From her article we learn, for instance, that in addition to the demand created by Lebanese nationals, “price competition attracts foreign nationals as well, leading Beirut to be hailed as the ‘cosmetic enhancement capital’ of the Arab world.” In addition,

“In Lebanon, perhaps more than elsewhere in the Middle East, a willowy Euro-American female form–fair and straight hair, blue, green or hazel eyes, fair skin, petite nose–is presented on billboards and in the media [like the glossy Mondanité]. When the Lebanese woman viewing these images, over and over, reflects back on her own physical appearance, she may receive the message that her body is ‘unacceptable: too fat, too wrinkled, too old and too ethnic.’ Internalizing this message can lead women to embark on a rigorous course of self-surveillance, which may include going under the knife. Once these women are lauded for their newfound youth and beauty, their self-surveillance may become a policing of other women as pressure mounts to conform to a socially sanctioned aesthetic norm. [....]

But the intense social pressure on Lebanese women to have cosmetic surgery does not come exclusively–or even mainly–from family and friends. The beauty regime in Lebanon could not exist without the omnipresent images of the media. The transnational advertising campaigns featuring the Euro-American female form purvey an ideal of womanly beauty that, as for most Western women, would require surgical intervention to approximate. Meanwhile, with the face and bodies of pop divas gracing magazine covers and billboards, with television airing their video clips and live performances, Lebanese women are constantly consuming, by choice or not, depictions of Lebanese celebrity body as technologically modified, flawless and forever young.”

This helps fill out the meaning of economic and cultural post-colonialism!

From her article we learn, for instance, that in addition to the demand created by Lebanese nationals, “price competition attracts foreign nationals as well, leading Beirut to be hailed as the ‘cosmetic enhancement capital’ of the Arab world.” In addition,

“In Lebanon, perhaps more than elsewhere in the Middle East, a willowy Euro-American female form–fair and straight hair, blue, green or hazel eyes, fair skin, petite nose–is presented on billboards and in the media [like the glossy Mondanité]. When the Lebanese woman viewing these images, over and over, reflects back on her own physical appearance, she may receive the message that her body is ‘unacceptable: too fat, too wrinkled, too old and too ethnic.’ Internalizing this message can lead women to embark on a rigorous course of self-surveillance, which may include going under the knife. Once these women are lauded for their newfound youth and beauty, their self-surveillance may become a policing of other women as pressure mounts to conform to a socially sanctioned aesthetic norm. [....]

But the intense social pressure on Lebanese women to have cosmetic surgery does not come exclusively–or even mainly–from family and friends. The beauty regime in Lebanon could not exist without the omnipresent images of the media. The transnational advertising campaigns featuring the Euro-American female form purvey an ideal of womanly beauty that, as for most Western women, would require surgical intervention to approximate. Meanwhile, with the face and bodies of pop divas gracing magazine covers and billboards, with television airing their video clips and live performances, Lebanese women are constantly consuming, by choice or not, depictions of Lebanese celebrity body as technologically modified, flawless and forever young.”

This helps fill out the meaning of economic and cultural post-colonialism!