Meredith Rachael Jones (born 1965) is an Australian cultural theorist, currently employed at Brunel University London as Professor in Arts and Humanities, and as the director of its Institute of Communities and Society.
Meredith Rachael Jones (born 1965) is an Australian cultural theorist, currently employed at Brunel University London as Professor in Arts and Humanities, and as the director of its Institute of Communities and Society.
Meredith Rachael Jones was born in 1965. [1] She took a pass degree in Arts from the University of Melbourne,[ citation needed ] and upgraded this to a first-class honours degree in gender studies [2] under Elspeth Probyn at the University of Sydney [3] in 1998. [4] Taking a position at the University of Technology, Sydney teaching media studies, [5] [6] Jones earned a Graduate Diploma in Communications [ citation needed ] and began studying for her doctorate. Her PhD project was supervised by Zoë Sofoulis in the Centre for Cultural Research at the University of Western Sydney and was completed in 2006. [4] [7] [8] Parts of her doctoral work were published in the academic journals Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , [9] Space and Culture: International Journal of Social Spaces , [10] and Social Semiotics, [8] and contributed to her first book. [1] [11] Together with her supervisor, Jones contributed a chapter to the book The Cyborg Experiments: The Extensions of the Body in the Media Age, examining the work of Stelarc and Orlan. [6]
In 2015, Jones became a Reader in gender and media studies, as well as the Director of the Research Centre for Global Lives, in the College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences at Brunel University London. [7] [12] In 2022 she became full Professor and the inaugural Director of the Institute of Communities and Society.
Jones describes her research as occurring "at the intersections of media theory, gender studies, and cultural studies." [4] Her research has explored cosmetic surgery and the phenomenon of cosmetic surgery tourism, popular culture through the lens of feminist theory, and empowerment and visualisation of bodies. Her PhD thesis was titled Makeover Culture: Landscapes of Cosmetic Surgery Language and explored surgical makeovers as a cultural phenomenon. [8] Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery, [11] her first book, was published in 2008. It "argues that cosmetic surgery is the most provocative and controversial aspect of a new 'makeover culture'" with direct connections to reality television programs that "demonstrate that 'fixing' the body is a way to improve lifestyle and uncover true identity", citing examples including 10 Years Younger (United States and United Kingdom versions) and Extreme Makeover . [1]
Jones has researched how human bodies are portrayed, how we visualise our own bodies, and how these are culturally influenced; she explored this topic in Skintight. [11] She has examined the cultural impact of the availability of graphics-editing software such as Photoshop, which have problematised the ideal of photography as a means to capture an accurate and authentic representation of reality. Digital manipulation of images is now so frequent as to have become "an integral part of the performance of public life" and Jones argues that we now inhabit "media-bodies". [13] Jones introduced this term in an earlier study examining the expansion of reality television coverage to including cosmetic surgery. [14] Camille Nurka picked up the term in her book Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery, noting that "cosmetic surgery can approximate the effect of digital airbrushing to make us look less disappointingly human and more like ageless plastic". [15] : 249 Nurka linked the concept to objectification theory, developed by Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts and referring to "the experience of being treated as a body (or collection of body parts) valued predominantly for its use to (or consmuption by) others," [16] and used it as a basis for an extended discussion of self-objectification. [15]
Jones has also explored popular understandings of vaginas and vulvas, referring to the result of labiaplasty as a "Designer Vagina." She contends that societal attitudes are changing in a way that sees skin as a surface that is increasingly being considered for its visually expressiveness, causing it to take on screen-like properties. At the same time, there is a growing trend for screens to be more affective. The interplay is leading in Jones' view to "two-dimensional images and three-dimensional 'real life' bodies ... blending in ways that parallel skin–screen mergers." [17] Nurka also explored this concept, noting that Jones is describing a world "where people wish they could be Photoshopped in real life and where scalpels can be aligned with digital tools," [17] : 36 and comparing Jones work with her own previous argument [18] that the "surgically altered genitals-without-labia are a post-human phenomenon in a world in which we strive to leave the messy, hairy business of the biological body behind". [19] : 14 Jones interest in this area extends to being involved in the founding of the Vagina Museum, [7] which aims to reduce the stigma and shame surrounding gynaecological anatomy and to confront what the British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology has described as the "unrealistically narrow representations of vulval appearance in popular culture". [20] [21] The Museum will be a world-first when it opens in London, [20] and Jones is a member of its advisory board. [22]
