{"product_id":"saving-face-disfigurement-and-the-politics-of-appearance-1","title":"Saving Face","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinner, Body and Embodiment Award presented by the American Sociological Association\u003cbr\u003e\nImagine yourself without a face—the task\u003cbr\u003e\nseems impossible. The face is a core feature of our physical identity. Our face\u003cbr\u003e\nis how others identify us and how we think of our ‘self’. Yet, human faces are\u003cbr\u003e\nalso functionally essential as mechanisms for communication and as a means of\u003cbr\u003e\neating, breathing, and seeing. For these reasons, facial disfigurement can\u003cbr\u003e\nendanger our fundamental notions of self and identity or even be life threatening,\u003cbr\u003e\nat worse. Precisely because it is so difficult to conceal our faces, the\u003cbr\u003e\ndisfigured face compromises appearance, status, and, perhaps, our very way of\u003cbr\u003e\nbeing in the world.\u003cbr\u003e\nIn Saving Face, sociologist Heather Laine\u003cbr\u003e\nTalley examines the cultural meaning and social significance of interventions\u003cbr\u003e\naimed at repairing faces defined as disfigured. Using ethnography,\u003cbr\u003e\nparticipant-observation, content analysis, interviews, and autoethnography,\u003cbr\u003e\nTalley explores four sites in which a range of faces are “repaired:” face\u003cbr\u003e\ntransplantation, facial feminization surgery, the reality show Extreme Makeover, and the international charitable\u003cbr\u003e\norganization Operation Smile,. Throughout, she considers how efforts focused on\u003cbr\u003e\nrepair sometimes intensify the stigma associated with disfigurement. Drawing\u003cbr\u003e\nupon experiences volunteering at a camp for children with severe burns, Talley also\u003cbr\u003e\nconsiders alternative interventions and everyday practices that both challenge\u003cbr\u003e\nstigma and help those seen as disfigured negotiate outsider status.\u003cbr\u003e\nTalley delves into the promise and\u003cbr\u003e\nlimits of facial surgery, continually examining how we might understand\u003cbr\u003e\nappearance as a facet of privilege and a dimension of inequality. Ultimately,\u003cbr\u003e\nshe argues that facial work is not simply a conglomeration of reconstructive\u003cbr\u003e\ntechniques aimed at the human face, but rather, that appearance interventions\u003cbr\u003e\nare increasingly treated as lifesaving work. Especially at a time when\u003cbr\u003e\naesthetic technologies carrying greater risk are emerging and when\u003cbr\u003e\ndiscrimination based on appearance is rampant, this important book challenges\u003cbr\u003e\nus to think critically about how we see the human face.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54012331131224,"sku":null,"price":77.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780814784105__67655a6fce314.jpg?v=1741160459","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/saving-face-disfigurement-and-the-politics-of-appearance-1","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}