Americans spend more than five billion dollars a year on cosmetics. In such a culture, to be unattractive is to be at a disadvantage; to have a physical abnormality that impairs one's appearance is to be stigmatized and rejected. Destructive to adults, this rejection can be devastating to children.In Beauty is the Beast, Ann Hill Beuf examines the stigmatization of children who deviate from American standards of acceptable physical appearance. Children impaired by birth defects, dermatological disorders, excessive obesity, and similar disorders are frequently regarded as inferior and often repulsive, and they suffer rejection by strangers, peers, the professionals who are supposed to help them, and their own families.Using theory and methodology from sociology, anthropology, and psychology, as well as her own extensive interviews with children and their caretakers, Beuf analyzes both the effects of this stigmatization on children and the strategies they use to cope with it.Beauty is the Beast will interest parents and professionals who work with appearance-impaired children, as well as scholars and graduate students in the fields of nursing, sociology, social work, and psychology.

Biting off the Bracelet A Study of Children in Hospitals Second Edition Ann Hill Beuf "An outstanding study. . . . A must for all health professionals."--"Choice" "While highlighting the adverse effects hospitalization may have on children, the author offers innovative ways society and individuals can combat the helplessness and powerlessness that are part of the child-patient role."--"Family Research Institute Newsletter" This is a second edition of Ann Hill Beuf's admirable book about the social situation of hospitalized children in twentieth-century America. 1988 224 pages 5 3/8 x 8 ISBN 978-0-8122-1278-5 Paper $24.95s 16.50 World Rights Sociology