Flesh impressions: Television texts of cosmetic surgery and audience negotiation

Both incredibly personal and inherently social, cosmetic surgery procedures intended to reconfigure the body toward a more culturally acceptable physicality and the increase in television representations of the phenomenon provoke a complex debate regarding the social, psychological, medical and ethical implications of such practices. This thesis raises the question: Do television texts of cosmetic surgery and their potential consumers reproduce or challenge the hegemony of cosmetic surgery as a cultural practice? Using qualitative, social scientific methodology to analyze current examples of such television texts and study viewer negotiation of these texts, the study concludes that television texts are most likely to present cosmetic surgery in ways that perpetuate hegemonic notions of beauty, and that while viewers may negotiate readings that suit their preconceived notions of cosmetic surgery, they are unlikely to condemn such messages for fear of compromising an individual's power to choose cosmetic surgery for "acceptable reasons" such as improved self-esteem or social acceptance.