Surgery Junkies: Wellness and Pathology in Cosmetic Culture [Paperback]

Victoria Pitts-Taylor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813540488 | ISBN-13: 978-0813540481 | Publication Date: April 25, 2007 | Edition: 1

"Surgery Junkies is an innovative, fast-paced mix of theory and empirical research that advances our understanding of contemporary bodies, lifestyle medicine, and the making of the embodied, self-fashioned self. Scholars and teachers of cultural and media studies, sociology of the body, and health and society will value its contributions to both their research and their teaching."-Arthur W. Frank, author of The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics and The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live "Whether analyzing Extreme Makeover, 'Body Dismorphic Disorder,' or her own rhinoplasty, Pitts-Taylor makes difficult theoretical concepts clear-and clearly relevant to our lives."-Susan Bordo, author of Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body Despite the increasing prevalence of cosmetic surgery, there are still those who identify individuals who opt for bodily modifications as dupes of beauty culture, as being in conflict with feminist ideals, or as having some form of psychological weakness. In this ground-breaking book, Victoria Pitts-Taylor examines why we consider some cosmetic surgeries to be acceptable or even beneficial and others to be unacceptable and possibly harmful. Drawing on years of research, in-depth interviews with surgeons and psychiatrists, analysis of newspaper articles, legal documents, and television shows, and her own personal experience with cosmetic surgery, Pitts-Taylor brings new perspectives to the promotion of "extreme" makeovers on television, the medicalization of "surgery addiction," the moral and political interrogation that many patients face, and feminist debates on the topic. Pitts-Taylor makes a compelling argument that the experience, meanings, and motivations for cosmetic surgery are highly social and, in doing so, provides a much needed "makeover" of our cultural understanding of cosmetic surgery. Victoria Pitts-Taylor is associate professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author of In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Surgery Junkies is an innovative, fast-paced mix of theory and empirical research that advances our understanding of contemporary bodies, lifestyle medicine, and the making of the embodied, self-fashioned self. Scholars and teachers of cultural and media studies, sociology of the body, and health and society will value its contributions to both their research and their teaching." -- Arthur W. Frank, author of The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics and The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live

"Surgery Junkies offers a fresh, poststructuralist perspective on cosmetic surgery as a vivid example of the way doctors, popular culture, feminist theory, and the law sort out the `healthy' from the `pathological' in this culture. Whether analyzing Extreme Makeover, `Body Dismorphic Disorder,' or her own rhinoplasty, Pitts-Taylor makes difficult theoretical concepts clear--and clearly relevant to our lives." -- Susan Bordo, author of Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body

"Surgery Junkies is an innovative, fast-paced mix of theory and empirical research that advances our understanding of contemporary bodies, lifestyle medicine, and the making of the embodied, self-fashioned self. Scholars and teachers of cultural and media studies, sociology of the body, and health and society will value its contributions to both their research and their teaching." -- Arthur W. Frank, author of The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics and The Renewal of Generosity: Illness, Medicine, and How to Live

"Surgery Junkies offers a fresh, poststructuralist perspective on cosmetic surgery as a vivid example of the way doctors, popular culture, feminist theory, and the law sort out the `healthy' from the `pathological' in this culture. Whether analyzing Extreme Makeover, `Body Dismorphic Disorder,' or her own rhinoplasty, Pitts-Taylor makes difficult theoretical concepts clear--and clearly relevant to our lives." -- Susan Bordo, author of Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body [use second sentence only if need to crop for space]

About the Author

Victoria Pitts-Taylor is associate professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author of In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press; 1 edition (April 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813540488
• ISBN-13: 978-0813540481
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #891,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a thorough, well-written and important book with the potential to change the way we think about cosmetic surgery, September 23, 2007

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This review is from: Surgery Junkies: Wellness and Pathology in Cosmetic Culture (Paperback)

Every woman who opts to have cosmetic surgery is likely to incite a variety of knee-jerk reactions regarding her choice and what it says about her. Take, for example, Ashlee Simpson's decision to undergo rhinoplasty, which transformed her nose (and, in turn, her entire appearance) to be more in line with mainstream standards of beauty. Opinions about Ashlee's surgery depicted her simultaneously as vain; as a victim of Hollywood beauty ideals who was duped into changing herself from a unique person into a clone; as a smart consumer who needed to change her ugly nose; and as a free agent who should be left alone to do whatever she wants to her body.

In Surgery Junkies, Victoria Pitts-Taylor addresses these conflicting views and their origins - including feminist theory, psychiatry, television shows, the media, and the cosmetic surgery industry itself. In deconstructing the discourses around cosmetic surgery, she aims to show that the meanings assigned to it are socially constructed and always changing, not fixed and tied to something specific and static within each patient. She is particularly interested in the portrayals and perceptions of women who are seen as "extreme" patients or "junkies" because of the number or nature of the procedures they choose to have. One topic she covers is the perspective, voiced by cosmetic surgeons and reinforced by the reality show Extreme Makeover, that cosmetic surgery is a logical way for people to change the way they look on the outside to match how they feel on the inside, thus creating or restoring their "true" selves. Another chapter covers the medicalization of surgery addiction in the form of the psychiatric diagnosis Body Dysmorphia Disorder (BDD).

Surgery Junkies concludes with a short but illuminating account of the author's own cosmetic surgery experience, a rhinoplasty she had while in the process of writing the book. In sharing her experiences of interacting with cosmetic surgeons and dealing with a range of (predominantly negative) reactions to her surgery, she helps readers better understand her argument that cosmetic surgery should not be thought of as related solely to the existing traits and pathologies of the patients themselves, but rather as part of a complex and continually changing social and cultural framework. Overall, Surgery Junkies is a thorough, well-written and important book with the potential to change the way we think about cosmetic surgery and, in particular, the people who choose to have it.