Accounts of Embodiment and Their Cultural Repertoires

Abstract

This chapter presents the theoretical tools I employed in examining British and American women’s narratives of cosmetic surgery. It takes as its starting point existing feminist discussions of the practice, tracing alternative interpretations of cosmetic surgery (i.e., as a reflection of structured gender inequalities or a potential resource for female agency and empowerment) in the literature from the late 1980s to the present, drawing out key insights and explaining their relevance to my own analysis. The chapter’s first section ends with a discussion of recent writings on cosmetic surgery narratives (Fraser, 2003, 2009; Huss-Ashmore, 2000), arguing that they provide a useful means for moving beyond the current stalemate of a structure vs. agency debate.