Jones was one of the four co-investigators on the Sea, Sand, Sun and Silicone project, [23] along with David Bell (Professor of Cultural Geography at the University of Leeds [24] ), Elspeth Probyn (Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, and Jones' supervisor in her BA(Honours) project [7] ) and Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor (Lecturer in Sociology, the University of Leicester), with the team leader being Ruth Holliday (Professor of Gender and Culture, the University of Leeds [24] ). [25] The project examined reasons for travelling overseas to seek cosmetic surgery (so-called cosmetic surgery tourism, a kind of medical tourism) from Australia and the United Kingdom from the perspectives of patients, medical practitioners and carers, and tourist agents and guides. [23] The project produced both a preliminary [26] and final report [27] for the Economic and Social Research Council, a part of UK Research and Innovation. The work led to three journal articles [28] [29] [30] and two book chapters [31] [32] with Jones as an author, plus three other publications [33] [34] [35] and nine conference proceedings. [36] The project team have also written a book, Beautyscapes: Mapping Cosmetic Surgery Tourism, which was published by Manchester University Press in June 2019. [24] [37]
The Sea, Sand, Sun and Silicone project has been written up by both by project members [38] [39] and discussed by mainstream media outlets, including in print by The Guardian [40] and Therapy Today, [41] on television in documentaries The Beauty Race, [42] Change My Race, [43] and The Nip Tuck Trip, [44] [45] and on BBC Radio 4, [46] BBC Radio 5 Live, [47] and ABC Radio National. [48] [49] [50]
Jones has written articles about Keeping Up with the Kardashians for The Conversation [51] and The Guardian [52] newspapers, [53] and in 2015 she organized "Kimposium," [4] [7] the world's first academic conference for scholarship on the Kardashians. [54] [55] She described the experience as having required her to "argue quite hard about the academic, social, and cultural significance of the Kardashians," and that she learned "too much about Twitter trolls who seem to hate academics and Kardashians in equal parts." [7] The following year, she edited a Kardashian-themed edition of the journal Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty (volume 7, issue 2), [4] [56] and wrote Je Suis Kim, the editorial for the issue. [57] Jones is preparing a book about the Kardashians. [7]
In 2023 Jones launched a podcast based on her research titled The Beauty Chronicles. In the podcast Jones discusses cosmetic surgery, media, popular culture, celebrity, and more. It is hosted on Spotify but also available on Apple Podcasts, Patreon, and YouTube
Jones' first book [11] was reviewed by Brenda Weber, Professor of Gender Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, [58] who wrote in Women's Studies Quarterly about it and two other books: [59] Self-Transformations: Foucault, Ethics, and Normalized Bodies by Cressida Heyes, [60] and Surgery Junkies: Wellness and Pathology in Cosmetic Culture by Victoria Pitts-Taylor. [61] Weber began by noting that elective plastic surgical procedures are growing in popularity, as are the number and styles of media representations of the associated transformations. Each of the three books present "studies that complement, rather than reproduce, one another", which Weber contends is an indication of the "breadth and fascination" of cosmetic surgery as a "topic [for] analysis" and academic study. [59] Drawing on "representative samples from the current mediascape" and commenting on "television's role in making body-modification practices intelligible," each pays particular attention to the program Extreme Makeover. [59] This ABC (America) program began in 2002 and led "the putsch for the extreme" that brought "a new level of self-reinvention [into the] mainstream [by turning] [w]hat had formerly been the preserve of Hollywood stars and the terminally rich [into] the new aspiration for those determined to change their image." [62] Weber states that each of the books "succeeds in offering a useful and intelligent reading of plastic surgery as a cultural practice that speaks of and shapes our present contemporary moment, in which image functions as indexical to identity". [59] Each author situates their analysis "within a broader theoretical context of feminism and cultural studies ... using a blended methodological approach [and] ... include complex schools of thought (such as postmodern and poststructural, Foucauldian, and actor–network theories)." [59] Tomaž Krpič reviewed Skintight for Media International Australia , [63] as did Meghan Griffin for the Journal of Popular Culture . [64]
