Beautiful face,beautiful place: relational geographies and gender in cosmetic surgery tourism websites |
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| Authors: | Ruth Holliday David Bell Meredith Jones Kate Hardy Emily Hunter Elspeth Probyn |
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| Institution: | 1. Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, Leeds, UK;2. School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK;3. Institute for Interactive Media and Learning, Sydney, Australia;4. The Hawke Research Institute, Adelaide, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Cosmetic surgery tourism is a significant and growing area of medical tourism. This article explores the gendered construction of cosmetic surgery tourism in different geographical locations through an analysis of destination websites in Spain, the Czech Republic and Thailand. We examine the ways in which gender and other intersections of identity interact with notions of space, place and travel to construct particular locations and cosmetic surgery tourist experiences. The relational geographies of skill, regulation and hygiene in discourses of cosmetic surgery risk are also explored. We conclude that accounts producing cosmetic surgery tourism as undifferentiated experience of ‘non-place’ fail to acknowledge the complex constructions of specific destinations in promotional materials targeting international consumers in a global marketplace. |
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| Keywords: | bodies cosmetic surgery health tourism globalization Internet |
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