¶ … Social Acceptance of Elective Cosmetic Surgery:
A dangerous addiction to perfection
Reconstructive surgery has its uses, such as restoring the face or body of someone disfigured in a car crash or other accident, or helping someone with genuine physical limitations (such as a harelip) which can have major negative medical and social consequences. However, the majority of reconstructive or plastic surgery is performed for purely cosmetic purposes in the United States. At best, its availability and acceptability puts people at needless physical risk; at worst, it subjects patients to needless dangers and even disfigures them. The pursuit of perfection has dangerous medical, economic, and social consequences.
There is no question that the use of cosmetic surgical procedures (and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures such as Botox) is increasing. According to Haas (et al. 2007), "approximately 11.7 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed and Americans spent $13.2 billion on these procedures, an astounding 457% increase since 1997" (Haas 2007). Although the industry often portrays this as an empowering decision of women to exercise control over their bodies and the aging process (and the majority of patients remain women), the motivation for cosmetic surgery has been linked to low self-esteem and body dysmorphic disorder in personality surveys of patients (Haas 2007). One follow-up study of plastic surgery patients found that patients had higher anxiety scores than those in a control group and higher rates of social phobia (Newell 2007).
Plastic surgery has an old history. "Written evidence cites medical treatment for facial injuries more than 4,000 years ago. Physicians in ancient India were utilizing skin grafts for reconstructive work as early as 800 B.C."("History of plastic surgery," ASPS: The Early Years). But the techniques used in modern plastic surgery did not gain common currency until the first and second world wars, in which the physical damage and destruction done to the faces of people in warfare required the need for such techniques. Ironically, a surgery born to 'normalize' people and help them transition back to peacetime became a way for otherwise unscathed people to seek physical perfection. By the 1990s and 2000, plastic surgery was becoming common, even being performed in off-site facilities. Botox parties, where the facial line-relaxing drug would be administered in-house, became increasingly common. "Following the FDA's approval of Botox® in 2002, ASPS members performed an average of 1.1 million such injections a year through 2006" ("History of plastic surgery," ASPS: 2000s).
Cosmetic surgery at first was something kept under wraps, but as celebrities such as Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller grew more open about their use of the procedures, combined with the proliferation of images of women with clearly surgically-enhanced features, the acceptance of having an 'altered' body grew even more common. In fact, users of plastic surgery even gained celebrity status. Fifty-one-year-old mother Sarah Burge, for example, grew famous for becoming a talk show regular as the 'Human Barbie,' based solely on the number of elective cosmetic procedures she had undergone. Burge "holds the Guinness World Record for undergoing the most plastic surgeries" (Duerson 2012). Rather than condemned, Burge is praised for her pursuit of her goal of 'perfection,' as if this is something laudable, like climbing a mountain or making a scientific discovery. Shows such as Nip/Tuck also created the impression that plastic surgery was part of a 'normal' response to human aging or imperfection.
The 'world upside-down' attitude regarding plastic surgery common in the culture is also manifest in the expressed attitudes towards teens who are bullied because of their looks. Rather than blaming the perpetrators, the 'solution' is seen as getting the child plastic surgery, not common civility. For example: "when Nadia Ilse returns to school she won't just be toting a new bag, or uniform. The high school pupil is preparing to return to classes with a new-look nose, chin and ears after undergoing plastic surgery, aged 14. The teenager from Georgia, who has been haunted by taunts of 'Dumbo' and 'Elephant Ears' since the age of six, had the surgical treatment in an attempt to curtail the abuse and end her misery" (Goddard 2012). As presented in the media, this was seen as an empowering act by the girl and as a triumph over her bullies. However, in actuality, this act was anything but: first of all, it is important to note that not only physically 'different' teens are bullied. To suggest that her physical alteration meant the end of her victimization seems facile. Secondly,...
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