title: Women, the body and brand extension in medicine: cosmetic surgery and the paradox of choice.
abstract: This paper explores the relationship between Western medicine, female body image and gender inequalities. It evaluates the extent to which the medicalisation of appearance through cosmetic surgery may serve to reinforce limited and restrictive models of femininity. Collusion with these processes, it is suggested, may be rational for some women at the individual level as they seek to increase their social power in a society where women are judged by their appearance more than men. At the social level, however, such action can be seen to go against women's collective interests and perpetuate wider social inequalities.
authors.affiliation: University of Portsmouth, School of Social and Historical Studies, England.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gillespie
mesh_terms: D001828:Body Image; D032821:Commodification; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008389:Marketing of Health Services / Q000639:trends; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012649:Self Concept; D012945:Social Values; D013518:Surgery, Plastic / Q000639:trends*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States; D016387:Women's Health