YWCA USA Report Shows Alarming Trends in Cosmetic Surgery and Health Risks for Women and Girls
YWCA USA today released a new report that reveals the impact of idealized, airbrushed beauty and body image obsession on the economic well-being, health and interpersonal relationships of American women and girls. The report, Beauty at Any Cost, shows alarming new trends and money spent on cosmetic surgery alterations, including dramatic
increases among young women, and other serious health risks.
Young women and girls are increasingly spending more money and going to unhealthy extremes to achieve an unattainable image of physical perfection, according to Tracy Lakatua, YWCA USA Board Chair. The costs include physical harm, including risks posed by smoking to maintain a low weight and risky cosmetic surgeries; and mental and emotional harm, including low self-esteem and interpersonal problems that create an unhealthy, competitive “mean girls culture.” The report also reveals the health risks of unsafe cosmetic ingredients and the consequences of appearance-based job discrimination.
“We believe that the obsession with idealized beauty and body image is a lifelong burden that takes a terrible toll on all young girls and women in this country,” said YWCA USA CEO, Dr. Lorraine Cole. “What’s really new here is the sheer extent to which women and girls are now willing to go — literally causing physical harm — to be ‘beautiful,’ according to the
standards perpetuated by a youth-obsessed media culture with literally thousands of messages, 24 hours a day.”
To help raise awareness and start a national conversation about these issues, the YWCA USA has teamed up with documentary filmmaker Darryl Roberts to become the distribution partner of his new documentary film, “America the Beautiful.” The film provides an in-depth look and critical analysis of the harm inflicted by beauty obsession on young women and girls.
“Darryl’s amazing documentary provides an important medium for our message, and we hope to reach a wide audience through this important partnership,” said Dr. Cole. “The YWCA has been at the forefront of women’s issues in this country for the past 150 years, and we are prepared to raise awareness and ignite a national dialogue about this issue as the first steps to changing American culture and helping women reclaim wholesome and healthy beauty.”
The YWCA USA leadership and Roberts were joined today by a panel of experts to iscuss the report, including Dr. Cheryl Dellasega, author of Girl Wars and Mean Girls Grown Up; and Dr. Cynthia Frisby, a media effects and advertising expert from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
About The YWCA
The YWCA USA is a national not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to social service, advocacy, education, leadership development and racial justice. Established in the United States in 1858, the YWCA is the oldest and largest national organization dedicated to the empowerment of women and girls and the elimination of racism. Through nearly 300 local YWCAs located across the nation in almost every state, and headquartered in
Washington, D.C., the YWCA reaches 2.5 million women and girls, as well as their families. Globally, the YWCA USA is part of an international movement at work in 122 countries serving 25 million women and girls worldwide. For more information, visit our Web site, http://www.ywca.org.
For more information about the YWCA or local YWCA associations, visit the Web site, http://www.ywca.org, or contact the YWCA at 202-467-0801. Beauty at Any Cost can be accessed online at http://www.ywca.org.
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The YWCA followed-up the release of this document with a press release announcing the “study results,” which was picked up by the mainstream news media and which also props up the YWCA’s criticisms of how beauty is measured by our society. Reuters was one such outlet that published a story this week that announced the YWCA report.
The only real news in the Reuters article is unrelated to Beauty at Any Cost — that the YWCA is now supporting the distribution of the documentary film, America the Beautiful, which takes a jaundiced look at the fashion industry and aesthetic surgery in particular.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is nothing the matter with an organization coming out against young women who choose to damage their bodies in order to satisfy their egos (e.g., smoking cigarettes as a method of weight control). However, throughout the Reuters story and in Beauty at Any Cost, the implication is that the rise in popularity of aesthetic surgery is also at the heart of what another news story says is, “alarming new trends and money spent on cosmetic surgery alterations, including dramatic increases among young women, and other serious health risks.”
This is another example of a “media story,” in which the elitist mainstream news media uncritically broadcast information mixed with opinion — in this case, to tie in a bunch of perceived symptoms of American culture supposedly gone bad or awry — and pass it off as news.
The suggestion that these trends are new is dishonest, and that aspect comes directly from the material released by the YWCA. This trend is not new; however, it is alarming that the news media broadcasts this dishonesty with such ease. Critical thinking is definitely missing in some of the major news organizations.
The YWCA is pushing its agenda, the news media is pushing its agenda, and the public is reminded of how shallow and unenlightend it can be. And, by strong inference, both are saying that cosmetic surgery is part of the thing in American society that has “gone awry.” The resulting news article(s) on the report, which as we speak have been and will be picked up by numerous Web sites and passed off as news, can also be used by print newspapers as fodder to fill a few more column inches in their dying Health or Beauty sections, if needed.
Meanwhile, the cosmetic and aesthetic medicine fields receive another finger wagging from a hypocrtitical and self-serving media machine, which is also part of a larger effort to shape public opinion on issues of healthcare — subtle and at times not-so-subtle propaganda proffering a political agenda indirectly and in manipulative ways.