Goldman Sachs, Cosmetic Surgery, Tweens and “American Exceptionalism”

Mike Magee

As leaders from Goldman Sachs were facing off Congressional questioners on issues of ethics, conflict of interest and the need to reset the American culture, data from a quite different source suggested that the financial crisis was already impacting the most personal of personal choices. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported a 9% drop in cosmetic surgery procedures in 2009 from roughly 1.7 million to 1.5 million. Before anyone draws deep sociologic conclusions from this, full disclosure requires the reporting of an uptick in Botox like treatments to nearly 5 million nationwide at a cost of $400 a treatment or a cool 2 billion for frozen faces. (1)

All the financial pressure may be inducing selective weight loss if the figures are to be believed. Liposuction is down nearly 20%. Typical surgeon’s fees for that, about $5,000. Double that when you add in all the support service and facility charges. Noses fared better, but still nose jobs were down 9%. Butt lifts fell, and more breasts were left unaugmented, but more upper arm jiggles were trimmed. (1)

But if you want to view real cosmetic trends, as anyone who watches “American Idol” can tell you, follow the Tweenies. The NPD Group, a consumer research company, says little girls are increasingly using big girl cosmetics. Mascara use has gone from 10% to 18% in the past two years; eyeliner from 9% to 15%, and lipstick from 10% to 15%. And in many cases it’s the moms who are the girls’ beauty consultants, and the cosmetics companies (like the tobacco companies) who testify with a Goldman Sachs straight face that they don’t market their products to children. (2)

Americans believe they are exceptional, special among nations. The roots of the belief are attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville who admired the then 50 year old democracy with these words:

“The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. Their strictly Puritanical origin, their exclusively commercial habits, even the country they inhabit, which seems to divert their minds from the pursuit of science, literature, and the arts, the proximity of Europe, which allows them to neglect these pursuits without relapsing into barbarism, a thousand special causes, of which I have only been able to point out the most important, have singularly concurred to fix the mind of the American upon purely practical objects. His passions, his wants, his education, and everything about him seem to unite in drawing the native of the United States earthward; his religion alone bids him turn, from time to time, a transient and distracted glance to heaven.” (3)

America – as the Goldman Sachs hearings, Plastic Surgery reports, and increasing numbers of grown up “little girls” suggests – may be “exceptional” but it’s far from perfect. We value our “American spirit” and our “American identity”, but at this point we’re having as much trouble balancing our lives as we are balancing our check books.

For Health Commentary, I’m Mike Magee.

References:

1. Ameican Society of Plastic Surgeons News Room. http://www.plasticsurgery.org/Media.html

2. NPD Tween Cosmetic Report. http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100429.html

3. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vintage Books, 1945