“Under the Knife and Proud of It:” * An Analysis of the Normalization of Cosmetic Surgery

Abstract

This article investigates a growing acceptance and approval of cosmetic surgery among Americans. An analysis of recent media coverage of cosmetic surgery reveals two dominant narrative frames that project favorable interpretations of cosmetic surgery. Several normalizing themes within these narrative frames are highlighted, including associations between cosmetic surgery and scientific progress, technological innovation, and mental and physical health. Common portrayals of the body undergoing cosmetic surgery are also analyzed, with attention drawn to the ways in which these portrayals promote normalized understandings of cosmetic surgery. In the last sections of this article, the author suggests some potential consequences of the normalization of cosmetic surgery: virulent forms of social control, a disruption of mind-body reflexivity, and a loss of the body's innate capacity for knowledge.