Paper short abstract:

Drawing on research on aesthetic body modification and femininity in Istanbul, this paper looks at aesthetic body modification and surgery as a form of "surveillance medicine" in a specific urban place.

Paper long abstract:

With an estimated total of over 1,000 plastic and aesthetic surgeons, Turkey recently ranked among the top ten of countries worldwide with the highest number of plastic surgeons per capita, and its cultural capital Istanbul has become a regional center for cosmetic surgery tourism, as well as for the fashion and beauty industry. Drawing on anthropological research on aesthetic body modification and femininity in Istanbul, my paper looks at aesthetic body modification and surgery as a form of 'surveillance medicine' (Armstrong 1995), which, alongside so-called corrective measures, seeks health and wellness through 'preventive' measures that are tied to wider consumption practices. While in contrast to Beirut or Teheran, post-surgery pride is still rare in Istanbul, against the background of neoliberal urban restructuring, the feminization of the urban service sector and the expansion of the urban middle classes, aesthetic surgery has become ever more normalized and is seen as a form of investment in bodily capital by an increasing number of (working) men and women. Finally, with beauty therapists and aesthetic surgeons musing on the specificities of the Turkish body and 'race' in private TV make-over shows and other media, aesthetic medical practices are becoming intricately linked to specific imaginations of modernity, glamour and the beautifying nation on the margins of the Middle East.

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