ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the new media phenomenon that invites fresh analysis from feminists interested in women's engagement with the body and beauty in contemporary culture and the invitation that draw links with existing discourses of gender and beauty, especially those relating to cosmetic surgical practices. It is divided into two parts. The first and longer presents part of the argument on agency in magazine coverage of cosmetic surgery made in the author's original work. Following this, the author looks briefly at the rise of makeover television, and considers the relevance of these arguments to this new phenomenon. The chapter argues that while makeover television does not merely reproduce the approaches to cosmetic surgery and women's agency evident in the magazines the author examined some of the observations made about magazines do illuminate the preoccupations of these programs and of contemporary notions of beauty, agency, and vanity.
