Freeways up and down Utah’s Wasatch Front are lined with billboards blaring slogans like “God’s remodeling His temple. Isn’t it time to remodel yours?” It’s hard to escape the pitches for cosmetic procedures.
Utahns are also the top searchers for breast augmentation on Google.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by far the state’s largest group, have more major cosmetic surgery than the average American — 14% for Latter-day Saints as opposed to 4% nationally, according to a new research brief. That includes things like breast augmentations, tummy tucks and liposuction.
And 20% of church members surveyed had cosmetic enhancements. The top ones were laser hair removal, chemical peels and Botox injections.
The paper was published by the Utah State University’s Utah Women and Leadership Project, and co-authored by Brigham Young University family life professor Sarah Coyne. She said religiosity tends to relate to better body image, yet she kept hearing from BYU students that they were struggling with body image or had an eating disorder.
“This feels odd,” she thought. “It's a highly religious place. Why am I seeing this over and over and over again?”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ciara Hulet: You surveyed more than 1,300 Latter-day Saints. What do you think is behind these statistics?
Sarah Coyne: People who were highly religious, who had a strong attachment to God, tended to be less likely to have cosmetic surgery. On the other hand, “costly grace” is this idea that I have to earn God's love. Grace is not freely given. And this is not something that the Latter-day Saint church teaches. I think it's a real misunderstanding of the concept of grace. [People who bought into the concept of costly grace] were more likely to get cosmetic surgery.
And then specifically those who had a lot of money and were also high on religious salience, so religion was very important to them, they were also more likely to get cosmetic surgery. And we wondered if this was like a misunderstanding of perfection, or this idea that I have to be perfect in everything that I do, and that includes the way that I look.
CH: Do you think church culture impacts those numbers?
SC: Yeah, I do. And it varies from ward to ward, congregation to congregation. And what we found is that there are some areas that are really protective. So high levels of acceptance, high levels around diversity — in terms of race, body shape and size, and then also dress and appearance. And those tend to be wonderful [places] to thrive around body image.
However, other wards tended to be a little bit more difficult. So, a culture around cosmetic surgery feels like everyone's getting it and everyone's talking about it, and that's the thing to do. Cultures around judgment or having to look your best. Like that pressure, like “I've got to look perfect on a Sunday.” And then that was related to poor body image. And so again, this is not doctrine per se from the Latter-day Saint church. It's just kind of the local flavor of an individual ward.
CH: How does a lack of diversity play into body image?
SC: If you're in an area where everyone is really similar, they kind of look the same, they dress the same — we tend to have a lot higher social comparisons. And then we're more likely to feel worse about ourselves.
CH: Do you think modesty teachings affect the way people feel about their bodies in the church?
SC: We found such a mixed response. Some people said it was so positive for them, and it made them feel better about their bodies, and it objectified them less. Whereas some people felt really negative about it, saying, it made them feel frumpy or like they weren't attractive. And then also just that they felt objectified and that there was more of a focus on the way that they looked.
CH: Are there different perceptions members have on the church’s modesty tenets?
SC: We asked about the way that modesty was taught when they were growing up, and we found is when it was more principle-based … you know, showing respect for others or for yourself, and then showing humility, right? Because you can have a modest home and a modest car and the way you speak, right? So modesty isn't just about what women wear. When they were taught [in a principle-based] way, it was actually related to better body image.
But when [modesty] was taught in a really practice-based way, so really focused in on hemlines or, you know, things like that, [that was related to poor body image.] And then especially, when they felt objectified. So you know, when they said, ‘Hey, you know, you need to be modest to protect men's thoughts.’
CH: So what are your recommendations coming out of this work?
SC: I really like where the church is going around modesty and dress. So they've updated the For the Strength of Youth guidelines to be more principle-based and to be more of a conversation between you and God, and I think, to kind of move away from some of the rhetoric that we've heard for years. I just hope that goes into the church culture now, right? It's going to be a difficult shift.
