“The Lebanese nose has the right to exist”

Marc Röhlig

Around 1.5 million plastic surgeries and 10 million liftings are carried out in Lebanon every year – by only 4 million inhabitants. Sculpting your body has become a national sport.

In 2009, 27-year-old Gwen Bou Jaoude founded ANAdiva to fight this mass production of model faces in Lebanon.

Gwen, ANAdiva is fighting back against plastic surgery in Lebanon. But `Ana Diva´ is Arabic for `I am a diva´. Doesn’t a diva have the right to be beautiful?

Gwen Bou Jaoude: Sure, she has the right to be beautiful, but plastic surgery cannot be the correct way to do this right. You can feel fine –like a diva – without lying on the operating table every week. What we are experiencing in Lebanon today makes having surgery like having a coffee. ANAdiva is not fighting plastic surgery; it is fighting the abuse of it.

How does that fight look?

Gwen: We do a lot of information work and publicity. My biggest message is that everyone is different; everyone is beautiful. Why should we all look like Photoshopped models? Why don’t we focus on our own beauty? To get people to that point, I organize discussions and public exhibitions.

In a sculpted society like Lebanon, fighting beauty surgery is not the first thing that comes to one’s mind. How did it come to yours?

Gwen: Well, I had the idea in London, from an outsider’s perspective. I did my Masters degree in design studies and did research on fashion and beauty, just out of interest. I did a survey with Lebanese women and the answers really woke me up. `I wish there would be a plastic surgery drive-through´ wrote one woman. Another talked about dragging her 21-year-old daughter to the clinic – just to fill her up with botox before she gets her first wrinkles. Others were similar. I experienced the need and suffering – and then said to myself, there should be an answer.

That answer is ANAdiva. What have you achieved so far?

Gwen: First, in July 2009, I started a webpage with the help of some friends. Then we got in contact with professionals, psychologists and surgeons. I don’t want ANAdiva just to be a shiny internet address; I want it to be accurate in its research and information output. Since I had neither budget nor a big team, ANAdiva developed with the help of volunteers. All the people helping me are doing it because they believe in my idea. Finally, we put some provocative art on the streets of Beirut…

…which is the Lebanese capital of remodeled faces and bodies…

Gwen: …and which is also the capital of fancy bars and daylong clubbing. Street exhibitions in Beirut’s ‘in’-area of Gemmayzeh really worked as a door-opener. We had black figures standing on the sidewalk, a symbol of mass production, and we had a glass booth, where you could get yourself photographed without retouching.

And the people enjoying a night out had no problem with your provocation?

Gwen: Well, sure, some were aggressive and shouted at me: `Why do you believe you have a right to judge us?´ But I don’t want to judge anybody. I want to make people think. Luckily, most people liked the ANAdiva exhibition and encouraged me. And if only a few of them wake up the next morning and ask themselves, ´Do I really need that nose job, that c-cup or that latest botox injection?` then I did a great job.

But why do so many Beirutis – or Lebanese in general – require plastic surgery? Is there a lack of self-confidence in the society?

Gwen: I wouldn’t go so far as to compare the need for surgery with the needs of the Lebanese society. But definitely there is competition. If my neighbor had surgery, I would need surgery, just like buying new shoes. We have some girls, and boys, who would sell their cars in order to afford surgery. Better be good looking in a taxi then driving one’s own car with an ugly face! I think it is a trend influenced by Hollywood. Instead of presenting our Lebanese Arab identity we all just start looking like stereotypes of beauty.

What are you doing now?

Gwen: I am now aiming to get NGO-status and to apply for funds. Then I can employ more people and build a real structure for ANAdiva. We are trying to link up with politicians and universities, but I want more. I am hoping to cooperate with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Tourism – so we can start working in schools and on information programs on Lebanese identity. There is so much to change! 

Looking back on the first year, has ANAdiva changed you?

Gwen: Definitely. I feel that I am not just doing a job – I am actually working on something that I am good at and that I really like. And I felt the power of ideas. ANAdiva started out of nothing and now it is successful and well-known in Beirut society.

Last question. If someone offered you surgery for free, would you take it?

Gwen: Ha, I don’t think so! There is no need. If I did – and that’s a big `if´ – then it would be some small procedure in my fifties. But I am sure I will never have a nose job. The Lebanese nose has the right to exist!

This article was originally published on www.soukmagazine.de