Hiding Behind the Mask

First of all, one of the major drawback of cosmetic surgery is high expense. Some of the

ashamed of their body, their looks, or be insecure about any body part because everyone is

Surgeries in themselves are complicated procedures. Weighing positive and negative outcomes and every in between possibility is a task every surgeon and patient must talk through. Many procedures are based off a necessary for life, or a better healthier-life outcome. Such procedures are covered by health insurance. But what about the other side of surgeries? Some procedures are purely cosmetic, some may say. But, cosmetics can play a

In our modern superficial world, there are people who are solely known for their good looks. It doesn’t matter how beautiful you may be or how beautiful you may think you are, the media will distort your mindset to make you have an idea that you could be better one way or another. With the growing industry that is Cosmetic Surgery people can now copy and paste parts of their body, they don’t take a fondness for. The beauty standard that is demanded by society and the media has caused body-image issues, addiction to surgery, and the traumatic death involved in cosmetic surgery.

the effectiveness of those acts, they’re exposed to crucial risks and consequences. Despite this trend towards increasing rates of cosmetic surgery, this appearance change strategy is not without numerous risks and consequences. Patients risk the development of physical conditions including persistent pain, blood loss, skin loss, scarring, skin discoloration, prolonged swelling, tissue death, infections, loss of sensation, nerve damage, cardiac and pulmonary complications, blood clots, fluid accumulation, deep vein thrombosis, asymmetry of facial features, wound separation, and poor healing. The few benefits I listed above, the drawbacks of plastic surgery are copious and severe. It’s extremely expensive, a single procedure ranges from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In a society so consumed by the ideology of beauty, it makes sense as to why so many women these days undergo cosmetic surgery. The definition of beauty has long been obstructed and changed. In the past, if you look at the woman, you will see they are curvy, during this era being thin meant you were poor where as a beautiful and wealthy woman would be plump because she could afford fine dining. As society has changed, being slender has become the new trend, creating the idea that in order to be truly beautiful one must be thin. The movie stars in Hollywood, although most people realize the beautifying changes that are made to the pictures, this idea of 'beauty ' and 'desire ' still lingers in the mind of whoever comes across it. Our society is bombarded with several different ideologies of beauty but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The beauty standards that have been set should not be what are shaping people around the world and influencing them to go through with plastic surgery. The use of plastic surgery has changed from a medical procedure used to reconstruct the wounded or people with birth defects to reconstructing something people do not like about themselves. Plastic surgery was used during WWI in 1910 and after the war, skin grafting grew. The first training program in the United States was in 1924 thanks to Dr. John Davis. In 1950-1959, plastic surgery was used broadly to repair cleft pallet. It wasn’t until about

We live in a body-obsessed culture. Women feel pressured to have the perfect bodies, and we believe so many lies about what a perfect body is from the media. Women are today influenced by images that we see in the media, and sometimes the influence is so great that we risk our lives trying to portray what we see. Across the board throughout different civilizations, there have been so many distortions of what the perfect body looks like placed in our minds by the media. Many people between ages 19 - 50 become obsessed with looking like the images they see delineated by the media. Women and teenagers what to look like their favorite celebrity, so they do plastic surgeries to portray what they

107) Second, magazines geared toward women often run stories focusing on the ordinary woman’s experiences with surgery of the benefits of surgically improving one’s appearance. Also, advertisements typically promote the benefits of cosmetic surgery using gendered stereotypes, with men represented as concerned with virility and professional competitiveness whereas women are investing in aesthetic improvements. Therefore, the idea of personal transformations and self-improvement is not particularly novel but standard approach that has become entrenched in mass media representations of cosmetic surgery (Adams, 2009, p. 108). However, the potential health risks are downplayed and negative outcomes are attributed to the unpredictability of the aesthetic results or poor surgeon selection. More importantly, these frames tend to diverge from the actual surgical experience, which rather being neat and instantaneous, is often complex and painful. Nevertheless, it is the media-mediated frame that dominates the broader social discussion of cosmetic surgery and often reduces it to a consumable lifestyle option as opposed to a complicated medical procedure fraught with potential risks and uncertainties.

Plastic Surgery has become a worldwide epidemic in today’s world. The number of plastic surgeries continues to increase since 2010. In today’s day and age, plastic surgery is one of the most popular and requested procedures. Females are opting to have plastic surgery because they dislike their body image. Society has impacted many people by brain washing them to believe that a person’s body has to be perfect. In order for one to be considered beautiful, television and media influence people’s perceptions of beauty.

