Women's body parts under the knife equal economic growth

The OECD and the IMF may well be at odds over the state of the US economy  with the OECD upbeat and the IMF  arguing that across the board tax increases and spending cuts of 35% are needed to deal with the deficit, but good news abounds in other important areas.  More than 1.6 million Americans had plastic surgery procedures in 2010 spending $1.2 billion on breast augmentation alone and $6.6 billion on cosmetic surgery in general according to a report released yesterday. 


According to the report, the five most popular surgical procedures in 2010 were breast augmentation, liposuction, eyelid surgery, tummy tuck and breast reduction.   Facelifts were also up 35% in 2010 from 2009.  Plastic surgeons claim that as the economy improves so does cosmetic surgery.  In fact, they cite a 2009 Cleveland study that"found a direct correlation between plastic surgery procedures and trends in the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq indexing", says the Wall Street Journal.

I don't know anyone who has actually had any of these procedures and I don't know anyone who makes a living playing the stock market so perhaps there's a correlation there. (I had a cyst removed once and one of those pesky skin tags under my armpit, before I found out that they disappear if you lose weight.)

As is to be expected, given the massive amount of air time in all areas of the capitalist mass media that is dedicated to telling women how bad they look and that they need to look this way or that and wear these type of clothes if they want to appeal to men, they are the bulk of this industry accounting for 91% of cosmetic surgeries in 2010.   Women account for the "entirety of the 67% increase in surgical cosmetic procedures seen since 1997." the WSJ reports. This is an incredible statistic revealing an entire, and probably unnecessary industry that exists by making women feel bad about themselves.

Cosmetic procedures are also increasing in men although not so much surgical ones.  Non surgical procedures on men rose 568% between 1997 and 2010 the report adds.  But with men it is Botox injections  and laser hair removal that is favored.  We get bigger tits when we get old an fat and don't need surgery, it's natural.

Rhinoplasty gone wrong

I thought maybe some of the procedures might be related to breast cancer but I think the report made it clear that it is cosmetic surgery they are talking about here. I have no idea what the industry is like in  other advanced capitalist economies but I know that the amount of pressure women are put under through advertising in the US is massive.  But its interesting that they link the increases to the stock market.  Dr Phil Haeck. president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons said on ABC News in February that the increase is due to people feeling more "confident that we're not going to have a double dip recession."   The increase in cosmetic surgery is, "Just one more tiny sign that the economy is moving forward. It's slow, but it may be that we'll slowly pull out of this recession." he added.

"The market has recovered, so people are feeling a little more comfortable to spend money," said Dr. Malcolm Z. Roth, director of plastic surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in New York. I know a few people who are back at work and feeling a little more confident but they're not spending $6000 on nose jobs.

With self employed plastic surgeons earning upward of $300,000 a year perhaps the stock market and the face lift is linked in their world.  I have no idea who the women are that have breast augmentation or breast reduction operations and I am sure there are cases when such surgery is needed but cosmetic surgery of this nature has its origins in Madison Avenue I would assume. It is not an accident that it is women's body parts that are hacked at most; one would think that procedures like fixing hair lips and other genuine problems such as disfigurement due to car accidents or fires would be number one on the list and perhaps they are as they would not fall under the term "cosmetic" but I haven't read the entire report.

According to the report's findings, "...attitudes about plastic surgery are worsening. In 1997, 57% of women and 58% of men said they approve of plastic surgery. In 2010, 53% of women and 49% of men approved." that's a good thing.