The possible effect of media on cosmetic procedures among lebanese women

Abstract

In the current of plastic surgery, and the increasing number of women who undergo cosmetic procedures in the Arab world in general and in Lebanon specifically, it is important to study one of the reasons that make women think of these procedures; media figures. For that reason, it is essential to highlight how media figures are affecting women to undertake cosmetic procedures through analyzing the top two women TV shows "Ana Emraa" on MTV Lebanon and "Helwe El Hayet" on LBCI Lebanon. These shows promote the image of perfect women that will be discussed through analyzing the content of the shows and focus groups. Through content analysis, women applying cosmetic procedures were examined by watching, describing and analyzing the two shows aired on Lebanese local channels. "Ana Emraa" show tackles the physical appearance of women in 75% of episode time and women interests in 25% of the time. In "Helwe El Hayet" 29.34% of the episode time tackles directly the physical appearance of women, 29.12% highlights the social and family life of women while the rest of the episode time goes to various and social topics that target both genders. The results of the focus groups conducted in this study illustrates how much women are influenced by these shows and how much they want to look like media celebrities; 98% of women would like to undergo plastic surgery after watching these shows. This study shows that the media celebrities in these two shows are one of the reasons that affect women and lead them to do cosmetic procedures.