The obsession with beauty is universal and transcends all regions and cultures (Kalantar-Hormozi et al. 359). The attention to the attainment of physical attractiveness has increased tremendously over the past few decades. As such, more and more people are opting to alter their physical features through cosmetic surgery. However, there are varying attitudes and opinions over whether one should undergo such a drastic procedure. Factors such as self-esteem, peer-pressure, socio-economic status and the influence of the media towards perceived body-image play a major role in one’s decision to undergo cosmetic surgery. One of the biggest determinants towards the consideration of cosmetic surgery is self-esteem. Self-esteem can be defined as a mental assessment of one’s worth and value. But not all people who suffer from low self-esteem will undergo the knife. According to a research paper based on a theory by Sarwer et al., “those whose self-esteem highly depends on their appearance and those who have significant body dissatisfaction levels will consider cosmetic surgery” (Kalantar-Horomozi et al. 360). This is perceived by many people as finding a temporary fix for one’s insecurities. However, some people would argue that the decision to undergo cosmetic surgery is a statement of empowerment. An example of this is a paragraph in Kathy Davis’s book “Reshaping the Female Body: The Dilemma of Cosmetic Surgery”, where she describes a conversation with her friend for her
Many people get plastic surgeries so they can be more self-confident. When someone talks about plastic surgery most others believe that means the person receiving the surgery is vain and self-centered, but that is not always the case. Some people don’t feel happy in the way they look and how their body appears, without taking any action
Elective cosmetic surgery either increases or decreases self-esteem. Often at times, people are too quick to surgery. Cosmetic surgery ads over judge the ability to perfect someone’s expectation. Consequently, cosmetic surgery is a luxury more than a medical procedure. Before turning to surgery, people need to have realistic expectations. After surgery, patients expect immediate results (Roberts). For young adults, they can adapt to more natural alternatives. Natural alternatives could include a healthier lifestyle. Although cosmetic surgery can improve self-esteem, it can also degrade self-esteem. A study followed adolescent girls through a thirteen-year segment. The results showed that women who succumbed to surgery provided more symptoms of depression. However, high expectations make self-esteem stay unimproved (Brooks).
Cosmetic surgery is a high in-demand, popular medical procedure that can improve your physical appearance. It can be features on the face or body. This is the general idea behind what we as individuals believe it will do. We believe that surgery will improve how look better, help build higher self-esteem, feel better about ourselves, and grab people’s attention. However, what is the motivation behind why people want to improve their appearance? The influence that society and media have on the population today could not be any higher. Society feels that they can say it can criticize a person’s appearance and weight and think that repercussions will not occur. If making someone feel terrible about themselves is not worse enough, it influences people to consider getting some form of cosmetic surgery, in order to satisfy societies demands. Reality television has done the same and is another factor to why people consider cosmetic surgery. This encourages a person to want to look like someone they idolize on television. There are shows that exist about cosmetic surgery that further inspire a person to alter the way they look. Society, social media, and reality television are leading women of all ages to pursue cosmetic surgery to preserve, change, alternate, or reform the body and face in order to satisfy the harsh views and standards set that determine the “perfect body and face.”
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
The authors' research shows that, without any doubt at all, body dissatisfaction is a motivating factor for women when it comes to cosmetic surgery as the authors put it, "surgical enhancement" (Slevec, 65). Both younger women and middle aged women are having cosmetic surgical procedures done in order to improve their appearance. This is the first component of the presentation "appearance evaluation" and there is no doubt that appearance evaluation plays a powerful role in women's decisions vis-à-vis cosmetic surgery.
Did you know that in a 2013 study, 1,668,420 Americans underwent cosmetic surgery in order to alter their body to fit the body image they view as the norm in society. More and more Americans are complying to undergo cosmetic procedures without understand the possible fatal risks. As medical advancements and improved procedures are being introduced, the risks seem to increase. Since society has placed significant pressure on the physical attributes of adolescents and adults, cosmetic treatments are being performed and considered at an all-time high while compelling potential harmful and fatal consequences. Due to the psychical and psychological hazards of cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery for cosmetic enhancements should be terminated.
Plastic surgery has many different views on the influences of an individual. The first view is the factors of how many individuals decided on having plastic surgery because the influences of the media or opinions of other people, which portrays the idea of self-image. But researchers believe that surgery doesn’t help to achieve this goal. Self-esteem is a major factor of why many women and men receive surgery. However the second view favors that before a person makes the major decides of having surgery they should have the mental stability to handle the outcome and reasons for having the surgery done. Conversely, the researchers in the third view flavors that cosmetic surgery does provide the self-confidence an individual is trying to
You will never be the ideal image of beauty. What defines beauty is forever changing. The 20th century’s boom in electronics and entertainment helped form an egotistical era. Social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, instagram, and youtube produced new fads and trends that manipulate society into following. These platforms have targeted people’s insecurities to make them believe that they need to be fixed so they can feel accepted by society. Self improvement is never a bad thing but, nowadays self improvement means cosmetic surgery. However, is cosmetic surgery becoming too normalized?
