Transnational Body Projects: Media Representations of Cosmetic Surgery Tourism in Argentina and the United States

Abstract

Cosmetic surgery tourism (CST) is part of the growing trend known as medical tourism. As people in the global North travel to less affluent countries to modify their bodies through cosmetic surgery, their transnational body projects are influenced by both economic "materialities" and traveling cultural "imaginaries." This article presents a content analysis of media representations of cosmetic surgery tourism in a major country sending patient-tourists (the United States) and a popular receiving country (Argentina). The power relations of globalization appear to be played out in the media. U.S. sources assert U.S. hegemony through a discourse emphasizing the risks of CST in the global

Beauty and Elegance: Value Co-Creation in Cosmetic Surgery Tourism

“…Without disagreeing with the viewpoints of scholars working on the women-centered literature of cosmetic surgery, our study presents responses from men and women to show the interest of both genders in CST. These provide further support to Holliday et al's (2015) and Casanova and Sutton's (2013) study on men's interest in CST, for example, hair transplants and surgery to improve workplace competitiveness.…”

Health Resorts and Multi-Textured Perceptions of International Health Tourists

“…Consumers of health tourism may develop certain expectations before traveling to a health tourism destination for their desired medical and health care reasons. In order to meet the expectations of tourists/travelers, many tourism services providers offer surgical packages in tandem with recuperation in a beautiful tourism location, for example, facelift and recuperation while doing safaris or sightseeing [91][92][93]. Yang [94] noted the premises of the Kano model in the healthcare industry, showing that healthcare consumers are delighted when the quality of a service/product is beyond their expectations, leading to positive behavioral intentions.…”

Brief encounters: Assembling cosmetic surgery tourism

“…Medical staff sometimes trade on past movement, in particular overseas education and training (often in western countries e a form of credentialising surgeons to reassure prospective patients; Casanova and Sutton, 2013). Prior migrations to departure countries also furnish staff in destination countries with the ability to translate both language and culture for patients.…”

“…Mediascapes also include news media, with its often sensationalised accounts of surgery-gone-wrong (Casanova and Sutton, 2013) e which we do not have time to discuss here e and the media that emanate from within CST itself. The latter category includes professional and trade publications, travel guides and assorted online resources e websites, online forums and social media.…”