but overall worthwhile option for enhancing
physical appearance and emotional health, a UBC study has found.
The study, published in Women's Health
Issues journal, is the first to examine how women's
magazines portray cosmetic surgery to Canadians. It also finds
that male opinions on female attractiveness are routinely used
to justify cosmetic surgery and that a disproportionate amount
of articles are devoted to breast implants and cosmetic surgery
among women aged 19-34.
"Alongside beauty, clothing and diet advice,
women's magazines present cosmetic surgery as a normal practice
for enhancing or maintaining beauty, becoming more attractive to
men and improving emotional health," says Andrea Polonijo, who
conducted the research at UBC as an undergraduate honours thesis
in the Dept. of Sociology.
Polonijo, now a graduate student at University
of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, examined how
Canada's five most popular English-language women's magazines -
Chatelaine, Cosmopolitan, O: The Oprah Magazine, Flare and
Prevention - portray cosmetic surgery. The study focused on 35
articles published between 2002 and 2006.
"Magazines are communicating the physical
risks of cosmetic surgery more than the emotional health risks,"
says Polonijo, noting that studies have found that emotional
health issues such as anxiety and depression may arise or
increase in women who undergo physically successful cosmetic
surgery, regardless of their preoperative emotional state. Of
the articles that mention emotional health, only 18 per cent
suggest cosmetic surgery may be detrimental to emotional
well-being, the study found.
Magazines routinely present two "ideal"
cosmetic surgery candidates, the study found: an unhappy,
insecure, lonely woman looking to boost low self-confidence and
self-esteem, and a successful, attractive, confident woman with
high self-esteem who seeks cosmetic surgery to maintain
perfection.
"These two profiles represent extremes of a
wide range of attitudes, for which many women may view
themselves as being somewhere in-between," says UBC sociology
professor Richard Carpiano, a co-author of the study. "This
potentially allows for cosmetic surgery to be presented as an
option for many women regardless of their preoperative emotional
state."
Men's opinions were often considered in these
cosmetic surgery articles, with 29 per cent discussing the
impact that women's cosmetic surgery has on the male population.
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