Cosmetic Magic and Wizard Attitudes - No Wizard Cosmo

[uncmark]

No: HPFGUIDX 35028

I was rereading posts about cosmetic surgery and wondered how 
different attitudes towards physical beauty were in the wizard world.

There is little reference to media in the wizard world. There is the 
Wizard's Wireless Network as the magic equivalent of radio, but no 
reference to Television or Movies.

As far as printed word, we have the Daily Prophet which sells for 
only 5 knuts (5 cents Muggle money? At that price, why wouldn't Harry 
subscribe?)

There is Witch's Weekly which might be a tabloid, naming Gilderoy 
Lockhart Most Charming Smile Five-Times and writing gossip articles 
of Rita Skeeter about Hermione.

In Prisoner of Askaban,  Harry sees wizards over the latest article 
in Transfiguration Today (a daily paper?) We can assume there are 
other wizard magazines, but no mention of them appear at Hogwerts 
There is a list of items banned in the Hogwarts corridors. The few 
examples listed by Dumbledore are jokes and gags, but the full list 
posted in Filch's office has 437 items.

My point is there is no mention of a Wizard eqivalent of Cosmopoliton 
or Vogue and no mention of beauty magic. Hermione uses Sleekeasy's 
Hair Potion to style her hair for the Yule Ball in GofF but says it 
was too much work for everyday. She straightens her teeth 
by  'tricking' Madame pomfrey into overshrinking them after a curse.

Hogwart's girls. Slytherin specifically, are described as plain and 
the witches of Diagon Alley are are described closer to the crones of 
scary stories than Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched.

My sister (who got me hooked on HP) argued with her daughter that if 
she could do magic she'd spell her hair first thing, lose extra 
weight with a gesture, and have an automatic house.

Molly Weasley, a powerful witch and mother, does use magic for her 
housework. In GofF she cooks for 11 people before the World Cup, yet 
she doesn't use magic to resemble a model.

I think the witching community simply does not stress looks as much 
as the muggle world. I've heard the Wizard described as in the past 
century in much of its culture. I'm sure some of the upper crust 
spells away blemishes, but by and large its not first prority in most 
wizards' lives. 

In a world where Madam pomfrey can heal cuts instantly and set bones 
in minutes, there would be magic to set hair in the same time. I'm 
sure clothing could be self-fitting and cleaning if a magician 
bothered developing the spell. 

The majority of wizards probably do not develop new spells but merely 
do the magic out there. Most humans just use new appliances but don't 
build them.

Uncmark