Why should social scientists and cultural scholars pay attention to aesthetic medical procedures? In this episode, Alka Menon (Yale University) and Anne-Mette Hermans (Tilburg University) take us beneath the surface of Botox, rhinoplasties, and Brazilian Butt Lifts to reveal what these increasingly normalised procedures can tell us about social inequality today.
With host Sanne Pieters, they explore how doctors and surgeons shape more than just faces. By deciding which appearances are acceptable, these practitioners navigate the boundaries between medicine and aesthetics, morality and beauty, economics and ethics, and in doing so play a key role in (re)defining racial categories and hierarchal beauty ideals. Our guests tackle some seemingly contradictory puzzles with no easy answers. Why do practitioners insist that “true beauty comes from within”? And how should we understand the normalisation of aesthetic procedures when those who undergo them still face persistent stigma?
This episode shows that cosmetic surgery is about much more than just appearance: it holds up a mirror to the social inequalities that exist in society.
Alka V. Menon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University. She studies the relationship between medicine, technology, and society, with a focus on race and racism. Her book, Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards shows how forces working at different scales stabilize the continuing use of racial categories in medicine.
Anne-Mette Hermans is an Assistant Professor at Tranzo, Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on (consumerist) notions of malleable bodies and cosmetic procedures in particular. Moreover, she co-established the interdisciplinary Expertisegroep Cosmetische Ingrepen, which executes several research projects related to the cosmetic surgery and beauty industry in the Netherlands.
Sanne Pieters is a PhD Researcher of cultural sociology at KU Leuven in Belgium. Her research interests include the relation between physical beauty and social inequalities, hegemonic and hybrid gender identities and bodywork as pedagogical practice.
Readings:
Hermans, A.-M. (2021). Discourses of perfection: Representing cosmetic procedures and beauty products in UK lifestyle magazines. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003001973
Hermans, A.-M., & Nash, R. (2025). Cosmetic gatekeepers: Negotiations of beauty and (re)shaping bodies by medical aesthetic practitioners. Social Science & Medicine, 380, 118165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118165
Menon, A. V. (2023). Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards (1st ed). University of California Press.
Menon, A. V. (2017). Reconstructing race and gender in American cosmetic surgery. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(4), 597–616. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1206590
Bonell, S., Barlow, F. K., & Griffiths, S. (2021). The cosmetic surgery paradox: Toward a contemporary understanding of cosmetic surgery popularisation and attitudes. Body Image, 38, 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.04.010
Haraway, Donna (1990). "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge.
Podcast editors: Luuc Brans, Sanne Pieters, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens. This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
All content for Culture & Inequality Podcast is the property of Culture & Inequality Podcast and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Why should social scientists and cultural scholars pay attention to aesthetic medical procedures? In this episode, Alka Menon (Yale University) and Anne-Mette Hermans (Tilburg University) take us beneath the surface of Botox, rhinoplasties, and Brazilian Butt Lifts to reveal what these increasingly normalised procedures can tell us about social inequality today.
With host Sanne Pieters, they explore how doctors and surgeons shape more than just faces. By deciding which appearances are acceptable, these practitioners navigate the boundaries between medicine and aesthetics, morality and beauty, economics and ethics, and in doing so play a key role in (re)defining racial categories and hierarchal beauty ideals. Our guests tackle some seemingly contradictory puzzles with no easy answers. Why do practitioners insist that “true beauty comes from within”? And how should we understand the normalisation of aesthetic procedures when those who undergo them still face persistent stigma?
This episode shows that cosmetic surgery is about much more than just appearance: it holds up a mirror to the social inequalities that exist in society.
Alka V. Menon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University. She studies the relationship between medicine, technology, and society, with a focus on race and racism. Her book, Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards shows how forces working at different scales stabilize the continuing use of racial categories in medicine.
Anne-Mette Hermans is an Assistant Professor at Tranzo, Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on (consumerist) notions of malleable bodies and cosmetic procedures in particular. Moreover, she co-established the interdisciplinary Expertisegroep Cosmetische Ingrepen, which executes several research projects related to the cosmetic surgery and beauty industry in the Netherlands.
Sanne Pieters is a PhD Researcher of cultural sociology at KU Leuven in Belgium. Her research interests include the relation between physical beauty and social inequalities, hegemonic and hybrid gender identities and bodywork as pedagogical practice.
Readings:
Hermans, A.-M. (2021). Discourses of perfection: Representing cosmetic procedures and beauty products in UK lifestyle magazines. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003001973
Hermans, A.-M., & Nash, R. (2025). Cosmetic gatekeepers: Negotiations of beauty and (re)shaping bodies by medical aesthetic practitioners. Social Science & Medicine, 380, 118165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118165
Menon, A. V. (2023). Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards (1st ed). University of California Press.
