The Wire

Cosmetic surgery has been in the spotlight this week as a contestant on the Big Brother reality show has been criticised for getting breast implants at the age of nineteen and flaunting them on national television. Editor of Australian Cosmetic Surgery Magazine Michelle Kearney organiser of Australia’s largest cosmetic surgery conference, which takes place in Adelaide this weekend. Associate Professor of Political Science Sheila Jeffreys thinks that cosmetic surgery is very problematic and calls it body modification as a form of self-mutilation by proxy. She argues it’s a practice which overwhelmingly affects and harms women, promoted by television shows and advertising, and comes from a pornographication of western culture.