The role of beauty as currency belief in acceptance of cosmetic surgery and career aspirations among Chinese young women

Abstract

ABSTRACT The current study tested the “beauty as currency” hypothesis in the framework of Objectification theory with a sample of Chinese young women. Four hundred and four college women completed a pencil-and-paper questionnaire. We hypothesized that beauty as currency would be associated with acceptance of cosmetic surgery and career aspirations through the serial meditation of self-objectification and body surveillance. The results indicated that self-objectification and body surveillance mediated the relation between women’s belief in beauty as currency and acceptance of cosmetic surgery. Body surveillance mediated the relationship between beauty as currency and career aspirations. These findings provide further evidence for the “beauty as currency” hypothesis, suggesting the feminine beauty ideology may lead to women’s higher acceptance of cosmetic surgery and lower career aspirations via the self-objectifying process. Our study provides some implications for understanding the effect of women’s ideologies on gender system change.