Cosmetic surgery and mediated body theatre: the designable body in the makeover programme The Swan

摘要

This paper discusses the construction of the body in the American makeover programme The Swan (2004). Using the digital terms morph and morphing and the idea of the sculptural as metaphors, the paper focuses on two body fantasies at work in the programme, the one related to the surgical procedures and the transformation process and the other to the final beauty pageant. Furthermore, the paper discusses how the makeover programme negotiates ideas of female beauty, bodily change, and agency within a narrative development from before to after and, thus, makes an argument for cosmetic surgery. The paper traces the cultural layers upon which the programme's construction of the beautiful female body is written, rewritten, and retrieved in both high culture and popular culture, and assembled and mediated by a contemporary reality TV format.