“You Won’t Be Able to Tell It’s Been Done”: A Linguistic Analysis of Stigma in Cosmetic Surgery

Abstract

Cosmetic surgery, once seen as a luxury for the wealthy, has now become more accessible to various socioeconomic groups. Hence, it has shifted from a vanity symbol to a common topic of discussion, influenced largely by media coverage. This coverage spans magazines, newspapers, television, and the internet, discussing everything from surgery risks to sensational mishaps. Indeed, due to such coverage, a significant amount of judgement and even stigma has been associated with undergoing cosmetic surgery. Considering the relevance of this topic, this study investigates a spoken corpus of cosmetic surgery first consultations with the aim to unveil narratives regarding potential stigmatised discourses which may emerge. Through adopting a mixed-methods approach which encompasses corpus linguistic methodologies, ethnography and corpus-based discourse analysis, extracts from the corpus are analysed for linguistic patterns related to stigma in cosmetic surgery. The findings indicate that both the surgeons’ and patients’ desire to “hide” the surgery and results may indeed further stigmatise cosmetic surgery and even lead to seeking out cosmetic surgery under false pretences.