In an interview on ABC Radio National, Jones discussed Skintight and the cosmetic surgery choices made by women. She discussed the way in which cosmetic surgery operates at both ends of the mother / infant dyad, with most working "at making the appearance increasingly youthful: dermabrasions ideally create a baby-like skin, blepharoplasties widen the eyes, [and] lip enhancements give the mouth a perpetual baby pout." [65] By contrast, breast augmentation emphasises the area that "most differentiates a woman from a child ... [as a] full bosom signifies fertile, sexualised adulthood and represents the opposite of childhood asexuality and innocence." [65] The discussion explored the case of Lolo Ferrari, whose breast implants won her a Guinness World Record in 1999, [66] and the way that breast augmentation can produce a costume that "might appear to represent fertile womanliness but in fact represent only themselves", [65] resulting in what Ferrari herself described [67] as "a femininity that's completely artificial." Niall Richardson and Adam Locks touch on Ferrari in their discussion of resistance to and conformity with cultural norms when using bodies as a means of self-expression, arguing that in "her exaggeration of the "ideal" female form, [Ferrari's] appearance is challenging – carnivalising – discourses of what is deemed erotic or desirable", and then refer to Jones' work [11] [68] as "an excellent analysis of Ferrari." [66]
Her next book was Cosmetic Surgery: A Feminist Primer, which she jointly edited with Cressida Heyes, [69] as well as contributing two chapters. [70] [71] The book was described by Richardson and Locks in their book Body Systems as "an excellent collection which has been assembled by two internationally respected scholars on body image" [72] and reviewed in Gender and Society [73] and in the e-journal Sextures. [74]
Together with artist and designer Suzanne Boccalatte, Jones founded the Trunk series of books, which they edit. [4] Books on Hair [75] (reviewed in Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture [76] ) and Blood [77] have been published by this imprint, and one of Breath is in development. Jones also edits the series Gender, Bodies and Transformation for Routledge. [4]
Jones was inspired to pursue a career in academia from watching her mother study at La Trobe University as a mature age student after winning a scholarship. By the age of 30, Jones was separated and raising her daughter alone. Qualified with a pass degree, she was working in the scholarships office at the University of Sydney and assisting students with the administrative side of their PhD scholarships. [7] It was this experience that fed her desire to earn a scholarship and do a PhD herself, which led Jones to seeking honours with Elspeth Probyn. [3] [7] After working for the University of Technology, Sydney and earning her PhD, Jones relocated to London in 2015. She enjoys attending organ concerts with her partner at Royal Festival Hall and is a vegan. [7]
The following table of shows Jones' publications with citation data collected from Google Scholar on 9 May 2019.
| Year | Publication Type and Contribution | Title | Google Scholar Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Book Chapter (Joint Author) | Stelarc and Orlan in the Middle Ages [6] | 8 [78] |
| 2004 | Journal Article (Sole Author) | Mutton Cut Up as Lamb: Mothers, Daughters and Cosmetic Surgery [9] | 25 [79] |
| 2004 | Journal Article (Sole Author) | Architecture of the Body: Cosmetic Surgery and Postmodern Space [10] | 13 [80] |
| 2006 | PhD Thesis (Sole Author) | Makeover Culture: Landscapes of Cosmetic Surgery Language [8] | 17 [81] |
| 2008 | Book (Sole Author) | Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery [11] | 215 [82] |
| 2008 | Journal Article (Sole Author) | Makeover Culture's Dark Side: Breasts, Death and Lolo Ferrari [68] | 26 [83] |
| 2008 | Journal Article (Sole Author) | Media-Bodies and Screen-Births: Cosmetic Surgery Reality Television [14] | 49 [84] |
| 2009 | Book (Joint Editor) | Cosmetic Surgery: A Feminist Primer [69] | 79 [85] |
| 2009 | Book Chapter (Joint Author) | Cosmetic Surgery in the Age of Gender [70] | 32 [86] |
| 2009 | Book Chapter (Sole Author) | Pygmalion's Many Faces [71] | 11 [87] |
