Are Breast Implants Better than Female Genital Mutilation?

Abstract

The normative questions raised by the existence of unequal and potentially harmful beauty norms in Western societies have been largely ignored by liberal political philosophy. While feminist scholars have devoted a great deal of theoretical attention to cultural requirements relating to appearance and beauty, and the ways in which these might be oppressive and unjust, this is a phenomenon which most political philosophy has either failed to notice, or deemed to fall outside of its proper boundaries. Just how should a normative theory which seeks to promote individual autonomy and equality, and criticise violations of these as forms of injustice, respond to the case of those individuals—usually women—who choose to undergo dangerous procedures such as breast implants, or opt to wear high-heeled shoes which prevent them from walking properly and may cause them pain? As Chambers notes early on in this book, it is an issue which much liberal philosophy lacks the conceptual tools to adequately theorise or criticise. It is this weakness which she seeks to remedy—the failure of liberal theory to recognise the injustices suffered by individuals who voluntarily choose to harm themselves in order to comply with societal or cultural norms. Part of the reason for this theoretical impoverishment is, as Chambers rightly argues, the failure of liberal philosophy to engage with and take seriously the theories of social construction developed by feminists and postmodern thinkers. Feminist scholars such as Naomi Wolf and Catharine MacKinnon, and poststructuralists such as Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault, have drawn attention to the ways in which individual freedom and autonomy can be undermined not only by state coercion and interference, but also by powerful social and cultural norms which act to shape our preferences and constrain our options. Liberal political philosophy has tended to focus primarily on the former of these instances of