Authors

Abstract

This study tries to review the reasons for which young girls tend to perform beauty surgeries on their faces, within the framework of Veblen’s “Theory of the Leisure Class” and his “Social Models” such as fiscal ownership. The statistical society has been the girl students of the University of Tehran selected through snow ball sampling and discourse analysis was applied to analyze the semi-structured interviews with them. Discourse analysis results of beauty surgeries show that the theoretical approach of Veblen regarding social models is citable and extensible. Students show a changing tendency from “capital ownership” towards “symbolic ownership” and as a new cultural-social power they show a changing tendency from capital envy and capital conspicuous consumption to symbolic envy and symbolic (beauty) Conspicuous Consumption. Gender analysis, media and generation objects play a key role in forming the discourse of face beauty surgeries.

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