Welcome to The Aesthetics Edit™ - our educational platform at the intersection of art, beauty, medicine and science.
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Feminism and Cosmetic Medicine
Are feminism and cosmetic medicine mutually exclusive concepts? Does having an interest in aesthetics involve tangling ourselves into knots to try reconcile two fundamentally opposed ideas? Are we shrinking ourselves to match society’s concepts of beauty and youth because (somehow) we don’t know any better?
I’m going to say the answer is, “No.”
Now let’s look at why.
Cleopatra Metrodora: The First Female Cosmetic Surgeon in the Ancient World
Cleopatra Metrodora is an incredible and fascinating figure from the ancient world: an example of one of the first ever female physicians in a time where men absolutely dominated the scientific and medical landscape.
While she focused her surgical procedures on women’s health issues, mostly in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, she also pioneered the first documented instances of cosmetic surgery in women.
The concept of “Instagram face” is not a new one, but has received more recent attention as Meta has banned filters that encourage plastic surgery. Awareness of the role that social media and photo editing plays in aesthetic medicine is incredibly important for both clinicians and patients. The influence of social media can be incredibly negative, and it means it’s more important than ever to navigate between good, ethical medical practice versus “selling” cosmetic procedures.