Reshaping the Female Body

Cosmetic surgery is the fastest growing medical speciality in both the USA and Western Europe. The `surgical fix' belongs to the growing arsenal of practices and technologies which are aimed at transforming the female body. It asks why women are willing to put themselves under the knife for the sake of beauty. "Reshaping the Female Body" attempts to make sense of women's involvement in cosmetic surgery. Whereas traditional explanations have tended to look to female narcissism, lack of self-esteem and susceptibility to the lures of consumer capitalism, Kathy Davis situates cosmetic surgery in a feminist analysis of the cultural constraints of femininity. At the same time, she argues against the notion that women who have cosmetic surgery are victims of ideological manipulation, blindly complying with cultural definitions of feminine beauty. Cosmetic surgery is less about beauty than about being ordinary. Cosmetic surgery can be a way for some women to become embodied subjects who, by reshaping their bodies, can remake their lives. She cautions against condemning cosmetic surgery as inherently repressive and, therefore, `politically incorrect'.