astronomy

Pretty Modern

Pretty Modern is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pretty Modern rather than just read about it. In short: Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil is a book by anthropologist Alexander Edmonds published by Duke University Press in 2010. Edmonds examines plastic surgery as a social domain and uses it to explore the social, medical and psychological landscape and conflicts in modern-day Brazil.

Key takeaways

Pretty Modern belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pretty Modern to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pretty Modern from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil is a book by anthropologist Alexander Edmonds published by Duke University Press in 2010. Edmonds examines plastic surgery as a social domain and uses it to explore the social, medical and psychological landscape and conflicts in modern-day Brazil. In this book, he seeks to answer the question "how did plastic surgery—a practice often associated with body hatred and alienation—take root in this city known for its glorious embrace of sensuality and pleasure?” He examine what constitutes a perfect Brazilian body and how the social and racial dynamic of Brazil affect this.

Synopsis The book contains three main sections, each addressing a particular aspect of plastic surgery culture in Brazil. Edmonds uses mainly interviews and observations of procedures as well as academic theories and publications. He interviews an array of people from various socio-economic backgrounds.

Part One: The Self-Esteem in Each Ego Awakens This section of the book examines the roles of medicine and psychology in defining physical defects as an illness. It focuses on the career and philosophy of Dr. Ivo Pitanguy and his idea that everyone has "the right to beauty" and how the lines between what constitutes reconstructive and aesthetic surgery are blurred. He is an advocate for free cosmetic surgery in public hospitals and affordability and believes in the therapeutic rational and mental treatment of plastic surgery for mental suffering.

Part Two: Beautiful People This part of the book addresses race in relation to beauty standards in Brazil. He examines how the idea of a racial democracy and mestiçagem (rainbow of colors) allows racism to be ignored in Brazilian culture. He explores how the ideal Brazilian body as a mixture of both black and white features but he also explores how this standard still perpetuates racism.

Part Three: Engineering the Erotic This section explores gender and sexuality in relation to cosmetic surgery. He uses socio-biological theories to examine society's preference for youthful features. The widely held belief, by both surgeons and patients alike, that a maternal body being unattractive is addressed.

Critical reception Alexander Edmonds received good reviews on this book from how he addressed such a multi-faceted topic from all angles whilst maintaining respect for Brazilian culture. Hilda Lloréns wrote: "Pretty Modern is a masterful ethnography about the medicalization of beauty". The book was reviewed as a "beautifully written and intimate portrait of the private worlds of Brazilian socialites, middle-class madams, and their working-class maids, all of them striving,..., for beauty, sexual prowess, social recognition, and ultimately a modicum of self-love and self-esteem through cosmetic surgery" by Nancy Scheper-Hughes. Review by Susan Besse in the Luso-Brazilian Review 50 (2013): 282–285. Review by Donna Goldstein in American Ethnologist 39 (2012): 627-627. Review by Nancy Scheper-Hughes in Current Anthropology 53 (2012):514-518.

Awards Winner, 2013 Eileen Basker Memorial Prize, presented by the Society for Medical Anthropology Honorable Mention, 2011 Sharon Stephens Book Prize, presented by the American Ethnological Association Honorable Mention, 2012 Roberto Reis Award, presented by the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA).

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pretty Modern

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pretty Modern claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pretty Modern before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pretty Modern ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pretty Modern

In research: Pretty Modern appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pretty Modern in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pretty Modern is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010 non-fiction books, Duke University Press books, Works about plastic surgery, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pretty Modern outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pretty Modern in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pretty Modern means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pretty Modern out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pretty Modern in simple terms?

Why does Pretty Modern matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pretty Modern?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pretty Modern.