Cosmetic Surgery
Cosmetic Surgery is far from uncommon today. Women seem to flock to the idea of being able to solve all of life’s “imperfections” over night. The old fashion working out and eating right method are not as appealing as they used to be, and we have society to blame for that. The image of what it means to be beautiful is plastered on every magazine cover, album cover, and on the TV screen. Being yourself and accepting your body in many cases is over. Now, American women live in the era that allows for lifting, plumping, enhancing, tightening, and riding their bodies of anything they obsess over. The Cosmetic surgery trend has now extended itself outside of just the Hollywood neighborhoods. Everyday people are going under the knife as many times as they can to fix whatever they think is wrong. In 2007 alone 11.7 million surgeries were performed. The media can be blamed as a main cause for the reasons that women are on the journey for the perfect body.
The media has given the world a false sense of beauty. Most people who decide to have cosmetic surgery have accepted the fact that there is something “wrong” with their bodies after comparing themselves to the image of beauty constantly portrayed in the media. They decide that it is so unbearable that they need to have it professionally “corrected,” disregarding possible consequences that can include blood clotting, vomiting, nausea, internal/external bleeding or hernias due to suture complications, infections, and lasting the health problems that can come from the anesthesia, and even death. When a woman feels this way, there is a high chance they have acute to severe Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), which causes them to be unhappy with all or some of their physical features to an extreme degree. Patients who have BDD and then still choose to have the surgery are nine times out of ten to feel just as insecure as they did before, because the surgery cannot do anything to correct the emotional damage an individual has.
The media has given the world a false sense of beauty. Most people who decide to have cosmetic surgery have accepted the fact that there is something “wrong” with their bodies after comparing themselves to the image of beauty constantly portrayed in the media. They decide that it is so unbearable that they need to have it professionally “corrected,” disregarding possible consequences that can include blood clotting, vomiting, nausea, internal/external bleeding or hernias due to suture complications, infections, and lasting the health problems that can come from the anesthesia, and even death. When a woman feels this way, there is a high chance they have acute to severe Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), which causes them to be unhappy with all or some of their physical features to an extreme degree. Patients who have BDD and then still choose to have the surgery are nine times out of ten to feel just as insecure as they did before, because the surgery cannot do anything to correct the emotional damage an individual has.
Sociological Effects
The cosmetic surgery phenomenon does not seem to be just a short phase. The trend is on the rise, and there is fear this may be the way our society will function from now on. Our magazines are littered with women who give everyone a false sense of reality. It is almost impossible to be a size two, DD cup size, perfect abs, perfect hair, and perfect everything else, but the media has used this image as “standard,” leaving women feeling that anything else should be considered imperfect, and “correction” should be considered (i.e. cosmetic surgery).
