Alternative Health Blog

Beauty and related surgery is in the eye of … the women’s magazine reader? Well, yes, if a recent University of British Columbia study is your source. 

Researchers from the top university in Canada’s most scenic province published a paper showing that women’s magazines, such as Cosmopolitan and O: The Oprah Winfrey Magazine, describe cosmetic surgery as a potential physical risk but in the end worth it emotionally. 

Here at the Alternative Healtb Blog let’s call that highly debatable. And that’s just for starters. 

What’s more, the UBC study showed that male opinions about female beauty and attractiveness is routinely used by women to justify cosmetic survey. A content analysis of the magazine show a disproportionate amount of articles about breast implants for women 19 to 34 years old.

"Women's magazines present co smetic 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. She focused20on Canada’s five most popular health and beauty magazines read predominantly by women: Cosmo, O, Chatelaine, Flare and Prevention. 

Polonjo says the lack of editorial discussion of emotional downsides to cosmetic surgery is perhaps most troublesome. Only one in five articles pointed out any possible emotional fallout. Research shows anxiety and depression are not uncommon among cosmetic surgery patients.

UBC co-author and sociology profession Richard Carpiano adds that two distinct ideal candidates emerge in the cosmetic surgery stories. One is the “unhappy, insecure, lonely woman looking to boost self-confidence and self-esteem” while the other type is a “successful, attractive, confident woman with high self-esteem” who seeks the procedure 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 Richard Carpiano. "This potentially allows for cosmetic surgery to be presented as an option for many women regardless of their preoperative emotional state."

The researchers didn’t write to this factor, but it’s clear that women’s magazines influence young females to a deep extent. The subject of cosmetic surgery, like it or not, is a logical topic for these publications. There’s no denying that and readers will simply look elsewhere for information if a magazine took a stand to the contrary. 

But writing about the possible emotional downsides is not asking too much—of editors or for their impressionable readers.

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.