Cirugías Plásticas más Solicitadas por las Mujeres,” September 5, 2011, available online at: <http://www.cromos.com.co/estilo-de-vida/cuidado-personal/articulo-142299-el-top-10-de-cirugias-plasticas-mas-solicitadas-mujeres> (accessed August 25, 2015).
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid.
73 Edmonds, Pretty Modern.
74 Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia,” p. 30.
75 Mejor Cirugía en Colombia, <http://www.mejorcirugiaesteticaencolombia.com/#!cambio-extremo/c20yg>.
76 Kelly Tatiana Forestieri Bustos, “Turismo Medico Como Opcion de Desarrollo Economico del Sector Salud en Colombia,” Trabajo de grado, Especializacion en Administracion Hospitaliaria (Bogota: Universidad EAN, 2012).
77 Castillo, “El Cuerpo y la Economia,” p. 61.
78 Resolution 4130 of 2013.
79 Andrew Fishman, “Will Colombia's Gamble On Medical Tourism Pay Off?” National Public Radio, 2013.
80 Oliver Griffin, “Colombia’s Medical Tourism Declines,” Colombia Reports, September 6, 2013.
81 Andrew Wight, “Medical tourism brought $215M and 50K patients to Colombia in 2013,” Colombia Reports, March 20, 2014.
82 DANE-EVI, 2013; Kirsten Begg, “Government Promotes Medical Tourism in Colombia,” Colombia Reports, October 30, 2009.
83 Wight, “Medical Tourism.”
84 Griffin, “Colombia’s Medical Tourism Declines”; Fishman, “Will Colombia's Gamble.”
85 Forestieri, “Turismo Medico,” p. 23.
86 Yuval-Davis, Politics of Belonging.
87 El Tiempo, “Una latina no es una rubia ni de ojos azuels,” dijo jurado del Reinado Nacional de Belleza,” November 11, 2007, available online at: <http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-3811428>.
88 Ibid.
89 Ibid.
90 El Tiempo, “Raimundo Ángulo, presidente del concurso, buscará ‘bellezas naturales’,” November 8, 2006, available online at: <http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-3317735> (accessed August 25, 2015).
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
94 El Tiempo, “Costos del Reinado: Qué Belleza!” November 9, 1997, available online at: <http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-681825>.
95 El Tiempo, “Raimundo Ángulo, presidente del concurso, buscará ‘bellezas naturales’.”
96 Simon Romero, “Chávez Tries to Rally Venezuela Against a New Enemy: Breast Lifts,” The New York Times, March 14, 2011, available online at: <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/americas/15venezuela.html>.
97 Ibid.
98 International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Global Statistics, 2014, available online at: <http://www.isaps.org/Media/Default/global-statistics/2014%20ISAPS%20Results%20(3).pdf>.
99 Romero, “Chávez Tries to Rally Venezuela,” The New York Times.
100 Ibid.
101 Ibid.
102 Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia,” p. 29.
103 Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs,” p. 193.
104 Ibid., 194.
105 Taussig, “La Bella y la Bestia,” pp. 25, 28.
106 Ibid., 33–34.
107 Nutritionally Wealthy, March 25, 2015.
108 Tracy Connor, “Butt Augmentation, Labiaplasty on the Rise, Plastic Surgeons Say,” NBC News, March 2, 2015, American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery; American Society of Plastic Surgeons, available online at: <http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/butt-augmentation-labiaplasty-rise-plastic-surgeons-say-n312996>.
109 Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs,” p. 212.
110 Ibid., 195.
111 Edmonds, Pretty Modern.
112 Fernando Coronil, The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997), pp. 32–34.
113 Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs,” pp. 196, 212; Yuval Davis, Politics of Belonging; McClintock, Imperial Leather.
114 Hawkesworth, The Political Worlds of Women.
115 McClintock, Imperial Leather; Hawkesworth, The Political Worlds of Women, p. 119.
116 Hawkesworth, The Political Worlds of Women, p. 311.