Cosmetic surgery: where will it end?

Laura Bridgestock
WVoN co-editor

After the recent PIP scandal, which exposed millions of women to potentially harmful breast implants (see WVoN coverage), it is perhaps surprising to learn that the cosmetic surgery industry is set for another year of substantial growth.

According to the International Master Course on Aging Skin (IMCAS) – based, like PIP, in France – worldwide profits from so-called “beauty procedures” are set to increase by more than 11% in 2012.

In 2011, the  value of the industry reached somewhere between $4.1 billion and $4.9 billion.

The fact that the PIP scare has had no apparent impact is less surprising when put into context. Those 300,000 PIP implant customers may seem like a lot – but they’re only about 1.5% of the estimated 20 million women with implants worldwide.

Breast implants remain among the most popular cosmetic alterations. In the UK, women accounted for 90% of all cosmetic procedures in 2011, and more than 23% of all procedures were breast enlargements.

The list of available procedures is ever-increasing – not such a surprise, given the profits providers stand to make.

What seems particularly disturbing is the increasingly casual attitude adopted by marketers. One company, manufacturer of a “radio frequency device” that “tightens skin” boasts:

“Because there’s little if any downtime, Pellevé is a perfect solution for women who’d like a fresher look before a big event for less than the cost of an afternoon of shopping.”

This sickens me for several reasons – not least the implication that women’s lives revolve around primping, being “social butterflies” and shopping.

It also makes cosmetic surgery sound more like a haircut than a serious life decision, or a social phenomenon that is disconcerting and complex at best, and astonishingly sinister at worst.

In the USA, this increasing casualness is seen in a growing trend of marketing cosmetic procedures as pre-wedding preparations.

Companies such as this one offer a “bridal discount” and a full schedule counting down to the wedding – from breast augmentation four months before to a “microdermabrasion power peel” with three days to go.

The term “bridalplasty”, coined to describe these pre-wedding procedures, was popularised by the 2010 reality TV show of the same name, in which brides-to-be competed to get procedures from their “wish lists”.

All of which prompts the question, where will it end?

Last year Kate Winslet spoke of recruiting fellow actresses Rachel Weisz and Emma Thompson to form a “British Anti-Cosmetic Surgery League”.

Winslet has also spoken out against the media’s use of photoshopping to present distorted representations of women.

If in any doubt about the relation between media photoshopping and the continued growth of the cosmetic surgery industry, check out this 2009 article.

It does a good job of illustrating the extent to which women are routinely chopped up, filled out and slimmed down on the editing table, just as in the operating room.