Under the supervision of Dr. Carolyn Sargent, graduate student Lauren Gulbas will investigate the social effects of the increasing practice of cosmetic surgery in Caracas, Venezuela. Cosmetic surgery is increasing in many developing nations. Venezuelan society exhibits a particularly clear tension between the aesthetic and class priority given to lighter skin and European physical features, and official government policies that promote racial democracy, forbid the collection of racial data in the census, and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race. Because cosmetic surgery is available to all Venezuelans through free national health care, a careful scientific study can reveal how ordinary people live racial preferences, and how these preferences intersect with cultural notions of gender and class.
Participation in the research will be solicited from community members and individuals associated with four randomly chosen surgery clinics and a teaching hospital. To elicit initial information about local conceptions of race and class, a domain analysis will be done with a stratified sample of 10 women and 10 men. This will be followed with surveys of a clinic sample of 135 (90 women, 45 men, reflecting gender ratios of those undergoing surgery) and a control group of 135 members of the community. Sub-samples of key informants will be interviewed in greater depth for free lists (to explore definitions associated with race and class) and about racial and class categories. In addition, she will collect 30 patient before-and-after-surgery narratives, using photo elicitation techniques and standard body image evaluations. Finally, she will do extensive observations of interactions between patients, family members, and medical personnel, as well as track relevant discussions in the media. Data will be analyzed with appropriate methods for systematic qualitative research (for the free-lists and rank order data) and computer coded text analysis techniques for the documents, field notes, patient narratives, body image interviews and life histories.
The research is important as a contribution to understanding the consequences of privileging cosmetic surgery over other pressing health concerns. Theoretically, the research will contribute to scientific understanding of how cultural notions of race, gender, and class interact with popular notions of good health and appearance. The research also will contribute to the education of a graduate student.
