The "working" body and the "service" body in the argentine medical literature on plastic surgery in the first half of the 20th century

Abstract

In this article I analyse the Argentinean medical literature on plastic surgery in the first half of the twentieth century in order to explore the intersection between body, gender and labour market. The main idea underlying this analysis is to show that plastic surgery was inserted as a medical practice that tended to
perform gendered bodies that conformed to the requirements imposed by the prevailing sexual division
of labour in that period. In the first sections, I examine a series of publications on reconstructive surgery of the hand, with the aim of showing that surgical techniques aimed at functional reconstruction in the case
of male workers and aesthetic reconstruction in the case of female patients. In the last section, I delve into
the analysis of the medical literature to show the relevance that cosmetic surgery assumes for the "modern
woman". Although this notion would seem to embody a certain openness for women in the public space,
the truth is that the medical literature suggests a segregated and temporary insertion in work activities that require the display and embodiment of certain traits associated with femininity.