Lord Make Me Over: Women, Ideology, and the Phantasmagoric Spectacle of Cosmetic

Surgery.1

Fiona Whittington-Walsh
March 2010

1
Note for quotation with specific permission of author.
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 I remember praying something like this, Lord, you have
done so much for me in my life. You helped me lose weight
and keep it off. You saved me from sin and also gave me a
new beginning and second chance with my second marriage.
I am so thankful for all you have done for me, but do I have
to have a constant reminder of my fat unhappy years with the
loose skin and the saggy boobs? Do I have to live with the
apron at my hips? Could I have a miracle? Could you re-sculpt
me during the night and I wake up with it gone? Orif my
faith is not up to that, would you approve surgery? I ask that as
the insurance company reviews my case, it will be as if You
Lord are the judge and jury and you are the one who decides.
If they say no, I will believe you say no also and if they say yes,
I will believe you approve it and all will go well! Thanks Lord.
In Jesus Name I pray.2

This is a qualitative study based on the analysis of (a) interviews with fifteen women who

have under-gone cosmetic surgery; (b) media representations of cosmetic surgery, including

television shows, advertisements, and patient testimonials found on surgeons web sites and the

Make Me Heal web site the largest cosmetic surgery web portal for consumers; and (c) the key

theoretical texts exploring the relationship between religion, politics, the media, aesthetics, and

gendered embodiment. This presentation is a brief summary of this work.

The focus of this work is the intersection between the ideology of the Christian Right

with its Christian common sense aesthetic and the ideology of commodity fetishism, both of

which are materialized on and through the cosmetically transformed body. For the purpose of

this work, the term Christian Right refers to a political and cultural movement generally

advanced under the name of Christianity and referring back to various symbolic moments in the

life of Christ (the gospels) and Christian morality. This Christian cultural and political

movement is not restricted to denominational followers of Christianity but rather expands out

encompassing other social groups which share similar moral principles. These principles are
2
Jannie. Interview with author via email. September 9, 2007.

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founded on strong contradictory and reactionary characteristics, most significantly the fact that

commodity capital accommodates womens consumption involving the construction of both

physical beauty through the beauty industry and inner notions of beauty through moral regulation

also shared by Christianity. These characteristics work together to form the foundation for civil

society.

While noted scholars of the Christian Right (Wheeler, 1995; Griffith, 1997; Harding,

2000; Ingersoll, 2003) argue that the rise of Christian fundamentalism within the cultural

landscape is really the examination of a sub-culture, I contend that it can no longer be considered

as such. By examining the cultural discourse surrounding cosmetic surgery, with its emphasis on

the fundamentalist ideology of transformation, it becomes apparent that the ideological rhetoric

of the Christian Right has become the dominant culture within western, patriarchal capitalist

society.

This work contends that the ideology of the Christian Right, with its emphasis on

miracles and salvation through rebirth, is an essential form of patriarchal aesthetics and is

materialized on the body, especially the female body, through this process of cosmetic surgical

commodity production. This approach acquires an ideological status and the ideology is

subsequently projected and maintained within the language utilized by surgeons, the media, and

from patients themselves. This ideological and moral construction and regulation are situated in

the patriarchal capitalist agenda for the purpose of maximization of profit through the reification

of the notion of beauty or the mythical beauty ideal, which facilitates female submission to

patriarchy and its traditional Christianized gender roles. As such, this female submission and

their domination and traditional Christian values and beliefs are integral to each other, and serve

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an instrumental role in the maintenance of the current capitalist system. This creates a disturbing,

yet lucrative partnership between seemingly contradictory forces between faith and profit.

In his famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber

(1958) proposed that this seemingly contradictory partnership between religious traditionalism

and the pursuit of personal wealth emerged with early capitalism and facilitated a shift in

Christian beliefs and values. Salvation (the cornerstone to Christian traditionalism) became

associated with working hard and prudence which supported the capitalist agenda. Walter

Benjamin (1971 & 1999) adds an interesting interpretation of this merger and contends that

during the height of European high capitalism commodities began to be showcased alongside

mythic images creating an illusion that heaven had arrived on earth and through consumption

rapture and salvation would and could be experienced. This is the phantasmagoric spectacle

which was a term first used by Karl Marx to describe the totalizing effect capitalist commodity

production has on social life. The commodity, a thing produced by humans by their own labor

supersedes that of the labor itself. The commodity becomes reified and is believed to possess

spiritual powers.

