Cosmetic Surgery

Cosmetic surgery refers to any surgical or medical intervention to the body for aesthetic purposes, and is interchangeably referred to as cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, and aesthetic surgery. While cosmetic surgery used to describe solely surgical interventions, it now refers to a range of procedures that include surgery, injectables, and laser and chemical treatments. The goals of cosmetic surgery are also varied. While [Page 342]some patients seek cosmetic surgery to improve their already-normative appearance, others aim to achieve a normative appearance through cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery is a controversial medical practice that is highly gendered and racialized. The majority of cosmetic surgery patients are women and cosmetic surgeons are men, and several surgeries have been developed to render a patient's features to more closely ...