Reshaping the Female Body : The Dilemma of Cosmetic Surgery

Reshaping... looks at women's involvement in cosmetic surgery and raises the question of why women put themselves under the knife for operations which are painful, risky and expensive and often leave them in worse shape than before. In An Analysis From A Feminist Standpoint, Davis Argues That Cosmetic Surgery Is A Dilemma: Both Symptom And Solution, Oppression And Liberation, All In One. The Rise Of The Surgical Fix -- Beauty And The Female Body -- Public Face/private Suffering -- From Objectified Body To Embodied Subject -- Decisions And Deliberations -- Choice And Informed Consent Revisited -- Facing The Dilemma. Kathy Davis. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [197]-206) And Index. This work attempts to make sense of women's involvement in cosmetic surgery. Whereas traditional explanations have tended to look to female narcissism, this book situates cosmetic surgery in a feminist analysis of the cultural constraints of femininity.