This work argues that in the phantasmagoric spectacle of commodity fetishism cosmetic

surgery has become drenched in Christian mysticism and through the process of consumption

becomes an intense ritual of purification that materializes on the body the gospels of Jesus Christ

including his: virgin birth, miraculous deeds, suffering and crucifixion, and rebirth. Since this

process has as its foundation ideology, these experiences, regardless of being a Christian or not,

remain unconscious and are further transmitted from the saved (those having undergone cosmetic

surgery) to the un-saved (those suffering with a negative body image but have not had surgery).

All of this becomes possible through the market and consumption. This merger between the

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phantasmagoric spectacle and Christian mysticism is the materialization of divine beauty which

signals the triumph of the metaphysical over that which is material: the body.

Beauty as Ideology

The idealized notion of beauty has surfaced as one of the most important tools used to

control and subjugate all women in modern, racialized, patriarchal, capitalist society. Central to

this capitalist colonial and postcolonial notion of beauty are age, class, race, and ability. Under

the process of the beauty ideal women internalize unrealistic conceptions of beauty and

subsequently become engaged in materializing that ideal by participating in the consumption of

beauty production. Rigid notions of bodily normality that accompanies this illusive ideal, while

outwardly seen as voluntary, coerce us into consent and ultimately participation thus solidifying

its position within forms of capitalist domination. True beauty is believed to reside primarily in

patriarchal, white, non-disabled, non-working class Christian bodies. The desired results is a

form of invisibility, and cosmetic surgery offers the ability to remove or occlude that which

signaled difference as ugly, unhealthy, other, and, as this current work contends, all of

which further signals sin.

Ironically, for all women, our exchange-value is located in how desirable our bodies are

to the male gaze. To be objectified under the gaze is to be dehumanized yet to not be evaluated

as such is somehow, under our current system, much worse. A 2007 study found that people

evaluated as better looking have higher wages than those who are evaluated as being less

attractive making on average twelve percent more than their less attractive counterparts.

Cosmetic surgery is now seen as the way to be competitive in both the economic and

private spheres of society. A recent study by the job search engine, Monster.com, found that out

of 21,552 users of their web site 53% said they believed that having cosmetic surgery would

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enhance their marketability. Virginia Blum (2003) contends that with the advances in cosmetic

surgical techniques and the introduction of quick fixes such as the lunch time boob job -

offers a new way to be competitive in the job market place, surpassing, in some cases, job related

experience.

What it Looks Like

Walter Benjamin (1999) contends that commodity fetishisms actualization occurs in

dream wish images which are materialized in advertisements. The discourse of advertisements is

so powerful that it formulates how we experience social relationships and how we construct our

own identity. It is the voice of the commodity. As Benjamin contends, we even see this inverted

reality in our dreams. John Berger (1973) adds to Benjamins analysis and contends that the

process of advertisements is one that offers us the dream-wish-world of transformation. If we

consume the product then we will become objects of envy for others.

The seemingly contradictory forces of Christian traditional aesthetics and advanced

patriarchal capitalism are not alien to each other. The consumption of religious and spiritual

commodities (most notably the Bible) has existed since the late eighteenth century. Since the 20th

Century, the marketplace has been saturated with a multitude of Christian commodities from

books, music, clothing, theme parks, museums, art, and toys. Generally referred to as Jesus

Junk is a $4.6 billion (U.S.) a year business and is marketed almost exclusively by believers for

believers.

Further, the mandate for the consumption is to reconcile ones love for God with His

perfect will. Jesus Junk merchandise includes the secret ingredient of faith scriptures which

offers each consumer inner salvation. For example, Beauty 4 Ashes is a highly profitable and

popular Christian health and natural beauty company which has received international acclaim.

