The discussion of cosmetic surgery by Dutch female beauty & lifestyle YouTube influencers. A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Cosmetic surgery has become increasingly popular as a means to change appearances. Additionally, the ‘thin ideal body’ is highly valued in today’s society. In this context, cosmetic surgery has increasingly been advertised as a solution for changing appearances according to society’s “beauty ideal”. Consumers increasingly use social media as a primary source for information regarding cosmetic procedures and providers. Thus, influencers’ discussion of cosmetic surgery contributes to how easily consumers can access relevant information about cosmetic surgery. Existing literature extensively discusses the concepts of cosmetic surgery, social media, and influencer marketing. However, a study that focuses on the representation of cosmetic surgery by influencers on YouTube seemed missing. This study aimed to fill this gap by answering the following research question: how did Dutch female beauty and lifestyle influencers discuss cosmetic surgery on YouTube between 2016 and 2020? To answer the research question, this study executed a Multimodal Critical Discourse analysis (MCDA) on 11 YouTube videos from three Dutch female beauty and lifestyle influencers. MCDA revealed that influencers’ discussion of cosmetic surgery on YouTube focused on three themes, namely: the normalization of cosmetic surgery, the medical aspects of cosmetic surgery, and before versus after cosmetic procedures. The results showed that influencers unconsciously normalized cosmetic surgery on YouTube, for instance, by emphasizing how many people do cosmetic surgery nowadays and compare it with going to the grocery store. Influencers used the human-interest frame (Entman,1991), in which they shared their personal experiences with cosmetic surgery, including discussing complications, side-effects, and benefits. Furthermore, influencers shared their opinion about cosmetic surgery, which echoes the core precepts of the neoliberal ideology in that everybody should do what they want with their body, regardless of what others think. The analysis revealed that influencers emphasized their long desire for cosmetic surgery due to insecurities, aesthetic conformity, and body dissatisfaction. However, after the cosmetic procedures, the influencers expressed their confidence in their appearance. The seeming disappearance of complications and side-effects and the suppression of long-term medical risks of cosmetic surgery followed by emphasizing the benefits and results promote cosmetic surgery as inviting to influencers’ viewers. This study concluded that the representation of cosmetic surgery by influencers appears to make cosmetic procedures more transparent, which gives viewers the sense that they understand what the procedures entail. However, considering that influencers are no experts and often use filters, highlight certain parts, and remove some aspects from their videos, what seems to be a “true” representation of cosmetic surgery might be the opposite.