Women, the Body and Brand Extension in Medicine: Cosmetic Surgery and the Paradox of Choice

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between Western medicine, female body image and gender inequalities. It evaluates the extent to which the medicalisation of appearance through cosmetic surgery may serve to reinforce limited and restrictive models of femininity. Collusion with these processes, it is suggested, may be rational for some women at the individual level as they seek to increase their social power in a society where women are judged by their appearance more than men. At the social level, however, such action can be seen to go against women's collective interests and perpetuate wider social inequalities.