This chapter shows how cosmetic surgery has evolved to becoming regarded as part of the “normal” process in the quest for identity transformation, arguing that an inner self is externalized so that the aesthetic body can better represent the person within. It also believes that feminist ethical engagement will need to respond to this talk of self-transformation in kind, providing a way of responding to the suffering cosmetic surgery claims to alleviate, and recognizing the necessity and potential of working on the self as a feminist strategy. Feminists need a richer ethical grammar and vocabulary for talking about our own desires and suffering in this context. This demand for a feminist ethical language arises in part from nearly a century of cultural manufacture of a psychology for potential cosmetic surgery recipients. Cosmetic surgery bears a peculiar burden of justification unlike other medical subspecialties. In some cases the rubric of “reconstructive” procedures can be employed — repairing a cleft palate, rebuilding a face after tumor removal, or grafting skin to burns are all seen as legitimate medical measures that have necessary functional and social effects.
Keywords: feminism, normalization, aesthetics, cosmetic surgery, ethics, self-transformation