YWCA hits cosmetic medicine, American ‘obsession’ with beauty

August 25th, 2008, 8:21 am · Post a Comment · posted by Colin Stewart

See also related survey: “Do people discriminate because of how you look?”

The YWCA is taking aim at cosmetic surgery, which it says is fueled by an unhealthy, media-driven obsession with seeking an unrealistic, idealized body.

As part of a new campaign, the Young Women’s Christian Association issued a report last week called “Beauty at Any Cost” on the economic and psychological effects of Americans’ “air-brushed” body image.

The women’s organization, which runs about 300 local YWCA clubs nationwide, cited the following effects of the beauty obsession, with some supporting statistics:

Risks posed by smoking as a way to remain slim (13 percent of women smoke to stay thin)
Risky cosmetic surgeries (69 percent of women age 18-24 think favorably of cosmetic surgery)
Mental and emotional harm, including low self-esteem and unhealthy competition between girls over their looks
Use of cosmetics with unsafe ingredients (particularly phthalates, which can cause liver and reproductive damage)
Appearance-based job discrimination (an average of 5 percent higher pay for women with better-than-average looks and an average of 9 percent lower pay for those with worse-than-average looks).

The YWCA also announced that it will help distribute filmmaker Darryl Roberts’s documentary “America the Beautiful.”

America the Beautiful poster “The film provides an in-depth look and critical analysis of the harm inflicted by beauty obsession on young women and girls,” the organization said in a press release.

In conjunction with the release of “Beauty at Any Cost,” the group published a study guide for discussion groups focused on Americans’ attitude to beauty and urged its members to campaign to change that attitude.

“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 Dr. Lorraine Cole, chief executive of YWCA USA. “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.”

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