One of my closest friends has been living in the United Arab Emirates for five years now. She moved there after a long stay in Lebanon and she often travels to nearby countries like Oman and Qatar. In short, she is my eyes and ears when it comes to the beauty myth in the Arab world.
My friend recently sent me a photo of an ad she found in a Dubai newspaper; it advertises cosmetic surgery procedures in a way that reaffirms one of the effects of globalization: namely, the homogenization of commercial messages around the world.
Here are some close-ups of the ad, in case you are having troubles reading it:
The big header says: “Motherhood is beautiful. Here’s a makeover that takes care of mother’s beauty too.”
Superimposed over the body of the woman/mother are a plethora of colored dots that highlight “problem areas” that could be improved:
And below the photo, there is a list of procedures that the cosmetic surgery practice offers:
– hair loss treatment
– breast surgery
– fraxel laser (whatever that means)
– liposuction
– thermage (equally puzzling)
– tummy tuck
– laser “vien” removal (read: vein)
– arm & thigh lifts (I didn’t know arms and thighs could be lifted!)
– weight managment (I think they meant to say “management”)
– bladder incontinence
Below, the copy is even more precious:
“At [name of plastic surgeon’s practice] we understand and truly believe that mother can and should look good. Which is why we bring you a special Mommy Makeover package.” (emphasis mine)
The promotion of “Mommy surgeries” in our mass media is a relatively recent phenomenon, that goes hand in hand with the severe scrutiny over pregnant celebrities’ bodies and the celebration in tabloid culture of how fast those celebrities lose weight after giving birth. The first time I found the term “Mommy Surgeries” in a mainstream publication was 2008, in this Newsweek article about the release of the book “My Beautiful Mommy.” The Newsweek journalist explained:
“My Beautiful Mommy” is aimed at kids ages four to seven and features a plastic surgeon named Dr. Michael (a musclebound superhero type) and a girl whose mother gets a tummy tuck, a nose job and breast implants. Before her surgery the mom explains that she is getting a smaller tummy: “You see, as I got older, my body stretched and I couldn’t fit into my clothes anymore. Dr. Michael is going to help fix that and make me feel better.” Mom comes home looking like a slightly bruised Barbie doll with demure bandages on her nose and around her waist.
In a globalized world, the notion of a perfect, “beautiful” body as an imperative for every new mom has spread from the Western world to the Middle East. The ad features a white woman with blond hair: not exactly your idea of a typical Emirati woman, I suppose, but the truth is, 80% of inhabitants of the United Arab Emirates are expatriates.
What I find particularly crass is the stress over the physical perfection of new mothers – mothers! Physical appearance should be the least of their worries: they have so much to do with a newborn baby. Telling them that they must spend large sums of money to adhere to the One and Only Beauty Standard – young, thin, with perky breasts – is simply… despicable!
If you have other examples of “badvertisements” from foreign countries, please send them to us at illusionists.film[at]yahoo[dot]com
Thank you Leotie for these photos!
I find this whole topic tough. The tone of the ad you’ve got here is, of course, deplorable… as is the notion that mothers need to bounce back to perfection weeks (days if you’re Heidi Klum) after giving birth…
But as a positive body image advocate AND a mother, I’ll admit that some of these procedures are harder for me to rail against now. I don’t think I’ll ever invest in a Mommy Makeover for a variety of reasons (some lofty, e.g. my “principles”; some more practical, e.g. lack of cash, no one to look after the kids as I recover, it would hurt, my husband thinks I look great as I am, the other moms I hang out with aren’t into that sort of stuff, so it’s not like I’m sizing myself up against them etc), but I have found it harder to embrace my post pregnancy body than I thought I would….and I think the reason is because the changes that pregnancy and delivery caused feel very out of my control, like they were wrought on my body by some other beings (hey, wait, they were) and although I love those other beings… I wish I could have my old body (what it could do–and yes, how it looked) back.
So yeah, Mommy Makeovers aren’t good. They are without a doubt another articulation of the same beauty ideals being foisted on a new market niche (new moms). But as my definitions of “normal” and “natural” in regards to my body have changed, I think my ideas around some of these procedures might be too.
Thank you for contributing to the conversation, Audrey, and for the candid comments regarding body image and motherhood. I really appreciate your insights!
One quick clarification about my intentions and the focus of the post: it’s my policy – in life, as well as on this site – never to question people’s choices when it comes to their bodies. If a woman feels that she would have a more positive self-esteem with a new nose, then good for her! I am not anti-makeup or anti-cosmetic surgery, per se, when we are discussing individual choices. I would never question a man’s or a woman’s decisions, so if my comments ever come across as judgmental, I hope readers of this blog will point this out and scold me.
What I am up against is the nature of advertising messages. If you will, my criticism is from the top down, addressing how multi-billion dollar corporations sell us concepts of normality and influence how we see our bodies. All in the interest of their profits.
In my childhood in the 1980s and throughout adolescence and early adulthood I thought that the media treated motherhood as something “sacred.” I saw that change in the early 2000s, with the relentless promotion of cosmetic surgery procedures in mass media. What was considered taboo and crass in the 1980s, has become the norm in the last decade. The most disturbing part for me? The fact that those serious procedures are always portrayed as risk-free and as easy as a trip to the dentist. I have read many many books and I’ve seen a plethora of documentaries on the topic. I’ve also had discussions with many women who had cosmetic surgery and the topic that would come up again and again is how (a) painful (b) temporary those surgeries are, often with mixed results and undesirable long term health consequences.
I would very much like to see the implementation of regulations in the media and advertising industries – a standard of conduct that makes it mandatory to discuss the health risks and common side effects of those risky procedures.
And ideally, I would love to see a discussion of beauty that is more diverse and does not adhere to a one and only strict beauty standard!
Your post echos a story that posted by Natasha Singer, NYT, back in 2007: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/fashion/04skin.html?_r=1&ref=natashasinger
In the US, the story did stir some controversy, but has since died out given that mommy makeovers are still relatively rarely pursued due to a combination of cost, social stigma, and fear of surgery and the recovery process.
You point out some good concerns about the choice of words and imagery in the advertisement, but I honestly think you’re giving the publication and advertiser too much credit. Do you believe people trust the message or the information in the ad? Social media has empowered now over 1 billion people to get information from sources they really do trust, like other consumers and independent thinkers like you.
It may make also make you feel less outraged by the ad when you consider that there’s very limited correlation between what advertisers say, and what motivates consumers to consider cosmetic surgery. I can attest from the hundreds of mommy makeover stories posted to our site (http://www.realself.com/Mommy-makeover/reviews) that the goal is very rarely to homogenize to the Only Beauty Standard. What motivates are emotional and functional factors. For instance, one mom wrote that she decided to get a tummy tuck after her 4 year old son asked when the next baby was coming…she was not pregnant.
Women also deserve the credit for getting far beyond an advertisers claim and for getting empowered to ask tough questions and to explore feelings like guilt (http://www.realself.com/forum/feeling-soooo-guilty) and what outcome is reasonable for their bodies.
@Audrey’s views represent the true voice of millions of women.
Totally see what you mean, esp the changes regarding how society treats the post partum period. I mean really, is nothing sacred anymore? Now moms-to-be need to look hot (And thanks Rachel Zoe for trying to take that to a new level with those ridiculous platform boots like the day before you went into labor)…and moms who have just had babies need to bounce back ASAP. Or feel bad that they didn’t follow Gisele’s prescriptive for being runway ready in no time (she did a lot of yoga and ate well… or some such nonsense.) *Of course* those things help and eating donuts for 9 months will make it harder to shed weight. But there are a billion other factors that make it hard for many women to get back to where they were…and more importantly, why should they/we?
Oh yeah, cause we need to be yummy mummies or risk being totally obsolete and pretty worthless..except as moms. And moms are nice and all, but they’re not hot.
What a mess!
The explosion of baby bump watch and post-baby bodies stories in the media is all about the dollar signs. Every cover story follows the same advertorial formula: reveal X star’s EXACT diet and exercise plan so trainers can promote their businesses and designer diets get name checked. This ad seems like an extension of a now very familiar setup. Spend money to “get your body back.” There is always profit to be made from women’s insecurities but within the last ten years, the diet, fitness and plastic surgery industries seem to have figured out that new moms are cash cows (er, excuse the expression). Pregnancy and new motherhood are times when women are likely to feel the most insecure about their bodies. Instead of meaningful discussion about what those insecurities mean–and yes, as a new mom, I have my share of them too–and education about how we can pass along healthy attitudes about food and weight to our kids, we get constant reminders that our “post-baby” (yeah, what happened to that baby?) bodies need fixing.
Thank you all for adding your voices to the conversation – I really appreciate your input, Claire, Audrey & Tom. And apologies if I’ve been slow to react, but I’m currently prepping for a week-long film shoot in Jordan (not for The Illusionists, unfortunately – but that’s coming up soon, too).
Great convo!