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Real Men Don't Get Lipos : Gender, Political Economy, And Biomedicine In Colombia's Male Beauty Industry, Jose Alejandro Arango-Londono

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The last few years in Colombia have seen the rise and expansion of male beauty industry. Such growth seems to suggest a shift from entrenched gendered ideas as well as new markets and economic opportunities to pursue. This dissertation is the result of eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Cali, Colombia focusing on how the development of male beauty has emerged in a context that is profoundly shaped by the legacy of armed conflict and drug-trafficking. The expansion of male beauty industry flourishes in a political and economic moment in Colombia where neoliberal policies are prevalent in the state’s agenda.