Cosmetic Surgery, Gender and Culture

Book excerpt: Women's magazines teem with its promises and horror stories; feminists ardently debate its status as harmful or heroic; surgeons and regulators compete to define which procedures can be offered and how. Through its representation, cosmetic surgery impacts on us all, not just those who go 'under the knife'. This book investigates the ways in which cosmetic surgery is shaping gender, and in the process, it questions contemporary cultural studies assumptions about how we read the media.