The regulation of gender: silicone breast implants, regulatory processes and femininity

Regulatory discourse on silicone breast implant surgery in Australia largely takes its lead from that in the US. In doing so, it utilises a number of linguistic repertoires also found in US material. This paper takes up and adapts the work of Teresa de Lauretis to formulate breast implant discourse as a technology of gender, and uses this theoretical framework to examine two of these repertoires, that of “hysteria” and that of “junk science.” It demonstrates the ways in which the repertoires help shape regulatory decisions about procedures and devices along gendered lines, and at the same time, it draws out the implications of some of the options these repertoires make available to individuals for constructing gendered selves.