Pretty Modern

“A masterpiece. Pretty Modern is one of the most nuanced and beautifully crafted ethnographies out there.” - João Biehl, author of Will to Live: AIDS Therapies and the Politics of Survival

“A fresh, smart, insightful, entertaining, and compelling book about a topic—cosmetic surgery—that many of us thought had self-combusted in the 1990s amid irresolvable debates about whether women who wanted bigger breasts were subjects with agency or duped victims of the ‘beauty myth.’ Pretty Modern rises from the ashes of those debates to provide us with exciting new ways of thinking about what plastic surgery is, what it means, and what it does. It is first-rate anthropology and a wonderfully perceptive study of Brazil.” - Don Kulick, author of Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes

“Pretty Modern is a provocative ethnographic excursion through the labyrinth of context necessary for understanding the rise in popularity of cosmetic plastic surgery in contemporary Brazil…. I found his ethnography to be important and compelling.” - Donna Goldstein, American Ethnologist

“Fascinating. . . . The book overflows with provocative discussions. . . . [T]his study should evoke reflection and animated discussion of medicine, gender, self, culture, and modernity in multiple academic settings and beyond. Recommended. All levels/libraries.” - G. W. McDonogh, Choice

“Edmonds’ offers readers a provocative, richly textured, and nuanced analysis of the rise in popularity of plástica across social classes in Brazil. . . . Pretty Modern is a masterful ethnography about the medicalization of beauty.” - Hilda Lloréns, Anthropological Quarterly

“Alex Edmonds’ book Pretty Modern is a remarkable account of cosmetic surgery—or plastic—in Brazil…. One of the huge strengths of Edmonds’ book is the detail and complexity he brings to each of the issues he analyses…. [I]t is ultimately refreshing.” - Ruth Holliday, Sociology of Health & Illness

“Pretty Modern presents a wealth of ethnographic data, weaving together thick descriptions of hospital waiting rooms, television studios, and everyday conversations, illustrated with images of advertisements and frank portraits of Edmonds’s informants.” - Ashley Mears, e-misférica

“Pretty Modern is an engaging and thought provoking ethnography of plastic surgery in Brazil that effectively avoids the pitfalls of heavy-handed pronouncements on issues of female beauty and personal agency.” - Mary-Anne Victoria Decatur, Anthropology Review Database

“One of the clear advantages of Pretty Modern is the great depth of analysis that we are offered. Anecdotes and detailed descriptions provide the backdrop for theoretical discussions, fleshing out the arguments and providing the reader with a more rounded view of the issues…. Pretty Modern is a very enjoyable, provocative and stimulating read.” - Aoife McKenna, Medical Sociology Online

“Alexander Edmonds provides readers with a compelling and visceral ethnography about the ubiquitous cultural practice of plastica, or cosmetic surgery, in Rio to better understand its ubiquity across Brazil’s different social classes. . . . Pretty Modern is an important contribution to the literature on gender and the body, and will be of interest to Brazil specialists and nonspecialists alike. Although the focus is beauty, those considering race or history will also find the material useful.” - Lesley N. Braun, Visual Anthropology Review

“By examining modernity through the perhaps easily dismissed topic of beauty, Pretty Modern offers a unique insight into the complexities of defining the modern subject in a rapidly changing consumer landscape." - Hanna Mantila, Somatosphere

“Highly readable and ranging from ethnographic, to historical, to theoretical, Pretty Modern will appeal to a broad readership.” - Susan Besse, Luso-Brazilian Review