Pygmalions in plastic surgery

Abstract

This article focuses on the gendered underpinnings of the profession of plastic surgery, drawing upon a popular autobiography of a plastic surgeon. Written at a time when plastic surgery made its entrance as a legitimate branch of medicine, the author presents himself as a mouthpiece of his profession, as the person whose task it is to explain the wonders of the ‘noble and compassionate’ practice of plastic surgery to disbelieving critics, both within and outside the field. As such, it provides a resource for understanding the discourses which shaped – and continue – to shape the profession of plastic surgery. By analysing the textual practices which the author employs to construct his life as the idealized story of a plastic surgeon, the professional ideology of plastic surgery as well as the construction of masculinity in its professionalized form will be explored.