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What distinguishes this company from the vast secular natural beauty product market is that it

claims to be a ministry, not a company, with the mandate to save Christian consumers from the

bondage of appearance related low-self esteem. This offers salvation and therefore happiness

but not in the actual consumption of the commodity. The spiritual relationship is within the

scripture included with the object; it is not found within the object; the Word of God contained in

the scripture holds the spiritual transforming power.

In contrast, the consumption of commodities that offer intense bodily transformation,

such as cosmetic surgical procedures, present a very different and unique experience of

consumption than what is found within the general Christian merchandise market. These

commodities are not just a vehicle to get the word of God to those needing saving. In fact, with

very few exceptions, cosmetic surgical commodities do not overtly state a connection to

traditional Christian mysticism. However, the reification process of commodity fetishism is

materialized in the production of cosmetic surgery. This activity is the materialization of an

ideology of beauty where commodities, such as breast implants, are given Subjectivity and are

desired above organic bodies, which then are relegated to the status of objective and experienced

as undesirable and full of sin. These commodities, when read through the ideology and language

of the Christian Right, which as the work proposes is the dominant language utilized in our

culture, become material representations of Him. He is materialized through being inserted into

the body through the commodities, which are seen and read as divine emblems of supernatural

mysticism. The transformation and happiness that ensues is concrete evidence in miracles and

offers proof of His supernatural powers.

Key to Marxs conception involving the production of ideology is a language that ignores

social relations and history and is positioned as possessing causal powers. Christian mysticism as

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utilized by the Christian Right uses several tricks to its language which are present in the

phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic surgery and including the following: (1) rhetorical use of

jeremiad sermons which seeks to convert the unsaved to saved through lamenting of the gospels

and is structured around the notion that there needs to be revival due to the presence of sin. (2)

the use of narrative gaps once again positions the listener as unsaved and needing saving while

simultaneously being able to situate themselves within the narrative of a miraculous story. (3)

narrative transfers where those unsaved are posited as female whose only birth experience is the

mother fleshy birth while those saved are temporarily granted male authority because they have

experienced the privileged fathered spiritual birth and have been saved. (4) All of which are done

through the reading of history at a standstill (so still it gathers dust as Benjamin would contend)

where ones own lived reality is negated for an alignment with the story of Jesus Christ

according to the book of gospels.

An example of this can be seen in the following transcript from a radio commercial for

breast augmentation surgery from the Heartland Plastic Surgery Clinic and demonstrates the

difference between cosmetic surgical advertisements and the marketing of Jesus Junk

merchandise which includes scripture:

Way down deep inside theres a little voice that says your figure
isnt what you really want it to be. You know what I mean? That
self doubt every time you put on a sweater, a bathing suit, or a
little black dress? Sure, breast size shouldnt matter, but that little
voice in your head says it does. Sure you can muffle it for a while
but it always comes back. Isnt it time you did something to get the
shape youve always wanted? Start the process by calling Heartland
Plastic Surgery. With breast enlargement you can feel more confident,
more sexy, more assertive. Call Heartland Plastic Surgery today and
see how Heartland Plastic Surgery can change your life through breast
enlargement. Dont wait. You put up with self doubt too long already.
Silence that little voice of nagging doubt forever by calling Heartland

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 Plastic Surgery today.3

This jeremiad creates a climate of crisis by identifying appearance related imperfections,

such as possessing small breasts, which are experienced as evidence of sin and the failure to

keep the divine covenant. You have gone through your life trying to ignore your sin but now it is

time to receive His love and repent. By choosing to alter your appearance and stop that nagging

voice you are choosing the path to revival and restoring your faith and covenant. Divine

restoration is demonstrated with the silencing of the nagging voice and materialized in your new

body, a changed life, and the new ability to feel confident, sexy, and assertive. It is a rebirth

both spiritual and physical and is absolute proof of the power of the commodity when infused

with the Holy Spirit. This process is two-fold the materialization of the ideology of beauty

ideal and the materialization of the gospels and miracles. This is the construction of divine

beauty.

