Social Bodies Book Review

The article Cosmetic Surgery and the Cultural Construction of Beauty by Lorrie Blair and Maya Shalmon uncover the never ending popularity of cosmetic surgery. They base their sayings on many articles and researches presented in the March

Chang, K. (2014). The Business of Cosmetic Surgery. New York City, New York: The New York Times. Retrieved April 09, 2016, from

Many consumers felt they looked very ugly, awful, unaesthetic or even dirty about particular body defects. In this case, it is not about changing a body part for the sake of looking more beautiful, it is an attempt to lessen a problem which has become an unbearable suffering for several people. The feeling of having small breasts or many wrinkles is no less devastating to a person’s sense of self than the feeling of being born with a deformity or coming to terms with a disturbing accident. Cosmetic surgery was a remedy to this suffering and patients felt this was an empowered act that presented themselves as courageous protagonists.

Cosmetic surgery, a type of elective surgery undertaken to alter a person’s appearance for reasons beyond injury, illness, or disease, has become increasingly pervasive in society in the past few decades despite sparking controversial debates. (Coleman, 171) While reconstructive surgery is condoned, cosmetic surgery occupies a gray area where physicians “dedicated to saving lives, healing, and promoting health” perform “invasive surgical operations on healthy bodies for the sake of improving appearance.” (Miller, 353) Nevertheless, demand for it is higher than ever with people looking to surgery as an easy method for changing their appearances. This essay will argue that cosmetic surgery is indeed ethical for physicians to perform by examining it through the perspective of the four basic principles of medical ethics: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.

Everyday people suffer from from small things in their appearance that they find to be imperfections, such as something like a mole or a cleft lip that can leave them feeling uncomfortable and with a bad perception of their image. Many people turn to cosmetic surgery in order to change the way they look and feel more confident with their new characteristics. Cosmetic surgery is something that can change the way people feel by empowering their image and boosting self-esteem because it allows them to correct what they deem to be physical deformities and abnormalities, therefore it should not be considered elective surgery by health insurance companies as it helps their mental health.

This new trend of cosmetic surgery is also a factor in presenting an unrealistic body image to the public. Predominantly used by celebrities and those of wealth, now cosmetic surgery is progressively being used by the average middle class person. Men are just as affected by the

Marketing campaigns have been structured to encourage cosmetic surgeries in ways that attempt to generate demands. For example since 1983 in the USA, the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS) has attempted to expand its services of cosmetic surgery through a marketing campaign of press release that showed pre and post operative pictures as well as educational brochures (Gillespie 1997, p.76). In addition to that since costumers don't decide to undergo surgical procedure over night, providers need to keep a high profile by increasing advertisements and awareness through women magazines, local news papers and other types of communication (Gillespie 1997, p.76). Cosmetic surgery, which aims to improve individual’s body physique, encourages women to see imperfections as illness (Gillespie 1997, p.74). This form of ideals, that embraces only certain types of female bodies as normal and feminine in accordance to size, weight, shape and often color of the body, ignores natural diversity of women. The normalization of cosmetic surgery not only supports the capitalist system and enforces gender norms into society but also transforms normal body parts and the changes the natural process of aging into abnormal. For example nowadays it is very common to hear someone saying that an individual is ugly or fat and therefore needs to undergo plastic surgery; or questions why someone who is so wealthy would not pay for cosmetic surgery to fix certain parts of their body, which are considerate to be unattractive or abnormal according to the cultural norms. Consequently, the more people select to have cosmetic surgery procedures to create a beautiful face and body, the more ordinary looking individuals will become to be perceived and evaluated as ugly (Morgan 1991,

Thesis: The cosmetic, issues, and beauty. We need to understand every possible outcome while considering plastic surgery

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.

Throughout this century, the term natural beauty has taken a wide variety of definitions. Aesthetic treatments are rapidly becoming socially sought after in large urbanized communities, and this craze is rapidly progressing towards a flawless sales tactic for all cosmetic surgeons and media alike—proclaiming that one should invest in themselves. What was once seen as treatment for individuals in dire need is now evolving into a marketable service rendered to those with the means to obtain it. It is clear that demand for aesthetic surgery has skyrocketed in recent years, an increase caused by modern marketing tactics, technological development, as well as the modern idea of individualism and self-expression through artificial body

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

Plastic surgery has become an obsession in the United States in the past 10 years. More than 13.1 million procedures were performed in 2010 in the United States, up 2% from 2009 (American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2010). Today’s society places a great deal of emphasis on physical appearance and people are striving to change their appearance, no matter what the cost. More and more people are seeking out plastic surgery as a means of improving their appearance. While most people are satisfied with their results, all surgery carries risks and there are several causes for plastic surgery to have bad outcomes. Patients are going into

In our society today, beauty is pictured as a thin supermodel posing on the billboards all around the world. A women’s beauty is measured by the size of her waist, sharpness of her nose, thinness of her body and legs and the thickness of her lips. Additionally, even children are brought up playing with Barbie dolls with tiny waists of 19 inches. While coming across such advertisements, majority of the people especially women, believe in these unreasonable standards of beauty established by the society. In order to attain this level of perfection, cosmetic surgeries have become an extremely powerful tool for women, to fit in the society’s ideal beauty culture.

A cultural trend that has become prevalent among our society today is cosmetic and plastic surgery. Cosmetic surgery is surgery that corrects or modifies the appearance of a feature, or defect on the human body. Although plastic surgery can sometimes be used for treatment of injury or other health related issues. Surgery to improve appearance is widespread among our culture. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgery, there were 15.6 million cosmetic and plastic surgeries procedures done in 2014, bringing in as much as 12 billion dollars in revenue. Now even teens are receiving plastic surgery. In 2014 there were nearly a quarter million surgeries of teens as young as 13 years old. (ASPS) . However there are many health risks and side effects that are associated with these procedures. In addition, in some cases it can become addictive and there are also diseases that correlate with plastic surgery. An example would be Body Dysmorphic Disorder. Taken into account all of this, should cosmetic surgery be banned? This paper argues that cosmetic surgery has such a major impact on our culture and should be banned.

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