[csaa-forum] New book about cosmetic surgery

[Meredith Jones]

<%3Chttp://www.bergpublishers.com/Products/9781845206697/tabid/2476/Default.aspx?TabId=2476&currentreview=2%3E>Skintight: 
An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery 
<%3Chttp://www.bergpublishers.com/Products/9781845206697/tabid/2476/Default.aspx?TabId=2476&currentreview=2%3E>  
(2008, Berg, Oxford)
By Meredith Jones

Skintight is a compelling cultural analysis of cosmetic surgery focusing 
on media, celebrities, globalization, and first-hand interviews with 
patients and surgeons.

It looks at how cosmetic surgery fits into a contemporary world of 
"Makeover Culture" through many varied and unexpected lenses, including 
art, architecture, "extreme practitioners" like Lolo Ferrari and Jocelyn 
Wildenstein, monstrosity, and myth.

The little pedagogies of everyday media teach us that we are always ripe 
for renovation and enhancement. This book examines the cultural logics 
inside makeover culture and suggests that "good citizens" of makeover 
culture publicly enact urgent and never-ending renovations of themselves.

Skintight aims to develop a feminist understanding of contemporary 
cosmetic surgery that is beyond ideas of agent and victim, and that goes 
further than the common feminist refrain of "just don't do it". It 
offers suggestions about how we may live critically and constructively 
with cosmetic surgery in all its contradictory, concrete, discursive, 
and imaginary forms. It acknowledges that there are complex pleasures 
and desires associated with cosmetic surgery, intertwined with its 
offensiveness and terrors.


About the author: Meredith Jones is a media and cultural studies scholar 
based at the Institute for Interactive Media at the University of 
Technology, Sydney. She has published about cosmetic surgery in 
international journals, and is currently editing a volume of feminist 
responses to cosmetic surgery as well as researching a new book about 
cosmetic surgery tourism.

Early Reviews:

'Cosmetic surgery has become one of the most polarizing topics of our 
time. While feminists have used it as an example of the impact of sexist 
notions of the perfect body, other cultural critics and performers see 
plastic surgery as a metaphor for the flexible body in global 
capitalism. Jones carefully navigates the critical and material terrains 
of cosmetic surgery and gives us a beautifully nuanced account of what 
she calls "makeover citizenry." This is a must-read for anyone 
interested in the body and global capitalism.'
Judith Halberstam, University of Southern California

'Meredith Jones' excellent book playfully demonstrates the working of 
mediation in the current "makeover culture", in which our bodies and 
appearance are constantly being readjusted. It steers away from the 
familiar moralism towards cosmetic surgery while also raising important 
ethical questions about its specific procedures.'
Joanna Zylinska, Goldsmiths, University of London

'Skintight is a brilliant analysis of the world-wide (and scary) 
normalization of MakeOver Culture and the rise of vanguard MakeOver 
Citizens deeply committed to their never-ending techno-perfectibility. 
Meredith Jones illuminates all the material and ideological pleasures 
and pains, the seductiveness, the horror, and astonishing beauty of 
these culturally-obligatory aesthetic/surgical metamorphoses. Her 
engaging, witty, compassionate and intellectually rich odyssey must not 
be missed!'
Kathryn Morgan, University of Toronto


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