Cosmetic surgery is one of the most widespread types of medical intervention in the world, with women from most countries undergoing these procedures in order to fix what they perceive as flaws or marks of old age on their faces and bodies. A new study draws attention to the fact that women’s magazines simply downplay the emotional health risk factors associated with plastic surgery, and only focus on the positive aspects, such as more self-esteem and more attractiveness as far as men go.

In a survey of 5 Canadian women’s magazines – Chatelaine, Cosmopolitan, O: The Oprah Magazine, Flare and Prevention –, presented as an undergraduate honours thesis in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Andrea Polonijo analyzed some 35 articles, which saw print between 2002 and 2005. She found that these magazines portrayed cosmetic surgery as a normal procedure that all women should undergo in order to preserve their beauty or to stay in shape.

But Polonijo also noticed that there was little mentioned about the possible emotional risks that women might experience after undergoing plastic surgery. She also stated that the targeted females were usually split into two groups – those who were insecure and needed the intervention to boost their self-esteem, and those who were already successful and confident and simply needed the surgery to stay fit.

"These two profiles represent extremes of a wide range of attitudes, for which many women may view themselves as being somewhere in-between. This potentially allows for cosmetic surgery to be presented as an option for many women regardless of their preoperative emotional state," explains study co-author Richard Carpiano, who is a UBC professor of sociology.

"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," Polonijo says in the study, which was published in the Women's Health Issues journal.