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Surgery Junkies: Wellness and Pathology in Cosmetic Culture

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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.