Television and Domestication of Cosmetic Surgery

(Stein, 2015) The dramatic growth in this industry has lead to a change in attitudes, with society accepting the extremes of surgery as the ordinary, for the sake of accomplishing beauty. It’s popularity continually growing has lead body modifications to become apart of regular day life. A trend has even adapted of women even fitting small procedures, such as botox into their lunch break (Kay 2014). Being no different as to wearing a corset, cosmetic surgery is now recognised as just another beauty regime for women, as labelled here, “Cosmetic surgery has become the new makeup” (Stein 2015).

In “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery,” by Camille Paglia, she argues that American surgeons are being too narrow minded with their work because they use the same models as a representation of what their clients can look like. She suggests that getting plastic surgery has become such a normal thing in America and that society pushes women to get work done in order to get that “perfect” look. Paglia also points out that plastic surgery has “leveled the playing field” with wives and their husbands mistresses (694). Also, she believes that plastic surgery is not only critical in keeping a job, but also in keeping a relationship. Although I agree with some of Paglia’s arguments, I view some of the issues differently such as, needing plastic surgery to keep a marriage, that plastic surgery is for non intellectuals, that Hollywood’s environment encourages women to change their looks, and that nothing good can come out of plastic surgery.

The article The Making of the Modern Face: Cosmetic Surgery by Elizabeth Haiken summaries briefly the American culture that is at the origin of cosmetic surgery. It reports how cosmetic surgery emerged from reconstructive surgery and how such a practice had effect on common culture. It also deals with the racism that emerged from the restrictive immigration laws which favoured Europeans and, the consequences of these laws on others minorities and the appeal of cosmetic surgery it created. Moreover, it looks over the surgeons who perform cosmetic surgeries and their thoughts about cosmetic

In a moment of weakness a woman could decide to change their bodies by getting unnecessary cosmetic surgery. Everybody reads about who got a face life, who got their lips

In the article “Plastic Surgery Junkies: Why Are Perfectly Pretty Women Getting Hooked” by Sally Davis, explained how perfect women are getting changes done to their bodies when it's not needed. She describes how people today are obsessed with their flaws and what people think about them just to fit in. She also said that the main reason people felt the need to change themselves was because of the use of technology and the idea of looking like a model and celebrity.

Extreme Makeover mostly presents the working middle class Caucasian women in ages roughly twenty-five to forty-five who are the major target for cosmetic surgery and reasonably, a substantial piece of the audience. Instead of plainly displaying a progression in which the participant’s appearance is suddenly reformed, the show tells the narrative of a normal individual revolutionizing his or her life. Extreme Makeover brilliantly exploits participants’ transformation stories and thus normalizes the audience into thinking their external looks must parallel with their inner ideals. With this mindset, cosmetic surgery is less about becoming physically attractive and more about becoming the inner self: by expanding the space that were disagreed or considered

In recent years plastic surgery is something that has become a very popular trend, and also where many young people are even lining up for it. Plastic surgery is to reconstruct or repair parts of the body, especially by the transfer of tissue it can be used for treatment of injury or cosmetic reasons. It enhances one’s physical appearance, allowing him or her to achieve a look he or she desires. For example, a women’s buttocks can be enlarged or reduced, or a nose can be straightened or lifted. Many people find themselves changing their bodies and wondering if perfecting their appearance would make life a bit more perfect. Plastic surgery can enhance someone’s level of confidence and boost their self-esteem, but it is something that can have very serious consequences people need to be aware of.

Images produced by the media will make people do almost anything to fit American standards of the perfect body. Plastic surgery offers a quick fix to help achieve this goal but no matter how much surgery nothing is perfect. Images produced by media, quick fixes and the outcome of the fixes are problems that women of all ages deal with.

Andy Warhol’s Before and After I, painted in casein on canvas in 1961 was inspired by a small advertisement he saw in the National Enquirer (The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1981.536.1). As the title suggests, it highlights the shift in physical appearance of a woman pre-and post-operation. Nearly sixty years later there are television shows, posters, and commercials that flood the homes of millions of American families that boast an idealized image of beauty--flawless bronzed skin, slender figures, and symmetrical faces. This combination of mass exposure and hyper-consumerism has led to a rapid increase in cosmetic procedures and treatments aimed at attaining said “perfection”. Because cosmetic surgery encompasses a multitude of procedures,

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

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.

Imagine being insecure or unhappy with a certain aspect of your physical appearance. Now imagine if there were a way to magically fix it, well there is a way and it is not so magical. Cosmetic surgery is the solution for many men and women who want to change something about their physical appearance. Many people try to fix something physical to make up for a bigger issue they have about themselves deeper down. The first thing that is important to know when talking about elective surgery is that there is a difference between plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery. “Plastic surgery is defined as a surgical specialty dedicated to reconstruction of facial and body defects due to birth disorders, trauma, burns, and disease” while cosmetic surgery is “the procedures, techniques, and principles of cosmetic surgery are entirely focused on enhancing a patient’s appearance (Morrison).” It is important to know the difference because in this paper, cosmetic surgery is the focus. Cosmetic surgery includes procedures like liposuction, tummy tucks, face surgery, and breast surgery (Morrison). Cosmetic surgery is not a bad thing, many people choose to partake in these procedures. The issue at hand is not whether or not cosmetic surgery is necessary, but what cosmetic surgery does to teenagers in our society today. For example, imagine a teenage girl maybe around age fifteen, women do not fully develop physically until their twenties, but fifteen year old girls are used to seeing fully developed women in the media. There are television shows that cast women in their twenties as girls in high school. This is extremely misleading to girls, because they think they should look a certain way in order to be conventionally attractive. So imagine this fifteen year old girl begging her parents to look like everyone else, screaming and crying. Perhaps she has been bullied because other people may have had surgery. It is hard for parents to say no to their kids when they want something so bad especially if they are bullied. Say the girl did get the surgery with her parents’ permission and everything is fine, she looks how she wanted to. She got breast implants, a couple years down the road and she gets fully developed. Well now because of

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.

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

“What’s the whole point of being pretty on the outside when you are so ugly on the inside?” This quote is saying about the valuation of a person is inside of her or him, not the beauty outside. According to the current psychological survey, lots of people do not like their appearances. In recently years, plastic surgery has grown in the Medical field in many countries around the world. It has become a booming in the United State, the plastic surgery patients are both men and women, especially women. Perhaps, people who after have the plastic surgery will be prettier than normal appearance. Beside the beauty of this kind surgery brings, people almost forget about its risks related to their life. Clearly, the plastic surgery is increasing in the United State, Japan, South Korean, China, and Thailand. While plastic surgery is giving people a chance to attain the look they so much desire, its drawbacks are numerous hence it is not a worthwhile solution.