| 2011 | Journal Article (Joint Author) | Bikinis and Bandages: An Itinerary for Cosmetic Surgery Tourism [28] | 62 [88] |
| 2011 | Journal Article (Single Author) | Clinics of Oblivion: Makeover Culture and Cosmetic Surgery [89] | 15 [90] |
| 2012 | Journal Article (Single Author) | Cosmetic Surgery and the Fashionable Face [91] | 13 [92] |
| 2013 | Book Chapter (Sole Author) | Media-Bodies and Photoshop [13] | 17 [93] |
| 2013 | Book Chapter (Joint Author) | Beauty and the Beach: Mapping Cosmetic Surgery Tourism [32] | 14 [94] |
| 2013 | Book Chapter (Sole Author) | New Clothes, New Faces, New Bodies: Cosmetic Surgery and Fashion [95] | – |
| 2014 | Journal Article (Joint Author) | Clinical Trails: Cosmetic Surgery Tourism [39] | N/A |
| 2014 | Book Chapter (Joint Author) | Facebook and Facelifts: Communities of Cosmetic Surgery Tourists [31] | N/A |
| 2015 | Journal Article (Joint Author) | Beautiful Face, Beautiful Place: Relational Geographies and Gender in Cosmetic Surgery Tourism Websites [29] | 31 [96] |
| 2015 | Journal Article (Joint Author) | Brief Encounters: Assembling Cosmetic Surgery Tourism [30] | 46 [97] |
| 2015 | Journal Article (Sole Author) | Sleep, Radical Hospitality, and Makeover's Anti-Matter [98] | – |
| 2016 | Journal Article (Sole Author) | Je Suis Kim [57] | 1 [99] |
| 2017 | Journal Article (Sole Author) | Expressive Surfaces: The Case of the Designer Vagina [17] | 8 [100] |
| 2019 | Book (Joint Author) | Beautyscapes: Mapping Cosmetic Surgery Tourism [37] | – |
Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniofacial surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, and the treatment of burns. While reconstructive surgery aims to reconstruct a part of the body or improve its functioning, cosmetic surgery aims at improving the appearance of it. Comprehensive definition of plastic surgery has never been established, because it has no distinct anatomical object and thus overlaps with practically all other surgical specialties. An essential feature of plastic surgery is that it involves treatment of conditions that require or may require tissue relocation skills.
Genital modifications are forms of body modifications applied to the human sexual organs, such as piercings, circumcision, or labiaplasty.
Judith Pamela Butler is an American philosopher and gender studies scholar whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory.
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), also known in some contexts as dysmorphophobia, is a mental disorder defined by an overwhelming preoccupation with a perceived flaw in one's physical appearance. In BDD's delusional variant, the flaw is imagined. When an actual visible difference exists, its importance is disproportionately magnified in the mind of the individual. Whether the physical issue is real or imagined, ruminations concerning this perceived defect become pervasive and intrusive, consuming substantial mental bandwidth for extended periods each day. This excessive preoccupation not only induces severe emotional distress but also disrupts daily functioning and activities. The DSM-5 places BDD within the obsessive–compulsive spectrum, distinguishing it from disorders such as anorexia nervosa.
The Swan is an American reality television series broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox). It premiered on April 7, 2004, while its eighteenth and final episode aired on December 20, 2004. The series was hosted by Irish television presenter Amanda Byram.
Cosmetic advertising is the promotion of cosmetics and beauty products by the cosmetics industry through a variety of media. The advertising campaigns are usually aimed at women wishing to improve their appearance, commonly to increase physical attractiveness and reduce the signs of ageing.
Elspeth Probyn is an Australian academic. She is currently professor of gender and cultural studies at the University of Sydney. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male is a 1979 book critical of transsexualism by American radical feminist author and activist Janice Raymond. The book is derived from Raymond's dissertation, which was produced under the supervision of the feminist theologian Mary Daly.
Cressida J. Heyes is a British and naturalized Canadian philosopher, currently employed as the Henry Marshall Tory Chair at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and formerly as the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality. Educated at Oxford University (BA) and McGill University, Heyes has also taught at Michigan State University. Her latest book, Anaesthetics of Existence: Essays on Experience at the Edge is the winner of the David Easton prize from the Foundations of Political Thought committee of the American Political Science Association, and a finalist for the 2020 Book Award from the North American Society for Social Philosophy. She is currently writing a feminist philosophy of sleep.
