Teenage girls’ online message board talk about cosmetic surgery : constructions and social actions

Previous research on cosmetic surgery and teenage girls is limited and fails to provide information regarding how teenage girls construct these procedures. A social constructionist approach informed by a discursive psychology methodology was used to study how teenage girls and message board respondents construct cosmetic surgery through the language they use and the social actions performed through their talk. I analyzed questions posted by teenage girls between the ages of 13 to 19 on online message boards, as well as responses to these questions posted by other message board users. Social actions identified in the teenage girls’ talk included: advice and information seeking, approval seeking, and justification of cosmetic surgery. Social actions identified in the respondents’ talk included: provision of advice and information, warning, approval, disapproval, criticism and judgement, reassurance, empathy, encouragement, and support. In general, teenage girls constructed cosmetic surgery as a way for them to feel better about themselves, as a way for them to feel better about the body part they were seeking surgery for, and as a way for them to fit in and be accepted by others. The results of this study are discussed in relation to the existing research on teenage girls and cosmetic surgery, Davis’s (1995) feminist perspective on cosmetic surgery, Fredrickson and Roberts’s (1997) objectification theory, and embodiment. Implications for teenage girls, parents of teenage girls, physicians, and psychologists are also discussed, and recommendations for future research are suggested