Sedated beauty: The invisible knife in online narratives about cosmetic breast augmentation

TL;DR

This study explores how women share their experiences of breast augmentation online, highlighting the narrative structure and the glamourized portrayal of the procedure.

Contribution

The study reveals how online narratives frame cosmetic surgery as a 'fairy tale' transformation, aligning with the cosmetic surgery industry's popularization.

Findings

Online narratives about breast augmentation follow a conventional storytelling format with 'helper and maker' characters.

Women are portrayed as active during preparation but passive during the surgery and recovery phases.

Despite pain and discomfort, the narratives emphasize a glamorous and spa-like experience.

Abstract

Breast augmentation is a prevalent cosmetic surgery procedure among women in Western societies, and the cosmetic surgery market has witnessed substantial growth. Today, websites and online forums are platforms that feature discussions about cosmetic procedures. A genre on surgery clinic websites is ‘patient stories’, but also lay-initiated internet forums facilitate discussions and shared experiences related to cosmetic surgery. This study aims to analyse lay-initiated online narratives about cosmetic breast augmentation. The shared narratives contain descriptions of how women who are about to undergo breast augmentation prepare for surgery, the medical procedures that take place on the day of surgery itself, and the experiences and feelings after waking up after anaesthesia. Employing a structural analysis of 30 of these stories, this research illuminates how the surgery stories adhere to a conventional storytelling format, and how key characters within the stories are ‘helpers and makers’, including relatives, nurses and surgeons. The focus in these narratives revolves around the woman herself, although her active involvement is primarily observed during the preparation phase, with a more passive role assumed during subsequent clinic routines. Despite instances of pain and discomfort in the narratives, the stories are enveloped in an aura of glamour and a spa-like atmosphere. It is discussed how this ‘fairy tale’ story, narrating a surgical metamorphosis, seems to align with the popularisation of the cosmetic surgery sector.

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