Media and the rhetoric of body perfection: cosmetic surgery, weight loss and beauty in popular culture

In: The Cultural Politics of Media and Popular Culture

Abstract

Drawing on rich interview material with cosmetic surgery patients and offering fresh analyses of various texts from popular culture, including internationally-screened reality-television, entertainment programmes and documentaries, this book examines the ways in which Western media capitalise on body anxiety by presenting physical perfection as a moral imperative, whilst advertising quick and effective transformation methods to erase physical imperfections.