Cosmetic Surgery, Gender and Culture

Through its representation, cosmetic surgery impacts on us all, not just those who go "under the knife." 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. 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.

Suzanne Fraser is research fellow at the National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales.