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Journal of Aging Studies 27 (2013) 38
–
46
Contents lists available at
Journal of Aging Studies
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaging
‘
’
Designing
rather than denying ageing: Problematizing anti-ageing
discourse in relation to cosmetic surgery undertaken by older people
older
Bridget Garnham
School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
article info
abstract
Article history:
Received 7 August 2012
Received in revised form 21 October 2012
Accepted 1 November 2012
This paper problematizes anti-ageing discourse and interpretations that cosmetic surgery is an
ageist practice and older people who undergo cosmetic surgery are denying ageing. It argues
that conceptions of cosmetic surgery as anti-ageing are premised on an essentialist conception
of the
‘
naturally ageing body
’
. Interview data and media texts are used to demonstrate how,
through the notion of
suggested by terms such as rejuvenation, reversal and renewal, anti-
ageing discourses inscribe
“
re
”
Keywords:
Older people
Cosmetic surgery
Anti-ageing
Foucault
Ethics
Care of the self
‘
’
in the practice of cosmetic surgery by older people. The
oppressive interpretation that older people who undergo cosmetic surgery are
ageing
’
and associated subjection to moral critique, are effects of this discourse. To counter interpretations
of cosmetic surgery as
‘
denying ageing,
, the paper takes up the idea that cosmetic surgery is undertaken
to look better not younger. To advance this argument, the paper suggests that the forms of
rationality associated with cosmetic surgery constitute a contemporary regimen of
‘
anti-ageing
’
’
which enable ethical agency and creative self-stylisation. Through this framework cosmetic surgery
can be re-imagined as a practice for designing
‘
care of the self
‘
older
’
rather than denying ageing.
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction
are considered to produce an appearance of
non-agedness
that further reinforces the undesirability and fear of old age
“
”
This paper problematizes the interpretation that older
people who engage in cosmetic surgery are
(
Gilleard & Higgs, 2000 81
). In this scholarship, the
’
body is at the centre of the problematization and cosmetic
surgery is inscribed by anti-ageing discourse as an ageist prac-
tice employed to resist or deny ageing (see for example,
Bayer,
2005; Clarke & Griffin, 2007; Clarke, Repta, & Griffin, 2007;
Gilleard & Higgs, 2000
).
The problem with interpretations such as these is that
they are premised upon essentialist conceptions of
‘
ageing
.
Not only is this interpretation mobilized in popular discourse
as a form of social critique targeting those who elect to have
cosmetic surgery, but it also emerges in academic scholarship
as an oppressive discourse limiting understandings of older
subjectivities. In what might be considered
‘
denying ageing
’
‘
cultures of ageing
’
scholarship,
is currently positioned at the centre of an
ethical problematization in which practises such as cosmetic
surgery are considered constitutive of an identity of
‘
older
’
‘
ageing
’
and
“
problematically construct a natural, essential, authentic
“
staying
body
”
(
Pitts-Taylor, 2009: p.121
). In terms of the
‘
older
’
body,
young, choosing not to grow old
(
Gilleard & Higgs, 2000:
p.60
).
Higgs, Leontowitsch, Stevenson, and Rees Jones (2009:
p.699)
state for instance, that
”
to borrow from
Twigg (2004: p.60)
,
[e]ssentializing dis-
courses in relation to the body need to be replaced by ones
that recognize its nature as a social text, something that is
both formed and given meaning within culture
“
including
cosmetic surgery comprise practices of self-care that
‘
anti-ageing medicine
’
seek to
overcome the ageing process or mask the signs of ageing
“
. Conceptu-
alizations of the body as a surface or plane of signification
can generally be traced to Foucault who describes the body as
“
”
.
These self-care practices generate ethical anxiety because they
”
”
(
Foucault, 1984a: p.83
). What he suggests is that the materiality
and comportment of the body are shaped and given meaning
…
the inscribed surface of events
totally imprinted by history
E-mail address:
.
0890-4065/$
see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
–
B. Garnham / Journal of Aging Studies 27 (2013) 38
–
46
39
through practices of discursive inscription. Through these prac-
tices, power is invested in the
imposed on the individual but rather associated with an active
freedom. To engage in
‘
text
’
of the body and operates to
was therefore to reflect
upon oneself and freely cultivate oneself as an ethical subject
by engaging in practices of self care (
Foucault, 1994b
).
Foucault's analyses explored
‘
care of the self
’
shape the way in which it is
‘
read
’
. Given this theorisation of the
body, the
“
path to ageing
“
naturally
”
is highly problematic
”
since
“
If there is no natural body, then there is no natural way
“
how one ought to form oneself
”
”
“
to age
(
Twigg, 2004: p.63
). If there is no natural way to age,
then interpretations of cosmetic surgery as
as an ethical subject
the practices that enable him to
transform his own mode of being
and
are
destabilized and questions are raised about what it means to
look a particular age and attempts to look
‘
anti-ageing
’
(
Foucault, 1990b: pp.26, 30
).
He defined these practices of self as
”
the procedures, which
no doubt exist in every civilization, offered or prescribed to
individuals in order to determine their identity, maintain it,
transform it in terms of a certain number of ends
“
‘
younger
’
. It becomes
evident then, that cultural constructions of
‘
age
’
are imprinted
on the body through a normative schema.
Using theoretical and empirical resources, this paper prob-
lematizes the essentialist rendering of cosmetic surgery as
‘
anti-ageing
’
. As a practice of body modification, cosmetic
surgery is significant because the body is the nexus or site
where
(
Foucault,
1994e: p.87
). These practices were associated with a
”
“
matrix
of practical reason
”
(
Foucault, 1994f: p.225
) which
Foucault
(1991: p.79)
suggests
“
inscribe themselves in practices
”
and are
‘
(
Deleuze, 1986
) during processes of self-formation.
These processes entail self-reflection, self-examination, self-
decipherment, self-transformation and so on and constitute a
reflexive relation of self to self.
Given that
folded in
’
forces of cultural reproduction, social structuration, and
reflexivity
“
(
Gabardi, 2001:
p.88
). As post-essentialist feminist scholars have argued, cos-
metic surgery is therefore implicated in processes of becoming
a subject and possible forms of subjectivity in western society
and culture (
Fraser, 2009; Heyes, 2007; Jones, 2008; Pitts-
Taylor, 2007
). In this context,
Foucault's (1990a,b, 1994a,
2005)
work on ethics, in conjunction with contemporary social
theory literature on ethics, provides the basis for an analytic
approach to understanding cosmetic surgery as a practice
for self-stylisation. In addition, this paper insists, following
Twigg (2004: p.62)
, that an empirical approach is needed that
“
”
intersect to constitute the
‘
self
’
‘
’
entailed critical reflection,
Rabinow (2003: p.10)
observes that it
care of the self
was also a form of
critique, a critique of the self that entailed perpetual self
examination
“
. Foucault considered the practice of critique
a virtue, linked to an ethos of what it means to be and how
being might be experienced differently (
Foucault, 1997
). As
Lloyd (1996: p.250 original emphasis)
explains,
”
self-fashioning,
when allied to critique, can produce sites of contestation over the
meanings and contours of identity, and over the ways in which
certain practices are mobilized
“
recognizes that personal struggles and experiences offer an
important touchstone for academic theorizing
. That sites of contestation over
meaning can be generated by critique is in line with Foucault's
conception of resistance and his proclamation that
”
ground-
ed in the voices of those who are themselves subject to
”
and is
“
the
discourses that seek to interpellate them. However, as
Butler
(2005: p.7)
reminds us, discourse establishes limits to the
ability to give an account of the self since
”
“
discourse
is the power which is to be seized
(
Foucault, 1981: p.211
).
Moreover, Lloyd is suggesting that through critical engagement,
the rationality associated with practices of self can be negotiated
or influenced. Adopting this position draws analytic attention
to the ways in which agency, freedom and resistance are
performed through the body using cosmetic surgery to stylize
appearance in ways that challenge the normative schema of
‘
”
that can
fully stand apart from the social conditions of its emergence
“
there is no
“
I
”
.
The methodological approach pursued in this paper takes
”
up
(
Foucault, 1994c: p.276
)
where the referent is thought itself. This is consistent with
Foucault's (1984b: p.388)
conceptualization of problematization
which entails
‘
interpretations of interpretations
’
ageing
’
and
‘
anti-ageing
’
.
“
the critical work that thought brings to bear on
itself
. The aim is to problematize anti-ageing discourse and
generate cultural space in which it becomes possible to
”
The contemporary ethos
“
think
differently
(
Foucault, 1990b: p.9
). Using theoretical and em-
pirical resources, this paper offers an interpretation of older
people and cosmetic surgery that evokes artistry and freedom
of self-stylization. One that suggests older people who undergo
cosmetic surgery are designing
”
Given that Foucault's analyses of ethics were based on
ancient Greco-Roman texts, this paper requires an explora-
tion of contemporary ethical contexts in which to situate the
analyses.
Rose (2007)
observes that in contemporary neolib-
eral consumer culture, selfhood has become intrinsically
somatic and ethical practices increasingly take the body as
a key site for work on the self. He suggests that
‘
older
’
rather than denying
ageing.
“
somatic
Care of self and ethical self stylization
ethics
”
are
“
ethics not in the sense of moral principles
”
but
rather
“
the values for the conduct of a life
—
that accords a
In his later work,
Foucault (1990a,b)
takes up the problem
of ethical self-formation to problematize the dominant western
mode of ethics where the principle target is a
central place to corporeal, bodily existence
(
Rose, 2007:
p.6
). Prior to Rose's work,
Baudrillard (1998: p.129)
argued
that
”
‘
hermeneutics
“
the body has today become an object of salvation
”
and
of the subject
that produces essentialist conceptions of the
subject. Through historical analyses of ancient Greek and
Roman texts,
Foucault (1990a,b, 1994a, 2005)
locates an
aesthetic mode of ethics anchored in a stylistics of existence
associated with a life of virtue and beauty. This ethos was
dominated by the principle of
’
has
literally taken over that moral and ideological function
from the soul
“
”
. This contemporary ethical domain compels
“
individuals
to put themselves in the service of their own
bodies
”
(
Baudrillard, 1998: p.140 original emphasis
). Taking care of
the body has become synonymous with taking care of the self
and practices for cultivating the body operate in the context
of virtues belonging to an art of living.
”
because
“
[o]ne has a duty to take care of oneself
‘
care of self
’
which meant
continually
the self
(
Foucault, 1994d
). This work on the self was not an obligation
‘
working on
’
or
‘
being concerned with
’
40
B. Garnham / Journal of Aging Studies 27 (2013) 38
–
46
In this ethos, the body becomes a
‘
project
’
(
Shilling, 2003
)
which imitates other
form that can be analysed in terms of the configurations of
power/knowledge that make the text possible (
Hook, 2001
).
Texts are shaped, and in turn shape, the social, political,
historical and cultural conditions of their production (
Hook,
2001
). In this dynamic interaction between text and context,
discourse operates as the mechanism through which
‘
lifestyle projects
’
associated with DIY
and
‘
renovation
’
.
“
The concept of
“
body project
””
,as
Kubisz
(2003: p.10)
points out,
assumes that an individual is capa-
ble of transgressing the limits of biological determinism, and,
moreover, that he is capable of shaping his own corporeal
form in such a way as to adjust the physicality of the body to
an individual sense of self
“
’
is both represented and constituted by texts. It is through
this interplay that reality can be understood as
‘
reality
. Body projects are undertaken
within the context of consumer culture which provides a
system of signification and practices that enable consumers
to stylize an identity. In his theorization of consumption,
Bauman (2007: p.15 original emphasis)
suggests that,
”
‘
textually
mediated
. In this study, texts pertaining to older people
and cosmetic surgery are viewed as both constructed by, and
in turn constitutive of, the discursive frames that influence
what representations and texts about older people and cos-
metic surgery are possible.
Qualitative methods of inquiry were used to generate data
from popular media sources, cosmetic surgery practitioners
and older people who have engaged in cosmetic surgery.
Through the inclusion of both media articles and in-depth
interviews, this research addresses local and contextual cul-
tural dimensions relating to the ways in which
’
“
[c]
onsumer's
…
what is assumed to be the materialization of the inner truth of
the self is in fact an idealization of the material
‘
subjectivity
’
is made out of shopping choices
–
objectified
–
traces of consumer choices
. What Bauman is suggesting, is
that consumer choices do not reflect an inner truth, but rather,
constitute the subject in particular ways. He suggests that
“
”
To complete the popular, revised version of Descarte's Cogito,
‘
’
older
and
‘
I shop therefore I am
…’
,
‘
asubject
’
could and should be added
”
the practice of
are rendered intelligible. To
generate empirical data purposeful sampling strategies were
used. The logic of this sampling approach is to deliberately
select data sources that are information rich (
Patton, 2002
).
In this study a combination of purposeful sampling strategies
were used to generate two datasets.
‘
cosmetic surgery
’
(
Bauman, 2007: p.17
). As Featherstone elaborates,
[o]ne's
body, clothes, speech, leisure pastimes, eating and drinking
preferences, home, car, choice of holidays, etc. are to be
regarded as indicators of individuality of taste and sense of
style of the owner/consumer
“
(
Featherstone, 2007: p.81
).
Moreover, this individual consumer right is a responsibility.
Refusing to engage with consumption, or the refusal to choose,
is constituted as a choice and as a choice it signifies something
about the consumer
”
Sample of media documents
—
such as a lack of taste, style or status.
Media texts are produced through configurations of power/
knowledge that regulate both their form and content and in turn
form a crucial part of the broader circulation and construction
of discursive frameworks (
Wilkinson & Blackmore, 2007
). The
media thus operates as part of an apparatus which, through
acts of power, organise fields of knowledge and social practices
that constitute and govern subjects (
Markula & Pringle, 2006;
Thorpe, 2008
).Whatthismeansisthatmediatextscarry
normative and moralizing content (
Faircloth, 2003
).
‘
Self-fashioning a
within consumer culture therefore
takes on an ethical dimension associated with virtues sus-
pended in, what Featherstone, among others, refers to as the
‘
‘
lifestyle
’
.
In the context of the aestheticization of everyday life,
consumer culture provides
aestheticization of everyday life
’
(
Gilleard &
Higgs, 2000
) for a multiplicity of cultural positions in relation
to the experience of
“
sites of distinction
”
. Concomitant with the political
development of neoliberalism and consumerism has been
the social transformation of
‘
older
’
print media were selected in this study to enable
analysis of contemporary representations of cosmetic surgery
engaged in by
Popular
’
‘
older
’“
from pensioners to senior
citizens to third-ager
(
Gilleard & Higgs, 2000: 38
). The
newly retired or flexi-retired
”
. Online databases with interna-
tional content were searched using keywords for newspaper,
magazine and online articles. 29 relevant articles (1992
‘
older people
’
is (re)presented as
wealthy, physically healthy and active and enjoying high
levels of wellbeing and life satisfaction (see for example,
Featherstone, 2007; Gilleard & Higgs, 2000; Katz & Laliberte-
Rudman, 2005; Katz & Marshall, 2003; Powell, 2006
). Through
the deployment of
‘
third-ager
’
2008)
pertaining to older people engaging in cosmetic surgery were
extracted and used in the analysis.
–
‘
successful
’
,
‘
positive
’
,
‘
productive
’
and
Sample of interview participants
‘
ageing discourses, neoliberal governmental strategies
position third-agers as individually responsible for shaping
positive experiences of
active
’
A combination of cold calling and snowball sampling
strategies (
Patton, 2002
) were used to locate cosmetic surgeons
who had experience with older patients. Cosmetic surgeons also
passed on information about the study to their older patients
who then contacted me if they wished to participate.
The sample consisted of 11 participants who had under-
gone cosmetic surgery and 10 participants who were cosmetic
surgery practitioners. Participants in the older group ranged
from 66 years to 75 years. The majority (8) were female which
reflects the gender imbalance amongst cosmetic surgery con-
sumers. A diverse range of cosmetic procedures including
liposuction and other body contouring techniques, blepharo-
plasty (eye bag removal), laser treatments, breast reduction, and
facelift were represented in the sample with some participants
‘
older
’
. Publically circulating images
of the
suggest later life to be a time of active
leisure, wealth and lifestyle consumption for the ethically
virtuous. Amid this growing cultural abundance older in-
dividuals reflexively fashion lifestyles to provide form and
self-expression to identity. This paper explores the way in
which cosmetic surgery is mobilized by older people as a
practice of self care to design
“
wellderly
”
‘
’
older
rather than deny ageing.
Research design
The theoretical approach taken in this study constitutes
research data as
‘
texts
’
. The term
‘
text
’
refers to a discursive
B. Garnham / Journal of Aging Studies 27 (2013) 38
–
46
41
having undergone multiple procedures. In the practitioner
group there were an even number of males and females.
Four participants worked in the industry of plastic surgery
as practice staff, five were cosmetic surgeons or physicians
and one was a beauty therapist.
Ethical clearance was obtained from the Human Research
Ethics Committee at the University of South Australia and
methods were embedded in the research design to ensure
informed consent, voluntary participation, and confidentiality.
All names reported in this article are pseudonyms. First names
(e.g. James, Charlotte) designate older people who have
undergone cosmetic surgery whilst surnames (e.g. Dr Smith,
Ms Taylor) designate practitioners in the cosmetic surgery
industry who have experience working with older patients.
want to put yourself back
”
. This notion of
“
re
”
suggests both
temporal and spacial reversal of corporeal ageing:
We are in the age of the sexy sixties and even the smouldering
seventies, with a record number of older people seeking surgical
assistance to beat back the ravages of time, southern drift and a
face like a wrung out dishcloth.(
Hamilton, 2006
)
In this excerpt temporal reversal of ageing is suggested
by beating back
whilst spacial reversal of ageing is
suggested by moving features of the body
‘
time
’
.
The idea that through cosmetic surgery age can be
‘
north
’
’
from the appearance of the body is suggested in a media
report (
N.A., 2002
) featuring Hazel York, an 81 year old, who
“
‘
erased
underwent a five-hour face-lift in June in Beverly Hills, Calif.,
to erase some wrinkles and shave off a few years
”
. Similarly,
Interviews and analysis
Heather states that chemical peels
“
will take away your age
”
.
Theideathatagecanbeerasedtorestorearelatively
’
appearance is what is meant by the term rejuvenation. According
to Dr Watts, older patients are seeking facial rejuvenation
to restore a youthful appearance and
“
treat the signs of ageing
”
.
Dr Williams suggests that rejuvenation entails
‘
youthful
A semi-structured approach was taken in conducting the
interviews (
Kvale, 1996; Patton, 2002
). Questions were gener-
ated from the topics: discourses that constitute understandings
of cosmetic surgery practice, discourses that constitute subject
positions in relation to
Sprucing up.
Spring-cleaning. Making look younger. You can do it with a piece
of furniture can't you? The same with the face I think
“
and discourses that constitute
subject positions in relation to older people who engage in the
practise of cosmetic surgery. Simultaneous data generation and
analysis were carried out until data saturation was reached
(
Morse, 1995
).
The process of analysis beganwith descriptive and thematic
stages according to the phases outlined by
Braun and Clarke
(2006)
. Thematic analysis was used to organise the data sets
and identify patterns of regularity that might suggest the
operation of discourse. The theoretical analysis undertaken
in this study derives from both meditation on discourse and
engagement with participant perspectives. However, the data
sets do not form sites of analysis and nor do the participant's
narratives form
‘
older
’
”
.Here,
Dr Williams uses the metaphor of
furniture to
compare cosmetic surgery to renovation. One of the media texts
sampled (
Hilton, 2002
) suggests a similar notion of renovation
or home decoration, suggesting that older people might
‘
sprucing up
’
“
need
repositioning, and perhaps a little more skin redraping
”
.
anti-ageing discourse is inscribed
in the practice of cosmetic surgery in relation to older people.
Mykytyn (2006)
suggests that anti-ageing is a social movement
and observes that during the past decade there has been
a phenomenal growth in anti-ageing medicine. Anti-ageing
medicine refers to practices, products and treatments arising
from the research and development efforts of biogerontology.
This discipline is dedicated to the scientific study of the biology
of the ageing process (
Fishman, Binstock, & Lambrix, 2008
).
Cosmetic surgery however, does not directly arise from devel-
opments in this discipline. As Dr Watts explained, anti-ageing
medicine focuses on medical interventions such as
Through the notion of
“
re
”
perspectives or individual case
studies. Moreover, this paper does not engage with a politics
of
‘
representative
’
. Rather, the texts are sampled and problematized in
terms of their articulation of prevailing discourses that inscribe
the practice of cosmetic surgery undertaken by older people.
The labour of meditation through which this problematization
was enacted entails practices of thinking and writing as
methods of analysis (
Deacon, 2000; Richardson & St. Pierre,
2005
). Therefore, the analysis does not exist independent from
this writing and is
‘
voice
’
nutritional
supplementation and bio-identical hormones and things like that
which are becoming more mainstream and becoming very much
part of the anti-ageing movement
“
”
. He suggested that
“
Surgery
in what is to follow. The analysis
weaves discursive commentary with close data analysis and
presentation in which connections are forged between theory
and texts to problematize anti-ageing discourse and elaborate
the interpretation that
‘
performed
’
is probably at the perimeter of that
. Whilst cosmetic surgery
can be understood as being at the disciplinary fringe of anti-
ageing knowledge and development, its practice is inscribed by
anti-ageing discourse. This link is evident in
Mykytyn's (2006
644)
statement that,
”
‘
older
’
is stylized through cosmetic
Anti-ageing practitioners assert that there
is much more that technoscience can do to retard, halt, and
even reverse aging
“
surgery.
”
.
“
: the inscription of anti-ageing discourse in
cosmetic surgery
RE
”
Problematizing anti-ageing discourse
refers to concepts such as renovation,
rejuvenation, reversal, refresh, reposition, and restoration.
These concepts are commonly evoked in the texts in asso-
ciation with the practice of cosmetic surgery by older people
and taken together jointly suggest something akin to
The notion of
“
re
”
has become en-
meshed in understanding the practice of cosmetic surgery.
This discourse operates to draw a distinction between certain
practices constituted as
Through anti-ageing discourse,
‘
ageing
’
and others which may
then be considered simply aesthetic or reconstructive. In
other words, through the outworking of anti-ageing dis-
course, procedures such as facelifts, facial fat injections, neck
‘
anti-ageing
’
‘
putting
the body back
’
. These are almost Mandy's words when she
says,
“
if you look at yourself and everything is going south, you
42
B. Garnham / Journal of Aging Studies 27 (2013) 38
–
46
lift and blepharoplasty (eye bag removal) are positioned as
qualitatively different to rhinoplasty (nose job), octoplasty
(ear pinning) and liposuction (body sculpting). This dis-
course enables rhinoplasty, to alter the contour of the nose,
to be seen as different to having a blepharoplasty, to alter the
contour of the eyes. Moreover, whilst the statement that
facelifts are an
This differentiation between age categories according
to procedures is problematized by statements such as that
made by Martin Kelly, a consultant plastic surgeon in the UK,
and reported by
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic
Surgeons (2005)
:
procedure is rendered intelligible
by this discourse, the parallel claim that liposuction is an
‘
‘
anti-ageing
’
Older patients usually ask to
younger
patients want to change their shape. But a number of senior
patients have recently become more daring, and I believe
largely because of the in
‘
turn back the clock
’ —
procedure and to undergo this procedure consti-
tutes a denial of one's inherent
anti-fat
’
is nonsensical. In
addition, given that the purpose of anti-ageing procedures is
seemingly to
‘
fatness
’
uence of happy younger patients
they know, seeking to change their shape as well, having
their nose done or breasts augmented.
, it is interesting to consider
why these procedures are not classified as reconstructive
plastic surgery and state funded by Medicare.
The distinction between practices considered
‘
put the body back
’
Here Kelly suggests that older consumers are becoming
“
more daring
”
and also seeking procedures that
“
change their
’
and others is being blurred through the expansion of the
anti-ageing market. A UK based website (
Cosmetic Surgery
Consultants, 2008
) on anti-ageing cosmetic surgery pro-
cedures, for example, includes liposuction amongst the listed
procedures and states that
‘
anti-ageing
shape
procedures. The
procedures undertaken by older participants in this study
included surgery for gynecomastia, liposuction, abdomino-
plasty, breast reduction and rhinoplastywhich are not typically
categorised as
”
as opposed to only
‘
anti-ageing
’
in the realms of trying to remain
looking as young and fit as possible, cosmetic surgery can work
wonders
“
‘
anti-ageing
’
. These examples suggest that the
differential positioning of
‘
older
’
consumers in relation to
. What is suggested in this text is that looking fit,
and thus presumably slender, through the use of liposuction
is within the remit of
”
‘
consumers based upon the procedures they select is
unstable and tenuous.
In terms of cosmetic surgery as a practice of self, claims
that cosmetic surgery is an
younger
’
. This colonisation of pro-
cedures indicates the power of anti-ageing discourse which is
linked to a burgeoning multi-billion dollar industry interna-
tionally. The size, spread and value of this market are relevant
because through anti-ageing discourse not only are any
changing features of the body, including weight, colonized by
this discourse, and thus a target for anti-ageing intervention,
but also, the potential market base for these procedures is
extended to everyone who is ageing
‘
anti-ageing
’
practice and older
consumers are denying ageing suggest that
‘
anti-ageing
’
the interior
meanings of cosmetic surgery are being inscribed on the
bodies of people who get cosmetic surgery
“
(
Pitts, 2006 38
).
In media texts generated for this study, the outworking of
anti-ageing discourse enabled older people who undergo
cosmetic surgery to be subject to disdain:
”
—
which is everyone.
Despite the fact that everyone is ageing and potentially
a consumer of anti-ageing cosmetic procedures, in many
of the texts generated for this study, the assumption that
older consumers of cosmetic surgery would be having
men, by and large, go into full blown denial, continuing to
delude themselves that they are permanently somewhere
between 35 and 45.(
Ryan, 2001
)
The 70-year-old who has restructured her face to look 50 is
not to be admired and emulated but pitied.(
Daniels, 2002
)
‘
anti-
ageing
’
procedures operated to differentially position an
‘
older
’
consumer group in relation to
‘
younger
’
consumers.
These statements suggest that older people who engage
in cosmetic surgery are in denial, deluded and should be
pitied. In our interview, James was critical of people who
engage in
These texts produced the notion that
consumers
of cosmetic surgery have procedures that alter the size, shape
or contour of the body whereas older consumers want to
‘
‘
younger
’
.
Dr Watts for example, illustrates this distinction in his state-
ment that:
put the body back
’
and reverse the appearance of
‘
ageing
’
‘
anti-ageing
’
practices because in trying to appear
‘
younger
’
he felt they were
“
living a lie
”
. He states:
Film actors for instance, you know when they have had
face lifts, it is just not them. They are just living a lie aren't
they?
in that demographic that we are talking about it's not that
they've got thin lips that they have had all their life and they
want to see what they look like plump
What is their aim in life? What are they trying to
prove? Do they want to stay young all their lives. Their body
is still growing old
…
—
that's more in the
20
30 year age group were you are not dealing with age
related change you are just dealing with their body as it is.
And they might not like their nose or their cheeks and they
might want to try something for that.
–
…
An old wrinkled face should have grey
…
hair, it's natural
we have often said that people who dye
their hair shouldn't really do that, because it doesn't not look
natural. I know people who do it and they do not look
natural, but it is their choice. So once again they are living a
lie, they are dying their hair and making themselves, trying
to make themselves, look younger.
In this statement, Dr Watts suggests that unlike older
people who have undergone
“
age related change
”
, the bodies
of 20
–
30 years olds are unaffected by ageing and so
“
you are
just dealing with their body as it is
which might require
procedures to alter the shape of the body. So whilst
”
Claims such as these, that people who engage in cosmetic
surgery are trying to
’
bodies have aged, because everyone is ageing, these bodies
are viewed as unproblematic in terms of
‘
younger
and deny ageing, are en-
meshed with normative ideas of how a body should appear at
particular ages as though this were an unproblematic given.
These normative ideas are rendered intelligible through the
“
stay young
”
“
age related change
”
and thus not requiring
‘
anti-ageing
’
procedures.
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl hannaeva.xlx.pl
–
46
Contents lists available at
Journal of Aging Studies
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaging
‘
’
Designing
rather than denying ageing: Problematizing anti-ageing
discourse in relation to cosmetic surgery undertaken by older people
older
Bridget Garnham
School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
article info
abstract
Article history:
Received 7 August 2012
Received in revised form 21 October 2012
Accepted 1 November 2012
This paper problematizes anti-ageing discourse and interpretations that cosmetic surgery is an
ageist practice and older people who undergo cosmetic surgery are denying ageing. It argues
that conceptions of cosmetic surgery as anti-ageing are premised on an essentialist conception
of the
‘
naturally ageing body
’
. Interview data and media texts are used to demonstrate how,
through the notion of
suggested by terms such as rejuvenation, reversal and renewal, anti-
ageing discourses inscribe
“
re
”
Keywords:
Older people
Cosmetic surgery
Anti-ageing
Foucault
Ethics
Care of the self
‘
’
in the practice of cosmetic surgery by older people. The
oppressive interpretation that older people who undergo cosmetic surgery are
ageing
’
and associated subjection to moral critique, are effects of this discourse. To counter interpretations
of cosmetic surgery as
‘
denying ageing,
, the paper takes up the idea that cosmetic surgery is undertaken
to look better not younger. To advance this argument, the paper suggests that the forms of
rationality associated with cosmetic surgery constitute a contemporary regimen of
‘
anti-ageing
’
’
which enable ethical agency and creative self-stylisation. Through this framework cosmetic surgery
can be re-imagined as a practice for designing
‘
care of the self
‘
older
’
rather than denying ageing.
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction
are considered to produce an appearance of
non-agedness
that further reinforces the undesirability and fear of old age
“
”
This paper problematizes the interpretation that older
people who engage in cosmetic surgery are
(
Gilleard & Higgs, 2000 81
). In this scholarship, the
’
body is at the centre of the problematization and cosmetic
surgery is inscribed by anti-ageing discourse as an ageist prac-
tice employed to resist or deny ageing (see for example,
Bayer,
2005; Clarke & Griffin, 2007; Clarke, Repta, & Griffin, 2007;
Gilleard & Higgs, 2000
).
The problem with interpretations such as these is that
they are premised upon essentialist conceptions of
‘
ageing
.
Not only is this interpretation mobilized in popular discourse
as a form of social critique targeting those who elect to have
cosmetic surgery, but it also emerges in academic scholarship
as an oppressive discourse limiting understandings of older
subjectivities. In what might be considered
‘
denying ageing
’
‘
cultures of ageing
’
scholarship,
is currently positioned at the centre of an
ethical problematization in which practises such as cosmetic
surgery are considered constitutive of an identity of
‘
older
’
‘
ageing
’
and
“
problematically construct a natural, essential, authentic
“
staying
body
”
(
Pitts-Taylor, 2009: p.121
). In terms of the
‘
older
’
body,
young, choosing not to grow old
(
Gilleard & Higgs, 2000:
p.60
).
Higgs, Leontowitsch, Stevenson, and Rees Jones (2009:
p.699)
state for instance, that
”
to borrow from
Twigg (2004: p.60)
,
[e]ssentializing dis-
courses in relation to the body need to be replaced by ones
that recognize its nature as a social text, something that is
both formed and given meaning within culture
“
including
cosmetic surgery comprise practices of self-care that
‘
anti-ageing medicine
’
seek to
overcome the ageing process or mask the signs of ageing
“
. Conceptu-
alizations of the body as a surface or plane of signification
can generally be traced to Foucault who describes the body as
“
”
.
These self-care practices generate ethical anxiety because they
”
”
(
Foucault, 1984a: p.83
). What he suggests is that the materiality
and comportment of the body are shaped and given meaning
…
the inscribed surface of events
totally imprinted by history
E-mail address:
.
0890-4065/$
see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
–
B. Garnham / Journal of Aging Studies 27 (2013) 38
–
46
39
through practices of discursive inscription. Through these prac-
tices, power is invested in the
imposed on the individual but rather associated with an active
freedom. To engage in
‘
text
’
of the body and operates to
was therefore to reflect
upon oneself and freely cultivate oneself as an ethical subject
by engaging in practices of self care (
Foucault, 1994b
).
Foucault's analyses explored
‘
care of the self
’
shape the way in which it is
‘
read
’
. Given this theorisation of the
body, the
“
path to ageing
“
naturally
”
is highly problematic
”
since
“
If there is no natural body, then there is no natural way
“
how one ought to form oneself
”
”
“
to age
(
Twigg, 2004: p.63
). If there is no natural way to age,
then interpretations of cosmetic surgery as
as an ethical subject
the practices that enable him to
transform his own mode of being
and
are
destabilized and questions are raised about what it means to
look a particular age and attempts to look
‘
anti-ageing
’
(
Foucault, 1990b: pp.26, 30
).
He defined these practices of self as
”
the procedures, which
no doubt exist in every civilization, offered or prescribed to
individuals in order to determine their identity, maintain it,
transform it in terms of a certain number of ends
“
‘
younger
’
. It becomes
evident then, that cultural constructions of
‘
age
’
are imprinted
on the body through a normative schema.
Using theoretical and empirical resources, this paper prob-
lematizes the essentialist rendering of cosmetic surgery as
‘
anti-ageing
’
. As a practice of body modification, cosmetic
surgery is significant because the body is the nexus or site
where
(
Foucault,
1994e: p.87
). These practices were associated with a
”
“
matrix
of practical reason
”
(
Foucault, 1994f: p.225
) which
Foucault
(1991: p.79)
suggests
“
inscribe themselves in practices
”
and are
‘
(
Deleuze, 1986
) during processes of self-formation.
These processes entail self-reflection, self-examination, self-
decipherment, self-transformation and so on and constitute a
reflexive relation of self to self.
Given that
folded in
’
forces of cultural reproduction, social structuration, and
reflexivity
“
(
Gabardi, 2001:
p.88
). As post-essentialist feminist scholars have argued, cos-
metic surgery is therefore implicated in processes of becoming
a subject and possible forms of subjectivity in western society
and culture (
Fraser, 2009; Heyes, 2007; Jones, 2008; Pitts-
Taylor, 2007
). In this context,
Foucault's (1990a,b, 1994a,
2005)
work on ethics, in conjunction with contemporary social
theory literature on ethics, provides the basis for an analytic
approach to understanding cosmetic surgery as a practice
for self-stylisation. In addition, this paper insists, following
Twigg (2004: p.62)
, that an empirical approach is needed that
“
”
intersect to constitute the
‘
self
’
‘
’
entailed critical reflection,
Rabinow (2003: p.10)
observes that it
care of the self
was also a form of
critique, a critique of the self that entailed perpetual self
examination
“
. Foucault considered the practice of critique
a virtue, linked to an ethos of what it means to be and how
being might be experienced differently (
Foucault, 1997
). As
Lloyd (1996: p.250 original emphasis)
explains,
”
self-fashioning,
when allied to critique, can produce sites of contestation over the
meanings and contours of identity, and over the ways in which
certain practices are mobilized
“
recognizes that personal struggles and experiences offer an
important touchstone for academic theorizing
. That sites of contestation over
meaning can be generated by critique is in line with Foucault's
conception of resistance and his proclamation that
”
ground-
ed in the voices of those who are themselves subject to
”
and is
“
the
discourses that seek to interpellate them. However, as
Butler
(2005: p.7)
reminds us, discourse establishes limits to the
ability to give an account of the self since
”
“
discourse
is the power which is to be seized
(
Foucault, 1981: p.211
).
Moreover, Lloyd is suggesting that through critical engagement,
the rationality associated with practices of self can be negotiated
or influenced. Adopting this position draws analytic attention
to the ways in which agency, freedom and resistance are
performed through the body using cosmetic surgery to stylize
appearance in ways that challenge the normative schema of
‘
”
that can
fully stand apart from the social conditions of its emergence
“
there is no
“
I
”
.
The methodological approach pursued in this paper takes
”
up
(
Foucault, 1994c: p.276
)
where the referent is thought itself. This is consistent with
Foucault's (1984b: p.388)
conceptualization of problematization
which entails
‘
interpretations of interpretations
’
ageing
’
and
‘
anti-ageing
’
.
“
the critical work that thought brings to bear on
itself
. The aim is to problematize anti-ageing discourse and
generate cultural space in which it becomes possible to
”
The contemporary ethos
“
think
differently
(
Foucault, 1990b: p.9
). Using theoretical and em-
pirical resources, this paper offers an interpretation of older
people and cosmetic surgery that evokes artistry and freedom
of self-stylization. One that suggests older people who undergo
cosmetic surgery are designing
”
Given that Foucault's analyses of ethics were based on
ancient Greco-Roman texts, this paper requires an explora-
tion of contemporary ethical contexts in which to situate the
analyses.
Rose (2007)
observes that in contemporary neolib-
eral consumer culture, selfhood has become intrinsically
somatic and ethical practices increasingly take the body as
a key site for work on the self. He suggests that
‘
older
’
rather than denying
ageing.
“
somatic
Care of self and ethical self stylization
ethics
”
are
“
ethics not in the sense of moral principles
”
but
rather
“
the values for the conduct of a life
—
that accords a
In his later work,
Foucault (1990a,b)
takes up the problem
of ethical self-formation to problematize the dominant western
mode of ethics where the principle target is a
central place to corporeal, bodily existence
(
Rose, 2007:
p.6
). Prior to Rose's work,
Baudrillard (1998: p.129)
argued
that
”
‘
hermeneutics
“
the body has today become an object of salvation
”
and
of the subject
that produces essentialist conceptions of the
subject. Through historical analyses of ancient Greek and
Roman texts,
Foucault (1990a,b, 1994a, 2005)
locates an
aesthetic mode of ethics anchored in a stylistics of existence
associated with a life of virtue and beauty. This ethos was
dominated by the principle of
’
has
literally taken over that moral and ideological function
from the soul
“
”
. This contemporary ethical domain compels
“
individuals
to put themselves in the service of their own
bodies
”
(
Baudrillard, 1998: p.140 original emphasis
). Taking care of
the body has become synonymous with taking care of the self
and practices for cultivating the body operate in the context
of virtues belonging to an art of living.
”
because
“
[o]ne has a duty to take care of oneself
‘
care of self
’
which meant
continually
the self
(
Foucault, 1994d
). This work on the self was not an obligation
‘
working on
’
or
‘
being concerned with
’
40
B. Garnham / Journal of Aging Studies 27 (2013) 38
–
46
In this ethos, the body becomes a
‘
project
’
(
Shilling, 2003
)
which imitates other
form that can be analysed in terms of the configurations of
power/knowledge that make the text possible (
Hook, 2001
).
Texts are shaped, and in turn shape, the social, political,
historical and cultural conditions of their production (
Hook,
2001
). In this dynamic interaction between text and context,
discourse operates as the mechanism through which
‘
lifestyle projects
’
associated with DIY
and
‘
renovation
’
.
“
The concept of
“
body project
””
,as
Kubisz
(2003: p.10)
points out,
assumes that an individual is capa-
ble of transgressing the limits of biological determinism, and,
moreover, that he is capable of shaping his own corporeal
form in such a way as to adjust the physicality of the body to
an individual sense of self
“
’
is both represented and constituted by texts. It is through
this interplay that reality can be understood as
‘
reality
. Body projects are undertaken
within the context of consumer culture which provides a
system of signification and practices that enable consumers
to stylize an identity. In his theorization of consumption,
Bauman (2007: p.15 original emphasis)
suggests that,
”
‘
textually
mediated
. In this study, texts pertaining to older people
and cosmetic surgery are viewed as both constructed by, and
in turn constitutive of, the discursive frames that influence
what representations and texts about older people and cos-
metic surgery are possible.
Qualitative methods of inquiry were used to generate data
from popular media sources, cosmetic surgery practitioners
and older people who have engaged in cosmetic surgery.
Through the inclusion of both media articles and in-depth
interviews, this research addresses local and contextual cul-
tural dimensions relating to the ways in which
’
“
[c]
onsumer's
…
what is assumed to be the materialization of the inner truth of
the self is in fact an idealization of the material
‘
subjectivity
’
is made out of shopping choices
–
objectified
–
traces of consumer choices
. What Bauman is suggesting, is
that consumer choices do not reflect an inner truth, but rather,
constitute the subject in particular ways. He suggests that
“
”
To complete the popular, revised version of Descarte's Cogito,
‘
’
older
and
‘
I shop therefore I am
…’
,
‘
asubject
’
could and should be added
”
the practice of
are rendered intelligible. To
generate empirical data purposeful sampling strategies were
used. The logic of this sampling approach is to deliberately
select data sources that are information rich (
Patton, 2002
).
In this study a combination of purposeful sampling strategies
were used to generate two datasets.
‘
cosmetic surgery
’
(
Bauman, 2007: p.17
). As Featherstone elaborates,
[o]ne's
body, clothes, speech, leisure pastimes, eating and drinking
preferences, home, car, choice of holidays, etc. are to be
regarded as indicators of individuality of taste and sense of
style of the owner/consumer
“
(
Featherstone, 2007: p.81
).
Moreover, this individual consumer right is a responsibility.
Refusing to engage with consumption, or the refusal to choose,
is constituted as a choice and as a choice it signifies something
about the consumer
”
Sample of media documents
—
such as a lack of taste, style or status.
Media texts are produced through configurations of power/
knowledge that regulate both their form and content and in turn
form a crucial part of the broader circulation and construction
of discursive frameworks (
Wilkinson & Blackmore, 2007
). The
media thus operates as part of an apparatus which, through
acts of power, organise fields of knowledge and social practices
that constitute and govern subjects (
Markula & Pringle, 2006;
Thorpe, 2008
).Whatthismeansisthatmediatextscarry
normative and moralizing content (
Faircloth, 2003
).
‘
Self-fashioning a
within consumer culture therefore
takes on an ethical dimension associated with virtues sus-
pended in, what Featherstone, among others, refers to as the
‘
‘
lifestyle
’
.
In the context of the aestheticization of everyday life,
consumer culture provides
aestheticization of everyday life
’
(
Gilleard &
Higgs, 2000
) for a multiplicity of cultural positions in relation
to the experience of
“
sites of distinction
”
. Concomitant with the political
development of neoliberalism and consumerism has been
the social transformation of
‘
older
’
print media were selected in this study to enable
analysis of contemporary representations of cosmetic surgery
engaged in by
Popular
’
‘
older
’“
from pensioners to senior
citizens to third-ager
(
Gilleard & Higgs, 2000: 38
). The
newly retired or flexi-retired
”
. Online databases with interna-
tional content were searched using keywords for newspaper,
magazine and online articles. 29 relevant articles (1992
‘
older people
’
is (re)presented as
wealthy, physically healthy and active and enjoying high
levels of wellbeing and life satisfaction (see for example,
Featherstone, 2007; Gilleard & Higgs, 2000; Katz & Laliberte-
Rudman, 2005; Katz & Marshall, 2003; Powell, 2006
). Through
the deployment of
‘
third-ager
’
2008)
pertaining to older people engaging in cosmetic surgery were
extracted and used in the analysis.
–
‘
successful
’
,
‘
positive
’
,
‘
productive
’
and
Sample of interview participants
‘
ageing discourses, neoliberal governmental strategies
position third-agers as individually responsible for shaping
positive experiences of
active
’
A combination of cold calling and snowball sampling
strategies (
Patton, 2002
) were used to locate cosmetic surgeons
who had experience with older patients. Cosmetic surgeons also
passed on information about the study to their older patients
who then contacted me if they wished to participate.
The sample consisted of 11 participants who had under-
gone cosmetic surgery and 10 participants who were cosmetic
surgery practitioners. Participants in the older group ranged
from 66 years to 75 years. The majority (8) were female which
reflects the gender imbalance amongst cosmetic surgery con-
sumers. A diverse range of cosmetic procedures including
liposuction and other body contouring techniques, blepharo-
plasty (eye bag removal), laser treatments, breast reduction, and
facelift were represented in the sample with some participants
‘
older
’
. Publically circulating images
of the
suggest later life to be a time of active
leisure, wealth and lifestyle consumption for the ethically
virtuous. Amid this growing cultural abundance older in-
dividuals reflexively fashion lifestyles to provide form and
self-expression to identity. This paper explores the way in
which cosmetic surgery is mobilized by older people as a
practice of self care to design
“
wellderly
”
‘
’
older
rather than deny ageing.
Research design
The theoretical approach taken in this study constitutes
research data as
‘
texts
’
. The term
‘
text
’
refers to a discursive
B. Garnham / Journal of Aging Studies 27 (2013) 38
–
46
41
having undergone multiple procedures. In the practitioner
group there were an even number of males and females.
Four participants worked in the industry of plastic surgery
as practice staff, five were cosmetic surgeons or physicians
and one was a beauty therapist.
Ethical clearance was obtained from the Human Research
Ethics Committee at the University of South Australia and
methods were embedded in the research design to ensure
informed consent, voluntary participation, and confidentiality.
All names reported in this article are pseudonyms. First names
(e.g. James, Charlotte) designate older people who have
undergone cosmetic surgery whilst surnames (e.g. Dr Smith,
Ms Taylor) designate practitioners in the cosmetic surgery
industry who have experience working with older patients.
want to put yourself back
”
. This notion of
“
re
”
suggests both
temporal and spacial reversal of corporeal ageing:
We are in the age of the sexy sixties and even the smouldering
seventies, with a record number of older people seeking surgical
assistance to beat back the ravages of time, southern drift and a
face like a wrung out dishcloth.(
Hamilton, 2006
)
In this excerpt temporal reversal of ageing is suggested
by beating back
whilst spacial reversal of ageing is
suggested by moving features of the body
‘
time
’
.
The idea that through cosmetic surgery age can be
‘
north
’
’
from the appearance of the body is suggested in a media
report (
N.A., 2002
) featuring Hazel York, an 81 year old, who
“
‘
erased
underwent a five-hour face-lift in June in Beverly Hills, Calif.,
to erase some wrinkles and shave off a few years
”
. Similarly,
Interviews and analysis
Heather states that chemical peels
“
will take away your age
”
.
Theideathatagecanbeerasedtorestorearelatively
’
appearance is what is meant by the term rejuvenation. According
to Dr Watts, older patients are seeking facial rejuvenation
to restore a youthful appearance and
“
treat the signs of ageing
”
.
Dr Williams suggests that rejuvenation entails
‘
youthful
A semi-structured approach was taken in conducting the
interviews (
Kvale, 1996; Patton, 2002
). Questions were gener-
ated from the topics: discourses that constitute understandings
of cosmetic surgery practice, discourses that constitute subject
positions in relation to
Sprucing up.
Spring-cleaning. Making look younger. You can do it with a piece
of furniture can't you? The same with the face I think
“
and discourses that constitute
subject positions in relation to older people who engage in the
practise of cosmetic surgery. Simultaneous data generation and
analysis were carried out until data saturation was reached
(
Morse, 1995
).
The process of analysis beganwith descriptive and thematic
stages according to the phases outlined by
Braun and Clarke
(2006)
. Thematic analysis was used to organise the data sets
and identify patterns of regularity that might suggest the
operation of discourse. The theoretical analysis undertaken
in this study derives from both meditation on discourse and
engagement with participant perspectives. However, the data
sets do not form sites of analysis and nor do the participant's
narratives form
‘
older
’
”
.Here,
Dr Williams uses the metaphor of
furniture to
compare cosmetic surgery to renovation. One of the media texts
sampled (
Hilton, 2002
) suggests a similar notion of renovation
or home decoration, suggesting that older people might
‘
sprucing up
’
“
need
repositioning, and perhaps a little more skin redraping
”
.
anti-ageing discourse is inscribed
in the practice of cosmetic surgery in relation to older people.
Mykytyn (2006)
suggests that anti-ageing is a social movement
and observes that during the past decade there has been
a phenomenal growth in anti-ageing medicine. Anti-ageing
medicine refers to practices, products and treatments arising
from the research and development efforts of biogerontology.
This discipline is dedicated to the scientific study of the biology
of the ageing process (
Fishman, Binstock, & Lambrix, 2008
).
Cosmetic surgery however, does not directly arise from devel-
opments in this discipline. As Dr Watts explained, anti-ageing
medicine focuses on medical interventions such as
Through the notion of
“
re
”
perspectives or individual case
studies. Moreover, this paper does not engage with a politics
of
‘
representative
’
. Rather, the texts are sampled and problematized in
terms of their articulation of prevailing discourses that inscribe
the practice of cosmetic surgery undertaken by older people.
The labour of meditation through which this problematization
was enacted entails practices of thinking and writing as
methods of analysis (
Deacon, 2000; Richardson & St. Pierre,
2005
). Therefore, the analysis does not exist independent from
this writing and is
‘
voice
’
nutritional
supplementation and bio-identical hormones and things like that
which are becoming more mainstream and becoming very much
part of the anti-ageing movement
“
”
. He suggested that
“
Surgery
in what is to follow. The analysis
weaves discursive commentary with close data analysis and
presentation in which connections are forged between theory
and texts to problematize anti-ageing discourse and elaborate
the interpretation that
‘
performed
’
is probably at the perimeter of that
. Whilst cosmetic surgery
can be understood as being at the disciplinary fringe of anti-
ageing knowledge and development, its practice is inscribed by
anti-ageing discourse. This link is evident in
Mykytyn's (2006
644)
statement that,
”
‘
older
’
is stylized through cosmetic
Anti-ageing practitioners assert that there
is much more that technoscience can do to retard, halt, and
even reverse aging
“
surgery.
”
.
“
: the inscription of anti-ageing discourse in
cosmetic surgery
RE
”
Problematizing anti-ageing discourse
refers to concepts such as renovation,
rejuvenation, reversal, refresh, reposition, and restoration.
These concepts are commonly evoked in the texts in asso-
ciation with the practice of cosmetic surgery by older people
and taken together jointly suggest something akin to
The notion of
“
re
”
has become en-
meshed in understanding the practice of cosmetic surgery.
This discourse operates to draw a distinction between certain
practices constituted as
Through anti-ageing discourse,
‘
ageing
’
and others which may
then be considered simply aesthetic or reconstructive. In
other words, through the outworking of anti-ageing dis-
course, procedures such as facelifts, facial fat injections, neck
‘
anti-ageing
’
‘
putting
the body back
’
. These are almost Mandy's words when she
says,
“
if you look at yourself and everything is going south, you
42
B. Garnham / Journal of Aging Studies 27 (2013) 38
–
46
lift and blepharoplasty (eye bag removal) are positioned as
qualitatively different to rhinoplasty (nose job), octoplasty
(ear pinning) and liposuction (body sculpting). This dis-
course enables rhinoplasty, to alter the contour of the nose,
to be seen as different to having a blepharoplasty, to alter the
contour of the eyes. Moreover, whilst the statement that
facelifts are an
This differentiation between age categories according
to procedures is problematized by statements such as that
made by Martin Kelly, a consultant plastic surgeon in the UK,
and reported by
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic
Surgeons (2005)
:
procedure is rendered intelligible
by this discourse, the parallel claim that liposuction is an
‘
‘
anti-ageing
’
Older patients usually ask to
younger
patients want to change their shape. But a number of senior
patients have recently become more daring, and I believe
largely because of the in
‘
turn back the clock
’ —
procedure and to undergo this procedure consti-
tutes a denial of one's inherent
anti-fat
’
is nonsensical. In
addition, given that the purpose of anti-ageing procedures is
seemingly to
‘
fatness
’
uence of happy younger patients
they know, seeking to change their shape as well, having
their nose done or breasts augmented.
, it is interesting to consider
why these procedures are not classified as reconstructive
plastic surgery and state funded by Medicare.
The distinction between practices considered
‘
put the body back
’
Here Kelly suggests that older consumers are becoming
“
more daring
”
and also seeking procedures that
“
change their
’
and others is being blurred through the expansion of the
anti-ageing market. A UK based website (
Cosmetic Surgery
Consultants, 2008
) on anti-ageing cosmetic surgery pro-
cedures, for example, includes liposuction amongst the listed
procedures and states that
‘
anti-ageing
shape
procedures. The
procedures undertaken by older participants in this study
included surgery for gynecomastia, liposuction, abdomino-
plasty, breast reduction and rhinoplastywhich are not typically
categorised as
”
as opposed to only
‘
anti-ageing
’
in the realms of trying to remain
looking as young and fit as possible, cosmetic surgery can work
wonders
“
‘
anti-ageing
’
. These examples suggest that the
differential positioning of
‘
older
’
consumers in relation to
. What is suggested in this text is that looking fit,
and thus presumably slender, through the use of liposuction
is within the remit of
”
‘
consumers based upon the procedures they select is
unstable and tenuous.
In terms of cosmetic surgery as a practice of self, claims
that cosmetic surgery is an
younger
’
. This colonisation of pro-
cedures indicates the power of anti-ageing discourse which is
linked to a burgeoning multi-billion dollar industry interna-
tionally. The size, spread and value of this market are relevant
because through anti-ageing discourse not only are any
changing features of the body, including weight, colonized by
this discourse, and thus a target for anti-ageing intervention,
but also, the potential market base for these procedures is
extended to everyone who is ageing
‘
anti-ageing
’
practice and older
consumers are denying ageing suggest that
‘
anti-ageing
’
the interior
meanings of cosmetic surgery are being inscribed on the
bodies of people who get cosmetic surgery
“
(
Pitts, 2006 38
).
In media texts generated for this study, the outworking of
anti-ageing discourse enabled older people who undergo
cosmetic surgery to be subject to disdain:
”
—
which is everyone.
Despite the fact that everyone is ageing and potentially
a consumer of anti-ageing cosmetic procedures, in many
of the texts generated for this study, the assumption that
older consumers of cosmetic surgery would be having
men, by and large, go into full blown denial, continuing to
delude themselves that they are permanently somewhere
between 35 and 45.(
Ryan, 2001
)
The 70-year-old who has restructured her face to look 50 is
not to be admired and emulated but pitied.(
Daniels, 2002
)
‘
anti-
ageing
’
procedures operated to differentially position an
‘
older
’
consumer group in relation to
‘
younger
’
consumers.
These statements suggest that older people who engage
in cosmetic surgery are in denial, deluded and should be
pitied. In our interview, James was critical of people who
engage in
These texts produced the notion that
consumers
of cosmetic surgery have procedures that alter the size, shape
or contour of the body whereas older consumers want to
‘
‘
younger
’
.
Dr Watts for example, illustrates this distinction in his state-
ment that:
put the body back
’
and reverse the appearance of
‘
ageing
’
‘
anti-ageing
’
practices because in trying to appear
‘
younger
’
he felt they were
“
living a lie
”
. He states:
Film actors for instance, you know when they have had
face lifts, it is just not them. They are just living a lie aren't
they?
in that demographic that we are talking about it's not that
they've got thin lips that they have had all their life and they
want to see what they look like plump
What is their aim in life? What are they trying to
prove? Do they want to stay young all their lives. Their body
is still growing old
…
—
that's more in the
20
30 year age group were you are not dealing with age
related change you are just dealing with their body as it is.
And they might not like their nose or their cheeks and they
might want to try something for that.
–
…
An old wrinkled face should have grey
…
hair, it's natural
we have often said that people who dye
their hair shouldn't really do that, because it doesn't not look
natural. I know people who do it and they do not look
natural, but it is their choice. So once again they are living a
lie, they are dying their hair and making themselves, trying
to make themselves, look younger.
In this statement, Dr Watts suggests that unlike older
people who have undergone
“
age related change
”
, the bodies
of 20
–
30 years olds are unaffected by ageing and so
“
you are
just dealing with their body as it is
which might require
procedures to alter the shape of the body. So whilst
”
Claims such as these, that people who engage in cosmetic
surgery are trying to
’
bodies have aged, because everyone is ageing, these bodies
are viewed as unproblematic in terms of
‘
younger
and deny ageing, are en-
meshed with normative ideas of how a body should appear at
particular ages as though this were an unproblematic given.
These normative ideas are rendered intelligible through the
“
stay young
”
“
age related change
”
and thus not requiring
‘
anti-ageing
’
procedures.