Suffering

Key to this nagging voice which is evident of sin is the shame of suffering. Through the

phantasmagoric spectacle we are bombarded with dream-wish images of ideal perfection which

subsequently are internalized by us as a concrete sign that our organic bodies are fundamentally

flawed. The only way to alleviate the shame is to transform from an ugly, sinful duckling into a

beautiful, saved swan. This salvation can only be accomplished through the participation in the

consumption of cosmetic commodities which are endowed with transformative powers.

Mirroring the initial entry into the first stage to Christian salvation the woman who enters

into the phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic surgery experiences her negative body images as a

parable to Christs suffering, his passion. Christs body had to endure such suffering and pain in

order for resurrection and glory. There must be a period of suffering, just as Christ suffered for
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Heartland Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Des Moines Idaho.

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our sins. This is the only means for salvation and divine forgiveness. Within this stage towards

salvation and rebirth, the believer realizes that something is missing in their life.

For the woman trapped in the phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic surgery this stage of

suffering begins with a lifelong self hatred that accompanies negative body image. Once the

surgery begins however, the suffering becomes both physical and emotional. Paralleling Christs

realization that he was to endure physical suffering in order to experience eternal salvation, a

woman chooses cosmetic surgery to make her heal to somehow make her whole despite the

physical suffering that comes along with it. She, just like He, is aware of the suffering that is

involved in rebirth. Upon the actual surgery comes the experience mirroring crucifixion with

physical suffering and emblematic death. The old body is discarded and symbolically dies.

Rebirth

In the phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic surgery, the process of rebirth negates lived

experiences and positions history as belonging to the natural world which is under the direct

control of a divine, supernatural being. Under this ideological construction, rebirth is

experienced as eternal life and materialized with the process of commodity consumption. The

adulation and materialization of commodity fetishism that occurs supersedes the fleshy,

mothered birth that signals the start of all new organic life. This is the conquering of the female

body and subsequently that of nature and history.

Further, the phantasmagoric spectacle is capable of doing what the organic mothered

fleshy birth was incapable of doing: materializing dreams and wishes and, most significantly,

constructing the unification of mind/spirit and body. Testimonials all express an intense feeling

of euphoria. With this new body comes an initial feeling of confidence, sexiness, happiness,

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more feminine and more attractive to the heterosexist male gaze, and the belief in the unification

of mind/spirit and body

The Reproduction of Virginity

However, and most significantly for this current work, the ideology of beauty constructs

a contradiction for women in that they must be seen as objects of sexual desire for the all

encompassing male gaze while simultaneously remaining pure and therefore virginal. Walter

Benjamin referred to this way of representing women as the virgin mother and mercenary whore.

This contradiction is materialized in the phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic surgery and is

called the Yummy Mummy. The pressure is on for all women in western capitalist society to

show no signs of pregnancy or child birth. Since returning to a pre-baby body is, for most

women, impossible, many women are turning to cosmetic surgery to re-sculpt their bodies. We

are materializing the gospels by keeping history at a stand-still and remain virginal while

simultaneously being objects of sexual desire.

The most popular procedures that are classified as part of the mommy makeover are

liposuction, tummy tuck, breast augmentation, breast lift, and facial rejuvenation. Dr. Steven

Kieger of the Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery clinic in Los Angeles, California, has a special section

on his web site dedicated to the mummy makeover:

The Rodeo Drive Mommy Makeover

Many of todays moms dont feel they should sacrifice the

way they look just because theyve had children. At Rodeo
Drive Plastic Surgery, we specialize in patients in their 20s,
30s and 40s. This often includes women who have had
babies. These women usually want their tummies and breasts
back the way they looked before pregnancy.

We do many tummy tucks and breast lifts for these patients.

Often we place small breast implants not so much to
increase size, but to give these women back the volume in

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 the breasts that they lost during and after pregnancy. We
might do a formal mastopexy or breast lift. Sometimes we
also do liposuction. We have done these sort[s] of Mommy
Makeovers on women as young as 22 and as old as 64.

Whenever we do a tummy tuck as part of the Mommy

Makeover, we include our Rodeo Drive Belly Button with
the procedure. This helps create a nice-looking midriff.