If one is considering cosmetic surgery I suggest reconsidering. Research shows cosmetic surgery can be a risky and costly procedure. Society is pressuring people to look more attractive. Media shows actors to be flawless and the public feels that one should be compared to these actors. Cosmetic surgery is becoming more popular is today’s culture. People are turning to cosmetic surgery for many reasons, some of them are not healthy.

We live in a society where people worship beauty. As far as recorded history people have gone to extremes to seek beauty. From foot binding in China to wearing strangulating corsets in Victorian era. People from different race and culture have experimented in every way possible way to look beautiful prior to this popular age of plastic surgery. It’s very common to hear people complain about their appearance, whether it’s their crocked nose, thin lips or flat chest. Remarkably, plastic surgery has been the solution for people who complain. Most people tend to think of plastic surgery as only cosmetic surgery and not as reconstructive surgeries. Plastic surgeries seems to be an invention of modern technology; however its roots lie in the ancient history of India. An Indian surgeon contributed towards the establishment of plastic surgery, it was intended to correct physical deformities acquired during birth, accident, disease or war. These surgeries did not gain the popularity it has today until the First World War. It was during the late 60’s, when doctors started realizing the endless possibilities of plastic surgeries. With the help of this surgery a trained surgeon can replace an amputate body part, remove skin cancer, get rid of unattractive scars and visible birthmarks or rescaling a nose or enhance body parts. Today more and more people from different age groups opt for plastic surgeries to obtain dramatic physical changes. These surgeries were envisioned to restore

Moreover, plastic surgery is an expensive procedure ranging up to $6,000 or more. It can put tremendous financial pressure on patient and their family. While assessing the cost of the surgery, people tend to forget the cost of the postoperative medication. And sometimes, people have to pay for a secondary surgeries because of dissatisfaction with results. Most insurance policies do not pay for elective procedures such as plastic surgery. Other disadvantage of plastic surgery is that it is time-consuming. Patients must plan time off to recuperate enough to return to work and daily activities. Lastly, dead can be caused by plastic surgery. The bigger the procedure, the higher the risk of complication should be aware of, for instance, infection, hematoma, allergic reactions and many more. Many celebrities have died from plastic surgery like Solange Magnano, Donda West. Though death caused by plastic surgery are rare, the possibility of death cannot be ruled out. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) has reported that within more than 400,000 operations, which performed in accredited facilities, the death rate was 57,000 cases- extremely low. Nevertheless, we can be one of that 57,000 cases.

People have created the modern technical methods to serve the beauty needs of everyone. Aesthetic technologies are going along with the change of beauty needs over the time and adjusting the perception of beauty. Not only nature beauty brings criterion for beauty definition, but also artificial beauty is mutating the standard prescript and the view of beauty. Elective plastic surgery is becoming an acceptable solution for anyone who would like to improve the appearance. The statistics in Medical News Today showed that “approximately 65,000 surgical cosmetic procedures were performed in 2008 in the UK - 50% more than 2003.” Additionally, the official statistics of cosmetic surgery in the U.S. was far more popular. In 2007, there were a total of 1,435,444 of surgical cosmetic procedures. A number of non-surgical cosmetic procedures were 7,113,914, which were higher than the number of surgical cosmetic procedures. In 2014, about 15,622,866 non-surgical cosmetic procedures were performed, which increased doubled in seven years. The figures pointed that more and more people come to elective plastic surgery to achieve the level of perfect beauty. So why have these figures that growth? Despite knowing the hidden risks in surgical elective plastic procedures, people are getting more and more elective plastic surgeries because the obsession with beautiful body image, social criticism because being ugly, and addicted to elective plastic surgery.

“Don’t like the way you look? Ready for a quick and easy change? We can help you with one simple cosmetic surgery.” We have all heard or seen advertisements like this on television or in magazines, but why is cosmetic surgery so appealing to people, especially women? Cosmetic surgery is used all over the world to enhance one’s features and make people “happy,” but is it worth it? Is it beauty or is it a beast having cosmetic surgery done? There are many options and things to consider when thinking about getting any kind of surgery. Body image is a huge aspect especially when there is a demand for beauty by society. The cost of cosmetic surgery and the dangers are also something to take into consideration, but there are many positives in getting this type of surgery.

Messages within the media indirectly contribute to the rising rate of plastic surgery. Desires to meet the idealisms of media representations are often so consuming that people demand plastic surgery despite all of its associated risks and controversies. To compensate for this up and coming surgical trend, technology has developed more reasonable and attainable options for the public. Millions of operations are now able to be performed on those wishing to fulfill specific gratifcations toward their own personal appearance and/or self-esteem. This is a serious problem in that people are unaware or just simply