Garth Fisher, is an American plastic surgeon best known as the first doctor selected for the ABC television show Extreme Makeover. Fisher's clientele includes entertainers, celebrities and business executives and he specializes in aesthetic/cosmetic plastic surgery of the face, nose, breast and other parts of the body.
Jocelyn Alice Wildenstein is a Swiss socialite known for her extensive cosmetic surgery, resulting in her catlike appearance; her 1999 high-profile divorce from billionaire art dealer and businessman Alec Wildenstein; and her extravagant lifestyle and subsequent bankruptcy filing.
The feminine beauty ideal is a specific set of beauty standards regarding traits that are ingrained in women throughout their lives and from a young age to increase their perceived physical attractiveness. It is a phenomenon experienced by many women in the world, though the traits change over time and vary in country and culture.
Bernadette Wegenstein is a Research Professor and director of the Center for Advanced Media Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She has written books on media theory including Getting Under the Skin: Body and Media Theory, The Cosmetic Gaze: Body Modification and the Construction of Beauty.
Ethnic plastic surgery, or ethnic modification, refers to the types of plastic surgery performed frequently due to certain racial or ethnic traits, or with the intention of making one's appearance more similar or less similar to people of a particular race or ethnicity. Popular procedures which may have an ethnically-motivated component are rhinoplasties and blepharoplasties.
Lisa L. Moore is a Canadian-American academic and poet. She earned a B.A. in English with honors at Queen's University in 1986, and then completed her doctorate at Cornell University in 1991. Principal themes in Moore’s work include the centrality of love between women to literary genres such as the novel, the landscape arts, and the sonnet; the transatlantic and multi-racial history of feminist art and thinking; and the importance of poetry to second-wave feminist, womanist, and lesbian cultures and politics.
Korean beauty standards have become a well-known feature of Korean culture. In 2015, a global survey by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons placed South Korea in the top ten of countries who had the highest rate of cosmetic surgeries. Korean beauty standards prioritize a slim figure, dewy skin, v-shaped jaw, pale skin, straight eyebrows, and smooth skin.
John Hassard is a British social scientist specialising in organization theory. He is known for conducting a ‘multiple paradigm’ case study investigation in organizational research.
Virginia Braun is a New Zealand psychology academic specialising in thematic analysis and gender studies. She is particularly known for her scholarship on the social construction of the vagina and designer vagina cosmetic surgery, body hair and heterosexuality. She is perhaps best known for her collaboration with British psychologist Victoria Clarke around thematic analysis and qualitative research methods. Together they have published numerous papers, chapters, commentaries and editorials on thematic analysis and qualitative research, and an award-winning and best selling qualitative textbook entitled Successful qualitative research. They have a thematic analysis website at The University of Auckland. More recently - with the Story Completion Research Group - they have published around the story completion method.
Sexualization and sexual exploitation in K-pop refers to elements of sexualization and sexual exploitation in K-pop, which was once seen as a conservative music industry. This is in part due to 21st century globalization, with Korean entertainment and record label companies intending to market their idols abroad.
Cosmetic surgery, also referred to as aesthetic surgery, is a surgical procedure which endeavours to improve the physical aspects of one's appearance to become more aesthetically pleasing. It is closely linked to plastic surgery, but cosmetic surgery focuses more on the improvement of one's appearance, for example by reducing the signs of aging, instead of existing for health purposes. Motivation for plastic surgery has been debated throughout Korean society. Holliday and Elfving-Hwang suggest that the pressure of success in work and marriage is deeply rooted in one's ability to manage their body which is influenced by beauty. As companies helping with matchmaking for marriage and even job applications require a photo of the individual, it is inevitable that the Korean population feels pressure to undergo plastic surgery to achieve the "natural beauty".
The outer boundaries of American lifestyle programming might make you want your hand held, if not your stomach. Leading the putsch for the extreme, noted in Chapter 7, was the 2002 ABC show Extreme Makeover, which added plastic surgery to the more conventional makeover options of clothes, hair and make-up. As the surgeon's scalpel joined the cutting words, a new level of self-reinvention went mainstream. What had formerly been the preserve of Hollywood stars and the terminally rich now became the new aspiration for those determined to change their image.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
