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Citation: Mother Jones March 1999, v.24, 2, 31(1)
Author: Fraser, Laura
Title: "The Hard Body Sell".(cosmetic surgery) by Laura Fraser
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COPYRIGHT 1999 Foundation for National Progress
"In a Web site photograph for the Beverly Hills, California, Barron Centers
Body Recontouring and Male Enhancement Clinic, a smooth-skinned, muscular man
embraces a lovely woman reclining in the grass. The site is advertising
liposuction and penile enlargement surgery. "The positive results are the same
for virtually every person: greater self-esteem, a new level of
self-confidence, the ability to feel your best," promises the copy. "This
improved self-image is evident not only in your sexual life, but in most other
arenas." Below that, a large banner announces: "New Lower Fees."
Talk about a hard sell.
Welcome to the macho world of cosmetic surgery. Once the hush-hush domain of
aging society women, the fast-growing market for cosmetic procedures
increasingly includes male baby boomers. Over the past five years, the number
of men having liposuction has tripled, according to the American Society of
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, and the number having face-lifts has
doubled. In 1997, men spent almost $130 million on liposuction, face-lifts,
nose reshaping, and eyelid surgery, up from $88 million in 1992. (Women, by
comparison, spent $882 million in '97, up from $479 million in '92.)
"It's definitely a growing trend," says San Francisco-based plastic surgeon
Corey Maas. "After all these years of guys walking around with big
beer-bellies and wrinkly faces while women are looking better and better,
finally, men are catching on."
Men are responding to a consumer culture that is less and less forgiving
toward those who are not young, trim, and attractive. Bombarded with
advertising images of perfect men, they're having manicures, dyeing their
hair, concealing blemishes, and getting facials. Cosmetic companies have
concocted macho-sounding campaigns for their men's product lines, and sales of
men's grooming supplies are increasing 11 percent per year, totaling more than
$3 billion in 1996.
Cosmetic surgery, with ads promising quick and easy high-tech results, is
being marketed to men the way sports cars and stereo equipment are sold-as
accessories to make them more attractive, powerful, and masculine. "It's
extremely important for the working man to appear energetic and youthful,"
says a Web site ad for the Palm Beach Plastic Surgery Center. "You may feel
young and ready to go, but your sagging lids, loose neck, or thinning hair may
portray a less vibrant impression than you would like." As one male University
of California at Berkeley professor who had facial plastic surgery puts it,
"If it's available, and it makes me look better, and I have the money, why
not? It's not any stupider than going out and buying a Jaguar."
Also, women are no longer settling for chubby, balding executives. They
don't have to. "It used to be that men responded to physical beauty and women
responded to power and status," says David Sarwer, a psychologist at the
University of Pennsylvania's Center for Human Appearance. "Now women have
their own power and status, and they're looking for more attractive men.
"Increasingly, men are coming in for antiaging treatments," continues
Sarwer. "The baby boomers, who have been the generation on the forefront of so
many social changes, are now marching to the cosmetic surgeon's office."
In some ways, this new trend among men finally validates what women have
always known: Looking good is hard work. But it's also ironic. Feminists who
had hoped that gaining equality in the workplace would mean they could stop
worrying so much about appearance are finding that men are worrying more about
their own-and presumably haven't learned any lessons from women's body-image
issues. Of the millions of people diagnosed with eating disorders such as
anorexia nervosa or bulimia each year, almost 10 percent are men, and silicone
calf and pectoral implants-to beef up the less-than-muscular leg or chest-are
also gaining popularity among men. Cosmetic surgeons are quick to point out
that they don't use gel, so the leakage problems women have had with breast
implants do not occur.
Still, men are far from being as anxious or depressed as women about their
looks. "There's definitely more emphasis on men's looks, bodies, and weight
than in any time in the past, but I don't think men will ever feel the intense
pressure to be trim and attractive that women face every day," says Debbie
Then, a California-based social psychologist who studies appearance. But with
cosmetic surgery ads that emphasize self-esteem, it can't be long before men
start taking their physical imperfections to heart.
Indeed, men are growing more insecure. A 1997 nationwide Psychology Today
survey showed men's escalating dissatisfaction with their abdomens (63
percent), weight (52 percent), muscle tone (45 percent), overall appearance
(43 percent), and chest (38 percent). In each area, respondents'
dissatisfaction had risen at least 10 percentage points from survey results in
1986.
Psychologists also have identified in men a disorder known as body
dysmorphia, which involves extreme, exaggerated dissatisfaction with body
parts and appearance-for men that most often means body build, hair loss, and
genital size. Men with the disorder will resort to extensive stints at the gym
(five to six hours a day), steroids, or implants.
Whether or not the problem is between men's ears, cosmetic surgeons are
doing their best to help men improve what's on top of their heads-and between
their legs. In 1996, men spent about $12 million on penile enlargements.
Privately, many plastic surgeons say the results are rarely impressive-and
often dangerous. Dr. Martin Resnick, chair of the Department of Urology at
Case Western Reserve University and secretary of the American Urological
Association, says that "penile enlargement has not been shown to give patients
the degree of enlargement they desire. And in some cases, the procedure has
led to infection and deformity."
In 1996, the Medical Board of California (MBC) suspended the license of a
cosmetic surgeon who had advertised that patients could gain an average of 2
inches in length and an increase in girth of up to 50 percent through penile
procedures; of the more than 4,500 enlargements he performed-as many as 10 a
day-more than 100 patients complained of excruciating pain.
A more common procedure men seek, however, is liposuction for love handles.
While liposuction is promoted as safe, a recent study by doctors in California
showed that one in 5,000 patients dies as a result of the procedure, usually
after removing large volumes of fat. Robert del Junco, a head and neck surgeon
who leads the MBC's commission to investigate cosmetic surgery, says poorly
trained doctors-in an effort to make more money in the managed care
environment-do the procedures after only a weekend seminar's worth of
training. "There are a lot of marketing schemes out there that work whether or
not a doctor is qualified," says del Junco.
But despite the risks, it's likely that more men will undergo cosmetic
surgery, especially as the technology shortens recovery times and the
procedures become less intrusive. Men are seeking lunchtime fixes: a collagen
injection to smooth out wrinkles, a dermabrasion to reduce blemishes.
The effort to look young and attractive is going beyond gender, as our
culture becomes more androgynous and appearance becomes paramount. Obsession
with appearance is likely to become less a matter of gender than of class;
people will spend whatever they can afford to save their looks.
Inevitably, more men will develop the kinds of body and appearance neuroses
that many women have suffered for years: eating disorders, body dysmorphia,
and general self-loathing for not measuring up to an impossible ideal. It may
disappoint women, who have counted on men to be less obsessive about facial
flaws and extra pounds-real or imagined. But we'll be sympathetic. We know how
it feels.
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