Rodeo Drive is of course synonymous with glamour and celebrity lifestyle which is

intricate to the dream wish world of the phantasmagoric spectacle. Dr. Kiegers jeremiad is

making sure that we understand, as he does, that we need to somehow turn the clocks back and

return to this illusive pre-baby body. But of course this idea of return is problematic and part of

the ideology of history standing still our bodies were never what they are perceived to have

been - so therefore there cannot be a return. Further, the notion that you have made the ultimate

sacrifice is of course extremely important to Christian mysticism. Only those who make the

ultimate sacrifice, mirroring the sacrifice He made for all our sins, can be saved.

The icing on the cake, that which we desire to consume, is of course the Rodeo Drive Belly

Button, strategically placed on the newly transformed body which, through this system of

commodity fetishism and the process of cosmetic surgery, has been thingified. The belly button

is positioned as the ultimate delicious temptation just like a cherry, sitting harmoniously on top

of a mound of whipped cream. For the one who consumes this delicacy and possesses the Rodeo

Drive Belly Button, will become like the cherry, there to tempt. Of course the belly button is the

last visible reminder to the physical connection we once had to our mothers body. We were

once dependent upon her body for life and the belly button sustained us through our incubation

as part of our mothers organic body. To show any visible sign of this organic interdependence is

to be shamed as sinful. This jeremiad is situating that final emblem of female empowerment and

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our connection to her as flawed and only a gifted surgeon representing the synthetic connection

between commodity consumption and the fathered spiritual birth can correct and save us from.

Conclusion

The entire system of the phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic surgery is constructed on

the premise that happiness with ones appearance is temporary. Through this process of cultural

hegemony we have internalized the ideology of beauty yet the ideal does not exist so therefore

we can never attain it. The appearance of changing gives us the illusion that ideal beauty is

unique to individuals, while in reality it is a bland homogeneous look that is being

manufactured for our consent.

Because of the process of the phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic surgery the beauty

ideal is no longer just a myth. We are actually materializing what resides in myth by constructing

and transforming the body into it. This process of reification becomes the materialization of

miracles and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Through the process female subjectivity is being

disembodied and transformed into the Christian mystical ideal of the Bride of Christ. According

to The Book of Revelation, when the final battle against all evil is won Jesus will return for the

wedding of the lamb. The Bride of Christ is a metaphor for the entire congregation that is

reborn pure and virginal.

Under the phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic surgery, the ideal beauty we seek that

which is seen as pure and divine, is a dead beauty. Our bodies have replaced the mannequins

which once cloaked the fashion commodities on display. An example of this is found within a

magazine article about the reality television show The Swan where 16 women underwent

multiple cosmetic procedures in the quest to be crowned the fairest of them all. It is significant

that the women are described as being dreamers as they have been transformed into dream wish

images there to tempt the rest of us to repent and become reborn as their participation in the
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phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic surgery made their dreams come true. What is evident

within their transformed state is this sense of a mass produced sameness. There are few if any,

visible markers of individual uniqueness. Significantly, they all appear to have similar light skin

color and are all approximately the same age. They share similar height, breast size, smilethe

list of similarities is endless. The only difference appears to be their hair color, but the style

remains as constant as their porcelain veneers that cover their organic teeth and formulate their

robotic smiles.

Most significant is the fact that all the contestants look exactly the same after their

transformations. Their appearance has been mass reproduced with the aid of technological

advancement. All the nuances that were markers of the contestants lives, what made them

distinctly human and themselves, their social history, are seen as flaws and representative of sin

and have been erased. They have been transformed into the brides of Christ.

Similarly to all the lost souls who are somehow understood to be in an unfinished state,

the female body in its organic state of being (the way it was created through the female fleshy

birth) is seen as unfinished. Only after participating in the phantasmagoric spectacle of cosmetic

surgery can the female body be seen as a finished work of art, constructed by commodity

consumption and facilitated by the Fathered, spiritual birth. This is the conquering of nature and

the female body.

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Rebirth is centre of the experience and is firmly entrenched in patriarchal ideology in the fact
that this is a Fathered spiritual birth which supersedes the female fleshy birth.

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