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.
Beauty can be a powerful entity for humans to manipulate and mutilate their outward appearances through cultures for social status and re-identification. Thus, the purpose for aesthetic alteration and modification have become much more common in our current fluctuated society that we live in and Korea is no exception to this. It is undoubtable that the popularity of cosmetic surgery have drastically increased, particularly in South Korea where culture trends rapidly shift, a nation ranked first for their advanced methods of cosmetic surgery all over the world. This ‘Republic of Cosmetic Surgery’ has been titled as the nation providing over 130 types of cosmetic surgery, including from simple treatments such as Botox, fillers and double-eyelid to high-risk procedures of orthognathic surgery and breast augmentations yet, the types of cosmetic surgery sought by women are ‘racially specific’.
Arguments Pros Cons We live in a world that is image obsessed, and this kind of procedure panders to that. We should promote the idea that appearance is not as important as character. People should be content with themselves and not be so hung up on their looks. That’s nice. But given that the reality is that we’re judged on our appearance all the time, it’s perfectly rational to want to look good. Nobody’s forcing anyone to have cosmetic surgery – the market is driven by demand. There are dangers involved in any kind of surgery. Sometimes we must accept those dangers, as they come in the course of necessary medical procedures. But with elective surgery – procedures people don’t need, but rather merely want – the risks can’t be justified. These risks apply both to the surgery itself, and to the long term. For example, leaking silicone breast implants have been a widespread problem and can lead to death. Once, paraffin was often injected into the face to smooth wrinkles, with disastrous effects. Silicon often finds its way into other parts of the body, such as the lymph glands, and can prevent the early detection of breast cancer as doctors often think real lumps are silicon leakage. Who today knows the full future implications of injecting the highly dangerous poison Botox into one’s face? We should not restrict freedom of choice. Certainly there’s an element of danger involved. But we let people box. We let people bungee jump. They undertake these dangers for fun or for money. Why shouldn’t we let people undertake dangers in the pursuit of beauty, and higher self esteem? Furthermore, cosmetic surgery is becoming safer and safer. It is increasingly strictly policed and sky-high legal pay-outs by bad surgeons have ensured that practitioners take more and more care. Technology in surgery and in implants and so forth is forever improving. The scare stories the proposition talk about are the worst examples of thirty years ago – they’re nothing to do with cosmetic surgery today. To attempt to dress cosmetic surgery in the flag of feminism is absurd. If anything, cosmetic surgery is the latest phenomenon in the long history of the objectification of women in society. Women are driven to meet male
“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.
The three increasing degrees of commitment which are compliance, identification and internalisation are related to the level of involvement with the attitude object (Solomon et al, 2006, p.282). The very complex cognitive process of cosmetic surgery is internalised and become part of the individual’s value system. This strong attitude is hard to change as it intertwined with self-concept and self-esteem. For example, some women regard the plastic surgery as displaying women’s appearance value. They see the surgeons and undergo the surgeries routinely to maintain their emphasis on the value of beauty. As this internalisation level of cosmetic surgery, women not only increase physical attractiveness but enhance self-value (Gan, 2007). According to balance theory, people tend to seek relations among elements that are perceived belonging together (Solomon et al, 2006, p.286). People alter these perceptions to make harmony among the elements’ relations. In the case, it is a positive relation between the cosmetic surgery and the danger of surgery procedure. Women who want to undergo the surgery hesitate about the risk. They will experience pressure to restore balance by changing the perceptions. Some accepting the hesitation of risk prompt a change in their attitude towards cosmetic surgery; others might give up the cosmetic surgery. As the theory, people are likely to observe changes in attitude when inconsistencies occur.
Nowadays, the physical beauty has been considered like a scale to evaluate and measure people, especially women. Everyone wants to have a perfect body as well as a beautiful face to attract the others. Some people try to get their beauty through makeup, exercise or diet, but some try to fix their appearance by the intervention of cosmetic surgeons. Thus, cosmetic surgery somehow has become the most popular procedure for people to improve their beauty. There is no doubt that cosmetic surgery has brought for people the ideal beauty in some cases. However, the risks of cosmetic surgery still exist. People’s desires to improve their physical beauty do not always come true. In the other words, there are many negative results from cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery has several negative impacts on people and their lives. It makes people addicted, leads people to risk their lives for the illegal surgery, and causes some serious health complications.
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