Breast cancer, breast surgery, and the makeover metaphor

This paper discusses cosmetic breast surgery in relation to reconstructive surgery of the mastectomized breast. We will show how both kinds of surgery participate in what we are calling “the makeover metaphor,” because both can be seen as an aesthetic practice. We are interested in tracing some of the ways that women undergoing both procedures experience a disconnect between the rhetoric and the experience. We argue that the makeover metaphor overshadows the difficult decisions and bodily experiences of surgery – both for breast cancer and cosmetic purposes. We explore the rigidity and hypocrisy of the metaphor as it structures both of these forms of surgery, and argue that it produces contradictory and incommensurate effects.