JOURNAL ARTICLE

Before & After: Plasticity, Plastic Surgery, and Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In.

  • Published In: University of Toronto Quarterly, 2025, v. 94, n. 2. P. 217 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Morrison, Paul 3 of 3

Abstract

The article critically examines Pedro Almodóvar's film *The Skin I Live In* (2011) through the lens of the philosophical concept of "plasticity," as developed by Catherine Malabou, focusing on themes of gender, identity, and bodily transformation. It highlights how the film challenges prevailing postmodern ideas of gender and sexual fluidity by portraying non-consensual gender reassignment surgery as a form of "destructive plasticity" that disrupts continuity of self rather than enabling liberation. The analysis explores the symbolic and material significance of skin as both a barrier and a site of subjectivity, emphasizing the tension between imposed form and inherent identity, while also addressing the film's interrogation of power, surveillance, and the limits of bodily and psychological transformation.

Additional Information

  • Source:University of Toronto Quarterly. 2025/05, Vol. 94, Issue 2, p217
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Health and Medicine
  • Publication Date:2025
  • ISSN:0042-0247
  • DOI:10.3138/utq.94.02.07
  • Accession Number:185364226
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