Menon, A. V. (2017). Reconstructing race and gender in American cosmetic surgery. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(4), 597–616. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1206590
Bonell, S., Barlow, F. K., & Griffiths, S. (2021). The cosmetic surgery paradox: Toward a contemporary understanding of cosmetic surgery popularisation and attitudes. Body Image, 38, 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.04.010
Haraway, Donna (1990). "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge.
Podcast editors: Luuc Brans, Sanne Pieters, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens. This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
Hiring, matching, elites, and the bank of mum and dad: culture, inequality, and social mobility
Culture & Inequality Podcast
45 minutes 41 seconds
4 years ago
Hiring, matching, elites, and the bank of mum and dad: culture, inequality, and social mobility
It’s all wealth, social mobility and class ceilings in this week’s episode as we ask ourselves: How does social mobility work, and why does it matter for culture and inequality?
Dave O’Brien talks with Maren Toft (Uni Oslo) and Sam Friedman (LSE) about parental wealth, cultural matching, the class ceiling and labour market outcomes. How does the bank of mum and dad contribute to a class ceiling in Norwegian social mobility? Why does it matter that you have the same cultural tastes as those hiring you for a job? And how are these cultural mechanisms of social mobility gendered?
Dave, Sam and Maren discuss various papers and demonstrate how privileges in the labour market are profoundly material, cultural and symbolic at the same time. In the final stretch of the episode, they explore various promising new directions for the field of social mobility and culture research.
Papers (all open access):
- Adamson, M. & M. Johansson (2020) - Writing Class In and Out: Construction of Class in Elite Businesswomen’s autobiographies - Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520962393
- Rivera, L.A. (2012) Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms - American Sociological Review https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412463213
- Toft, M. & S. Friedman (2020) Family Wealth and the Class Ceiling: The Propulsive Power of the Bank of Mum and Dad - Sociology https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520922537
Class assignments separately available on our Soundcloud stream.
Culture & Inequality Podcast
Why should social scientists and cultural scholars pay attention to aesthetic medical procedures? In this episode, Alka Menon (Yale University) and Anne-Mette Hermans (Tilburg University) take us beneath the surface of Botox, rhinoplasties, and Brazilian Butt Lifts to reveal what these increasingly normalised procedures can tell us about social inequality today.
With host Sanne Pieters, they explore how doctors and surgeons shape more than just faces. By deciding which appearances are acceptable, these practitioners navigate the boundaries between medicine and aesthetics, morality and beauty, economics and ethics, and in doing so play a key role in (re)defining racial categories and hierarchal beauty ideals. Our guests tackle some seemingly contradictory puzzles with no easy answers. Why do practitioners insist that “true beauty comes from within”? And how should we understand the normalisation of aesthetic procedures when those who undergo them still face persistent stigma?
This episode shows that cosmetic surgery is about much more than just appearance: it holds up a mirror to the social inequalities that exist in society.
Alka V. Menon is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Yale University. She studies the relationship between medicine, technology, and society, with a focus on race and racism. Her book, Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards shows how forces working at different scales stabilize the continuing use of racial categories in medicine.
Anne-Mette Hermans is an Assistant Professor at Tranzo, Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on (consumerist) notions of malleable bodies and cosmetic procedures in particular. Moreover, she co-established the interdisciplinary Expertisegroep Cosmetische Ingrepen, which executes several research projects related to the cosmetic surgery and beauty industry in the Netherlands.
Sanne Pieters is a PhD Researcher of cultural sociology at KU Leuven in Belgium. Her research interests include the relation between physical beauty and social inequalities, hegemonic and hybrid gender identities and bodywork as pedagogical practice.
Readings:
Hermans, A.-M. (2021). Discourses of perfection: Representing cosmetic procedures and beauty products in UK lifestyle magazines. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003001973
Hermans, A.-M., & Nash, R. (2025). Cosmetic gatekeepers: Negotiations of beauty and (re)shaping bodies by medical aesthetic practitioners. Social Science & Medicine, 380, 118165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118165
Menon, A. V. (2023). Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards (1st ed). University of California Press.
Menon, A. V. (2017). Reconstructing race and gender in American cosmetic surgery. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(4), 597–616. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2016.1206590
Bonell, S., Barlow, F. K., & Griffiths, S. (2021). The cosmetic surgery paradox: Toward a contemporary understanding of cosmetic surgery popularisation and attitudes. Body Image, 38, 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.04.010
Haraway, Donna (1990). "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. Routledge.
Podcast editors: Luuc Brans, Sanne Pieters, Kobe De Keere & Geert Veuskens. This podcast is co-financed from the BINQ project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant No. 101052649. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. This podcast is also kindly supported by the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam.
