The role of expert systems in the shaping of post-modern canon of beauty

Abstract

Thesis: In the following text I advance the thesis that the doctors of aesthetic medicine,
through appearances in the media (on the pages of tabloid press, in TV programs)
and through the services off ered, create Giddens’s expert systems that aff ect
the formation, consolidation and dissemination of a new canon of beauty.
Discussed concepts: The starting point of my text is the work of Anthony Giddens
Modernity and identity. “I” and society in the age of late modernity, in which the concept of
expert systems is presented. I refer also to arguments of Georges Vigarello, concerning
changes in the canons of beauty over the centuries and the modern cult of artifi ciality.
In the following text, I cite the concept of “professional beauty” coined by Naomi
Wolf.
Results and conclusions: The analysis of discourse (advice in the popular press,
television programs about fashion and beauty, as well as the services of aesthetic surgeries)
pertaining to the beautifying of the body shows that the expert systems for
the transformation of the body contribute to medicalization. Natural expressions of
human physiognomy (the natural shape of the lips, facial features, skin) are treated
as a “disease” that should be treated. Individuals socialized in this way more oft en
undergo treatments in aesthetic medicine, in order to achieve the desired look.

Originality / value Cognitive approach: The text draws att ention to the consequences
of the functioning of expert systems in the fi eld of the beautifi cation of the
body. The consequences of these include: the unifi cation of appearance (individuals
who undergo aesthetic medicine treatments become similar to each other), ostracism
against those that do not meet the ideal, and the medicalization of beauty (the distinctive
and unique features of the human physiognomy are considered a defect).