ABSTRACT
Scott Westerfeld's dystopian "Uglies" series depicts a world that claims to have eliminated the pressures through mandatory plastic surgery that makes all sixteen-year-olds equally attractive. However, as protagonist Tally Youngblood discovers just before her surgery, the procedure modifies minds as well as bodies. By focalizing the narrative through Tally's perspective during her pre and post-operative days, Westerfeld interrogates assumptions about what constitutes beauty and how individuals and societies respond to beauty, as well as the very concept of feminine identity itself. Tally's ability to take on new identities might seem to resemble that of a teenager who changes herself to become popular. However, it is concern for others that motivates Tally to submit herself to society's dictates of how she should look. The leaders of Tally's society claim to have determined that giving all citizens the same degree of beauty averts judgments based on appearance and related problems, including racial tension and war.
